The Electoral College’s Racist Origins

More than two centuries after it was designed to empower southern white voters, the system continues to do just that.

Photo by Frank Scherschel/The Life Picture Collection/Getty

(The Atlantic) Is a color-blind political system possible under our Constitution? If it is, the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 did little to help matters. While black people in America today are not experiencing 1950s levels of voter suppression, efforts to keep them and other citizens from participating in elections began within 24 hours of the Shelby County v. Holder ruling and have only increased since then.

In Shelby County’s oral argument, Justice Antonin Scalia cautioned, “Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get them out through the normal political processes.” Ironically enough, there is some truth to an otherwise frighteningly numb claim. American elections have an acute history of racial entitlements—only they don’t privilege black Americans.

For centuries, white votes have gotten undue weight, as a result of innovations such as poll taxes and voter-ID laws and outright violence to discourage racial minorities from voting. (more)


A Thanksgiving feast that’s rooted in vintage African-American stories

southwestern turkey(Palm Beach Post) The author of the landmark 2015 book “The Jemima Code” has a new cookbook filled with culinary inspiration from U.S. history’s long overshadowed chefs. And what a holiday meal they can spark in our kitchens today.

What is a Thanksgiving meal if not history on a plate?

Sure, there’s the American history part of the holiday, the narratives we dramatize in grade school and too often reduce to cartoony details, like pilgrim salt-and-pepper shakers. There’s the immigrant history part of it, as America’s emerging communities embrace the holiday as their own. (As in my family’s Cuban black beans, alongside the mojo-marinated turkey.) And there’s the family history part of it, with our yearly repetition of dishes served in memory of loved ones no longer with us.

The obligatory star of the table, of course: a big, roasted turkey. But who says the centerpiece dish, or any other dish, has to be the same as it ever was? Author and cultural historian Toni Tipton-Martin’s latest cookbook proves there’s a well of new inspiration to be found in the most vintage of stories. We can be purists and innovative at once. (more)


Opinion: Yes, African American history will improve Texas schools

It is vital that students, regardless of race, see themselves in the important parts of history.

Bessie Coleman_African American History

Pioneer aviator Bessie Coleman stands on the wheel of a plane in this 1920s photo. Coleman gave exhibition flights in the United States as well as Europe earning the name ‘Queen Bess’ and tried her best to become famous. But outside the segregated black world in which she lived, few people ever paid attention.

(Dallas Morning News) Taught properly, history offers insight into a society as an archive of what we consider important enough to pass on to future generations. So we were elated to learn that the state Board of Education is ready to approve African American studies electives for high school students in Texas.

Over the years, we’ve criticized the State Board of Education for promoting ideology over facts in Texas history during their often contentious discussions of what students should learn in classrooms. And this resulted in major omissions, and even distortions, of the roles that Texans of color played in making this a great state.

Our hope is that this is about to change. Less than two years after the state board approved Mexican American studies, the board early next year is expected to approve its first African American studies course. “We will be passing this,” said Pat Hardy, a Fort Worth Republican member of the 15-member board responsible for setting curriculum standards and adopting textbooks for Texas public schools. (more)


Historic area church restored | Iconic black church will soon be open to the community

Union Baptist Church here has undergone a complete restoration and brings one of the state’s most important historic sites as close as possible to its original 1883 condition.

Union Baptist Church_Jefferson

(Texarkana Gazette) While the church was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2011, it spent decades in a state of increasing disrepair. The multi-year project has been overseen by the Jefferson-based Collins Academy and the Dallas-based Today Foundation. Both organizations were founded by Richard H. Collins.

Collins is a philanthropist and a preservationist who has underwritten multiple education and cultural initiatives across the state of Texas. He has deep family roots in East Texas. The signature element of a Collins project is to maintain authenticity by renovating a structure as historically accurate to its origins as possible.

Collins hosted a private opening celebration for the Union Baptist Church on Saturday (Nov. 23).

“We believe our efforts will make Jefferson a leader in historic preservation and community involvement,” Collins said. (more)

Photo: The historic Union Baptist Church in Jefferson, Texas, has undergone a multi-year restoration overseen by the Jefferson-based Collins Academy and the Dallas-based Today Foundation. The church is now as close as possible to its original 1883 condition. Evolving out of the African Church in Jefferson’s pre-Civil War era, Union Baptist Church is one of the most prominent hubs of African-American history in Texas and is one of the oldest black churches in the state. (Photo by Collins Academy)


Requiem for a ClassicPublished 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, “Requiem for a Classic, Thanksgiving Turkey Day Classic,” by Thurman W. Robins Ed.D.

In the era when segregation and Jim Crow laws ruled the land, The Turkey Day Classic was created. The event prospered from 1927 to 1966. Newspaper accounts describe the classic between arch rivals Jack Yates and Phillis Wheatley high schools in Houston as the largest annually attended schoolboy game in America. Fans came dressed to kill to witness the game and the glorious halftime activities. Marching bands, drill squads, and other performing groups gave eloquent entertaining performances during halftime. However, the crowning of the schools queens were the highlights of halftime. Game summaries, team lineups, and editorial comments by the author are presented.


This Week in Texas Black History

Nov. 24

Scott JoplinCalled the “King of Ragtime,” Scott Joplin was born this day in 1868 near Linden, Texas. (Some documents, however, refer to his birth as between June 1867 and mid-January 1868.) Joplin grew up in Texarkana, Texas and taught himself to play piano in the home where his mother worked as a domestic. Sheet music for his best-known piece, “Maple Leaf Rag,” sold over a million copies and his works also include a ballet and two operas. Joplin’s music was featured in the 1973 motion picture, “The Sting,” which won an Academy Award for its film score. In 1976, Joplin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for “Treemonisha,” the first grand opera by an African American.

Nov. 24

Teddy WilsonJazz pianist Teddy Wilson was born this day in Austin in 1912. Known as “the definitive swing pianist,” Wilson began his career in the late 1920s in various Midwest bands, and from 1935 to 1939, played on sessions that resulted in legendary vocalist Billie Holiday‘s greatest work. He joined Benny Goodman in 1936, breaking the color barrier by performing on an equal footing with Goodman in trios, quartets and sextets.

Nov. 24

Percy Sutton

Attorney, businessman and civil rights activist Percy Sutton was born on this date in 1920 in San Antonio. The son of a former slave, Sutton served in World War II with the Tuskegee Airmen, then settled in New York. In 1971, he co-founded the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, which purchased WLIB-AM, making it the first black-owned station in New York City. He earned a law degree in 1950 and served in the New York State Assembly before taking over as Manhattan borough president in 1966, becoming the state’s highest-ranking black elected official. Sutton also headed a group that owned the Amsterdam News, the second-largest black weekly newspaper in the country.

Nov. 27

Mickey Leland

On this day in 1944, U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland was born in Lubbock. He graduated from Houston’s Phillis Wheatley High School in 1963 and earned a pharmacy degree from Texas Southern University in 1970. Leland served six terms in Congress (18th District) and five years as a Texas state legislator (88th District). He was a civil rights activist and a staunch advocate in the fight against hunger. He was the lead supporter for passage of the Africa Famine Relief and Recovery Act of 1985, legislation that provided $800 million in food and humanitarian relief supplies. Leland died in a plane crash on August 7, 1989 while on a relief mission to an isolated refugee camp, Fugnido, in Ethiopia, which sheltered thousands of unaccompanied children fleeing the civil conflict in neighboring Sudan.

Nov. 28

Yates-Wheatley Thanksgiving game

The Jack Yates – Phillis Wheatley high school football rivalry in Houston started in 1927, but the game officially became the “Turkey Day Classic” on this day in 1946. Played at Jeppesen Stadium — then a venue for public school sports events, the Thanksgiving Day game would be played until 1966 and drew standing room only crowds of 30,000-plus fans making it, for many years, the largest event in the nation for high school football.

Nov. 28

Claude Black

Claude William Black, Jr., minister and political figure, was born on this day in 1916 in San Antonio. Rev. Black was pastor of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church in San Antonio for almost 50 years, but was also a noted Civil Rights leader who became a four-term city councilman (1973-1978) and the city’s first black Mayor Pro Tem. He was an associate of Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Phillip Randolph, and Thurgood Marshall. During President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, Black was a delegate to the White House Conference on Civil Rights.


Blog: Ron Goodwin, Ph.D., author, PVAMU history professor

Ron Goodwin is an assistant professor of history at Prairie View A&M University. Even though he was a military “brat,” he still considers San Antonio home. Like his father and brother, Ron joined the U.S. Air Force and while enlisted received his undergraduate degree from Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. After his honorable discharge, he completed graduate degrees from Texas Southern University. Goodwin’s book, Blacks in Houston, is a pictorial history of Houston’s black community. His most recent book, Remembering the Days of Sorrow, examines the institution of slavery in Texas from the perspective of the New Deal’s Slave Narratives.

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Since we’re into the football season I thought it was time to interject my two cents. I’ve noticed several teams starting black quarterbacks these days. Some because of injury, but others have been under center since training camp. By my count, the first weekend of the National Football League season in September saw nine African…(more)


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. Please contact Michael Hurd, Director of TIPHC, at mdhurd@pvamu.edu.