Long-awaited Texas African American History Memorial to be unveiled Saturday in Austin

(Dallas News) Blanket invitations have gone out inviting the public to attend the unveiling of the Texas African American History Memorial in Austin.

The long-awaited — and embattled — unveiling ceremony will be at 10 a.m. Saturday (Nov. 19) near the main entrance to the state Capitol’s south lawn at 11th Street near Colorado Street.

The unveiling caps a roughly 20-year long journey that began in earnest when the Legislature approved a bill pushed by former state Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, to establish a Juneteenth monument.

The bronze and granite memorial cost $2.6 million. Funding includes private donations and $1.5 million in state money approved last year through a last-minute budget rider as donations appeared to be lagging. The 30-foot long, 10-foot high, two-sided panorama capsulizes more than 400 years of black experience in Texas and contributions to wide-ranging areas of state history — from cattle, cotton and oil labor to space exploration. (read more)


PV police chief, Zena Stephens, elected state’s first black female sheriff

zena-stephensZena Stephens on Tuesday (Nov. 8) became Texas’s first black female sheriff, by narrowly turning back the county’s strongest Republican challenger ever in Ray Beck.

The race was close throughout the night, with Stephens leading early, boosted by leads in Port Arthur and Beaumont’s northern and southern precincts. She finished with 51.4 percent of the vote. Beck took the lead late in the night with strong support in Beaumont’s West End, the county’s western precincts and in Mid-County, before Stephens closed and then expanded the gap in the final four precincts.

Stephens ultimately won by 2,431 votes out of a total 86,701 ballots, completing a Democratic sweep of the county’s three competitive local races.

The current police chief at Prairie View A&M University and former Sheriff’s Office chief deputy will replace Mitch Woods, who is retiring after 20 years.


Buildings fall, records remain at closed high schools

duriso2

Johnny Duriso, former Charlton-Pollard quarterback.

Johnny Duriso remembers the overflow crowds. Playing in what might have been Beaumont’s most heated high school football rivalry was the high point of every season in the 1960s, according to him.

“I miss those days,” said Duriso, a former Charlton-Pollard quarterback who remembers rivalry games against Hebert as the biggest game for each season.

Dwight Scypion remembers the pride.

“Bumblebee pride,” he said in reference to the spirit he felt for alma mater Port Arthur Lincoln in the 1970s.

In those days, Port Arthur residents identified themselves as Bees of Lincoln, Yellow Jackets of Thomas Jefferson and Eagles of Stephen F. Austin.

In Beaumont, the Charlton-Pollard Bulldogs, Hebert Panthers (both members, along with Port Arthur Lincoln) of the All-Black Prairie View Interscholastic League), South Park Greenies, Forest Park Trojans, Beaumont Royal Purples and French Buffaloes all ruled the city.

Many of those schools have either been demolished or now house other schools. Current high school students know little about those schools with unfamiliar names.

But records still stand. (read more)


ABC to air “Taking the Stage: African American Music & Stories That Changed America”

The Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture opened its doors with an all-star tribute, “Taking the Stage: African American Music and Stories That Changed America,” at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sep. 23, one day before the museum’s official opening. The show, a two-hour program of music, dance and the spoken word, will air on ABC Thursday, Jan. 12 (9:00-11:00 p.m. EST).

World-renowned dignitaries, athletes and artists from around the globe participated in the program which was designed to explore and celebrate African American contributions to the global landscape. The program will feature new film footage of iconic items from the museum’s collections — items ranging from a plane used to train the famed Tuskegee airmen for World War II combat duty to a bible owned by Nat Turner. The film is accompanied by music, dance and dramatic readings by a wide range of stage and screen actors, including: Dave Chappelle, Chuck D., Savion Glover, Stevie Wonder, Patti Austin, Alvin Ailey dancers, Shirley Caesar, Jamie Foxx, Gladys Knight, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, Usher, and many more in a Who’s Who of entertainers.


The Anniversary of Ruby Bridges’ Historic First Day of School

bridgesOn (Nov. 14) in 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges was escorted into William Frantz Elementary School by a team of U.S. Deputy Marshals, desegregating the public school system of New Orleans.

The landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education was handed down in 1954, but of course school systems across the Jim Crow South delayed as long as possible. The Little Rock Nine started at Little Rock Central High School in 1957, and in 1960 the federal courts informed New Orleans they had to start the process. And so Ruby started her first-grade year at the previously all-white school. Three other African American girls started at nearby McDonogh No. 19, as well.

“Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras,” Bridges remembered in a 1997 interview with PBS NewsHour. “There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.”

“I really didn’t realize until I got into the school that something else was going on. Angry parents at that point rushed in and took their kids out of school,” she added. All year she was taught in a classroom by herself.

The white parents who continued to send their children to William Frantz were harassed, as well. (read more)


TIPHC new exhibit, “Communities of Color,” will focus on history of all-black towns

communitesofcolor_final_flyerIn conjunction with the Historic Black Towns and Settlements conference in Houston, the TIPHC will open a new exhibit, “Communities of Color” focusing on the history of all-black towns in the U.S., most of which were founded after emancipation. More than 1,200 of the towns existed from Florida to Alaska, with the bulk of them located in the Midwest — 21 in Oklahoma. Mayors from all-black towns and other conference attendees will spend the day meeting on campus and will also view the exhibit in the TIPHC/Culture Center Gallery in the Nathelyne Archie Kennedy Building at the School of Architecture.

The exhibit will be on display from Nov. 17 to Dec. 16. For more information, contact TIPHC Director Michael Hurd at 936-261-9836.


TIPHC Bookshelf

tam-jacobus-cov07.inddPublished scholarship on black history in Texas is growing and we’d like to share with you some suggested readings, both current and past, from some of the preeminent history scholars in Texas and beyond. We invite you to take a look at our bookshelf page — including a featured selection — and check back as the list grows. A different selection will be featured each week. We welcome suggestions and reviews. This week, we offer, “Houston Cougars in the 1960s — Death Threats, the Veer Offense, and the Game of the Century,” by Robert D. Jacobus.

On January 20, 1968, the University of Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins, ending a 47-game winning streak. Billed as the “Game of the Century,” the defeat of the UCLA hoopsters was witnessed by 52,693 fans and a national television audience—the first-ever regular-season game broadcast nationally.

But the game would never have happened if Houston coach Guy Lewis had not recruited two young black men from Louisiana in 1964: Don Chaney and Elvin Hayes. Despite facing hostility both at home and on the road, Chaney and Hayes led the Cougars basketball team to 32 straight victories.

Similarly in Cougar football, coach Bill Yeoman recruited Warren McVea in 1964, and by 1967 McVea had helped the Houston gridiron program lead the nation in total offense.

Houston Cougars in the 1960s features the first-person accounts of the players, the coaches, and others involved in the integration of collegiate athletics in Houston, telling the gripping story of the visionary coaches, the courageous athletes, and the committed supporters who blazed a trail not only for athletic success but also for racial equality in 1960s Houston.


This Week In Texas Black History, Nov. 13-19

westbrook13 — On this day in 1947, John Hill Westbrook was born in Groesbeck, Texas. On September 10, 1966, Westbrook, as a running back for Baylor University, became the first black football player to compete in the Southwest Conference when he entered a game in the fourth quarter. His debut came one week before the more celebrated start for Southern Methodist University’s Jerry LeVias.

 

 

 

14 — Doris Hollis Pemberton, reporter, civic leader, and author, was born on this day in Nacogdoches, Texas in 1917. Pemberton studied at Texas College and graduated from Texas Southern University. In 1944, as a writer for the Dallas Express, she became the first black reporter to cover a state Democratic convention in Texas. In Houston, during the 1950s, Pemberton helped develop classes for black students in arts, crafts, and science at local museums. She was the author of “Juneteenth at Comanche Crossing.”

conradjohnson15 — Conrad “Prof” Johnson, director of the legendary Kashmere High School Stage Band and one of Houston’s greatest jazz educators, was born on this day in 1915 in Victoria, Texas. Johnson taught in Houston schools for more than 30 years. He created and led the Kashmere band during its heyday in the 1960s and ’70s when it was among the nation’s best, and traveled across the United States and to Europe and Japan. The band won 42 out of 46 contests it entered between 1969 and 1977, and recorded eight albums featuring more than 20 original compositions by Johnson. The band is featured in the documentary, “Thunder Soul.”

 

 

zina_garrison216 — On this date in 1963, tennis professional Zina Garrison was born in Houston. In 1990 at Wimbledon, Garrison became the first Black woman since Althea Gibson to reach a Grand Slam final. In 1989, she reached a career high ranking of No. 4 in the world and teamed with Pam Shriver to win an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in doubles competition in Seoul, Korea.

 

 

elvinhayes217 — Basketball player Elvin Hayes, one of the first black athletes at the University of Houston, was born on this day in 1945 in Rayville, La. Hayes was a three-time All-America and was selected as the College Player of the Year in 1968. As a pro, he was the first pick in the 1968 NBA draft by the San Diego (later Houston) Rockets, and would also star for the Baltimore/Washington Bullets. Hayes retired in 1984 as the second-leading scorer in league history with 27,313 points, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990, and was named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players in 1996. (See TIPHC Bookshelf for

 

 


Blog: Ron Goodwin, author, PVAMU history professor

goodwinRon Goodwin’s bi-weekly blog appears exclusively for TIPHC/TBHPP. Goodwin is a San Antonio native and Air Force veteran. Generally, his column will address contemporary issues in the black community and how they relate to black history. He and the TIPHC/TBHPP staff welcome your comments. His latest blog is, “Post Obama = Neo Hate” Read it

 

 

 


Submissions Wanted

Historians, scholars, students, lend us your…writings. Help us produce the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the African American experience in Texas. We encourage you to contribute items about people, places, events, issues, politics/legislation, sports, entertainment, religion, etc., as general entries or essays. Our documentation is wide-ranging and diverse, and you may research and write about the subject of your interest or, to start, please consult our list of suggested biographical entries and see submission guidelines. However, all topics must be approved by TIPHC/TBHPP editors before beginning your research/writing.

We welcome your questions or comments via email or telephone – mdhurd@pvamu.edu.