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The Slocum Massacre occurred on July 29, 1910 in Slocum, Texas, an unincorporated community in southeast Anderson County. The city used to be home to a thriving African American community with several businesses and farms owned by black residents. Leading up to the massacre, a … Read MoreThe Slocum…

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Opening of the Colored Carnegie Library in Houston (1912)

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Opening of the Colored Carnegie Library in Houston (1912)

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Texas had only a few public libraries when steel magnate Andrew Carnegie established a philanthropic program that ultimately funded 1,687 public libraries and 108 academic libraries in the United States and 2,509 libraries worldwide between 1883 and 1929. With African Americans denied access to some public libraries by Jim Crow laws, Carnegie grants funded twelve Colored Carnegie libraries in eight states, mostly in the South, and provided self-education, community centers, and a place of respite from the segregated world outside.

Houston Public Library, the city's first central public library, was funded by a Carnegie grant and opened in downtown Houston. Julia Ideson became head librarian for forty years and greatly expanded the Houston library system. In 1907 African American citizens, under the leadership of Ernest Ollington Smith, began a campaign to initiate library service for Blacks. Consequently, Ideson established the first Houston library branch for the Black community in a room in Sam Houston Negro High School on May 5, 1909. She arranged for the donation of 270 volumes by Houston library trustees along with $200 to purchase an additional 264 books. Ideson also trained the first Black librarian, Emma Myers.

Comprising about 30 percent of the Houston population, the Houston Black community warranted a larger library. Booker T. Washington, then the most prominent African American in the country, along with former Houstonian Emmett J. Scott, helped obtain funding for a Houston Black library from Andrew Carnegie. In 1911 the state of Texas chartered a library for Blacks, and the city of Houston, Andrew Carnegie, and the Negro Library Association jointly executed a contract for the facility. Ernest O. Smith, chairman of the Negro Library Board, and Walter L. D. Johnson, Sr., raised $1,500 and acquired land, then on the corner of Robin and Frederick streets (on Polk between Shaw and Smith streets in 2020), for the library. The Carnegie Corporation awarded a $15,000 grant for the building. Booker T. Washington's son-in-law William Sydney Pittman served as architect (the only African American architect for any Carnegie Library). Julia Ideson volunteered to train the inaugural staff; the librarian, Bessie B. Osborne, served for twenty years. The Houston Colored Carnegie Library opened with about 35,000 books in 1913 at 1112 Frederick Street. The one-story brick building included both children's and adult reading rooms, a staff room, basement, and an auditorium with seating for 210.

After eight years of independent operation by an all-Black library board, in 1921 the Houston Public Library System assumed administrative responsibility. With no Black representation on the Houston Library Board, some in the African American community opposed this arrangement. In response a Negro Consultation Committee was appointed in 1922, but it disbanded after two years with no reason recorded.

Like the city's segregated schools, the segregated library suffered from chronically inadequate funding. In 1953, facing a possible law suit by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), at the urging of influential Blacks and under the progressive leadership of Mayor Roy Hofheinz, the city quietly implemented token desegregation of the previously Whites-only Houston public library system. With no public announcement, Blacks learned only gradually about library availability.

Appointed to the library board by Hofheinz, Jack Valenti successfully pushed the reluctant board to complete integration of the library. The library director, Harriett Dickson Reynolds, expressed concerns to the library board that some White parents would object to participation of Black children in group activities such as story hours. Initially, library desegregation applied only to adults and excluded Black children. Additionally, Blacks had access only to reference books and had to enter through a side door and request the books from a librarian. Even so, library desegregation occurred many years before desegregation of other Houston facilities.

Circulation at the Houston Colored Carnegie Library reached more than 50,000 books in 1923, the first year reported, and peaked at more than 80,000 in 1931, then declined precipitously and continuously as Blacks moved to other neighborhoods. On July 31, 1961, with few patrons, limited circulation, and access limited by nearby freeway construction, the city closed the Houston Colored Carnegie Library, with no public announcement to the press or to the NAACP. Earlier that month, in a letter to Mayor Lewis Cutrer, Harriett Dickson Reynolds stated, "With the closing of Colored Carnegie Branch, the library system is for all practical purposes integrated."

In February 1962, with the building in poor condition and directly in the path of a Clay Avenue extension, the building was auctioned, and the buyer razed it immediately, preserving only the cornerstone, which was subsequently housed in the offices of the Houston Negro Chamber of Commerce. In 1964 the city opened a library that was considered a replacement-a one-story brick building named for W. L. D. Johnson, Sr., a co-founder of the Houston Colored Carnegie Library, in a predominantly Black neighborhood at 3511 Reed Road. In the 2020s the structure was a police department storefront adjacent to a newer Johnson Neighborhood Library.

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Texas had only a few public libraries when steel magnate Andrew Carnegie established a philanthropic program that ultimately funded 1,687 public libraries and 108 academic libraries in the United States and 2,509 libraries worldwide between 1883 and 1929.

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Founding of the "Harlem Hellfighters" (1913)

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Founding of the "Harlem Hellfighters" (1913)

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In his Commencement Address at Washington, D.C.'s Howard University in June 1924, almost six years after World War I ended, President Calvin Coolidge paid tribute to African Americans who had fought in it:

The colored people have repeatedly proved their devotion to the high ideals of our country. They gave their services in the war with the same patriotism and readiness that other citizens did. The records of the selective draft show that somewhat more than 2,250,000 colored men were registered. The records further prove that, far from seeking to avoid participation in the national defense, they showed that they wished to enlist before the selective service act was put into operation, and they did not attempt to evade that act afterwards.

American involvement in that European calamity remains controversial to this day. Personally, I regard it as one of the two greatest foreign policy blunders since the dawn of the 20th Century (the other being the Iraq War of 2003). However, one can oppose the decisions of politicians and still admire the battlefield valor of those who carried them out.

Many individuals of the regiment received the US Army's second-highest award, the Distinguished Service Cross. Posthumously, Henry Johnson received America's Medal of Honor in 2015.

When Woodrow Wilson and the Congress committed America to the war in April 1917, the country's black citizens could rightfully ask (and some did), "What's in it for us?" Wilson said America must "make the world safe for democracy" but right here at home, democracy was all too often denied to blacks. Wilson himself regarded them as second-class citizens. He promoted segregation throughout the federal government and turned a blind eye to discrimination by state and local governments.

Nonetheless, African Americans went to war, many of them hoping they might defeat both Germans abroad and racism at home if they proved themselves in battle. Coolidge's high praise was richly earned, and no contingent of African Americans deserved it more than the US Army's 369th Infantry, a volunteer regiment known as the Harlem Hellfighters.

Where did their nickname come from? Harlem (in New York City) was home to many of the enlistees. No one seems sure, but it was either the French or the Germans who first referred to them as Hellfighters because of the fierceness with which they fought. And none fought more ferociously than Henry Johnson. On one night in the Argonne Forest, Johnson endured 21 wounds as he killed four Germans in hand-to-hand combat and rescued a fellow American-all in a matter of minutes. An entire platoon of 28 German soldiers scattered and fled at the sight of Johnson's prowess.

No American unit experienced more time in combat than they did-no less than 191 days under fire.

Formed from a New York National Guard unit, the men of the 369th learned basic military practices at Camp Whitman, New York, before being sent to Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for combat training. They were not welcomed by many of the locals there, and some were subjected to discrimination and vile epithets for no more reason than their color. In December 1917, they were shipped to France where they expected to see action on the front lines.

Their high spirits were quickly dashed when it became apparent the Army did not want to deploy them for anything other than manual labor, far from the fighting. Even the rifles they brought with them were confiscated by US Army officials.

The commander of the American Expeditionary Force, General John J. Pershing, was reluctant to commit any US troops to the front until he felt he had assembled them in sufficient numbers to ensure victory. The French, meanwhile, were desperate for manpower. Finally bowing to French pressure, Pershing gave them the 369th. While some regarded black troops as expendable, they ultimately proved themselves indispensable.

Consider this amazing record of the Harlem Hellfighters: No American unit experienced more time in combat than they did-no less than 191 days under fire. They never lost an inch of ground. The enemy never captured a single of their number. They suffered the highest casualty rate of any US regiment. None deserted. The grateful French bestowed their highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre, upon the entire regiment. Many individuals of the regiment received the US Army's second-highest award, the Distinguished Service Cross. Posthumously, Henry Johnson received America's Medal of Honor in 2015. The 369th ended up as the most decorated US regiment of the war.

Another distinguishing feature of the Harlem Hellfighters was their band, the largest and best-known of any regiment. Its leader was James Reese Europe, whose enlistment in 1917 proved to be a boon for recruitment. He was one of America's best-known black musicians and others like Noble Sissle, who became Europe's lieutenant and lead vocalist, were eager to serve with him.

No matter what you think about America entering World War I, and no matter what color your skin, you can celebrate the heroic Harlem Hellfighters.

Europe's band was extremely popular with the French, even when Europe introduced his own arrangement of La Marseillaise, France's national anthem. The Hellfighters' band brought both jazz and ragtime music to France, where nobody had heard either before.

James Reese Europe was tragically murdered in May 1919 by a disgruntled band member. Sissle went on to great fame in music and stage. He formed a life-long partnership with black musician Eubie Blake. The musical that the two of them produced in 1921, Shuffle Along, ran for more than 500 performances on Broadway and is credited with igniting the magnificent flowering of culture we know as the Harlem Renaissance.

No story of the Harlem Hellfighters, which I encourage readers to explore through the links provided below, would be complete without a mention of a white man, Col. William Hayward, a native of Nebraska. Hayward served as the regiment's commander from its inception. He was a champion of black soldiers and loved by his men, in whom Hayward never lost faith. He was an unwavering defender of equal rights for all colors. When the 369th returned to New York in 1919, it was Hayward (not Wilson or Pershing) who ensured there would be a massive parade to welcome them. That reception by cheering throngs in the streets of New York was a glorious moment of racial harmony.

No matter what you think about America entering World War I, and no matter what color your skin, you can celebrate the heroic Harlem Hellfighters. They were among the best.

For additional information, see:

The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage by Walter Dean Myers and Bill Miles

The Hellfighters of Harlem by Bill Harris

The Harlem Hellfighters (novel) by Max Brooks

One Hundred Years Ago, the Harlem Hellfighters Bravely Led the U.S. Into World War I by Erick Trickey

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The Harlem Hellfighters: The Incredible Story Behind the Most Decorated US Regiment in WWI | Lawrence W. Reed

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Despite mistreatment from the US Army, the Harlem Hellfighters never lost an inch of ground. The enemy never captured a single of their number. They suffered the highest casualty rate of any US regiment. None deserted. The grateful French bestowed their highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre, upon the entire regiment.

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The formation of the NAACP in Texas (1915)

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The formation of the NAACP in Texas (1915)

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Rise of the NAACP in Texas

Nestled in the border town of El Paso, the first Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People arose in 1915. The following year, four more branches joined the organization. Membership grew rapidly and by 1918, Texas lead all states in the total number of members at 7,046 as well as the highest number of branches at 31.[1]

With this success came the reality of racial tensions in the state. In some cases, these tensions lead to violence against members. In 1919, a mob of white radicals in Longview burned the homes and businesses of African Americans and beat Samuel L. Jones, a black teacher and contributing writer for the Chicago Defender. Later that year, NAACP national secretary John Shillady was beaten in Austin by a gang comprised of some local officials after he went to the capitol to contest a subpoena from the state attorney general requesting documents from the state NAACP showing the validation of its operation. Along with the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the state, the fear of violence caused many chapters to shut down in the early 1920s. By 1923, only five chapters remained in the state.[2]

A parade of Klansmen march through the streets of Beaumont, Texas, in 1922. Because of increased Klan activity around the state, many chapters of the NAACP closed their doors in fear of retribution or harm.

The drought in activity continued into the 1930s with only a handful of branches participating with the national organization. However, with the formation of the Texas State Conference of Branches in 1937 by Dallas native A. Maceo Smith, the organization flourished and thrived during the latter part of the Great Depression and throughout World War II. Though the consolidation and influence of the Conference of Branches, membership grew to almost 30,000 in more than 100 branches by 1949.[3]

As the civil rights movement grew following World War II, so did the scope of the NAACP. It turned its focus to desegregation of public facilities, private businesses and education while developing a strategy of affecting change through policies and litigation. Early on, the Texas branches had success in higher education with the Sweatt v. Painter case that allowed for the desegregation of the University of Texas at Austin. However, that success was limited on the primary and secondary school front.[4] After the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that declared, "separate but equal is inherently unequal," the NAACP began testing the integration waters in schools around the country. One such case began in the small Texas town of Mansfield.

Heman Sweatt became the first African American student to attend the University of Texas at Austin in 1950. His case, Sweatt v. Painter, brought early legal success to the NAACP in Texas after the Supreme Court declared the "separate but equal" doctrine that UT tried to enforce did not give black law students the same educational opportunities as whites. However, this success was short-lived. Years later, the NAACP would battle the courts again over the desegregation of primary and secondary schools.

[1] Michael L. Gillette, "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People." Handbook of Texas Online, accessed April 18, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

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Nestled in the border town of El Paso, the first Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People arose in 1915. The following year, four more branches joined the organization.

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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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Houston Riot of 19178. Dorris Miller Awarded Medal of Honor (1942)

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Houston Riot of 19178. Dorris Miller Awarded Medal of Honor (1942)

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Congressional Medal Of Honor For Doris Miller

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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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Bio

Juanita Craft, Dallas NAACP leader in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, later served on the Dallas City Council. Photo: Wikipedia

Granddaughter of slaves, Juanita Craft transformed the deep hurts of racial discrimination into a lifetime of courageous work for its elimination. She was greatly affected by her mother's death from tuberculosis after being refused hospital treatment when there were no state hospitals for black Texans.

Despite having a college degree, Craft had to work as a maid at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. In 1935, she joined the NAACP and was named the Dallas membership chair in 1942. In 1946, Craft was hired as Texas field organizer and organized dozens of branches. In the 1940s, Craft organized the Dallas NAACP Youth Council, which became a nationwide model. She was the first black woman to vote in Dallas County and for 20 years was a Democratic Party precinct chair.

In the 1950s, she helped open the University of Texas and North Texas State College to blacks. In 1967, her youth group desegregated the State Fair of Texas. She and other African Americans worked to integrate public facilities through sit-ins and other demonstrations in the 1960s. She received the prestigious Linz Award in 1969 for helping end fraudulent recruiting by Dallas trade schools. In 1975, at age 73 she was elected to the Dallas City Council and later re-elected to a second term.

Audio

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Written by Cynthia J. Beeman
Read by Teresa Palomo Acosta

The granddaughter of former slaves and the daughter of educators, civil rights activist Juanita Craft grew up in Austin and attended Prairie View and Huston-Tillotson universities, but even with a college education could only find work as a drugstore clerk in Galveston, as a dressmaker in Dallas, and as a maid at the historic Adolphus Hotel. She joined the Dallas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1935, and from that time on worked tirelessly for the cause of civil rights. As an NAACP state field organizer, she helped organize 182 branches throughout the state of Texas. Her work with the NAACP youth council in Dallas was so successful that it was emulated by other chapters around the country. She held the distinction of being the first black woman to vote in Dallas County in 1944, and in the 1950s and 1960s led protests aimed at integrating public universities and the State Fair of Texas. She led the NAACP youth council in picketing restaurants, theaters, public transportation, and other venues in Dallas.

Craft was elected to the Dallas City Council in 1975 when she was 73 years old. She held leadership positions in local, state, and national civil rights organizations and won numerous awards. The City of Dallas named a recreation center in her honor, and her simple frame house is now the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House Museum.
Resources
Mamie L. Abernathy-McKnight, "CRAFT, JUANITA JEWEL SHANKS," Handbook of Texas Online ( http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fcr59).

National Park Service, We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement, Juanita Craft House, http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/tx1.htm.
Biography Source Information
Biographies are reprinted from the Foundation for Women's Resources (now Women's Resources), Dallas, Texas. They originally appeared in "From Gutsy Mavericks to Quiet Heroes: True Tales of Texas Women," video study guide, Austin: The Foundation for Women's Resources, 1997. Death dates have been added where needed.
Audio Source Information
Our project, "Texas Women's History Moments," received the 2012 National Council on Public History Outstanding Public History Award and the American Association for State and Local History Leadership in History Award. The audio clips were broadcast on KUT radio from 2011-2016 during Women's History Month.

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Granddaughter of slaves, Juanita Craft transformed the deep hurts of racial discrimination into a lifetime of courageous work for its elimination. She was greatly affected by her mother's death from tuberculosis after being refused hospital treatment when there were no state hospitals for black Texans.

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Racial separation by force of law was a historic custom in the United States until the decision of Sweatt v. Painter by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1950. The manner in which segregation of the races by state action in a variety of contexts became established at law, in the face of the Fourteenth Amendment's prohibiting a state from denying to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, is perhaps best revealed by the case of Plessey v. Ferguson, decided by the Supreme Court around 1900. Though that case involved the segregation of the races on a common carrier, the separate but equal doctrine utilized in the case to sanction segregation in that situation was subsequently recognized as applicable in a wide variety of situations, including that of segregation of the White and Black races for public education. Among other reasons given for the approval of the separate but equal doctrine were that it was simply a recognition of a fundamental and ineradicable difference and that it was reasonable in the context of established customs of the people. Absolute equality in treatment was not deemed necessary. Those who sought to challenge segregation in public education before Sweatt v. Painter did so primarily by contending that there was in the particular situation in question gross inequality of facilities or a complete failure to provide African Americans with higher education of the type in issue. Although decisions had been rendered prior to Sweatt v. Painter indicating that the Supreme Court was shifting to a new and more exacting standing of equality that would ultimately require the state to be "color-blind" in all its activities, these decisions had not proceeded to the point of shaking the foundations of the long-established tradition of an attempt to get equality through segregation. Sweatt v. Painter did so.

Heman Marion Sweatt applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law in February 1946. His was perhaps the second application of any Black to the University of Texas. He met all eligibility requirements for admission except for his race. On that ground he was denied admission pursuant to Article VII, Section 7, of the Texas Constitution, which read: "Separate schools shall be provided for the white and colored children, and impartial provision shall be made for both." Mandamus proceedings were then instituted by Sweatt to require state and university officials to enroll him. The trial judge continued the case to give the state an opportunity to establish a "separate but equal" law school, and a temporary law school was opened in February 1947, known as the School of Law of the Texas State University for Negroes. The school of law was located in Austin in a house on Thirteenth Street north of the Capitol. The students had access to the Supreme Court library, and several members of the law faculty of the University of Texas School of Law taught the classes. Mandamus was then denied by the state courts of Texas pursuant to the separate but equal doctrine. The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari and thereafter held that the equal protection clause required Sweatt's admission to the University of Texas School of Law. Sweatt enrolled at the beginning of the 1950-51 school year, as did several other Blacks.

Sweatt v. Painter did not establish the invalidation of race separation per se by force of law, but the criteria used by the court in the application of the separate but equal doctrine gave legal experts cause to believe that the doctrine was virtually dead. It was clear from the opinion that a good-faith effort to supply equality of treatment without integration was insufficient; rather, it must be equality in fact. The case had a direct impact on the University of Texas in that it provided for admission of Black applicants to graduate and professional programs. However, Black students could pursue only those degrees that were not available from Prairie View or Texas Southern, since the university opted for a narrow interpretation of Sweatt. Black undergraduates were not admitted to the school. Graduate students, however, were allowed to enroll in undergraduate courses when necessary for their program of work. The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) decision was the next step on the long road to integrated educational facilities in Texas. It was only necessary for the court to say in Brown that equality in fact was not a possibility under a policy of separation because to separate children in public schools "from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone." See also CIVIL RIGHTS.

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Racial separation by force of law was a historic custom in the United States until the decision of Sweatt v. Painter by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1950.

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D. Joe Williams integrates collegiate sports (1953)

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D. Joe Williams integrates collegiate sports (1953)

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People of African descent have been inextricably linked to the history of the land now known as Texas since the earliest days of colonization

African American Texans have created culture and community despite being subjected to racism and oppression in the form of enslavement, segregation, and violence, and have improved the state of Texas with valuable cultural and historical contributions.

I belong to myself now. Harriet, freed woman, 1865

African People Under Spanish Rule

With their arrival in 1528, people of African descent, enslaved and free, were instrumental in the settlement of Spanish Texas.

People of African descent were part of the population that settled Texas in the 17th and 18th centuries. This population included free and enslaved black and mixed-race people, as interracial marriage was legal and very common. The enslaved population was afforded some rights under Spanish rule, including the right to purchase freedom, protest against abuse, or obtain new masters if they were being treated unfairly.

Though African people occupied the lower end of the "castas" racial categorization system of Spanish Texas, some African and mixed-race people were able to ascend the classification system by gaining wealth and prestige through their labor

Mexican Independence and Texas Revolution

Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821 following an 11-year revolutionary war. Under Mexican rule, slavery was officially outlawed in Texas by 1829. However, special consideration given to Anglo settlers meant that the enslaved population of Texas continued to grow, as enslaved men and women were forced to accompany their enslavers on their journey into Texas.

Following Mexican Independence in 1821, the Mexican government adopted policies to gradually outlaw enslavement in the newly established country, but Anglo settlers actively worked to ensure slavery was preserved in Tejas. A number of enslaved African Americans arrived with Stephen F. Austin and his Anglo settlers in 1824. By the end of 1825, there were around 443 slaves in the colony -almost a quarter of its population. By the time that clashes with the Mexican government led to the Texas Revolution in 1835, more than 5,000 enslaved people lived in Texas.

Slavery in Texas

African American life after Texas Independence was shaped by new and existing legal constraints, enslavement, and violence. Free blacks struggled with new laws banning them from residence in the state, while the majority of black Texans remained enslaved.

The Texas Constitution of 1836 gave more protection to slaveholders while further controlling the lives of enslaved people through new slave codes. The Texas Legislature passed increasingly restrictive laws governing the lives of free blacks, including a law banishing all free black people from the Republic of Texas.

Texas's enslaved population grew rapidly: while there were 30,000 enslaved people in Texas in 1845, the census lists 58,161 enslaved African Americans in 1850. The number had increased to 182,566 by 1860.

Most enslaved people in Texas were brought by white families from the southern United States. Some enslaved people came through the domestic slave trade, which was centered in New Orleans. A smaller number of enslaved people were brought via the international slave trade, though this had been illegal since 1806.

Most enslaved African Americans in Texas were forced into unskilled labor as field hands in the production of cotton, corn, and sugar, though some lived and worked on large plantations or in urban areas where they engaged in more skilled forms of labor as cooks, blacksmiths, and carpenters. While there were no large-scale slave insurrections in Texas, enslaved people resisted in a variety of ways, the most common being running away. Enslaved people made personal connections, and established family relationships wherever possible despite the odds, which was made more difficult by the changing nature of Texas and its white population.

De slaves was about de same things as mules or cattle, dey was bought and sold and dey wasn't supposed ter be treated lak people anyway. We all knew dat we was only a race of people as our master was and dat we had a certain amount of rights but we was jest property and had ter be loyal ter our masers. It hurt us sometimes ter be treated de way some of us was treated but we couldn't help ourselves and had ter do de best we could which nearly all of us done.

-Mollie Dawson, enslaved in Navarro County, Texas

Civil War and Emancipation

Life for enslaved African Americans remained relatively unchanged during the Civil War. However, with Union General Granger's emancipation announcement at the end of the war, African Americans celebrated their independence and began new lives as freedpeople.

On February 23, 1861, Texans voted to secede from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America. Because Texas remained relatively unscathed by fighting during the war, life for enslaved African Americans continued in much the same way as it had before the fighting. Felix Haywood, who worked as a cowboy while enslaved in San Antonio, described his experience of the war when interviewed in 1937: "It's a funny thing how folks always want to know about the war. The war wasn't so great as folks suppose. Sometimes you didn't know it was going on. It was the ending of it that made the difference."

While Felix Haywood's life was undisturbed by the war, other enslaved people experienced upheaval. Some enslaved people were moved from the eastern areas of Texas or from other southern states to keep them away from Union troops, and many were made to labor for the Confederate Army, building fortifications and other methods of defense.

On June 19, 1865, at the end of the Civil War and over two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston and declared that enslavement was ended. However, many black people in Texas remained enslaved for months, and in rare cases years, when their owners refused to release them. Many newly emancipated people celebrated their independence at the holiday subsequently known as Juneteenth, though some found their celebrations thwarted by disgruntled former slave-owners. Some people immediately set off in search of lost family and friends, while others experienced confusion and uncertainty about their futures as freedpeople.

What I likes best, to be slave or free? Well, it's this way. In slavery I owns nothing and never owns nothing. In freedom I's own the home and raise the family. All that cause me worriment, and in slavery I has no worriment, but I takes the freedom. Margrett Nillin

Reconstruction

Reconstruction, a period when people across the United States attempted to reckon with the political, economic, and physical destruction of the Civil War, was a difficult time in Texas, and throughout the country. This era was marked by intense violence and extreme social turmoil, and had lasting implications at the local, state, and federal levels. State and national governments worked to reintegrate Confederate states into the Union, while African Americans navigated the increasingly complicated process of freedom.

Black Codes instated by an all-white state Constitutional Congress in 1866 severely limited black people's rights. These Black Codes included labor, vagrancy, and apprenticeship laws that were meant to mimic the conditions of enslavement. White Texans, reacting to the end of the Civil War, increased violence and attacks against African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was present in Texas by 1868 and its members intimidated and assaulted freedpeople, usually to reduce black political participation. The Freedman's Bureau, which began in Texas in September 1865, attempted to curb this violence. Its success diminished over time. In addition to protection against white violence, the Freedman's Bureau aimed to assist newly freed African Americans with legal matters, education, and employment.

Newly freed African Americans, most of whom had few resources with which to start their new lives, found themselves increasingly limited by the legacies of enslavement. Many were forced to sign sharecropping contracts with their former owners, while others were incarcerated at rapid rates. Despite these difficulties, African Americans began constructing new forms of family and kinship ties, while making gains in literacy and education

Political Advancement

With the implementation of national Reconstruction, African Americans became more involved in state political processes, and some black men, including G.T. Ruby and Matthew Gaines, served in the Texas Legislature.

Starting with the election of nine African American delegates to a state constitutional convention in 1868, African American men began a brief period of political engagement. George T. Ruby, a former Freedmen's Bureau agent originally from New York, was a particularly prominent black voice in Texas politics, serving in the Texas Legislature from 1870 until 1874. Matthew Gaines, formerly enslaved in Fredericksburg, Texas, was a Baptist minister who served as the Senator from the Sixteenth District in the Texas Legislature during Reconstruction. Both Gaines and Ruby advocated for the rights of freedpeople during their tenures in office, and both were forced to relinquish their seats after Texas Democrats (the party then ruled by former slaveowners) regained political power.

Segregation and Violence

With the end of Reconstruction, segregation and suppression controlled the physical movement, social advancement, and political participation of African Americans in Texas.

Reconstruction in Texas officially ended with the inauguration of Democratic Governor Richard Coke in January 1874, and the brief political engagement of Texas African Americans was severely curtailed until the mid-twentieth century. White Texans utilized violence, intimidation, and legal means to limit black suffrage, and passed a poll tax in 1902 to restrict the political participation of poor people of all races. The most effective means of reducing black political participation, however, was the white primary, which restricted voting in Democratic primary elections to white Texans. Many African Americans challenged the legality of this system, including Lawrence A. Nixon in 1924 and Richard R. Grovey in 1935. Nevertheless, the Texas Democratic Party's use of the white primary persisted until the Supreme Court struck it down in 1944.

Laws requiring segregation of railroad cars, waiting rooms, restrooms, restaurants, entertainment establishments, and residential neighborhoods also restricted African American mobility and advancement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Ku Klux Klan, which experienced a national resurgence in the 1920s, enacted violence and terror on Texas African Americans, and lynching became an increasingly prevalent form of racial intimidation. Between 1885 and 1942, there were 468 documented victims of lynching in Texas, the vast majority of whom were African American.

Community and Resistance

While African Americans fought against discrimination and repression, they also organized in their neighborhoods, participated in war efforts, and influenced the larger state of Texas with valuable cultural, political, and economic contributions.

Black people built neighborhoods, participated in churches and organizing efforts, and owned businesses and newspapers, all while living under the shadow of racist violence and oppression. While schools continued to be segregated until later in the 20th century, black Texas educators including Melvin B. Tolson at Wiley College in Marshall and W. Rutherford Banks at Prairie View worked to improve historically black colleges and universities. Mary Branch was appointed president of Tillotson College in Austin, Texas, in 1930, and transformed the college from a struggling junior college for women to a successful four-year college and led the way for the future merger with Samuel Huston College, forming Huston-Tillotson University in 1952.

In addition, African Americans participated in the war efforts of the First and Second World Wars. Black men were called up for enlistment at higher rates than their population percentages, while black women worked in the defense industry and supported troops from home. Doris Miller, born in Willow Grove, Texas, distinguished himself during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, while Leonard Harmon, originally from Cuero, became the first African American to have a warship named after him, for his heroism during the battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. Black men and women also enjoyed more employment options with the desegregation of the defense industry after the enactment of Executive Order 8802 in 1941.

At the same time, the black rural population declined as more African Americans moved to urban areas in Texas. Black people increasingly participated in urban industry, and the number of black professionals rose from around 400 in 1940 to almost 4,000 by 1960. This number continued to increase throughout the twentieth century.

Black musicians and athletes, including Blind Lemon Jefferson and Jack Johnson, achieved national recognition for their contributions to Texas and American culture, while John Biggers, J. Mason Brewer, and many others influenced state and national art and literature. Black Texans continued to work to confront racism and segregation, and laid the groundwork for the progress that would be achieved during the Civil Rights Movement.

The Civil Rights Movement in Texas

African Americans continued to confront racist legislation and legal segregation, organizing in their communities against their continued oppression. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were catalysts for increased black political and social participation in the mid-20th century.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Texas, target of racist ire since its formation in the state in 1915, chipped away at legal restrictions on black rights and won important cases in Smith v. Allwright, which declared white primaries unconstitutional in 1944, and Sweatt v. Painter, which desegregated the University of Texas Law School in 1950.

African American women, including Lulu B. White and Juanita Craft, were instrumental in political activism. Lulu B. White was an important organizer and activist in the first half of the 20th century. White became the president of the Houston chapter of the NAACP in 1939, and transformed her chapter into the largest in the South by 1943. She later served as the state director of the NAACP.

Juanita Craft worked with Lulu B. White at the NAACP, and was the first black woman to vote in Dallas in 1944. During her long career in Texas politics, Craft was responsible for the 1955 Dallas Youth Council protest of Negro Achievement Day at the Texas State Fair, and was involved in desegregation efforts at the University of Texas and North Texas State University. Later, she was elected City Councilwoman for the Dallas City Council.

While African American women worked for progress on the state and local levels, federal policies also created opportunities for black Texans. The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 allowed for more black participation in the political process, and helped people achieve more opportunities for advancement in employment, and state and national recognition for contributions to the arts, music, athletics, education, food, politics, science, and business.

The Story Continues

The Story of Texas cannot be told without recognition of 500 years of African American impact and contribution to the state's legacy. African descended people in the state of Texas have encountered incredible difficulty, but have continued to build community and create identity throughout their presence in the state. While Texans continue to work toward equality and justice, African Americans remain an integral part of the larger story of the state of Texas.

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The African American Story | Texas State History Museum

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Skip to main menu Skip to page content Skip to footer People of African descent have been inextricably linked to the history of the land now known as Texas since the earliest days of colonization African American Texans have created culture and community despite being subjected to racism and oppression in the form of enslavement, segregation, and violence, and have improved the state of Texas with valuable cultural and historical contributions.

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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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Throughout the 1940s and 50s most protests were only designed to voice a call for racial equality and desegregation in a way that hadn't been done before. In this time it was scary enough for much of the black community to simply be heard and make themselves known through political negotiations. But by the 1960s this wasn't enough. They wanted to see results. They wanted the violence to stop at any cost. So sit-ins and race riots began. The demonstrations started small, but with each protest the black community became more outwardly aggressive and determined.

"According to the white paper, [blacks] weren't born, didn't get married, or die. Our pictures did not appear in their paper and very few news items about us appeared in their paper."
-R.C. Hickman
Behold the People

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Throughout the 1940s and 50s most protests were only designed to voice a call for racial equality and desegregation in a way that hadn't been done before. In this time it was scary enough for much of the black community to simply be heard and make themselves known through political negotiations.

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George N. Green General Entry

Though the Mansfield school district, seventeen miles southeast of Fort Worth, numbered fewer than 700 Whites and sixty Blacks in 1956, it segregated Black children to an inferior elementary school. Black teenagers were obliged to ride public buses, which dropped them twenty blocks from a school in Fort Worth. In response to a suit brought by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on behalf of three Black high school students, the Mansfield school district was the first in the state ordered by a federal court to desegregate. The school board acquiesced, but White citizens resisted, aided by the complicity of the mayor and chief of police. While some 100 other, mostly West Texas, school districts desegregated quietly that fall, angry mobs of 300 to 400 Whites ringed Mansfield High School on August 30 and 31, preventing the enrollment of the three students. During demonstrations Whites hanged three Blacks in effigy, roughed up several outside observers, and threatened the sheriff. Downtown stores closed in a show of support. Vigilantes met all cars entering town, barring suspected sympathizers with integration. Governor Allan Shivers, calling the Mansfield demonstration an orderly protest, defied the federal court order by dispatching Texas Rangers to uphold segregation and authorizing the Mansfield school board to transfer Black students to Fort Worth. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in the midst of a reelection campaign, did not intervene.

The demonstrations ended as the status quo was restored. The Mansfield uprising was the nation's first clear example of failure to enforce a federal court order for the desegregation of a public school. The Eisenhower administration took no action until the next year, when a similar, more visible situation arose in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Governor Orval Faubus's resistance to integration was possibly inspired by Governor Shivers's success in Mansfield. The Mansfield uprising was an apparent factor in the passage of the state's 1957 segregation laws, which delayed integration for several years. In 1965, faced with the loss of federal funds, the Mansfield school district quietly desegregated.

George N. Green, The Establishment in Texas Politics (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1979). Texas Observer, September 5, 1956, June 9, 1978.

Categories:

Education

Infamous Moments, Groups, and Events

Law, Law Enforcement, and Outlaws

Vigilante Activity/Mob Violence

Peoples

African Americans

Activism and Social Reform

Civil Rights, Segregation, and Slavery

Places:

Dallas/Fort Worth Region

North Texas

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

George N. Green, "Mansfield School Desegregation Incident," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 02, 2021, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mansfield-school-desegregation-incident.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

This entry belongs to the following Handbook Special Projects:

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George N. Green General Entry Though the Mansfield school district, seventeen miles southeast of Fort Worth, numbered fewer than 700 Whites and sixty Blacks in 1956, it segregated Black children to an inferior elementary school. Black teenagers were obliged to ride public buses, which dropped them twenty blocks from a school in Fort Worth.

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University of Texas at El Paso Flowsheet student yearbook

The 1966 championship game for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament came down to a test between a small southwestern institution, El Paso's Texas Western College Miners, and an accomplished four-time NCAA tournament winner, the University of Kentucky Wildcats. This game, however, proved to be more than just a challenge by the Miners, a multi-racial team that had joined the NCAA just three years earlier, and an all-white opponent, the Wildcats, widely considered the strongest basketball team in the nation. This game, according to many sports observers, forever changed major college basketball. The Miners' unexpected victory demonstrated that African American players had the skill to control the game as well as a white team, and ultimately better than the best white team.

The 1966 Miners consisted of seven African Americans: Bobby Joe Hill, Orsten Artis, Willie Worsley, Willie Cager, Nevil Shed, Harry Flournoy, and David Lattin; four Anglo Americans: Jerry Armstrong, Louis Baudoin, Dick Meyers, and Togo Railey; and one Mexican American, Dave Palacio. The opposing team contained all Anglo Americans, which was not surprising since many African Americans gained access to Southern colleges only in the 1960s. While some southern white campuses desegregated and blacks could attend classes, they were still usually excluded from team sports. No major white institution in the South or Southwest recruited black basketball players.

In contrast to other Texas colleges and universities, as well as most universities throughout the South, Texas Western experienced integration more than a decade earlier. The Miners' coach, Don Haskins, recruited the best players, regardless of their hue. Adolph Rupp, on the other hand, the legendary coach and strategist of the Kentucky Wildcats, admitted he did not seek black players for his team.

The Miners arrived in Kentucky for the championship game on March 19, 1966. The sports announcers and writers expected an overwhelming win for the Wildcats. However, Haskins understood the pressure his team faced and sent in his best players, all African Americans. At first, Kentucky gained the advantage, but soon the Miners captured the lead during the first half and ended the final quarter with a Miner 72-65 win. This victory, according to sports writer and historian Charles Martin, "was a watershed event" because it encouraged other schools to recruit African American players.

In 2006, the movie Glory Road, depicting the significance of this game, was released. The following year, the team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. On February 6, 2016, the now University of Texas El Paso Miners held a reunion for the 1966 players at the Don Haskins Center. The opening ceremony heard an address from President Barack Obama, which included these words: "...by becoming the first team to win an NCAA title with five black starters, the Miners weren't just champs on the court: They helped change the rules of the game. They didn't know it at the time, but their contribution to civil rights was as important as any other..." "...Go Miners!"

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The 1966 championship game for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament came down to a test between a small southwestern institution, El Paso's Texas Western College Miners, and an accomplished four-time NCAA tournament winner, the University of Kentucky Wildcats. This game, however, proved ...

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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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Texas Legislative Black Caucus Formed (1973)

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Texas Legislative Black Caucus Formed (1973)

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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.