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Nov. 3, 2016

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1931 poll tax receipt for Harris County.
J.R. Gonzales

Can you imagine having to pay before casting your vote in Texas?

In the last few months I've come across a couple of poll tax receipts at estate sales around the area.

The little slips of paper – about the size of a check – are usually tucked away in some junk drawer next to the Green Stamps or in a bug-infested box in a garage.

The monetary value of these poll tax receipts, which is minuscule, is outweighed by their historic value.

In recent months there's been a lot of debate regarding voter ID laws and its effect on whether it keeps some groups from taking part in the electoral process. Decades ago, critics said the poll tax kept the poor and minorities from voting.

You think voting requirements today are confusing? Try voting under a poll tax.

Here's how it generally worked. In this example we'll look at a voter's eligibility to cast a ballot in the mid-1950s, according to an explanation at the time by J.C. Davis Jr., assistant Texas attorney general.

The poll tax that you now hold bears the year 1955 and was levied against you on January 1, 1955, and was payable between October 1, 1955 and January 31, 1956, and it entitles you to voting privileges from February 1, 1956 to January 31, 1957, both dates inclusive. [...] All tax receipts issued for any year after January 31st, where the application was not made or was not received by the Assessor-Collector until after January 31st shall be issued, but on the face thereof shall be stamped the following: "Holder not entitled to vote"; and what is more, the recipient of such a poll tax shall not be included in the list of qualified voters prepared by the Assessor-Collector for the use of the various election judges in your county.

To boil it down, in order to vote in an upcoming election, an eligible voter had to pay the poll tax by a certain time. Want to pay at the polls on Election Day? Forget it. There were some exemptions to paying the poll tax, one being over 60 years of age.

So how much did voters have to pay? It varied by county, but in 1950s Harris County, residents paid $1.50, of which $1 went to the state's school fund, 30 cents to the state and 20 cents to the county.

This was a not a new concept of voting in Texas. The poll tax here dates back to the days of the Texas republic, when a $1 tax was levied against all white males between the ages of 21 and 55. (Actually the name is kind of a misnomer. In Middle English "poll" means "head," making it a head tax.)

1928 poll tax receipt for Brazoria County.
J.R. Gonzales

For a time in the 19th century, penalties were put on those unable to pay the tax. In 1891, for example, delinquent residents were liable to work for three days on county roads – unless they ponied up $3, which would go to the public schools and toward the upkeep of the state's roads and bridges.

In 1902 though, state lawmakers made the poll tax a requirement for voting. Its effects on voting were stark. In a 2015 essay on the history of the poll tax in Texas, Joshua Houston said "turnout by whites dropped to 50 percent and turnout by blacks plummeted to 15 percent."

In effect, Houston said, it cut into the voting strength of the Republican Party and shifted power to the Democrats, which was made up of an "establishment of plantation owners, bankers, merchants, and railroads."

Getting rid of the poll tax in Texas wasn't easy. There were unsuccessful efforts to repeal it, but they always fell short. The move both in Texas and in Washington, D.C., to do away with it didn't begin to gain steam until the early 1960s.

In 1962, Congress passed an anti-poll tax amendment that would prevent the states and federal government from forcing voters to pay a tax to vote in federal elections. By early 1964, enough states had signed on to ratify the 24th Amendment. (Texas wouldn't ratify it until 2009.)

Also in 1962, Texans went to the polls in both the Republican and Democratic primaries to have their say on whether the state should abolish the poll tax. It was a non-binding measure meant to send a message to state lawmakers. That May, voters from both parties indicated opposition to the poll tax.

OK, so what would happen if the Legislature did away with it? That posed a problem as lawmakers couldn't agree on how to set up a system of registering voters. Would someone be permanently registered? And would the state charge someone to register to vote?

In 1954, changes to the Texas constitution would open the door for women to serve on Texas juries.

The following year, Harris County officials noticed a drop in the number of residents paying poll taxes. Why? As the Houston Post reported, "many women are reported unwilling to pay poll taxes because of a fear that they will be called to jury duty."

Officials were quick to point out that men and women could still be called to serve on a jury, whether the tax was paid or not.

State lawmakers eventually worked out these disputes during the 1963 session and put the constitutional amendment abolishing the state's poll tax to a vote that fall.

Democrats urged Texans to back the amendment and do away with what Vice President Lyndon Johnson called the "shame of Texas." Sen. Ralph Yarborough and Gov. John Connally joined the effort to do away with it. Even President John F. Kennedy said getting rid of it would "encourage wider voter participation."

In a number of editorials leading up to the 1963 vote, the Chronicle warned voters of chaos at the polls should the state keep its poll tax for state and local elections while not requiring payment to vote in federal elections, including the 1964 presidential contest.

"A great deal of confusion can be avoided if the poll tax is repealed as a voting requirement," the Chronicle's editorial board wrote on Nov. 7, 1963. "And the cause of fullest possible voter participation in the decisions of government will be served. Only 40 percent of the adult population voted in Texas in 1960, a ratio far below the national average."

In a November letter to the Dallas Express, Martin Luther King Jr. said the poll tax "puts a price tag on freedom."

So this vote was a no-brainer, right?

Nope. Texans rejected calls to end the poll tax: 243,445 voted for repealing it while 330,008 voted against. Harris County voters opted to repeal it 46,382 to 40,135.

An Associated Press article said the defeat was a victory for the GOP.

"Many Republicans felt repeal would aid President Kennedy in Texas next year. Discarding the $1.50 tax as a voting requirement, many political observers said, would stimulate voting among several minority groups which would be expected to vote liberal and Democratic. Others said a new form of cheaper registration to replace the tax would give political bosses more opportunity to set up voting blocs."

Nearly three years later, the courts would be the ones to do away with Texas' poll tax. A three-judge decision at the federal level found that it "infringes on the concept of liberty as protected by the Due Process Clause." A month after that decision, the U.S. Supreme Court extended the 24th Amendment to state elections, effectively putting the final nail in the coffin for the poll tax in Texas and in four other states.

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Poll tax receipts provide peek into Texas’ electoral history

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Can you imagine having to pay before casting your vote in Texas?

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ANDERSON COUNTY, Texas (KLTV) - The Slocum Massacre historical marker is on the west side of FM 20-22 in Slocum, a small town in Anderson County. It's been there for five years now. The story of how it was erected is compelling in itself.

This historical marker recognizes the Slocum Massacre of 1910. Beginning on the morning of July 29th, groups of armed white men shot and killed Black residents. Officially, eight men were killed, but other reports state that up to 200 were killed. Many families fled the area in fear and didn't return, leaving their land to be taken over.

E-R Bills wrote a book about the massacre in 20-14 after having an article published in the Austin American-Statesman.

"I thought, that doesn't sound like a story a doughy white guy like me should write. i thought surely someone has written about this. I got on the internet machine and there was nothing and it was something i knew i could write."

Following the release of his book, Bills connected with Constance Hollie-Jawaid (ja-waud), a descendant of one of the victims.

"I uncovered all this stuff that she didn't know. And she had things that I didn't know...Her family too after the massacre scattered into the wind."

It was right away the pair teamed up to see the historical marker through.

"She asked me to work on the application and I said sure, you know."

But Bills said he met a lot of resistance at the local level.

"First they said it was a shabby application. Then they accused Constance and I of getting help, whatever that means."

So Bills and Hollie-Jawaid took it straight to the state.

"It was very shocking. Some of the assistants told us it was the best application they had ever seen. Eventually when it was approved unanimously we were told we scored 98 out of 100 on the application."

Bills said he's heard threats that the marker will end up in the river, but the Slocum Massacre historical marker still stands.

Bills said he meets with Hollie-Jawaid and her family every year to commemorate the anniversary. If you would like to see the marker, it's located on FM 20-22, six-tenths of a mile south of FM 294.

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Mark in Texas History: Slocum Massacre Historical Marker

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ANDERSON COUNTY, Texas (KLTV) - The Slocum Massacre historical marker is on the west side of FM 20-22 in Slocum, a small town in Anderson County. It's been there for five years now. The story of how it was erected is compelling in itself. This historical marker recognizes the Slocum Massacre of 1910.

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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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The postcard of the Carnegie Library at McKinney and Travis Sts. in Houston, TX shown above was the first stimulus for my closer look at Houston's Carnegie library buildings. The message on the postcard reads: "This is one of the prettiest library buildings I have ever seen." It was mailed on January 24, 1906. A second stimulus was the receipt of a complimentary copy of the publication
100 Years - 100 Stories: Houston Public Library 1904-2004 by Betty Trapp Chapman (Houston Public Library, 2004). Included among the stories was not only the story about the Carnegie library building on the postcard, but also the story of the Colored Carnegie Library in Houston. Also, earlier this month there was a post on the Little Known Black Librarian Facts blog about the Colored Carnegie Library in Houston. The story of the Carnegie library buildings themselves is fairly straightforward. Two separate entities apply for Carnegie grants. They receive the grants and the buildings are built, and then both buildings are later demolished. A much more complicated story however revolves around racial social injustice and library use in the South. For this story, we are fortunate to have the results of the excellent research conducted by Cheryl Knott Malone . Her article "Autonomy and Accommodation: Houston's Colored Carnegie Library, 1907-1922" is available online . Also online is her article "Unannounced and Unexpected: the Desegregation of Houston Public Library in the Early 1950s". The Colored Carnegie Library Association, a separate legal organization, operated the Colored Carnegie Library which was dedicated on April 11, 1913 until 1921 when it became a branch of the Houston Public Library. The building was razed in 1962 to make way for a highway expansion. It was at this point that the limited desegregation of the Houston Public Library which began in the early 1950s became official desegregation. Read Malone's articles for a detailed account. "One of the prettiest library buildings I have ever seen" was dedicated on March 2, 1904. A new building replacing the Carnegie building was dedicated in 1926. The Houston Public Library in a tribute to Carnegie and perhaps as a result of being a little ashamed at having abandoned his beautiful building named one of its branch libraries after him. The library also named one its branch libraries after W.L.D. Johnson , one of the founders of the Colored Carnegie Library Association.

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The postcard of the Carnegie Library at McKinney and Travis Sts. in Houston, TX shown above was the first stimulus for my closer look at Houston's Carnegie library buildings. The message on the postcard reads: "This is one of the prettiest library buildings I have ever seen."

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1913 founding of the "Harlem Hellfighters"

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1913 founding of the "Harlem Hellfighters"

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The 369th Infantry Regiment, formerly known as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment, was an infantry regiment of the United States Army that saw action in World War I and World War II. The Regiment consisted of African-Americans and African Puerto Ricans and was known for being the first African-American regiment to serve with the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. Before the 15th New York National Guard Regiment was formed, any African American that wanted to fight in the war either had to enlist in the French or Canadian armies. The regiment was nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, the Black Rattlers and the Men of Bronze, which was given to the regiment by the French. The nickname "Hell Fighters" was given to them by the Germans due to their toughness and that they never lost a man through capture, lost a trench or a foot of ground to the enemy. The "Harlem Hellfighters" were the first all black regiment that helped change the American public's opinion on African American soldiers and helped pave the way for future African American soldiers.

On October 5, 1917 long time secretary to Booker T. Washington, Emmett J. Scott was appointed Special Assistant to Newton D. Baker, the Secretary of War. Emmett was to serve as a confidential advisor in situations that involved the well-being of ten million African-Americans and their roles in the war. While many African Americans who served in the Great War believed that, upon returning home racial discrimination would dissipate, that did not happen. Racial hatred after World War I was probably at its worst until the start of the Second World War. So with this American discrimination of African American soldiers, these troops were often sent to Europe where they were used to fill vacancies in the French Armies. Unlike the British, the French held high opinions of black soldiers which made for a more positive environment when working together. Ironically this made African American troops more passionate about fighting for America. This newly created patriotism by African Americans then led to the creation of the 369th Infantry Regiment.

The 369th Regiment was formed from the National Guard's 15th Regiment in New York. The 15th Regiment was formed after Charles S. Whitman was elected Governor of New York. He enforced the legislation that was passed due to the efforts of the 10th Cavalry in Mexico which had passed as a law that had not manifested until June 2, 1913.

Once the United States entered into World War I, many African Americans believed that entering the armed forces would help eliminate racial discrimination throughout the United States. Many African American's felt that it was "a God-sent blessing" so that they could prove that they deserved respect from the white Americans through service in the armed forces. Through the efforts of the Central Committee of Negro College Men and President Wilson had established a special training camp to train black officers for proposed black regiments.

The 369th Infantry Regiment was constituted 2 June 1913 in the New York Army National Guard as the 15th New York Infantry Regiment. The 369th Infantry was organized on 29 June 1916 at New York City. The infantry was called into Federal service on 25 July 1917 at Camp Whitman, New York. While at Camp Whitman, the 369th Infantry learned basic military practices. These basics included military courtesy, how to address officers and how to salute. Along with these basics they also learned how to stay low and out of sight during attacks, stand guard and how to march in formation. After their training at Camp Whitman, the 369th was called into active duty in New York. While in New York, the 369th was split into three battalions in which they guarded rail lines, construction sites and other camps throughout New York. Then on 8 October 1917 the Regiment traveled to Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg, South Carolina,where they received training in actual combat. Camp Wadsworth was set up similar to the French battlefields. While at Camp Wadsworth they experienced significant racism from the local communities and from other units. There was one incident in which two soldiers from the 15th Regiment, Lieutenant Europe and Noble Sissle, were refused by the owner of a shop when they attempted to buy a newspaper. Several soldiers from the white, 27th Division came to aid their fellow soldiers. Lieutenant Europe had commanded them to leave before violence erupted. There were many other shops that refused to sell goods to the members of the 15th Regiment, so members of the 27th and 71st Divisions told the shop owners that if they did not serve black soldiers that they can close their stores and leave town. The white soldiers then stated "They're our buddies. And we won't buy from men who treat them unfairly."

The 15th Infantry Regiment NYARNG was assigned on 1 December 1917 to the 185th Infantry Brigade. It was commanded by Col. William Hayward, a member of the Union League Club of New York, which sponsored the 369th in the tradition of the 20th U.S. Colored Infantry, which the club had sponsored in the Civil War. The 15th Infantry Regiment shipped out from the New York Port of Embarkation on 27 December 1917, and joined its brigade upon arrival in France. The unit was relegated to labor service duties instead of combat training. The 185th Infantry Brigade was assigned on 5 January 1918 to the 93rd Division.

The 15th Infantry Regiment, NYARNG was reorganized and re-designated on 1 March 1918 as the 369th Infantry Regiment, but the unit continued labor service duties while it awaited the decision as to its future.

The US Army concluded on 8 April 1918 to assign the unit to the French Army for the duration of the United States' participation in the war. The men were issued French helmets and brown leather belts and pouches, although they continued to wear their U.S. uniforms. While in the United States, the 369th Regiment was never treated like similar all white units. They were subject to intense racial discrimination and were looked down upon. In France, the 369th was treated as if they were no different from any other French unit. They did not show hatred towards them and did not racially segregate the 369th. The 369th finally felt what it was like to be treated equally. The French accepted the all black, 369th Regiment with open arms and welcomed them to their country.

The 369th Infantry Regiment was relieved 8 May 1918 from assignment to the 185th Infantry Brigade, and went into the trenches as part of the French 16th Division. It served continuously to 3 July. The regiment returned to combat in the Second Battle of the Marne. Later the 369th was reassigned to Gen. Lebouc's 161st Division to participate in the Allied counterattack. On one tour they were out for over 6 months which was the longest deployment of any unit in World War I.On 19 August, the regiment went off the line for rest and training of replacements.

While overseas the Hellfighters saw propaganda for them saying that the Germans have done nothing wrong to black so why are they against them and that they should be for against the American. These statements only made the African American even more devoted to the U.S.

On 25 September 1918 the French 4th Army went on the offensive in conjunction with the American drive in the Meuse-Argonne. The 369th turned in a good account in heavy fighting, sustaining severe losses. They captured the important village of Séchault. At one point the 369th advanced faster than French troops on their right and left flanks, and risked being cut off. By the time the regiment pulled back for reorganization, it had advanced fourteen kilometers through severe German resistance.

In mid-October the regiment was moved to a quiet sector in the Vosges Mountains. It was there on 11 November, the day of the Armistice. Six days later, the 369th made its last advance and on 26 November, reached the banks of the Rhine River, the first Allied unit to reach it. The regiment was relieved on 12 December 1918 from assignment to the French 161st Division. It returned to the New York Port of Embarkation and was demobilized on 28 February 1919 at Camp Upton at Yaphank, New York, and returned to the New York Army National Guard.

One Medal of Honor and many Distinguished Service Crosses were awarded to members of the regiment. The most celebrated man in the 369th was Pvt. Henry Lincoln Johnson, a former Albany, New York, rail station porter, who earned the nickname "Black Death" for his actions in combat in France. In May 1918 Johnson and Pvt. Needham Roberts fought off a 24-man German patrol, though both were severely wounded. After they expended their ammunition, Roberts used his rifle as a club and Johnson battled with a bolo knife. Reports suggest that Johnson killed at least four German soldiers and might have wounded 30 others.[12] Usually black achievements and valor went unnoticed, despite that fact over 100 men from the 369th were presented with American and/or French medals. Among those honors Johnson was the first American to receive the Croix de Guerre awarded by the French government. This award signifies extraordinary valor. By the end of the war, 171 members of the 369th were awarded the Legion of Honor or the Croix De Guerre . Despite the fact that they were decorated upon returning to New York the 369th Regiment were not allowed to participate in Victory Parade of 1919. They were also disrespected by not being given a salute by the MP's who were under orders not to.

Photographs show that the 369th carried the New York Regimental flag overseas. The French government awarded the regiment the Croix de Guerre with silver star for the taking of Séchault. It was pinned to the colors by General Lebouc at a ceremony in Germany, 13 December, 1918.

One of the first units in the United States armed forces to have black officers in addition to its all-black enlisted corps, the 369th compiled a war record equal to any other U.S. infantry regiment. It earned several unit citations along with many individual decorations for valor from the French government. The 369th Infantry Regiment was the first New York unit to return to the United States, and was the first unit to march up Fifth Avenue from the Washington Square Park Arch to their armory in Harlem. Their unit was placed on the permanent list with other veteran units.

In re-capping the story of the 369th Arthur W. Little, who had been a battalion commander, wrote in the regimental history From Harlem to the Rhine, that it was official that the outfit was 191 days under fire, never lost a foot of ground or had a man taken prisoner, though on two occasions men were captured but they were recovered. Only once did it fail to take its objective and that was due largely to bungling by French artillery support.

So by the end of the 369th Infantry's campaign in World War 1 they were present in the Champagne - Marne, Meuse - Argonne, Champagne 1918, Alsace 1918 campaigns in which they suffered nearly 1500 casualties. The 369th also fought in distinguished battles such as Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thiery. While fighting these battles, they served nearly six months on the front lines and earned many distinguished awards. These awards included the Croix de Guerre which is France's highest military honor.

The 369th Regiment band was relied upon not only in battle but also for morale. So by the end of their tour they became one of the most famous military bands throughout Europe. They followed the 369th overseas and were highly regarded and known for being able to immediately boost morale. While overseas the 369th Regiment made up less than 1% of the soldiers deployed, but were responsible for over 20% of the territory of all the land assigned to the United States. During the war the 369th's regimental band (under the direction of James Reese Europe) became famous throughout Europe. It introduced the until-then unknown music called jazz to British, French and other audiences, and started an international demand for it.

At the end of the war, the 369th returned to New York City, and on 17 February 1919, paraded through the city. This day became an unofficial holiday of sorts for all of Harlem. Many black school children were dismissed from school so that they could attend the parade. With the addition of many adults there were thousands of people that lined the streets to see the 369th Regiment: the parade began on Fifth Avenue at 61st Street, proceeded uptown past ranks of white bystanders, turned west on 110th Street, and then turned onto Lenox Avenue, and marched into Harlem, where black New Yorkers packed the sidewalks to see them. The parade became a marker of African American service to the nation, a frequent point of reference for those campaigning for civil rights. There were multiple parades that took place throughout the nation, many of these parades included all black regiments, including the 370th from Illinois. These parades helped show some people who were incredibly racist that these soldiers were willing to fight for their country. Then In the 1920s and 1930s, the 369th was a regular presence on Harlem's streets, each year marching through the neighborhood from their armory to catch a train to their annual summer camp, and then back through the neighborhood on their return two weeks later.

After the first World War, the regiment was spread out throughout New York and still maintained some military exercises. Then with the start of the second World War, they were reorganized as the 369th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment. They were then deployed to Hawaii and parts of the West Coast.

In 1933 the 369th Regiment Armory was created to honor the 369th regiment for their service. This armory stands at 142nd and fifth avenue, in the heart of Harlem. This armory was constructed starting in the 1920s and was completed in the 1930s. The 369th Regiment Armory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

In 2003 the New York State DOT renamed the Harlem River drive as the "Harlem Hellfighters Drive." This four mile road has become a way to remember the Regiment that fought to defend France in the First World War. Then on September 29, 2006 a twelve foot high monument was unveiled to honor the 369th Regiment. This statue is a replica of a monument that stands in France. The monument is made of black granite and contains the 369th crest and rattlesnake insignia.

The 369th Infantry Regiment has continued to live on since World War 1. At the end of the first World War, they were still seen each year in a parade in which they marched throughout the streets of Harlem and onto a train that took them to a summer camp that they participated in each year. Then in World War II the 369th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment was formed. This regiment served in Hawaii and throughout much of the western coast. Then in more recent history the 369th Sustainment Brigade was formed and served in battles in Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom and even the War on Terror.
Photo credit: 1) goodizen. 2) Via Wikipedia.

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The 369th Infantry Regiment, formerly known as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment, was an infantry regiment of the United States Army that saw action in World War I and World War II. The Regiment consisted of African-Americans and African Puerto Ricans and was known for being the first African-American regiment to serve with the American Expeditionary Force during World War I.

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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 July of 1916,at the end of a long day, readers all across the US picked up the most recent issue of a new magazine, maybe from a coffee table or while browsing at the library. Its cover image was ordinary: recent college graduates, the women dressed in white lace and the men in fine suits.

The articles seemed standard, too, with pieces about young doctors, a new production of Shakespeare, and baseball. But then, at the end, readers were taken aback by something entirely gruesome: an eight-page supplement featuring pictures of an African American man being lynched, step by step, from the convening of the mob to the hanging to the body in a heap of ashes. Nothing was censored - and that was the point.

The magazine was the Crisis, the monthly publication of the then new NAACP, edited by WEB Du Bois. The images were part of a campaign that appropriated and subverted racist imagery for progressive purposes.They were a revelation, one that cemented the NAACP's status as a leading civil rights organization and openedAmericans' eyes to horrific hate crimes across the country.

The victim in those nightmarish images was Jesse Washington, a black 17-year-old accused of murdering Lucy Fryer, the white woman for whom he worked, in Waco, Texas, on 8 May 1916. Fryer had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer, and Washington was found covered in blood. Arrested on the spot, Washington confessed under duress: authorities told him they would protect him from a gathering lynch mob. That confession was the centerpiece of his trial one week later, on 15 May.

It took the jury all of three minutes to reach their verdict: a death sentence, and the 1,500 people packed into the courtroom wanted it to happen now. Within seconds, Washington was seized and pulled into the street, where he was beaten, stabbed, dragged, and chained. The crowd swelled into the thousands, and all were rapt as Washington was hanged from a tree and burned alive, a throng of white spectators guffawing and gawking, straining their necks to get a better look and giving up their spots for one man only, a photographer named Fred Gildersleeve. Waco's mayor had called Gildersleeve personally to capture the event, and the photographer readily complied, arriving on the scene with his camera bag and flash pan, using the same discerning eye with which he snapped local sporting events and youthful parades to capture Washington's agonizing final moments, his flesh turned to char.

A picture postcard depicts a crowd of spectators at the lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas, 1916 (Library of Congress).

None of this was unusual. Lynching had been a largely tolerated part of American culture since 1836, when a mixed-race man named Francis McIntosh was burned alive for allegedly obstructing a police investigation. In the ensuing years, thousands of people were murdered in a similar fashion. Black men were the most frequent targets - an estimated 2,812 were lynched between 1885 and 1915, and Washington was the 31st victim of 1916 - but Mexicans, Jews, Native Americans, black women, and white progressives were sometimes targeted as well, threatening as they were to Christian white supremacy.

Within the lynching culture was a subculture of sorts, one that reveled in trading postcards of the crimes the way kids today might trade baseball cards. That's why Gildersleeve was taking pictures of Washington's murder - to cash in. He went on to sell prints for 10 cents apiece, about $2.30 in today's dollars. But little did Gildersleeve know that his images would be used to flip the script, wielded in the fight for justice by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Lynching postcards were a popular - and profitable - side business for photographers. Like Jesse Washington's, the 1910 lynching of Allen Brooks in Dallas, Texas, was celebrated in the form (George W Cook Dallas / Texas Image Collection at Southern Methodist University).

Formed in 1908, the NAACP spent its first few years focused largely on fighting Jim Crow and other forms of segregation, but leaders were keen to get involved in a burgeoning anti-lynching movement, and understood immediately upon hearing about Washington's death that they needed to redouble their efforts. To that end, the NAACP secretary, Roy Nash, wired Elisabeth Freeman, an English-born suffragette who he knew was rallying in Fort Worth, and asked her to travel to Waco to investigate. "You will probably be able very soon to locate liberals or Northerners there with whom you can talk freely," Nash wrote on 16 May, the day after the lynching.

Elisabeth Freeman reported for the Crisis from Waco (Library of Congress).

Freeman was unsure. She didn't know much about the case, and she'd never worked on an anti-lynching campaign. "I am terribly 'green' at this work & scarcely know what you want to know," she wrote back. Nash, however, pleaded, and Freeman, a fierce believer in equality, agreed to take a look. Despite her misgivings, Freeman was a natural investigator. She spent eight days in and around Waco, interviewing participants and witnesses to Washington's murder. Many refused to cooperate, lest they bring their town negative press, but Freeman used her wit and wile to get the truth, even from the mayor, disarming people with this line, delivered with an English accent: "I [have] been in Texas four months and would like to go back North and see if I could not show the people that Waco was not as bad as they would expect." Charmed, Waco's residents spilled the beans, giving Freeman the material she needed for what became the Crisis supplement. And that included Gildersleeve's damning, and ultimately useful, images. It was a macabre jackpot.

Using Freeman's findings, Du Bois was purposefully sensational with his title: "The Waco Horror". While the text spared no detail, it paled in comparison with Gildersleeve's photos, presented in chronological order.

Fifty-three years before the Washington lynching, Americans had seen images of the lashed back of an escaped slave named Gordon, which made the violence of slavery undeniable. The supplement in the Crisis was equally powerful. Sure, people had heard about lynching, but few Americans had seen it. More important, Washington's death didn't happen in some southern backwater; it happened in Waco, a town known for Baylor University and its upwardly mobile population. The NAACP had taken images originally intended for enthusiastic racists and turned them into evidence of racism's viciousness, of the banality of evil in star-spangled America, in stark black and white.

But Freeman and the NAACPweren't done yet. As the Crisiscirculated the images to its 30,000 readers, Freeman embarked on a national speaking tour, recounting her Waco experience in places like Detroit, Buffalo, and Des Moines and using Gildersleeve's images of a dying and dead Washington to punctuate her point: as she said in Buffalo in late July, "You cannot be satisfied with your lot while your brothers are being deprived of their natural rights."

No one was prosecuted for Washington's death, but his murder and the images that resulted marked a sea change. Through Freeman and the NAACP's efforts, the painWashington faced, the pain Gildersleeve captured, awakened a new generation of activists. By using a reprehensible and unjustifiable piece of racist memorabilia against its creators, the NAACP woke the nation to an ugly reality, energizing the anti-lynching movement. The Crisis's circulation grew by 50,000 over the next two years, and Washington's death also opened people's wallets. The NAACP raised $20,000 (nearly half a million dollars today) in the months that followed, funds that proved useful as the group more aggressively pursued justice, including by buying a flag that read "A man was lynched yesterday". It flew outside the organization's Fifth Avenue office.

Though lynchings eventually declined in America, they didn't end completely. James Byrd was chained to a car and dragged to death in the streets of Jasper, Texas, in 1998. And while Timothy Caughman's 2017 stabbing death in New York City didn't follow the form, it was arguably a lynching: his accused killer, an admitted white supremacist, traveled from Baltimore explicitly to kill black men as part of a crusade against interracial dating. He later remarked: "I've hated black men since I was a kid." In addition to lynchings themselves, their psychological shadows are dark and long. In 2016, to cite one example, a Florida man hung black dummies from a tree in his front yard, right next to Trump campaign signs. When asked about it, he claimed it was a Halloween display.

Andrew Belonsky is an Atlanta-based writer and the author of The Log Cabin: An Illustrated History. For more, click here.

Looking for more from Timeline, the digital publication offering historical context to current events through images, text and video? Try these links:
- Even Nazi prisoners of war in Texas were shocked at how black people were treated in the South

- Restraints, hallucinations, and forgotten pain were the norm on midcentury maternity wards

-In the 1920s, this man brought marriage counseling to America to save the white race

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How the NAACP fought lynching  - by using the racists' own pictures against them

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In July of 1916,at the end of a long day, readers all across the US picked up the most recent issue of a new magazine, maybe from a coffee table or while browsing at the library. Its cover image was ordinary: recent college graduates, the women dressed in white lace and the men in fine suits.

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1942 Houston riot of 19178. Dorris Miller Awarded medal of honor

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1942 Houston riot of 19178. Dorris Miller Awarded medal of honor

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Doris "Dorie" Miller was born in Waco, Texas, on 12 October 1919. He enlisted in the Navy in September 1939 as a Mess Attendant Third Class. On 7 December 1941, while serving aboard USS West Virginia (BB-48), he distinguished himself by courageous conduct and devotion to duty during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions on this occasion.

Doris Miller served aboard USS Indianapolis (CA-35) from December 1941 to May 1943. He was then assigned to the escort carrier Liscome Bay (CVE-56). Cook Third Class Miller was lost with that ship when she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on 24 November 1943, during the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.

USS Miller (DE-1091) and the future USS Doris Miller(CVN-81) were named in honor of Cook Third Class Doris Miller.

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Doris "Dorie" Miller was born in Waco, Texas, on 12 October 1919. He enlisted in the Navy in September 1939 as a Mess Attendant Third Class. On 7 December 1941, while serving aboard USS West Virginia (BB-48), he distinguished himself by courageous conduct and devotion to duty during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

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Meet ‘Mr. Civil Rights’ of Texas, who helped desegregate Dallas

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A. Maceo Smith fought against school segregation in the Sweatt v. Painter lawsuit, a case that paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education.

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Juanita Craft was a Dallas civil rights giant. Her home should reflect that importance.

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The flooding that damaged the historic home of civil rights icon Juanita Craft in South Dallas three years ago was a catastrophe that disheartened community...

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Sweatt v. Painter is Ruled

* Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629 (1950) was decided on this date in 1950.

This was a U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. The case was influential in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education four years later.

The case involved a Black man, Heman Marion Sweatt, who was refused admission to the School of Law of the University of Texas, whose president was Theophilus Painter, on the grounds that the Texas State Constitution prohibited integrated education. The state district court in Travis County, Texas, instead of granting the plaintiff a right of mandamus, continued the case for six months.

This allowed the state time to create a law school only for Black students, which is established in Houston, rather than in Austin. The 'separate' law school and the college became the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University (known then as "Texas State University for Negroes").

The trial court decision was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court denied writ of error on further appeal. Sweatt and the NAACP next went to the federal courts, and the case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Robert L. Carter and Thurgood Marshall presented Sweatt's case.
To Become a Political Scientist To Become a Lawyer

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Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629 (1950) was decided on this date in 1950. This was a U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. The case was influential in the landmark case of Brown v.

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1953 D. Joe William integrates collegiate sports

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1953 D. Joe William integrates collegiate sports

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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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This is the most Texans-going-to-the-theater photo I've ever seen.

And this is the most Texans-selling-minks ad I've ever seen:

Sources and Notes

Photo by John Dominis, taken in October, 1951 on assignment for Life magazine, ©Time, Inc.; more info is .

Neiman-Marcus ad is also from October, 1951.

Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

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State Fair of Texas - Flashback : Dallas

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This is the most Texans-going-to-the-theater photo I've ever seen. And this is the most Texans-selling-minks ad I've ever seen: Photo by John Dominis, taken in October, 1951 on assignment for Life magazine, ©Time, Inc.; more info is . Neiman-Marcus ad is also from October, 1951. Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse.

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Mob blocked integration efforts at Mansfield High School in 1956

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Editor's note: Take a look back into The Dallas Morning News archives.Going back to school wasn't so simple for some decades ago. On Aug. 30, a...

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The proudest achievement in El Paso history occurred in 1966 when the Texas Western College Miners defeated the Kentucky Wildcats in the Men's NCAA Basketball Championship Game. It's one of the great Cinderella stories in sports history - a team of unlikely heroes who captured the country's imagination and changed the course of collegiate athletics forever.

Nevil Shed supporting Willie Worsley

It was an amazing team, one of the best that ever played. But in addition to Don Haskins' gifts as a coach and the genius of Bobby Joe Hill and David Lattin on the court, their victory was in part the result of a larger struggle to ensure the dignity of every man and woman in this country.

Rewind to 1907.

In that year a young man named Lawrence Nixon was practicing medicine in Cameron, Texas. Given the extreme, organized brutality towards African Americans in Texas and the former Confederacy, and the many obstacles placed in his path, it was an achievement of his persistence and determination that he was able to earn an education at all - first at Wiley and then medical school in Nashville before returning to Texas to practice medicine.

But he knew that his achievement and persistence in no way guaranteed his safety or his rights. In a reminder of the extreme danger that African Americans faced in Texas, in November of that same year, 500 members of the Cameron community stormed the county jail and lynched an African American man named Alex Johnson.

Concerned by Johnson's public murder and the number of lynchings occurring across central and east Texas, and perhaps fearing for his own life, Nixon moved west to El Paso where he became involved with civil rights work in addition to his medical career.

In 1914 he helped organize the first chapter of the NAACP in the state of Texas. And in 1924, after Texas passed a law barring African Americans from participating in the all-important Democratic primary (in a state where the Republican party existed in name only), Dr. Nixon took his poll tax into the nearest polling location on election day knowing full well he would be refused the right to vote. Turned away on the basis of his race, he immediately mounted a challenge to the all-white primary - taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, twice.

Lawrence Aaron Nixon and his wife Drusilla

Ultimately, he won.

In 1944, 20 years after his first unsuccessful effort to vote, Dr. Nixon walked into the same polling location that had turned him away in 1924 and cast his vote as a Texan, as an American, as a man.

Perhaps Thelma White was thinking about Dr. Nixon in 1955. She had just graduated from the all-black Douglass high school, and though she knew about the segregation clause in the Texas constitution, she nonetheless attempted to enroll at Texas Western College in El Paso. Denied entry based on the color of her skin, she enlisted the help of the NAACP and attorney Thurgood Marshall and took her case to the federal bench of R.E. Thomason.

Thelma White

Judge Thomason, perhaps persuaded both by the arguments of White's legal team and by the extraordinary courage she demonstrated in defying legal segregation, issued a ruling that not only integrated Texas Western College but forever ended Texas' segregation in public higher education.

This victory was quickly followed that same year by the El Paso school district becoming the first ISD in the state of Texas to integrate its public K-12 schools.

Then in 1957, El Paso achieved the distinction of becoming the first major American city to be led by a Mexican-American mayor when Raymond Telles was elected. He overcame decades of discrimination and in the process ensured that all El Pasoans knew that they could serve in positions of trust and power.

That was followed by El Paso city alderman Bert Williams passing one of the first ordinances in the former Confederacy to bar segregation in places of public accommodation after his friend Nolan Richardson was refused service at the Oasis restaurant in 1962 on the basis of his skin color.

Bert Williams and Nolan Richardson

From Nixon to White to Telles to Williams, El Paso was helping to lead the country in ensuring that we actually lived the idea that "all men are created equal." That there was justice for all.

And so, back to the 1966 Miners.

In the years leading up to '66, as Coach Haskins was building the team that would win the National Championship, he was often faced with skepticism from African American prospects who wanted to play for him but didn't want to live in a city where they'd have to sit at the back of the bus, or drink from a separate water fountain or be treated differently based on the color of their skin.

Thanks to the civil rights pioneers who had made their stand in El Paso, he was able to tell them that this was a city that would welcome their genius and their talent without respect to their race. El Paso would see them and treat them as Americans.

With greats like Nolan Richardson and Jim "Bad News" Barnes, Texas Western became a destination for talent from across the country. By 1966, Haskins had the best team in the country, which happened to proudly start five African Americans on the court.

Against the odds, against a powerhouse like Kentucky, against the entrenched racism of the country and collegiate athletics (which had never seen an all-black starting five in a championship game), Texas Western - which had only twelve years before admitted its first African American student - won the national championship, bringing glory, honor and distinction to El Paso, to Texas (where to this day, El Paso remains the only city in Texas to produce a men's championship team) and to this country. That team changed college athletics forever - speeding integration in sports and allowing talent to thrive throughout the country.

Though he died two weeks before the championship game was played, Lawrence Nixon was in some way responsible for the victory that took place. As were Thelma White, Bert Williams, Nolan Richardson and so many more. It was a triumph not just of athletics and coaching, but one also of opportunity, civil rights and democracy.

The 1966 victory is a reminder that our greatest achievements flow from ensuring the greatest opportunity for all. It is a reminder of what can happen when we confront injustice where we find it. It can speed the country's journey towards equality and justice. And it can have an impact far beyond the life of the hero who makes her stand

It's a great reminder given the times we live in and the injustices we see today in America. We need equity in education where we must confront and change a school to prison pipeline where students of color are five times more likely to be suspended than their white peers. We must address an inequity in health care, where a maternal mortality crisis impacts black mothers at two to three times the rate of white mothers. We must make institutional changes to our criminal justice system where we see arrest and sentencing disparities that help explain why one in four black children have had a parent in the criminal justice system, compared to just four percent of white children. We must ensure the economy really works for all, to address unconscionable wealth and income disparities that allow access to opportunity for some over others. We must work towards solutions that make housing, transportation, the workforce, and higher education more equitable.

And, as Dr. Nixon would remind us - to get any of this done, we need to make sure everyone has access to the ballot box. End racial and ethnic gerrymandering, stop voter I.D. laws that seek to suppress voters of color and make sure everyone can add their voice and their vote to this great democracy.

Black History Month, El Paso's history, and the civil rights heroes of our communities remind us that all of this is possible but only if all of us make it happen. It's the courage of people like Nixon, White, Richardson, Telles and Williams who can bring us out of our complacency, awaken our conscience and our duty to eachother, and ultimately force people in positions of public trust to make the important decisions on our behalf.

Courage makes victory possible.

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The proudest achievement in El Paso history occurred in 1966 when the Texas Western College Miners...

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The proudest achievement in El Paso history occurred in 1966 when the Texas Western College Miners defeated the Kentucky Wildcats in the Men's NCAA Basketball Championship Game. It's one of the great Cinderella stories in sports history - a team of unlikely heroes who captured the country's imagination and changed the course of collegiate athletics forever.

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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 Jordan was a trailblazing legislator, gifted orator, and legendary stateswoman. Image from the U.S. News & World Report Collection at the Library of Congress.
Barbara Charline Jordan

Born: 1936 (Houston)

Died: 1996 (Austin)

Noted For: Barbara Jordan was a Texas attorney who became the first African American (in the post-Reconstruction era) elected to the state senate, and the first African-American woman from the South elected to the United States House of Representatives. She was also the first woman to keynote the Democratic National Convention.

"What people want is simple. They want an America as good as its promise." -Barbara Jordan, from her 1977 commencement address at Harvard University.

Many trailblazing women are noted for being the first to do something. But Barbara Jordan wasn't just a "first"-she was one of a kind.

The daughter of laborers and church leaders, Barbara grew up in Houston's culturally-diverse Fifth Ward district, where she was an honor student at a segregated high school named in honor of Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry.

A speech by African-American lawyer Edith S. Sampson (who later became the first black judge in Illinois) inspired Barbara to become an attorney. After graduating magna cum laude in 1956 from Texas Southern University, where she was also a champion debater, Barbara earned a law degree from Boston University. Following a year's stint on the faculty at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, she came back to Houston and set up a private law practice.
A Texas legend becomes a national treasure...
After her return to Texas, Barbara expanded into politics, serving as a high-profile campaigner for JFK during the 1960 presidential election. She soon became a candidate herself, running twice but without success for the Texas House of Representatives in the early sixties. Her persistence eventually paid off, however, and in 1966 she became the first woman elected to the Texas Senate, as well as the first African American elected to that legislative body since 1883.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Jordan's success in Texas politics came from her knowledge of and adherence to the rules of the political process. She went to great lengths to fit in and sought advice on committee assignments. Her own legislative work focused on the environment, antidiscrimination clauses in state business contracts, and urban legislation, the last being a political challenge in a state dominated by rural interests. She captured the attention of President Lyndon Johnson, who invited her to the White House for a preview of his 1967 civil rights message."

During her time in the Texas Senate, Barbara sponsored or-co-sponsored more than 70 bills. She remained in the state legislature until 1972, when she was elected to represent Texas's 18th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. She served three terms before retiring from politics in 1979, when she became an adjunct professor of ethics at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

While Barbara was a high-profile figure in the Texas civil rights movement and Texas politics from the early days of her career, she was lesser known on the national stage. That all changed on July 25, 1974, the day the 38-year-old congresswoman delivered a 15-minute televised speech during the Nixon impeachment hearings, in which she strongly defended the checks and balances system prescribed by the U.S. Constitution. Her unforgettable voice-commanding, rich, singular- combined with her eloquent oratory-intellectual yet accessible, impassioned but logical-mesmerized colleagues and fellow Americans alike. Today that address is widely regarded as one of the best speeches in 20th-century American history.

On July 12, 1976, Barbara delivered another landmark speech, this time as the first African American and the first woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Her remarks still resonate today: "We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are people in search of a national community. We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America."
Voting rights champion...
While in Congress, Barbara was a fierce advocate for the expansion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to mandate bilingual election processes in more than 500 jurisdictions, an effort that sought particularly to protect voting rights for Mexican Americans in the Southwest, Native Americans in Arizona, and Asian Americans in New York City.

When President Gerald Ford signed the amendments, Barbara stood over his left shoulder. Later she asked Ford to give her an autographed copy of the cards he read from during his Rose Garden ceremony speech. "That was my first big legislative victory and I wanted a memento," she later recalled.

Barbara also supported the Equal Rights Amendment and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (which required banks to lend and make services available to underserved populations), as well as other legislative efforts to improve the lives of poor, minority, and disenfranchised populations. Before her departure from the House, she sponsored or co-sponsored more than 300 bills and resolutions, many of which are still in effect today.
A legendary legacy...
During her lifetime, Barbara was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Spingarm Medal from the NAACP, and many other awards. She is a member of both the Texas Women's Hall of Fame and the National Women's Hall of Fame, as well as the namesake of schools and higher education programs, awards, and public facilities, and a street in Austin. She received honorary degrees from more than 20 universities, including Harvard and Princeton.

In 1996, Barbara passed away at the age of 59 from pneumonia related to the leukemia she had battled for some time, along with the multiple sclerosis she had fought since 1973. Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, delivered her eulogy: "I know that at some point I'm supposed to say that despite all the public acclaim that Barbara was really just like everybody else. But that would be wrong. No matter what else was going on, when you were with Barbara you could never quite shake the feeling that you were in the presence of somebody that was truly great."
Hundreds of news outlets across the U.S. highlighted Jordan's legendary voice (both literally and figuratively) in headlines noting her passing in 1996. (Images, l-r: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Seguin Gazette).
Additional Learning:
Barbara Jordan, National Women's Hall of Fame
"What Do You Do With A Voice Like That?" by Chris Barton, illustrated by Ekua Holmes

Listen to Barbara Jordan's famous 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address at American Rhetoric

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Barbara Jordan: A Voice for Democracy - Texas Women's Foundation

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Barbara Jordan was a trailblazing legislator, gifted orator, and legendary stateswoman. Image from the U.S. News & World Report Collection at the Library of Congress. Barbara Charline Jordan Born: 1936 (Houston) Died: 1996 (Austin) Noted For: Barbara Jordan was a Texas attorney who became the first African American (in the post-Reconstruction era) elected to the [...]

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1973 texas legislative black caucus formed

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1973 texas legislative black caucus formed

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The Texas Legislative Black Caucus was formed in 1973 and consisted of eight members. These founding members were: Rep. Anthony Hall (Houston), Rep. Mickey Leland (Houston), Rep. Senfronia Thompson (Houston), Rep. Craig Washington (Houston), Rep. Sam Hudson (Dallas), Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Dallas), Rep. Paul Ragsdale (Dallas), and Rep. G.J. Sutton (San Antonio). The TxLBC is currently composed of 17 Members of the Texas House of Representatives and two Senators of the Texas Senate committed to addressing the issues African Americans face across the State of Texas. Rep. Nicole Collier (Fort Worth) currently serves as Chair of TxLBC for the 87th Texas Legislative Session.

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The Texas Legislative Black Caucus was formed in 1973 and consisted of eight members. These founding members were: Rep. Anthony Hall (Houston), Rep. Mickey Leland (Houston), Rep. Senfronia Thompson (Houston), Rep. Craig Washington (Houston), Rep. Sam Hudson (Dallas), Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Dallas), Rep. Paul Ragsdale (Dallas), and Rep. G.J.