TexasEscapes.com 
HOME : : NEW : : TEXAS TOWNS : : GHOST TOWNS : : TEXAS HOTELS : : FEATURES : : COLUMNS : : BUILDINGS : : IMAGES : : ARCHIVE : : SITE MAP
PEOPLE : : PLACES : : THINGS : : HOTELS : : VACATION PACKAGES
Texas Escapes
Online Magazine
Texas Towns by Region
  • Texas Hill Country
  • Central Texas North
  • Central Texas South
  • South Texas
  • East Texas
  • West Texas
  • Texas Panhandle
  • Texas Gulf Coast
    Texas Towns A - Z
    Over 2800 Towns

    Texas Ghost Towns
    Over 800 Ghost Towns

    Book Hotels
  • Jules Bledsoe in 1930s

    TEXAS BLACK HISTORY

  • People
  • Places
  • Related Articles
  • Cartoons
  • PEOPLE

    Flipper
  • Henry O. Flipper, The Lost Epic by C. F. Eckhardt
    Henry O. Flipper, 10th US Cavalry - Flipper was by no means the first Black ever appointed to West Point, but he was the first to complete four years and graduate as a commissioned officer in the US Army...
  • Ikard
  • Bose Ikard by Clay Coppedge 2-1-11
    Bose Ikard was born into slavery and became rancher Charley Goodnight’s most trusted and respected cowhand.
  • 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.
  • Dightman, Myrtis
    Honoring a bull riding legend by Bob Bowman 6-4-11
    Myrtis Dightman has finally received the attention he should have had decades ago. Born in Crockett in 1935, Dightman was a legendary bull rider who set all types of records for riding raging bulls in rodeo arenas across the United States.
  • 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
  • Ikard, Bose
    Bose Ikard by Clay Coppedge
    Bose Ikard was born into slavery and became rancher Charley Goodnight’s most trusted and respected cowhand. For Ikard, more than most, the road to the history books was a long and winding one.
  • Johnson, Jack
    Heavyweight Champ Jack Johnson
    by Archie P. McDonald
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday by Archie P. McDonald
  • 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
  • Robert “Sunshine” Stubblefield
    Carnie Philosophyby Mike Cox 4-28-11
    Through the last decades of Jim Crow America, he worked as dancing minstrel, a black in blackface clowning
  • The Tenth Cavalry
    The Tenth Cavalry Historical Marker in Fort Concho
  • Thergood
    Thergood's Pine by Bob Bowman
    The story of a slave and the oldest pine tree in East Texas.
  • A Hero Named Tom by C. F. Eckhardt 12-1-10
    We don’t know much about Tom’s background, because Tom was a slave. He belonged to William Snyder, a plantation owner in East Texas. We’re told that he was about 35 years old, stood well over 6 feet in height, and weighed about 240 pounds. He was also, apparently, immensely strong...
  • 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.

    MORE
  • Birthday Cake with 111 Candles washed down with "Good" whiskey by Mike Cox 10-7-12
    Sullivan claimed his mother had been one of George Washington’s slaves. Eventually freed by the first president, Sullivan’s mother married a man named Sullivan and had several children. Though free, her children ended up being pressed back into slavery, literally “sold down the river” from Kentucky to Mississippi.
  • Slave Ada Stone by Murray Montgomery 5-28-12
    109-Year-Old Ex-Slave Recalls Days Long Past
  • Former slave recalls memories of old Lavaca County by Murray Montgomery
    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
  • The Fire in the State Capitol by Mike Cox 10-18-12
    When McBride died at 76 on April 8, 1936, the Associated Press, which like the rest of the mainstream media in Jim Crow days did not normally report the natural passing of African-Americans, distributed a four-paragraph story noting the death of “the negro who indirectly caused construction of Texas’ massive granite capitol.”
  • PLACES

  • Old Emporia by Bob Bowman 7-2-12
    It is on one of the most enduring mysteries in East Texas. In the early 1900s, an explosion and fire struck the old Emporia sawmill south of what is now Diboll. More than thirty sawmill workers, most of them black, are believed to have perished in the conflagration. Burned beyond recognition, the men were reportedly buried in a mass grave somewhere on the Emporia town site, now a part of Diboll, with no tombstones to mark their final resting place....
  • Sweet Home
  • Sweet Home 6-15-11
    Sweet Home Vocational and Agricultural School
    On National Register of Historic Places
    Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
  • Black History
  • Black History by Dana Goolsby 2-16-11
    Black history has deep roots in the first county in Texas...
  • Olivewood Visit
  • A Visit to Olivewood Cemetery
  • Gravesites of Houston’s Olivewood Cemetery 2-14-11
  • Olivewood graves
    School
  • Concord Rosenwald School By Maryanne Gobble 2-1-11
  • Grable Cemetery
  • Grable Cemetery
    Gregg County. By Maryanne Gobble 1-1-11
  • Shiloh School
  • Shiloh Schoolhouse
    Gregg County. By Maryanne Gobble 12-9-10
  • Garden of Angels
  • The Garden of Angels in Mosier Valley
    A tiny, mostly black community on the north edge of Arlington
  • School
  • The Rufus F. Hardin School
    Founder George Smith, Educator Rufus F. Hardin, and the building. Photos courtesy Jason Grant
  • Corinth
  • Corinth Baptist Church Cemetery by John Troesser
    Black church and cemetery in Schulenburg, Texas
    For a tiny cemetery, a disporportionate number of veterans graves.
  • Babylon 8-6-11
  • Branchville 1869 Old Providence Baptist Church 12-10-10
    One of the oldest Black Historic Churches
  • Buffalo Soldiers' Grave
  • Cologne, Texas
  • Dallas' "Deep Ellum" Historical District - A Dallas Counterpart to Memphis' Beale Street
  • Easton, Texas 12-13-10
  • Frog, Texas
  • 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...
  • Jeddo - St. Phillips Community
  • Kendleton, Texas
  • Kohrville, Texas
  • Leigh - Antioch 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
  • Nigton Trinity Co 5-16-12
  • Peyton Colony, Texas Blanco County 8-17-10
  • Powell Point School
  • St. John Colony
  • San Marcos - 1873 Former Hays County Jail - Now the African-American Historical Museum.
  • Science Hill by Bob Bowman 6-19-11
    Science Hill lasted only a few decades, but its reputation as a center of education is well-remembered by descendants of its founders and builders. So is its violence in the early days of the Civil War...
  • Shankleville 5-21-13
  • Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, Cedar Lane, Texas
  • Weeping Mary, Texas
  • Related Subjects
  • Stealth Weapon of the Confederate Navy by Murray Montgomery 2-10-12
    H.L. Hunley, world's first combat submarine
  • The changing face of Texas from 1860-1960 by Murray Montgomery12-3-12
    What Texas was like just prior to the Civil War
  • Wilson Pottery by Clay Coppedge 8-4-12
    One of the first if not the very first African-American owned businesses in Texas was in Capote, not far from Seguin in Guadalpe County... Examples of Wilson stoneware have been exhibited at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, the Institute of Texas Cultures in San Antonio, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The Wilson Pottery Foundation, with its own museum, is dedicated to preserving the memory and works of Hiram and the other Wilsons who, in bondage and as free men, created durable and practical stoneware that today is worth more than what any of the Wilson potters made in a lifetime.
  • Juneteenth by Archie P. McDonald
    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..."
  • Black Cowboys by Murray Montgomery
    The black cowboy has been part of the ranching industry in Texas for a long time. They were born into slavery in the beginning but after the Civil War they continued to work on the ranches as free men...
  • 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
  • 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
    Black Churches in Texas: A Guide to Historic Congregations (The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M, No. 85)
    White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (American Crossroads, 2)
    Invisible Houston: The Black Experience in Boom and Bust (Texas A & M Southwestern Studies)
     
    Black Texas Women: 150 Years of Trial and Triumph
     
    Custom Search
    TEXAS ESCAPES CONTENTS
    HOME | TEXAS ESCAPES ONLINE MAGAZINE | HOTELS | SEARCH SITE
    TEXAS TOWN LIST | TEXAS GHOST TOWNS | TEXAS COUNTIES

    Texas Hill Country | East Texas | Central Texas North | Central Texas South | West Texas | Texas Panhandle | South Texas | Texas Gulf Coast
    TRIPS | STATES PARKS | RIVERS | LAKES | DRIVES | FORTS | MAPS

    Texas Attractions
    TEXAS FEATURES
    People | Ghosts | Historic Trees | Cemeteries | Small Town Sagas | WWII | History | Texas Centennial | Black History | Art | Music | Animals | Books | Food
    COLUMNS : History, Humor, Topical and Opinion

    TEXAS ARCHITECTURE | IMAGES
    Courthouses | Jails | Churches | Gas Stations | Schoolhouses | Bridges | Theaters | Monuments/Statues | Depots | Water Towers | Post Offices | Grain Elevators | Lodges | Museums | Rooms with a Past | Gargoyles | Cornerstones | Pitted Dates | Stores | Banks | Drive-by Architecture | Signs | Ghost Signs | Old Neon | Murals | Then & Now
    Vintage Photos

    TRAVEL RESERVATIONS | USA | MEXICO

    Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Contributors | Staff | Contact TE
    Website Content Copyright ©1998-2013. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. All Rights Reserved