TEXAS BLACK HISTORY

People

• Barnett, Etta Moten
  Etta Moten Barnett by John Troesser
  November 5th, 1901 - January - 2004
  "Life does not owe me one thing."
  "While her birth in Weimar, Texas may have just been chance, it's her accomplishments after she left Weimar that deserve a closer look. When she died last year of cancer (in Chicago) at the age of 102, Etta Moten Barnett had had a rich and full life.. She is now remembered as an actress, singer, and philanthropist ..."
  
• Bledsoe, Jules
  Ten Thing you should know about Jules Bledsoe by John Troesser
  Photos courtesy The Texas Collection, Baylor University
  His role as "Joe" in Jerome Kern's Showboat made "Ol' Man River" an American classic.
  
• Blind Lemon Jefferson
  Blind Lemon by Bob Bowman
• Castle, Charlie
  The Bootblack King by Bob Bowman
  It has been thirty years since Charlie Castle died, but they still talk about him in Lufkin. Charlie was a legend, a black man who, according to many East Texans in the fifties, delivered the best shoe shine in Texas.
• Coleman, Bessie
  Air Pioneer by Bob Bowman
  In 1921 she became the only black pilot in the world. A year later she became the first black woman to fly over American soil.
• Cuney, Norris Wright
  Norris Cuney by Archie P. McDonald
  "... Cuney technically began life as a slave..."
  Norris Wright Cuney by Archie P. McDonald
  The most remarkable African American leader in Texas in the nineteenth century.
• Ferguson, Lee
  The 50,000 Shoeshine by Bob Bowman
• Flipper, Henry O.
  Henry O. Flipper, An Epic Remaining To Be Told by C. F. Eckhardt
  Perhaps the most enigmatic figure in the annals of the American West is not Johnny Ringo of maybe-suicide/maybe-murder or the deliberately enigmatic Mysterious Dave Mather, but 2/LT Henry O. Flipper, 10th United States Cavalry...
  
• Goyens, William
  William Goyens by Archie P. McDonald
  This is the story of a free black man who lived and thrived in Nacogdoches during the days of slavery.
• Hardin, Rufus F.
  The Rufus F. Hardin School - Educator Rufus F. Hardin
  
• Hopkins, Lightnin'
  A Statue for Lightnin' by Bob Bowman
• Johnson, Jack
  Heavyweight Champ Jack Johnson by Archie P. McDonald
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday by Archie P. McDonald 1-7-08
• Mary of Perry, Texas
  Mary, Mary, Once of Perry by Toney Urban
  Unbelievable, but true stories connected to Perry, Texas (Falls County)
  "In the late 40s and early 50s, there was a Black lady named Mary (last name unknown), that would arrive out in the countryside near Perry, Texas and dispense some incredibly amazing medicine and conversation....."
  
• McCullough, Samuel
  Samuel McCullough Cartoon by Roger T. Moore
  His was likely the first blood shed in the war for independence
  
• Miller, Doris
  Doris Miller: Hero by Archie P. McDonald
  African American hero of WWII
  
• Montague, Nathaniel
  The Magnificent Montague by Bill Cherry
  "He’s probably one of the most important contributors to American black culture that has ever lived. Someone you should know about..."
  
• Old Sock" Shicole Dickenson
  Former slave's death in 1889 attracted rare news coverage by W. T. Block
  In February 1889, Beaumont Enterprise published an obituary about a Black centenarian, nicknamed "Old Sock," in an age when Black obituaries were usually printed only in Negro newspapers...
  
• Pickett, Bill
  Never another like Bill Pickett by Clay Coppedge
  Bill Pickett invented the practice of what we know as bulldogging, or steer wrestling....
• Seminole Scouts
  The Whirlwind Lt. John Lapham Bullis and the Seminole Negro Scouts by C. F. Eckhardt
  "One of the least-known heroes of the Texas frontier was a man known to his followers as The Whirlwind and to his enemies as The Thunderbolt..... John Bullis didn't do it all alone. He had a lot of help. The help, mostly, was the Seminole Negro scouts. What became of them?..."
  
• Smith, George
  The Rufus F. Hardin School Founder
  
• Steele, Alfonso (Alphonso)
  Alfonso (Alphonso) Steele - last Texas survivor of the battle of San Jacinto 2-3-05
• Thergood
  Thergood's Pine by Bob Bowman
  The story of a slave and the oldest pine tree in East Texas.
• Wilson, Dooley
  Casablanca’s East Texan by Bob Bowman
  Dooley Wilson played the piano player who sang “As Time Goes By,” in the classic film Casablanca. An African-American, Wilson was born as Arthur Wilson on April 3, 1886, in Tyler.
• Former slave recalls memories of old Lavaca County by Murray Montgomery 7-7-08
  In 1946, a black man by the name of Tate Hicks told a local paper that he was the oldest man in Lavaca County. Fact is, he came to Texas as a slave...
• Looking for Grandfather in Port Arthur

Places

• Jarvis Christian College by Archie P. McDonald
  Obtaining a collegiate education presented a problem for African Americans in Texas prior to court-ordered racial integration which began in the 1950s... In Texas, especially East Texas, Wiley College in Marshall and Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins were about the only options for undergraduate instruction...
• Dallas' "Deep Ellum" Historical District - A Dallas Counterpart to Memphis' Beale Street
• Buffalo Soldiers' Grave
• Cologne, Texas
• Jeddo - St. Phillips Community
• Limestone County Roadside Park in Memory of Alfonso Steele, Last Survivor of Battle of San Jacinto, First Settler of Limestone County
• Mary Allen College Photos by George Lester
• Mary Allen Seminary Historical Marker
• San Marcos - 1873 Former Hays County Jail - Now the African-American Historical Museum. 6-19-08

• Juneteenth by Archie P. McDonald 6-23-08
  On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger brought the full force of the United States military establishment to Galveston and proclaimed the Civil War at an end and all wartime proclamations by President Abraham Lincoln in effect in the Lone Star State. Part of that dealt with the end of slavery in Texas...
• Long Hot Summers by Archie P. McDonald
  Veterans of the "long hot summers" of the summers of the 1960s, a time of racial tension, would have thought it "de ja vu all over again" if they had remembered 1919...
• Woman's Christian Temperance Union by Archie P. McDonald
  The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was misnamed: “temperance” means “moderation...avoiding extremes.” What the WCTU really wanted was total abstinence from all alcohol beverages. They wanted everyone connected with brewing, distilling, fermenting, and selling alcohol out of business and right now...
• Skull Island on Mermentau River, A Slave Ship's Inhumanity by W. T. Block ("Cannonball's Tales")
  "Back in 1949 my Uncle Austin Sweeney of Nederland, TX who was born and reared in Grand Chenier, LA., told me the story of a slaver captains inhumanity so bestial, that it is difficult for the human mind to comprehend it. It was the story of 200 starving African slaves abandoned on a marsh ridge on Mermentau River, where they were left to die horrific deaths..."
• Black Soldiers in the Confederate Army by Murray Montgomery
  "... Not only did they fight, these soldiers distinguished themselves on the battlefield..."
• How Boogie Woogie Began by Bob Bowman
  In 1939, African American historian E. Simms Campbell wrote, “Boogie Woogie piano playing originated in the lumber and turpentine camps of Texas and in the sporting houses of that state.”
  
• Juneteenth by Archie P. McDonald
  "Most East Texans who have lived here more than at least a month of Sundays know that African Americans claim June 19, or Juneteenth, as their own special day to celebrate freedom. ... But do you know why June 19 is such a special day?"
• Freeny Hanging by Mike Cox
  James Washington White lost an arm fighting for the South during the Civil War. He could have spent the rest of his life seething with bitterness, but that’s not how it turned out.
  
• Scrolling Through History by Bob Bowman
  For black families, who have always had a difficult time researching their earliest ancestors because of poor records dealing with slaves, Murphy’s book has been widely welcomed.
• KKK from "Texas Tales" column by Mike Cox
  Unsung heroes who were instrumental in putting the end to the Ku Klux Klan in Texas
• Juneteenth by Archie P. McDonald
• Remembering Integration by Bob Bowman

Cartoons by Roger T. Moore

• Bessie Coleman 2-21-08

Images

• Jacksonville - Frederick Douglass School
• Jacksonville - The Sweet Union Church

Texas Black History Forum

• Subject: Thergood's Pine
  ... I stumble across [your article] "Thergood's Pine" on the internet. Well I have never been much of a history buff, and since I am African American, I figured not many records existed of my family history past my grandparents. Well needless to say, I was terrifically shocked when I read the wonderful article written by Mr. Bowman and spoke to my father and asked him if we had any family in the east Texas area. He said that he thought we had family in Point Blank but the name was originally spelled "Thergood". Well the article written by Mr. Bowman was about a slave name Collier Thergood from... you guessed it. Point Blank! I just wanted to personally thank Mr. Bowman for sparking a renewed interest in obtaining my family history with his article. Thank you again. ... - Eric Thiergood, May 22, 2001
  
  ... I truly appreciate you for running that story and casting a different light on slavery. So often as an African American, I was told at ALL slaves where treated horribly and abused, and while grievous abuse did occurred, I have gained some additional insight by learning about my great, great, great, great (not quite sure how many greats yet- Im still running down that information) grandfather.
  
  Just so that you know about what ever happened to that land after passing through a couple of generations, my great great (again unsure of how many greats) was pressured to sell by some investors. He stood strong in refusing to sell the land the family loved so much. That relative was later found murdered on his porch and "investors" offering to purchase the land the following day. From what I understand that land was sold for pennies on the dollar and was later developed into quiet valuable real estate. Again thank you so very much for the story ... - Eric Thiergood and Family, May 23, 2001

Books