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Texas Poll Tax Payment, Proposition 1 (1902)

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Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

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The 1910 Slocum Massacre in East Texas officially saw between eight and 22 African Americans killed, and evidence suggests casualties were 10 times these amounts. Yet the massacre has become a dirty Lone Star secret, remarkable more for the inattention it has received than for its remembrance.

Unlike most Texas communities in the early 20th century, the unincorporated town of Slocum - like Rosewood, Florida - was largely African American, with several Black citizens considerably propertied and a few owning stores and other businesses. This alone, in parts of the South, might have been enough to foment violence. But in the area around Slocum, roughly 100 miles east of Waco, there were other issues, according to newspaper reports and other sometimes conflicting accounts of the massacre.

When a white man reportedly tried to collect a disputed debt from a well-regarded Black citizen, a confrontation occurred. Hard feelings lingered. When a regional road construction foreman put an African American in charge of rounding up help for local road improvements, a prominent white citizen named Jim Spurger was infuriated and became an agitator.

Rumors spread, warning of threats against Anglo citizens and plans for race riots. White malcontents manipulated the local Anglo population and, on July 29, white hysteria transmogrified into bloodshed.

Stoked and goaded by Spurger and others, a collection of white mobs made up of Slocum locals and heavily armed white residents from all over Anderson County roamed through the area in groups of six or seven or in mobs of 30 to 40 and, according to some reports, up to 200. Members of the mobs engaged in what authorities later termed a "potshot" occasion, firing on Black citizens at will. They moved from road to road and cabin to cabin, shooting down African Americans in their tracks. Survivors of the bloodshed spread the word, and African Americans began fleeing. The white mobs followed Blacks into the surrounding forests and marshes and shot many victims in the back as they fled. Several bodies were discovered with bundles of clothing and personal effects at their sides.

Every initial newspaper report on the transpiring bloodshed portrayed the African Americans as armed instigators, but these accounts were heinous mischaracterizations. Anderson County Sheriff William H. Black, of Palestine, Texas, and Special Deputy Godfrey Rees Fowler arrived in the Slocum area, and they discovered a terrified white populace, most of whom had slept overnight in churches and schoolhouses. But it was increasingly apparent that the alleged African American mob that had supposedly conspired to attack the local white community hadn't materialized.

When reporters gathered on July 31, up to two dozen murders had been reported, but local authorities had only eight bodies. Sheriff Black said it would be "difficult to find out just how many were killed" because they were "scattered all over the woods," and buzzards would find many of the victims first.

"Men were going about killing Negroes as fast as they could find them," Sheriff Black told the New York Times. "These Negroes have done no wrong that I can discover," Black continued. "I don't know how many were in the mob, but there may have been 200 or 300. They hunted the Negroes down like sheep."

The truth is, a harrowing number of African Americans were slaughtered in the counties of Anderson and Houston in the mid-summer of 1910. Yet today it's almost never spoke of, much less widely acknowledged, sufficiently researched, or historically considered, including its omission in A Centennial History of Anderson County, Texas (1936) and History of Houston County, Texas, 1687-1979 (1979).

Context and National Response

In every month for the six months leading up to the Slocum Massacre, an African American in the East Texas region was executed by a white mob based on allegations alone. No trials, no juries - simply white verdicts. After the lynching of Allen Brooks, just four months prior to the Slocum Massacre, a photograph of his hanging body and a crowd of a hundred spectators was made into a postcard that was mailed to friends and family. And these injustices weren't exceptions to the rule; rather, they were the rule under which African Americans lived and died in that part of the world.

On August 13, 1910, a group of more than 150 African American ministers from Washington, D.C., sent a letter to President Taft regarding the Slocum Massacre. In the letter, the committee implored President Taft to use the powers of his "great office to suppress lynchings, murder, and other forms of lawlessness" and to do something to "make human life more valuable and law more universally respected."

The attorney general responded on August 24 with a succinct letter stating, "The protection of life and property is generally a duty devolving up the state authorities," and continued "Your letter and petition deal with the subject of the treatment of colored persons generally and therefore furnish no facts which would warrant this Department in taking any steps to redress the wrongs complained of."

Trial and Aftermath

At the initial grand jury hearing of the suspects charged in the Slocum atrocity, nearly every remaining resident was subpoenaed; some refused to testify and were arrested. By the time the grand jury findings were reported on August 17, several hundred witnesses had been examined. Though 11 men were initially arrested, seven were indicted. The grand jury judge moved the trial to Harris County, distrusting the potential jury of peers the defendants might receive in Anderson County. The indictments received no interest or justice in Harris County. Eventually, all those charged were released, and none of the indictments were ever prosecuted.

In the meanwhile, the personal holdings of many Slocum-area Anglo citizens fortuitously increased. The abandoned African American properties were absorbed or repurposed as the now-majority white population saw fit. The standard Southern Anglocentric world order was restored.

The community reflects effects of the event to this day. While most nearby towns have African American populations of 20 percent or more, Slocum's is just under 7 percent.

Recent Acknowledgments

On March 30, 2011, after a two-part February feature on the Slocum Massacre by Tim Madigan in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the 82nd Texas Legislature adopted House of Representatives Resolution 865, acknowledging the incident.

On January 16, 2016, a historical marker to the Slocum Massacre was unveiled. In a Washington Post article, Constance Hollie-Jawaid, who is a descendant of victims of the massacre and who applied for the historical marker, said, "This most definitely helps restore [the Slocum Massacre] to its proper place." Hollie-Jawaid continued, "It was being ignored, and by ignoring it, you're spitting in the face of those who died during that tragic event. You're basically saying either it didn't happen or it was not important, and it's very, very important."

Despite local opposition to the marker, Chris Florance, spokesperson for the Texas Historical Society, told the Washington Post, "There is difficult history in the state, and this shows there has been a lot of change." Longtime State Judge Bascom Bentley also noted, "I'm glad the marker is there. It's part of our history, an ugly part. But the purpose of history is to teach us how to do better in the present and future."

The atrocities committed in the Slocum area in 1910 should give us all pause and spur commitments to definitively establish the truth, fully acknowledge it, and honestly and constructively address it.

E. R. Bills is the author of The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas. Bills received a degree in journalism from Southwest Texas State University in 1990. Reprinted here with permission of the author. Versions of this story have been published on Dissident Voice, the Statesman, and the Patrick Murfin blog.
Our thanks to Constance Hollie-Jawaid (formerly Constance Hollie-Ramirez), a descendant of victims of the 1910 Slocum Massacre, for sharing this story with the Zinn Education Project. Hollie-Jawaid was a Dallas Independent School District principal for many years.

Posted on: Huffington Post.

© 2016 The Zinn Education Project.

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July 29, 1910: Slocum Massacre in Texas - Zinn Education Project

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The 1910 Slocum Massacre in East Texas officially saw between eight and 22 African Americans killed, and evidence suggests casualties were 10 times these amounts. Yet the massacre has become a dirty Lone Star secret, remarkable more for the inattention it has received than for its remembrance.

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1912 Opening of the Colored Carnegie Library in Houston

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1912 Opening of the Colored Carnegie Library in Houston

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Autonomy and Accommodation: Houston’s Colored Carnegie Library, 1907-1922 on JSTOR

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Denied the use of the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library, African American leaders organized their own public library in a high school in 1909. Working through...

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1913 Founding of the Harlem Hellfighters

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1913 Founding of the Harlem Hellfighters

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Originally:

15th New York (Colored) Infantry Regiment

Harlem Hellfighters, nickname given to the 369th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army during World War I. The French government decorated the entire unit with the Croix de Guerre, its highest award for bravery, as well as 170 additional individual medals for valour. The 369th's battlefield prowess was almost overshadowed by its contribution to music, however, as the Hellfighters' regimental band was credited with bringing jazz to Europe.

Origins

The Hellfighters originated as the 15th New York (Colored) Infantry Regiment, a National Guard unit. Members of the African American community in New York City's Harlem district had long advocated for the creation of a homegrown military unit, but white politicians blocked several attempts at establishing such a body. On June 2, 1913, a bill authorizing an African American National Guard regiment finally passed the New York state legislature, and Gov. William Sulzer signed it into law. However, the 15th New York existed in name only until June 1916, when Gov. Charles Whitman appointed William Hayward, his former campaign manager, to serve as its commanding officer. Hayward had been a colonel in the Nebraska National Guard, and he, like most of the field-grade officers in the unit, was white.

Hayward proved to be an adept organizer, and he recognized the importance of incorporating African American soldiers into the unit's officer corps. An early addition was Charles Fillmore, a Spanish-American War veteran who had been instrumental in the campaign to establish an African American regiment. Fillmore was commissioned a captain and made a company commander. However, despite an endorsement from the New York Age, arguably the most influential African American newspaper of its era, the 15th New York had trouble meeting its recruiting targets. At full strength, the regiment would field several thousand men, but by the end of the summer of 1916, only a fraction of that number had enlisted.

The regiment's fortunes turned around with the enlistment of James Reese Europe in September 1916. Europe was a giant in the music scene of the early 20th century. He was a gifted multi-instrumentalist and composer as well as a tireless champion of African American music and musicians. Europe was also the bandleader for Vernon and Irene Castle, one of the most famous dance teams of the age.

Like many in New York City's African American community, Europe initially had been lukewarm to the notion of military service. The segregated armed forces offered limited opportunities for African American troops, and Europe was the toast of American high society. He had more than a dozen orchestras performing under his banner in 1916, and his creative energies were fueling the transformation of ragtime into jazz. When Europe told his friend and collaborator Noble Sissle that he had joined the 15th New York, Sissle countered that running Europe's musical empire had left neither of them with any time to devote to the army. Europe responded by telling Sissle that he would be joining the unit as well.

Europe was painfully aware of the prejudice that he and his musicians faced. They routinely played at the estates of the wealthiest families in the United States but never entered through the front door. Lynchings were commonplace, but U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson had not yet publicly denounced them. In the 15th, Europe saw an opportunity to create "a strong, powerful institution for the development of the Negro manhood of Harlem." Europe told Sissle that "our race will never amount to anything, politically or economically, in New York or anywhere else unless there are strong organizations of men who stand for something in the community." Sissle was receptive to this argument, and he enlisted the same day. Recruitment, however, continued to be hampered by the 15th's limited resources.

In an effort to boost his unit's profile, Hayward looked to the 8th Illinois, the only other African American regiment in the National Guard, for inspiration. The 8th Illinois had a concert band of national renown, and Hayward had Lieut. Jim Europe at the head of one of his machine gun companies. The solution seemed obvious, but Europe had a reputation to uphold. If he was going to establish a regimental band, he told Hayward that he would need the freedom to make it the finest in the army. Hayward secured $10,000 to fund the band, Europe was made bandleader, and Sissle was promoted to sergeant and made drum major. Europe spent months recruiting the country's finest musicians to his cause, and he personally led a trip to Puerto Rico to fill his reed section. While Europe was building his band, the United States entered World War I.

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Harlem Hellfighters | Members, Battles, & Summary

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Harlem Hellfighters, nickname given to the 369th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army during World War I. The French government decorated the entire unit with the Croix de Guerre, its highest award for bravery, as well as 170 additional individual medals for valor.

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1915 the formation of the NAACP in Texas

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1915 the formation of the NAACP in Texas

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In response to the Springfield riot, a group of black and white activists, Jews and gentiles, met in New York City to address the deteriorating status of African Americans. Among them were veterans of the Niagara Movement (a civil rights group), suffragists, social workers, labor reformers, philanthropists, socialists, anti-imperialists, educators, clergymen, and journalists-some with roots in abolitionism. In the abolitionist tradition, they proposed to fight the new color-caste system with a "new abolition movement"-the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP pledged "to promote equality of rights and eradicate caste or race prejudice among citizens of the United States; to advance the interest of colored citizens; to secure for them impartial suffrage; and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for their children, employment according to their ability, and complete equality before the law." The NAACP pursued this mission through a variety of tactics including legal action, lobbying, peaceful protest, and publicity.

Journalist Ray Stannard Baker

Ray Stannard Baker (1870-1946) was known as a leading muckraking journalist. From 1899 to1905, he was an associate editor of McClure's, and from 1906 to1915 he coedited American Magazine. As a muckraker, he reported on social and economic problems from a liberal perspective. After the Atlanta riot, he traveled throughout the South and North conducting interviews for Following the Color Line (1908), a groundbreaking book on race relations. Baker vacillated between the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and the NAACP. He joined the NAACP and attended meetings, but declined committee service. In his notebook he revealed that he "instinctively" agreed with Washington's "emphasis on duty and service" as a prerequisite for civil rights. Baker won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Woodrow Wilson in 1940. In this letter, NAACP founder William Wallings asks for Baker's support in convening a national conference on the Negro.

NAACP Leader Oswald Garrison Villard

Oswald Garrison Villard (1872-1949), publisher of the New York Evening Post and The Nation, was the son of railroad tycoon Henry Villard and grandson of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. He used his fortune to promote liberal causes, including women's suffrage, anti-imperialism, and Negro uplift. Villard originally supported Booker T. Washington, believing education was the solution to the "Negro problem," but the Brownsville affair and Atlanta riot convinced him of the need for a more militant strategy. The "Committee for the Advancement of the Negro Race" (1906) he envisioned became the blueprint for the NAACP. Villard funded the NAACP's budget and provided free office space in the Evening Post building. He resigned as NAACP chairman in 1914 due to irreconcilable differences with W. E. B. Du Bois, but remained a board member until his death in 1949.

First Issue of The Crisis

In November 1910 the NAACP launched The Crisis, an official organ under the editorship of W.E.B. Du Bois. The journal's title was inspired by James Lowell's poem "The Present Crisis." Through The Crisis Du Bois reported the NAACP's activities and rallied support, while articulating his views on race and politics. For the largely black readership he personified the NAACP. The Crisis also served as an open forum for discourse on race relations and black life and culture. The monthly issues included articles on current events, editorial commentary, short stories and poems, art work, and reports on the achievements of people of color worldwide.

Constitution and By-Laws of the NAACP

In 1911 Albert E. Pillsbury, former Massachusetts attorney general and nephew of abolitionist Parker Pillsbury, drafted the NAACP's constitution and by-laws. A second constitution and new by-laws were drafted in 1912 and approved in 1914. The by-laws established a board of directors to govern the organization, with each director serving three-year terms. The board elected officers: a chairman, president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer; and created all standing and special committees, departments, bureaus, branches, and other units. It held an annual meeting in January and met monthly to consider reports from committees. The NAACP constitution states that "the Annual Convention shall have the power to establish polices and programs. All actions on the question of policy and program shall be binding on the board, officers, branches, and other units of the Association."

NAACP Victory in Guinn v. United States

Many southern and border states devised legal barriers to circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment and prohibit black voting. These barriers included poll taxes, literacy tests, "grandfather clauses," and the "white primary." In 1910 Oklahoma passed a constitutional amendment, which held that only residents whose grandfathers had voted in 1865 could vote, thus disqualifying the descendants of slaves. The NAACP persuaded the U.S. attorney general to challenge the constitutionality of the "grandfather clause," encouraged by a Maryland Circuit Court decision in 1913. Oklahoma appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Moorfield Storey was granted permission to argue the case on behalf of the NAACP. In June 1915, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Guinn v. United States that the "grandfather clause" was in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment.

The Amenia Conference Pamphlet

In 1916, one year after the death of Booker T. Washington, the NAACP issued a call for a conference of black leaders to unite Washington's supporters and NAACP activists behind a common program. W.E.B. Du Bois and Joel Spingarn held the conference August 24-26, at Troutbeck, Spingarn's estate near Amenia, New York. The roughly fifty conferees adopted a "Unity Platform" that affirmed all forms of education for blacks and political freedom. They also pledged to work together to improve race relations and forget old "hurts and enmities." The Anemia Conference marked the NAACP's ascent as the dominant force in the civil rights movement.

The Amenia Conference, 1916

This photograph shows some of the men and women who attended the Amenia Conference in 1916. Included are NAACP activists Addie Hunton, Mary Church Terrell, Mary Talbert (Second row, left to right: 1st, 3rd, and 4th), Arthur Spingarn, William Pickens, and Charles W. Chesnutt (First row, left to right: 1st, 2nd, and 4th). Among the other conferees were Booker T. Washington allies Henry Hunt, Emmet J. Scott, Fred Moore, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson; Niagarites Charles E. Bentley, L.M. Hershaw, and Mason Hawkins; and educators Kelly Miller and Lucy Laney (Second row, left to right: 5th and 7th).

Buchanan v. Warley

The NAACP sought out cases that infringed on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in order to set legal precedents and ultimately secure the constitutional rights of African Americans. An early victory was Buchanan v. Warley, a case involving residential segregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville and other cities passed ordinances to prevent people of color from residing in white neighborhoods. Moorfield Storey, the NAACP's first president and a constitutional attorney, argued the case before the Supreme Court in April 1917. The Court reversed the decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, ruling that the Louisville ordinance violated the Fourteenth Amendment. As a result of the ruling, whites resorted to private restrictive covenants, in which property owners agreed to sell or rent to whites only.

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NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom Founding and Early Years

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In response to the Springfield riot, a group of black and white activists, Jews and gentiles, met in New York City to address the deteriorating status of African Americans. Among them were veterans of the Niagara Movement (a civil rights group), suffragists, social workers, labor reformers, philanthropists, socialists, anti-imperialists, educators, clergymen, and journalists-some with roots in abolitionism.

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Lynching of Jesse Washington - Wikipedia

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Large crowd looking at the burned body of Washington

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1942 Houston Riot of 1978. Dorris Miller Awarded medal of Honor

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1942 Houston Riot of 1978. Dorris Miller Awarded medal of Honor

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Doris Miller (October 12, 1919 - November 24, 1943) was a United States Navy cook third class who was killed in action during World War II. He was the first black American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the highest decoration for valor in combat after the Medal of Honor.

Miller served aboard the battleship West Virginia, which was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. During the attack, he helped several sailors who were wounded, and while manning an anti-aircraft machine gun for which he had no training, he shot down several Japanese planes. Miller's actions earned him the medal, and the resulting publicity for Miller in the black press made him an iconic emblem of the fight for civil rights for black Americans. In November 1943, Miller was killed while serving aboard the escort carrier Liscome Bay when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin in the Gilbert Islands.

The destroyer escort/Knox-class frigate USS Miller (reclassified as a frigate in June 1975), in service from 1973 to 1991, was named after him. On January 19, 2020, the Navy announced that a Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier, CVN-81, would be named after Miller. The ship is scheduled to be laid down in 2023 and launched in 2028.

Miller was born in Waco, Texas, on October 12, 1919, to Connery and Henrietta Miller. He was named Doris, as the midwife who assisted his mother was convinced before his birth that the baby would be a girl. He was the third of four sons and helped around the house, cooked meals and did laundry, as well as working on the family farm. He was a fullback on the football team at Waco's Alexander James Moore High School. He began attending the eighth grade again on January 25, 1937, at the age of 17 he repeated the grade the following year due to poor performance, so he decided to drop out of school. He filled his time squirrel hunting with a .22 rifle and completed a correspondence course in taxidermy. He applied to join the Civilian Conservation Corps, but was not accepted. At that time, he was 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed more than 200 pounds (91 kg). Miller worked on his father's farm until shortly before his 20th birthday,

Miller's nickname "Dorie" may have originated from a typographical error. He was nominated for recognition for his actions on December 7, 1941, and the Pittsburgh Courier released a story on March 14, 1942, which gave his name as "Dorie Miller". Since then, some writers have suggested that it was a "nickname to shipmates and friends".

Miller enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a mess attendant third class at the Naval Recruiting Station in Dallas, Texas, for six years on September 16, 1939. Mess attendant was one of the few ratings open at the time to black sailors. He was transferred to the Naval Training Center, Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Virginia, arriving on September 19. After training school, he was assigned to the ammunition ship Pyro (AE-1) and then transferred on January 2, 1940, to the Colorado-class battleship West Virginia (BB-48). It was on the West Virginia where he started competition boxing, becoming the ship's heavyweight champion. In July, he was on temporary duty aboard the Nevada (BB-36) at Secondary Battery Gunnery School. He returned to the West Virginia on August 3. He advanced in rating to mess attendant second class on February 16, 1941.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Miller was a crewman aboard the West Virginia and awoke at 6 a.m. on December 7, 1941. He served breakfast mess and was collecting laundry at 7:57 a.m. when planes from the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi fired the first of seven torpedoes that hit West Virginia. The " Battle Stations" alarm went off; Miller headed for his battle station, an anti-aircraft battery magazine amidships, only to discover that a torpedo had destroyed it.

He went then to "Times Square" on deck, a central spot aboard the ship where the fore-to-aft and port-to-starboard passageways crossed, reporting himself available for other duty and was assigned to help carry wounded sailors to places of greater safety. Lieutenant Commander Doir C. Johnson, the ship's communications officer, spotted Miller and saw his physical prowess, so he ordered him to accompany him to the conning tower on the flag bridge to assist in moving the ship's captain, Mervyn Bennion, who had a gaping wound in his abdomen where he had apparently been hit by shrapnel after the first Japanese attack. Miller and another sailor lifted the skipper but were unable to remove him from the bridge, so they carried him on a cot from his exposed position on the damaged bridge to a sheltered spot on the deck behind the conning tower where he remained during the second Japanese attack. Captain Bennion refused to leave his post, questioned his officers and men about the condition of the ship, and gave orders and instructions to crew members to defend the ship and fight. Unable to go to the deck below because of smoke and flames, he was carried up a ladder to the navigation bridge, where he died from blood loss despite the aid from a pharmacist mate. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Lieutenant Frederic H. White had ordered Miller to help him and Ensign Victor Delano load the unmanned number 1 and number 2 Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns aft of the conning tower. Miller was not familiar with the weapon, but White and Delano instructed him on how to operate it. Delano expected Miller to feed ammunition to one gun, but his attention was diverted and, when he looked again, Miller was firing one of the guns. White then loaded ammunition into both guns and assigned Miller the starboard gun.

Miller fired the gun until he ran out of ammunition, when he was ordered by Lieutenant Claude V. Ricketts to help carry the captain up to the navigation bridge out of the thick oily smoke generated by the many fires on and around the ship; Miller who was officially credited with downing at least two enemy planes. "I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us," he said later. Japanese aircraft eventually dropped two armor-piercing bombs through the deck of the battleship and launched five 18-inch (460 mm) aircraft torpedoes into her port side. When the attack finally lessened, Miller helped move injured sailors through oil and water to the quarterdeck, thereby "unquestionably saving the lives of a number of people who might otherwise have been lost".

The ship was heavily damaged by bombs, torpedoes, and resulting explosions and fires, but the crew prevented her from capsizing by counter-flooding a number of compartments. Instead, West Virginia sank to the harbor bottom in shallow water as her surviving crew abandoned ship, including Miller; the ship was raised and restored for continued service in the war. On the West Virginia, 132 men were killed and 52 were wounded from the Japanese attack. On December 13, Miller reported to the heavy cruiser Indianapolis (CA-35).

Commendation

On January 1, 1942, the Navy released a list of commendations for actions on December 7. Among them was a single commendation for an unnamed black man. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt to award the Distinguished Service Cross to the unknown black sailor. The Navy Board of Awards received a recommendation that the sailor be considered for recognition. On March 12, an Associated Press story named Miller as the sailor, citing the African-American newspaper Pittsburgh Courier; additional news reports credited Lawrence D. Reddick with learning the name through correspondence with the Navy Department. In the following days, Senator James M. Mead (D-NY) introduced a Senate bill [S.Res. 2392] to award Miller the Medal of Honor, and Representative John D. Dingell, Sr. (D-MI) introduced a matching House bill [H.R. 6800].

Miller was recognized as one of the "first US heroes of World War II". He was commended in a letter signed by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on April 1, and the next day, CBS Radio broadcast an episode of the series They Live Forever, which dramatized Miller's actions.

Black organizations began a campaign to honor Miller with additional recognition. On April 4, the Pittsburgh Courier urged readers to write to members of the congressional Naval Affairs Committee in support of awarding the Medal of Honor to Miller. The All-Southern Negro Youth Conference launched a signature campaign on April 17-19. On May 10, the National Negro Congress denounced Knox's recommendation against awarding Miller the Medal of Honor. On May 11, President Roosevelt approved the Navy Cross for Miller.

On May 27, Miller was personally recognized by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6) at anchor in Pearl Harbor. Nimitz presented Miller with the Navy Cross, at the time the third-highest Navy award for gallantry during combat, after the Medal of Honor and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal; on August 7, 1942, Congress revised the order of precedence, placing the Navy Cross above the Distinguished Service Medal in precedence.

Nimitz said of Miller's commendation, "This marks the first time in this conflict that such high tribute has been made in the Pacific Fleet to a member of his race and I'm sure that the future will see others similarly honored for brave acts."

Return to United States and the war

Miller advanced in rating to mess attendant first class on June 1, 1942. On June 27, the Pittsburgh Courier called for him to be allowed to return home for a war bond tour along with white war heroes. On July 25, the Pittsburgh Courier ran a photo of Miller with the caption "He Fought... Keeps Mop" next to a photo of a white survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack receiving an officer's commission. The photo caption stated that the Navy felt that Miller was "too important waiting tables in the Pacific" for him to return to the United States.

On November 23, Miller returned to Pearl Harbor and was ordered on a war bond tour while still attached to Indianapolis. In December, and January 1943, he gave presentations in Oakland, California, in his hometown of Waco, in Dallas, and to the first graduating class of black sailors from Great Lakes Naval Training Station. He was featured on the 1943 Navy recruiting poster "Above and beyond the call of duty", designed by David Stone Martin.

In February 1943, "mess attendant" was changed to the "steward's mate" rate title by the Navy. On May 15, Miller reported to Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Washington assigned to the newly constructed escort carrier Liscome Bay (CVE-56). He was advanced in rating to cook third class on June 1. The ship had a crew of 960 men, and its primary functions were to serve as a convoy escort, to provide aircraft for close air support during amphibious landing operations, and to ferry aircraft to naval bases and fleet carriers at sea. The Liscome Bay was the flagship for Carrier Division 24 which was under the command of Rear Admiral Henry M. Mullinnix. On October 22, Liscome Bay set sail for Pearl Harbor.

After training in Hawaii waters, Liscome Bay left Pearl Harbor on November 10, 1943, to join the Northern Task Force, Task Group 52. Miller's carrier took part in the Battle of Makin (invasion of Makin by units of the Army's 165th Regimental Combat Team, 27th Infantry Division) which had begun on November 20. On November 24, the day after Makin was captured by American soldiers and the eve of Thanksgiving that year (the cooks had broken out the frozen turkeys from Pearl Harbor), the Liscome Bay was cruising near Butaritari (Makin Atoll's main island) when it was struck just before dawn in the stern by a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-175 (which fired four torpedoes at Task Group 5312). The carrier's own torpedoes and aircraft bombs, including 2,000-pounders, detonated a few moments later causing the ship to sink in 23 minutes. There were 272 survivors from the crew of over 900, but Miller was among the two-thirds of the crew listed as "presumed dead". His parents were informed that he was missing in action on December 7, 1943. Liscome Bay was the only ship lost in the Gilbert Islands operation.

A memorial service was held for Miller on April 30, 1944, at the Second Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, sponsored by the Victory Club. On May 28, a granite marker was dedicated at Moore High School in Waco to honor him. Miller was officially declared dead by the Navy on November 25, 1944, a year and a day after the loss of Liscome Bay. One of his brothers also had served during World War II.

Miller's decorations and awards:

For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.

Doris Miller Memorial, a public art installation honoring Miller on the banks of the Brazos River in Waco, Texas. Groundbreaking held in October 2015. A nine-foot bronze statue was unveiled on December 7, 2017, temporarily located at nearby Bledsoe-Miller Park.

A bronze commemorative plaque at the Doris Miller Park housing community located near Naval Station Pearl Harbor; organized by the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and dedicated on October 12, 1991, which would have been Miller's 72nd birthday.

Community-related (e.g. streets & parks)

Military-related

, a destroyer escort (reclassified as a Knox-class frigate on June 30, 1975) was commissioned on June 30, 1973, in honor of Miller; Miller was decommissioned on October 15, 1991.

Doris Miller Dining Hall, located at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois[citation needed ]

Veteran-related

In 1942, Miller's actions were dramatized on the CBS Radio series They Live Forever.

The April 25, 1944, episode of the CBS Radio series Columbia Presents Corwin, titled "Dorie Got a Medal", starred Canada Lee and Josh White in Norman Corwin's "jazz-and-jive opera" about Miller.

On the December 9, 1945, broadcast of his ABC radio series Orson Welles Commentaries, Orson Welles presented a tribute to Doris Miller and spoke to his father, Connery Miller. Broadcast from the U. S. Naval Training and Distribution Center on Treasure Island, San Francisco, the program announced the naming of three theater complexes to honor three World War II heroes killed in action. Theater One was named for Doris Miller; the other two theaters were named for Medal of Honor recipients John Basilone and Edward O'Hare.

Film & television

Although he is not identified by name, Miller is portrayed by Elven Havard in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!

Miller being awarded the Navy Cross was depicted in the 2019 film Midway.

Season 5, Episode 10 of the science fiction television series The Expanse, set in the 24th century, shows an arrivals board at the Lovell City Terminal on Luna (the Moon) that shows the UNN Dorie Miller as "on time".

Cutrer, Thomas W.; Parrish, T. Michael (2017). Doris Miller, Pearl Harbor, and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1623496029.

Miller, Richard E. (2004). The Messman Chronicles: African Americans in the U.S. Navy, 1932-1943. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-539-X.

O'Neal, Bill (2007). Doris Miller: Hero of Pearl Harbor. Waco, Texas: Eakin Press. ISBN 978-1934645017.

Sapper, Neil (1980). "Aboard the Wrong Ship in the Right Books: Doris Miller and Historical Accuracy". East Texas Historical Journal. 18 (1).

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Doris Miller (October 12, 1919 - November 24, 1943) was a United States Navy cook third class who was killed in action during World War II. He was the first black American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the highest decoration for valor in combat after the Medal of Honor.

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Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court with regard to voting rights and, by extension, racial desegregation. It overturned the Texas state law that authorized parties to set their internal rules, including the use of white primaries. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state to delegate its authority over elections to parties in order to allow discrimination to be practiced. This ruling affected all other states where the party used the white primary rule.

The Democratic Party had effectively excluded minority voter participation by this means, another device for legal disenfranchisement of blacks across the South beginning in the late 19th century.

Lonnie E. Smith, a black dentist from the Fifth Ward area of Houston and a voter in Harris County, Texas, sued county election official S. S. Allwright for the right to vote in a primary election being conducted by the Democratic Party. He challenged the 1923 state law that authorized the party to establish its internal rules; the party required all voters in its primary to be white.

The Democratic Party had controlled politics in the South since the late 19th century (see Solid South) and the state legislatures of the former Confederacy effectively disenfranchised blacks in the period from 1890 to 1908, by new constitutions and laws raising barriers to voter registration and voting. This crippled the Republican Party in all southern states except Tennessee and North Carolina where exceedingly loyal Unionist Appalachian white Republicanism remained, and resulted in the only competitive elections being held within the Democratic Party primary. Texas had used poll taxes and the white primary to exclude nearly all blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities from voting (the poll tax also had the effect of excluding poor whites prior to the establishment of mechanisms like the Grandfather clause which refranchised them).

Smith v. Allwright questioned whether or not states had the constitutional right to deny voters based on party membership. The Democratic Party of Texas denied Smith the right to vote on the basis of his skin color. Smith was attempting to cast his vote for a Democratic primary in which candidates for the House of Representatives, Senate, and Governor were being nominated, in addition to other state officers. The Texas Constitution states that every person qualified by residence in a district or county, in addition to other factors that are not relevant, "shall be deemed a qualified elector" in Article VI, §2, and Chapters Twelve and Thirteen of the statutes require primary elections for Senators, Representatives, and state officers. The Democratic Party of Texas was a "voluntary association" and protected from interference from the state except "in the interest of fair methods and a fair expression by their members of their preferences in the selection of their nominees, the State may regulate such elections by proper laws," which is a right that is protected in the Bill of Rights of Texas.

The party is allowed to determine its own policies and membership according to Waples v. Marrast, and adopted a policy that all white citizens qualified to vote in Texas were eligible for membership, therefore allowing only white citizens to vote. Holding policies that only allow citizens of a particular race or color to vote is an inherently discriminatory practice. The Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Seventeenth Amendments protect against such actions from any state. The argument, however, is whether the Texas Democratic Party is independent from the state and free to make policies as it pleases. Smith was not allowed to vote in a Democratic primary election on the basis of his skin color. He, the petitioner, argues that since he was not allowed to participate in a state election, the Party is not independent of the state. There were two conflicting Supreme Court decisions that were impeding the judicial precedent for this case: Grovey v. Townsend and United States v. Classic.

In Grovey v. Townsend, the petitioner argued that he was denied a ballot for the Democratic party primary election, even though he is a lawful citizen of the United States of America. The petitioner was going to be absent on the day of the election and demanded an absentee ballot. The petitioner was denied the ballot on the grounds of a statute of the Democratic Convention of Texas which stated:

"Be it resolved that all white citizens of the Texas who are qualified to vote under the Constitution and laws of the state shall be eligible to membership in the Democratic party and as such entitled to participate in its deliberations."

This denial on the grounds of race and color was argued to be a direct and unlawful violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States of America. Denying a ballot on the basis of the petitioner's race or color is legal under Texas law, but unconstitutional. The Fourteenth Amendment states that no citizen, naturalized or born, shall have their rights infringed by any law, nor shall they be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny any citizen equal protection under its laws.

The main question in Grovey was if a declaration of party membership equated state action. The argument of the respondents was that the resolution of the state convention limiting membership did not limit the participation of black voters, particularly the petitioner. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the respondent did not discriminate against the petitioner and therefore did not deny him any Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendment rights.

United States v. Classic

In U.S. v. Classic, two federal indictments were brought against six election commissioners, alleging conspiracy and corruption in the Democratic primary election for U.S. Representative. They were charged with miscounting and altering the ballots that were cast. The indictment was challenged because Newberry v. United States held that primary elections are not subject to the same Congressional oversight as general elections. Therefore, the question was if Congress is allowed to regulate primaries, specifically to protect voters from miscounts or altered ballots. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Article I of the Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate elections, in addition to allowing Congress to choose which constitutional powers are carried out.

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that Texas was indeed abridging Smith's Fifteenth Amendment right to vote, which was also denying his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law. The unconstitutional practice of denying voters based on their race was discriminatory and Texas was held responsible, since it was delegating its authority to the Democratic Party. The Grovey v. Townsend decision was therefore overruled and Smith's previous denials were reversed. Thurgood Marshall, who would become the Supreme Court's first black justice, championed this decision and later stated that this was his most important case.

Justice Roberts wrote a dissenting opinion for the Smith case. He was the only disagreeing justice, and argued that this decision was soon going to be overruled. He stated that three cases had been ruled and subsequently overruled on this issue already, maintaining that the seemingly ambiguous nature of rulings in these cases meant that this ruling did not follow the historical precedent. He also argued that this case was different from Classic; in Louisiana, elections are run by the state, making them state elections, but Texas party elections are run by the party, which does not put them under the jurisdiction of the state.

This decision enabled the revival of black participation in Texas politics, for those voters who could get through the discriminatory voter registration process. Smith's efforts inspired Barbara Jordan, a Fifth Ward resident who would later become a black politician in Texas. The Smith case was decided in 1944. By 1948, the number of registered black voters in the South rose fourfold, from 200,000 in 1940 to 800,000 in 1948, and by 1952, it rose to over one million. This decision also helped reiterate the idea that public events run by private organizations, especially elections, are held to the same constitutional standards as all fully public events.

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Smith v. Allwright , 321 U.S. 649 (1944), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court with regard to voting rights and, by extension, racial desegregation. It overturned the Texas state law that authorized parties to set their internal rules, including the use of white primaries.

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Juanita Craft (born Juanita Jewel Shanks; February 9, 1902 - August 6, 1985) was an American activist and politician. Craft was an activist in the civil rights movement and also served as a member of the Dallas City Council in Texas.

Born in Round Rock, Texas, Craft was the only child of schoolteachers David Sylvestus (d. 1947) and Eliza Balfour Shanks (d. 1918). Craft was raised by her mother until she died in 1918. After her mother's death, Craft moved to Columbus, Texas to be with her father. After graduating high school in 1919, Craft attended Prairie View A&M University where she studied sewing and millinery. After two years at Prairie View, Craft moved back to Austin, Texas and received her teaching certificate from Samuel Huston College. By 1925, Craft was working as a maid at the Adolphus Hotel and later as a seamstress.

Craft joined the NAACP in 1935, eventually becoming the Dallas NAACP membership chairman in 1942 and the Texas NAACP field organizer in 1946. She helped to organize 182 branches of the NAACP over eleven years. In 1944, Craft became the first black woman in Dallas County to vote in a public election. In 1955, she organized a protest of the State Fair of Texas against its policy of admitting blacks only on "Negro Achievement Day." Craft also assisted in the organization of protests and pickets in segregated lunch counters, restaurants, theaters and public transportation.

Following the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Craft worked to integrate the University of Texas Law School and the Dallas Independent School District. She attempted to help enroll the first black student at North Texas State College (Now the University of North Texas), a battle eventually won through litigation She later served two terms on the Dallas City Council from 1975 and 1979. Craft became a towering historic figure in the Civil Rights Movement in Texas, and was given many awards for her efforts, including the NAACP Golden Heritage Life Membership Award in 1978, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award in 1984, and she was recognized by the NAACP for her fifty years of service shortly before her death at the age of 83 on August 6, 1985.

The Juanita Jewel Craft Recreation Center and a Dallas city park were named in her honor as was a U.S. Post Office in southeast Dallas. Craft home on Warren Avenue in South Dallas is now the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House and is part of Dallas's Wheatley Place Historic District. Climbing the wooden steps of its front porch were many historic figures seeking audience with Juanita Craft, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Craft was married twice, first to a childhood friend Charles Floyd Langham from 1921 to 1925. Craft's second marriage was to salesman and gambler Johnnie Edward Craft from 1937 until his death in 1950.

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Juanita Craft (born Juanita Jewel Shanks; February 9, 1902 - August 6, 1985) was an American activist and politician. Craft was an activist in the civil rights movement and also served as a member of the Dallas City Council in Texas. Born in Round Rock, Texas, Craft was the only child of schoolteachers David Sylvestus (d.

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A case in which the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited the University of Texas from rejecting applicants solely on the basis of race.

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1953 D. Joe Williams integrates collegiate sports

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1953 D. Joe Williams integrates collegiate sports

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Story Links RIO GRANDE VALLEY - On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

The decision was the beginning of a long road to desegregate schools, particularly in the South. The decision also helped to push the still developing civil rights movement forward.

Still, it was another 14 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and even longer until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

It wasn't until 1976 that the Supreme Court ruled that private schools, not including religious schools, could not deny admission to students on the basis of race in Runyon v. McCrary.

However, it was only a few months after the initial Brown v. Board of Education decision that legacy institution Pan American University welcomed the first African American collegiate student-athlete in the history of the State of Texas, D. Joe Williams, who competed in baseball, cross country and track & field.

A member of the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the Texas and El Paso Baseball Halls of Fame, Williams broke the color barrier as the center fielder for the 1954 baseball team, hitting .262 to help the team to the Big State Conference Championship. Williams also won a pair of individual conference championships with the track & field team, taking the titles in the 880-yard and one-mile runs.

Williams came to Pan American after competing at Booker T. Washington High School in McAllen, a segregated school that existed from 1941-57, where he stole 26 bases as a position player and went 10-3 with 78 strikeouts as a pitcher. This led to him getting scouted by the St. Louis Browns in 1953.

Born in Dobbin on March 4, 1936, Williams moved to McAllen as a child, where he picked up baseball at the age of 10. He became one of the first African Americans to play in the Junior League in the late 1940s, where he hit over .400 as a first baseman and once pitched a one-hitter with one eye closed due to injury. He also played in a semi-pro Negro League at the age of 16.

After finishing his time at Pan American, Williams coached at Charlie Brown High School in West Columbia for five years before moving to the El Paso area, where he was a teacher and coach for 47 years at Fabens, Socorro and Tornillo High Schools. He led Fabens to three district titles in five years, advancing to the regional finals each time. He coached several players who went on to play in the Mexican League and in minor league baseball.

During his time at Fabens, Williams formed, coach and played for a semi-pro baseball team, the Viejos, for whom Williams was a two-time All-Star. He led the league in strikeouts in 1979, his second to last season as a player.

Williams also played fast-pitch softball, where he was an outstanding pitcher. After his playing career was over, Williams spent time as an umpire at several levels of baseball.

Williams was an original member of the Board of Directors for the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame, and at one point, served as the president.

He passed away on Dec. 15, 2013 at the age of 77, but Williams' legacy lives on.

After Williams broke the color barrier, Pan American remained at the forefront of integrating college athletics.

The men's basketball team, for example, won the 1963 NAIA National Championship with two Black starters - Mitchell Edwards and Luke Jackson. One of the top players off the bench was Walter Yates, a Black player who started as a freshman before Edwards, who played the same position, arrived.

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The First African American Collegiate Student-Athlete in Texas Competed Here - UTRGV Athletics

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Story Links RIO GRANDE VALLEY - On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The decision was the beginning of a long road to desegregate schools, particularly in the South.

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1955 Dallas Youth Council Protest of Negro Achievement Day

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1955 Dallas Youth Council Protest of Negro Achievement Day

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In 1955, the Texas State Fair in Dallas was segregated, a tradition that dated back to 1889 when planners first set aside a day for African Americans to attend the fair. Then called Colored People's Day, it was discontinued in 1910 and renamed Negro Achievement Day in 1936.

A collaboration between the Negro Chamber of Commerce and the State Fair Board, Negro Achievement Day featured a parade decked out with floats and fair Queens, the presentation of the Most Distinguished Negro Citizen Award, and high school and college football games. The day drew African American visitors from all over the state.

In 1953, the fair announced that African Americans could attend the fair on any day, but could only fully participate in the fair's enjoyments on Negro Achievement Day. Juanita Craft, NAACP Youth Council advisor for the Dallas branch, spearheaded a movement to end discrimination at the fair so that any person of any race could participate on any day they chose. Craft and members of the Youth Council decided to stage a boycott of the fair to draw attention to discriminatory practices. Teenagers, equipped with signs proclaiming "TODAY IS NEGRO APPEASEMENT DAY AT THE FAIR," picketed the parade that began at the local black high school. In an interview given in 1974, Craft remembered, "Those kids went to the starting point at Lincoln High School and boarded the floats right along with the queens and everybody else and rode down the streets saying, 'Stay out. Don't sell your pride for a segregated ride.' The kids were on top of people's houses along the route of the parade with megaphones telling about the segregated policy out there and to stay out."

When the parade reached the picket line at the entrance of the fair, participants turned and refused to enter. The picket line lasted throughout the day and into the night. While the Youth Council did not succeed in ending Negro Achievement Day, they were able to draw attention to the discrimination African Americans faced. The Youth Council was given an award by the NAACP for their well organized and peaceful demonstration. In later years, adults took over picketing the fair. Achievement Day (fair planners dropped the "Negro" in 1957) officially ended in 1961, followed by the full desegregation of the fair later in the '60s.

The boycott, and the majority of other civil rights activity in Dallas, was captured on film by photographer R. C. Hickman. Born in the East Texas town of Mineloa in 1922, Hickman moved to Dallas with his family in the 1930s. After attending Tillotson College in Austin, he served as an Army photographer in World War II, then returned to Dallas to work as a photographer for the Dallas Star Post. As the unofficial photographer of the African American community in Dallas in the 1950s, he captured pivotal moments in the city's civil rights history, including visits by Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall.

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NAACP Picket the Texas State Fair in 1955

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In 1955, members of the NAACP Youth Council formed a picket line to protest segregation at the Texas State Fair in Dallas.

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The Mansfield school desegregation incident is a 1956 event in the Civil Rights Movement in Mansfield, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

In 1955, the Mansfield Independent School District was segregated and still sent its black children to separate, run down facilities, despite the Brown v. Board of Education court decision in 1954. Three students brought a suit with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In Jackson v. Rawdon, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the students. In 1956, Mansfield ISD became the first school district in the state ordered by a federal court to desegregate. The school board approved the measure and allowed Mansfield High School to desegregate. Although other districts in Texas desegregated quietly that fall, the mayor and police chief of Mansfield did not approve of this measure. When school started on August 30, 1956, they joined over 300 whites in front of Mansfield High School. Their goal was to prevent the enrollment of the three black students. The town turned into complete turmoil as three black effigies were hanged as part of the demonstration.

Texas Governor Allan Shivers was a noted segregationist and used the power of his office to resist implementation of Brown v. Board of Education. Shivers dispatched Texas Rangers to prevent integration, led by Captain Jay Banks, who, in addition to threatening to arrest Black students, refused to take down an effigy of a Black man hanging by a noose at the entrance of Mansfield High School. Shivers then authorized the Mansfield Independent School District to send its Black students to Fort Worth, Texas. By doing this the school district had effectively ignored a federal court order for integration.

After the transfer of the Black students to Fort Worth, the demonstrations soon ended and order was restored. It was this success that in 1957 inspired Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to attempt a similar ordeal in Little Rock, Arkansas. Later that year, Texas passed more segregation laws that delayed integration even further.

Facing the lack of federal funds, the Mansfield Independent School District quietly desegregated in 1965. The decade long defiance of a federal school integration order was one of the longest in the nation during that period.

In June 2020, a statue modeled after Texas Ranger Captain Jay Banks, called One Riot, One Ranger, was removed from Dallas Love Field. It was first dedicated in 1961, 5 years after the Mansfield School Desegregation Incident.

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Mansfield school desegregation incident - Wikipedia

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The Mansfield school desegregation incident is a 1956 event in the Civil Rights Movement in Mansfield, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

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Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA final - HISTORY

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In College Park, Maryland on March 19, 1966, underdog Texas Western College defeats Kentucky, 72-65, in the NCAA men’s college basketball final—the first NCAA

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 Election of Barbara Jordan to the Texas State Senate 1967 and House of Representatives 1973

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 Election of Barbara Jordan to the Texas State Senate 1967 and House of Representatives 1973

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Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 - January 17, 1996) was an American lawyer, educator and politician who was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.

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1973 Texas Legislative Black Caucus Formed

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1973 Texas Legislative Black Caucus Formed

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Inside the Capitol with the Texas Legislative Black Caucus

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On March 12th, we welcomed Chairwoman Nicole Collier, Senator Royce West and Representative Sheryl Cole to discuss the priorities of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus during the 87th Texas Legislative Session. The panel was moderated by Nikelle Meade of Husch Blackwell.