The Upshaws of County Line: 25 Years of Pictures from a Texas Freedom Colony
Photographer Richard Orton will present on his new exhibit, “The Upshaws of County Line: An American Family,” Thursday, March 23, 6-8 p.m. at the UT San Antonio Institute of Texan Cultures. The Institute is located at 801 E. César E. Chávez Blvd.
The museum is currently showing Orton’s photography exhibit, following descendants of emancipated slaves through 25 years of life in County Line, an East Texas Freedom Colony. Following emancipation, communities of former slaves began to spring up across the South. Guss, Felix and Jim Upshaw founded the Freedom Colony known as County Line, where they and other newly freed peoples carved out new lives and raised families amidst an ever-evolving society.
Orton, of Nacogdoches, Texas, documented descendants of County Line’s original pioneers, still living in the town these many generations later. The exhibit includes 30 images, conveying the contemporary experience of life in a freedom colony. The exhibit is made possible through a partnership with Stephen F. Austin State University’s School of Art Galleries. (read more; watch short documentary)
Confronting Academia’s Ties to Slavery
The enslaved Renty, pictured in 1850 and used by a Harvard biologist to support theories about racial difference. Credit J.T. Zealy
(NY Times) In 1976, archivists at Harvard’s natural history museum opened a drawer and discovered a haunting portrait of a shirtless enslaved man named Renty, gazing sorrowfully but steadily at the camera. Taken on a South Carolina plantation in 1850, it had been used by the Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz to formulate his now-discredited ideas about racial difference.
(Recently), Harvard’s president, Drew Gilpin Faust, stood at a lectern under a projection of Renty’s face and began a rather different enterprise: a major public conference exploring the long-neglected connections between universities and slavery.
Harvard had been “directly complicit” in slavery, Ms. Faust acknowledged, before moving to a more present-minded statement of purpose.
“Only by coming to terms with history,” she said, “can we free ourselves to create a more just world.
The gathering, which featured a keynote address by the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, drew an overflow crowd of about 500, including researchers from more than 30 campuses. Between sessions, there was plenty of chatter about grants and administration politics, as well as some wry amazement, as one scholar was overheard saying, that “something we’ve been talking about for 200 years has suddenly become urgent.”
Alfred L. Brophy, a legal historian at the University of North Carolina and the author of “University, Court and Slave,” a study of pro-slavery thought at antebellum Southern colleges, described what he called a “sea change” in attitude.
“People who engaged in this research were once criticized, or had their jobs threatened, or were rejected by their administrations,” he said in an interview. “Now the people doing this work are lifted up.” (read more)
Stanford scholar tells history of Cold War from African American perspective
Stanford literary scholar Vaughn Rasberry illuminates a body of work by black writers who spotlighted cultural contradictions during the Cold War
In the American imagination, Soviet totalitarianism conjures thoughts of repression, violence and deprivation.
During the Cold War, black writers and activists took a different view, challenging the United States to reconcile its message of liberty abroad while upholding Jim Crow laws at home.
This provocation lies at the heart of research by Vaughn Rasberry, assistant professor of English at Stanford, that tells the story of how African Americans challenged policy in the United States during the Cold War – with race at its core.
Rasberry’s research focuses on the rise and fall of two 20th-century phenomena: the color line – domestically in the form of segregation and globally in the form of colonialism – and totalitarianism, including fascism, Japanese imperialism and communism.
(His) findings appear in (the) book, Race and the Totalitarian Century: Geopolitics in the Black Literary Imagination, which highlights the cosmopolitan spirit African Americans had at the time and the commonality between struggles at home and those abroad. (read more)
Few towns had bigger impact on modern African-American history than Tuskegee
Grey Columns, a historic antebellum mansion that serves as home to the president of Tuskegee University.
Despite a population of just under 10,000, few towns in the South have had as much of an impact on African-American history as Tuskegee, especially in the past century. Tuskegee native Rosa Parks brought the struggle of the civil rights movement to a national audience when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Tuskegee was part of a landmark voting rights case, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, which found unconstitutional the gerrymandering of state legislative districts to limit the black vote.
Yet Tuskegee’s history goes much further. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto’s expedition took him through the area in the 15th century. Native Americans lived there first and remained until settlers arrived in the early 19th century.
Situated 40 miles east of Alabama’s capital city, Montgomery, and a short commute from Auburn University, Tuskegee retains the charm of small-town America. Yet the people the town and historic Tuskegee University have produced resonate throughout the world. (read more)
CEO of the International African American Museum: “We need to seize control of our identity”
Michael Boulware Moore
(theGrio) A new $75 million dollar museum is being built in Charleston, South Carolina, and it’s working to help African-Americans see their history and the world in an impactful way.
The International African American Museum (IAAM) will open in 2019. It will join a growing list of African-American history museums across the country, from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C.
The man leading the charge is CEO Michael Boulware Moore, a former advertising executive. Moore is the great-great grandson of famous abolitionist and Civil War hero Robert Smalls — who escaped slavery and went back to purchase the plantation he lived on. Smalls eventually became becoming a South Carolina Congressman during the Reconstruction Era.
Moore spoke with theGrio.com about the growing excitement around the museum’s opening, the special meaning of Charleston for the site, and how social justice is inspiring the work.
Moore: “There is an old African proverb that says ‘until lions get their own historians, the history of the hunt will always favor the hunter.’ African-Americans have not always had control over the narrative of our identity, our contributions to this country and place in this world. I believe the launch of Washington D.C.’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and our museum are part of a larger effort to seize greater control over our history and our identity. My hope is that this will spark efforts (big and small) throughout African America toward this end.” (read complete interview here)
Texas Center for African American Living History: Black Texas History Course
The TCAALH continues its Black Texas History Course sessions, facilitated by Naomi Mitchell Carrier. Click to enlarge image for more information.
TIPHC Bookshelf
Published 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, “Slam Dunk to Glory, The Amazing True Story of the 1966 NCAA Season and the Championship Game That Changed America Forever,” by David Lattin.
Great things can happen when you dare to seize your dream! It was the college basketball game that changed everything. When five young black athletes from Texas Western took the court and defeated an all-white squad from Kentucky for the 1966 NCAA championship, the doors of opportunity were immediately knocked down allowing greater racial equality in college sports to become the norm. David “Big Daddy D” Lattin was one of the driving forces in that game from the opening tip right down to his earth-shattering, establishment-shaking dunks. “Slam Dunk to Glory” is Lattin s personal account of the magical season that was recently portrayed in the major motion picture Glory Road. With an honest and transparent writing style, Lattin takes sports fans back in time to an era of civil unrest and societal turmoil. While some of the country s darker moments are exposed, “Slam Dunk to Glory” is ultimately about achieving greatness despite overwhelming odds. This engaging autobiography also includes a 31-page center section of photos from the 1966 season and other key parts of Lattin s life. For sports fans and history buffs alike, “Slam Dunk to Glory” offers a challenging yet inspirational look at the evolution of race in the United States. Destined to become an instant classic, this title will likely earn its way into the essential sports library.
This Week In Texas Black History, Mar. 19-25
19 — On this date, in 1966, the Texas Western University (now Univ. of Texas at El Paso) basketball team upset heavily-favored Kentucky, coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp, to win the NCAA national championship. Texas Western coach Don Haskins started five black players against the all-white Wildcats. Rupp had vowed that his team would never lose to black players. It marked the first time an all-black five competed against an all-white five in the NCAA title game. David Lattin – who starred at Houston’s Worthing High School – was the starting center for the Miners. The team’s story was highlighted in the movie, “Glory Road.”
20 – Politician Willie Brown was born on this day in 1934 in Mineola. Brown became the first African American speaker of the California State Assembly in 1980 and served until 1995, the longest tenure for any of the Assembly’s speakers. From 1996-2004, Brown was mayor of San Francisco.
21 – Actor Al Freeman, Jr. was born on this day in 1934 in San Antonio. Freeman starred on Broadway in the 1960s in productions such as “Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright” and in plays by James Baldwin and LeRoi Jones such as “Blues for Mister Charlie.” In 1979, he became the first African American to receive a Daytime Emmy for a soap opera for his role as a police captain on “One Life to Live.” He also drew critical acclaim for his portrayal of Malcolm X in the mini-series “Roots: The Next Generations,” and in 1991 played Elijah Muhammad in the Spike Lee movie “Malcolm X.”
21 – On this date in 1967, Barbara Jordan became the first black elected official to preside over the Texas State Senate. She was Texas’ first black state senator since 1883.
22 – The first black state convention met in Austin on this day in 1866. The event, organized by the Texas State Central Committee of Colored Men, focused on the concerns – economic, political, civil rights – of black Texans. Rev. Jacob Fontaine (pictured, left) presided over the meeting. Several similar conventions were held in the following years, the last in Houston in 1895, and some delegates were sent to national conventions to express those concerns.
23 – Former Atlanta (Ga.) mayor Maynard Jackson was born on this date in 1938 in Dallas. Jackson was Atlanta’s first black mayor, serving from 1973-1981 and 1989-1993 and was the first African American to serve as chief executive of any major Southern city. Jackson and his family moved to Atlanta when he was seven years old. He earned a political science degree from Morehouse College in 1956, then a law degree from North Carolina Central in 1964.
24 – On this date in 1896, folklorist J. Mason Brewer was born in Goliad. Brewer, considered the premier African-American folklorist of the twentieth century became the first author and speaker to use black American dialect extensively in front of and to all audiences, particularly when dealing with folklore. Brewer attended black public schools in Austin and in 1917 received a B.A. from Wiley College in Marshall. In 1926, he was a professor at Samuel Huston (now Huston-Tillotson) College in Austin when he met University of Texas professor J. Frank Dobie who influenced Brewer to turn from publishing his own poetry to collecting and publishing black folklore. He was the first black member of both the Texas Folklore Society and the Texas Institute of Letters. Brewer’s most noted works include “Aunt Dicy Tales,” and an anthology, “American Negro Folklore,” for which he won the Chicago Book Fair Award in 1968.
Blog: Ron Goodwin, Ph.D., author, PVAMU history professor
Ron Goodwin’s bi-weekly blog appears exclusively for TIPHC. Goodwin is a San Antonio native and Air Force veteran. Generally, his column addresses contemporary issues in the black community and how they relate to black history. He and the TIPHC staff welcome your comments.
Read his latest entry, “Definitions,” here.
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 editors before beginning your research/writing.
We welcome your questions or comments via email or telephone – mdhurd@pvamu.edu.