CAPTION
“I love America more
than any other country
in this world, and
exactly for this reason,
I insist on the right to
perpetually criticize.” –
James Baldwin
Bill Cosby, 1968
NARRATION
VIDEO
IMAGE
MAP
DATE
Black History:
Lost, Stolen, or
Strayed. Andy
Rooney. CBS
News (1968)
CONTEXT
2-3 paragraph intro to video, with info on Baldwin and why him – SC
draw in R. Kennedy’s U of Capetown speech regarding his “deep affection” for a country . . . I’m speaking of the USA” (link to
the This American Life episode on the same).
NOTE
James Baldwin,
“Autobiographical
Notes” (1952)
Bill Cosby’s controversial NAACP speech in 2004 articulates themes that diverge from those celebrated in this 1968
documentary and much of his other earlier work (including his long-running children’s program Fat Albert and the Cosby
Kids). The current remix foregrounds themes far more in keeping with this earlier work, echoing and drawing from critiques of
Cosby’s 2004 speech—especially Michael Eric Dyson’s Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind?
MISC.
1
2
“Of particular note in this critique is Dyson’s …” – SC?
See also
*“Cornel West Commentary: Cosby’s Comments” (The Tavis Smiley Show, 2004)
*”Michael Eric Dyson Commentary: Cosby’s Comments” (The Tavis Smiley Show, 2004)
*”Is Bill Cosby Right” (Talk of the Nation, 2004)
Cosby later teamed up with Alvin F. Poussaint, extending his arguments in Come On People: On the Path from Victims to
Victors (2007).
“I Searched for
Myself”
3
“I searched for images of myself in the
historic photos of ET. My assignment
was a remix of existing artifacts from the
archives. I wanted to write about my
people. I wanted to see faces like mine in
the historical photos of the campus.
Black students like me. Black athletes
like me.”
I kept searching.
CAPTION
William L. Mayo, 1889
I kept searching.
NARRATION
In 1889, William L. Mayo, a pioneering
educator from Kentucky, established this
… teacher training school for the area’s
white farmers and their children.
Mayo believed “…no student should be
turned
away for lack of academic preparation or
funds.”
Original: Jamar
Mosley, the
student athlete
who created the
original video
essay that
inspired the
current remix.
VIDEO
Commerce, TX
2011
Jamar Mosley completed this assignment for an upper division writing course Carter taught Spring 2011. The course,
“Remixing Northeast Texas,” served as a pilot for the current project (“Remixing Rural Texas”).
“You might find…” http://desegregationtamu.weebly.com/the-struggle.html
Commerce, TX
2011
Oral history with Mosley available in the Northeast Texas Digital Collections or on YouTube here.
IMAGE
Mayo at Desk.
Photograph. 1915. Historic
ET Collection, Commerce,
TX. Northeast Texas
Digital Collections. Web.
Feb. 2012.
Mayo with Plow.
Photograph.
MAP
Commerce, TX
DATE
CONTEXT
See East Texas State University, Texas Historical Marker
Normal Guide Publications, Pamphlet principles, what’s going on in NE TX
Commerce, TX
1889
College Hall.
Class of 1897,
Commerce, TX
Commerce, TX
1900
1897
Original video upon
which this remix is
based available
here.
NOTE
(Carter and Conrad
7)
4
5
6
MISC.
7
Carter, Shannon
and Jim Conrad.
“In Possession
From the beginning, as David Gold argues, “Mayo sought to make East Texas integral to the community” by providing local
citizens with extensive rhetorical training.” (Gold 122)
Poor farmers
For further reading, see
Rhetoric at the Margins, Revising the History of Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1873-1947. David Gold. Southern
Illinois University Press, 2008.
Brief bio of Mayo, cow lot fight, buildings symbolize the growth
A little English intro before stats about what Mayo was trying to combat and what the situation was before he came , Kyle
Wilkison info on poverty of Hunt County, use 1900 numbers instead of 1910 – no way to pull in Wilkison and use 1900
numbers, because he uses 1870 to 1910 as his dates.
Between 1870 and 1910, the rural community in East Texas underwent a radical transformation. Immigrants led to a
population increase, and Hunt County’s 1910 farm values were six times what they had been in 1870, even though the
average farm sized halved over the same time span. Unfortunately for Hunt County residents, though 81.3% of the county’s
land area consisted of farms, by 1910, only 32.4% of these farms were operated by their owners, with an astonishing 67.5%
being worked by tenants, leading to in increase in the numbers of farmers still sharecropping. Due to need for tenants to
8
(Catalog,
1908).
(Gold 153)
9
10
Gold, David.
Rhetoric at the
Margins,
1
plant cotton, self-sufficiency became almost impossible and absolute poverty rates in the country increased six times, and
the wealthiest thirty percent of the population increased their wealth, with the remaining seventy percent losing ground..
Mayo, however, was working to combat illiteracy rates of 5.2%, with only 62.6% of county residents aged six through twenty
(inclusive), being enrolled in school. (Wilkison 206 & 1910 Census)
Sam Rayburn, Class
of 1903
In terms of financial need, Sam Rayburn
was typical of the students Mayo’s
college was designed to serve. Rayburn
“worked his way through by ringing the
college bell, sweeping out classrooms,
making fires and doing other odd jobs,
[eventually] earning . . . a Bachelor of
Science degree [in 1903]. He would go
on to study law in Austin and, by 1913,
begin serving this district in Washington
DC. As Speaker of the House for 17
years, he would also help sign into law
the most significant civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction: the Civil Rights Bill
of 1957.
The farm ownership percentages contrast with state averages of 46.9% and 52.6%, respectively.
“For a case in point, consider Sam Rayburn, our university’s most famous alumnus and the US Congressional District this
congressman represented from 1913 and 1961. Throughout much of the 20th century, rural conditions and poverty defined
North Texas. Forever loyal to the (white) farmers and small business owners who were his constituency, Rayburn was fond
of saying: “I want my people out of the mud and I want my people out of the dark.” Rayburn’s tireless advocacy for rural
electrification helped bring power to the remote farms (Rural Electrification Act, 1936). His first-hand accounts of the harsh,
muddy soils of the region helped justify the paving of multiple farm-to-market roads, vastly improving access and connectivity
among farmers in emote areas businesses in town. Though Rayburn himself was a long-time segregationist serving a
conservative southern district widely opposed to civil rights legislation, he was also a fiercely loyal Democrat representing his
constituency and his country in a rapidly changing world. As Speaker of the House, this mentor to LBJ was instrumental in
passing the most significant civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction: the Civil Rights Act in 1957.
It is in this sense that local rhetoric both connects—at times literally—and separates us to/from one another and the rest of
the nation/world.” (Carter and Conrad 24-25)
Commerce, TX
Washington DC
(Carter 14)
11
Carter, Shannon.
“Writing
Democracy in
Rural Texas (
Carter and Conrad. “In Possession of.” CCC, 2012. (forthcoming)
We need dates for all the Sam Rayburn pics, and their locations, in order of appearance
Source: Carter, CCC
2012
Indeed, Mayo’s original mandate would
guide the college for more than half a
century: “Any person,” Mayo insists in a
1908 college catalog, “of whatever age,
wealth, or previous advantages” who
desired a college education could have
one, “regardless of their ability to pay.”
Like any such institution across the Jim
Crow South, however, “any person”
meant “any white person.”
Class of 1905 A.B.
Graduates.
Commerce, TX
1905
More about Rayburn
(Carter and Conrad
7)
Carter, Shannon
and Jim Conrad.
“In Possession.
Greenville sign
Greenville, TX
19211969
** Across from the train station, right at the entrance to Greenville’s downtown area, a sign that read “Welcome to Greenville:
Blackest Land. Whitest People” was installed in 1921 and removed nearly half a century later. Conversations about the sign,
its legacy, and its intent remain charged more than forty years later, even after the installation of a very different sign, in
2010, the result of extensive lobbying and fundraising by one long-time resident and city council member: “Welcome to
Greenville. Building Toward an Inclusive Community.” Both signal formal connections with a national project to improve race
relations at local levels. A future documentary will explore the complex ebb and flow of critical race narratives at local levels,
offering the complex interplay of local and national rhetoric surrounding this controversial sign as a case in point.
Paul’s article, Texas Black Codes
http://home.gwu.edu/~jjhawkin/BlackCodes/pdfTexas.pdf
(Carter and Conrad
8)
12
(Catalog,
1908)
13
Carter, Shannon
and Jim Conrad.
“In Possession
also consider: http://www.shannoncarter-blog.org/2011/05/05/welcome-to-greenville-blackest-land-whitest-people/
and
See also 60 Minutes (Geter case, 1983)
Huey, Brenda. The Blackest Land, the Whitest People: Greenville, Texas. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006.
For further reading, see
The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas between Reconstruction and the Great Depression. Walter L. Buenger.
University of Texas Press, 2001. ISBN 0292708882 Print.
I kept searching.
I kept searching…
I did not see myself in photos of the
basketball team.
Black screen
Basketball Action.
Yearbook. Print.
Commerce, TX
1955
Race in Sports? Losingtowin.wfu.edu
Henry Ross, Carlos, Page, Jamar
14
15
2
There were no faces like mine on the
football field.
Football Action 1
Commerce, TX
Date?
I didn’t see myself in the band,
at social events,
East Texans Band.
Social Event.
Commerce, TX
Commerce, TX
1940
1952
in the classroom.
1930class-2
1940scienceclass
Commerce, TX
Commerce, TX
1930
1940
“[P]eople who imagine
that history flatters
them (as it does,
indeed, since they
wrote it) are impaled
on their history like a
butterfly on a pin and
become incapable of
seeing or changing
themselves in the
world.” –James
Baldwin
"Old South Week was an event held
each year by the fraternity Kappa Alpha.
The event filled the campus with images
echoing all the glory of the era depicted
in Gone with the Wind.
Old South Week 1
Commerce, TX
1970
Plantation
System in
Southern Life.
Even at the height of the Civil Rights
Moment, the event often included mock
slave auctions where fraternity pledges
dressed up in black face to play the role
of slaves.
Old South Week
Commerce, TX
1955
Plantation
System in
Southern Life.
Old South Week,
Kappa Alpha
This event was finally moved off campus
in 1973 when African American students
protested.
“Black Awareness Week.”
Commerce, TX
1973
The 2006 Disney film, “Glory Road,” is based on the first all-black basketball at Texas Western, present day UTEP, in 19651966. The Texas Western Miners went on to win the national title in 1966, and overcome racial fueled mental and physical
attacks. The movie shows East Texas State University, present day Texas A&M University – Commerce, as a home team
playing the Miners. East Texas State University is portrayed a racially hateful institution, “throwing drinks and popcorn and
yelling racial slurs at Texas Western.” Shortly after the film’s release, Texas A&M University – Commerce desired apology
from the Walt Disney Company, as the film harshly inaccurately portrayed the University. The game between the two
schools that year was actually played at Texas Western. It is a good speculation that the institution would have issue at that
time with an all-black basketball team; however, the movie was inaccurate. The outcome of the game was better portrayed,
as Texas Western defeated East Texas State in the movie as was in reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Bryant#University_of_Alabama
http://loneliberal-teamman42.blogspot.com/2012/01/roll-tide.html
Bear Bryant: Symbol for an Embattled South
Carlton Cooper
What did they do for fun?
Talk about the innocence of the era, but underneath the façade, the Cold War is forcing change to occur because of interest
convergence – Elvis, national,
Communism and the labor CRM leads to death of movement because of the spectre of Communism
Academics, teacher training + Gee
*Additional context needed (national, international)
- African maxim
““Until Lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”” Explain it
Malcolm X autobiography
-recognize the positive, but don’t forget that there’s a story not being told
16
17
18
19
Baldwin, James.
20
Kappa Alpha Order is a fraternity that started in Virginia at Washington College in 1865. At the time, General Robert E. Lee
served as president of the institution. The fraternity was inspired by General Lee, and glorified him as a hero and
representative of the perfect gentlemen. Even now, the order maintains a strong belief in the traditions and values of the
South. Though they argue that they are not racially biased, their event, “Old South Week”, promoted the old values of the
region and point in time that held slavery to be essential. From Adam –
Perfect gentlemen, Birth of a Nation
*Additional context needed (national, international)
Came from the days when plantation life was in full flower.
Wright 12MBV pg 98 “The slow southern drawl”
Apology indicating the positive spin on it, readings of symbols then and compare to what the symbols mean now
21
*Additional context needed (national, international)
24
“Elihue Smith. poet, gave viewers a dramatic background while they saw the display of Black Art in the Texas Ballroom. The
first annual of Black Awareness week was held September 18-22.”
Source: The East Texas State University LOCUST Yearbook 1973.
25
22
23
The unconscious absent absence
Plantation
System in
Southern Life.
26
3
5_oldsouthweek (2)
Eventually I found
them.
“Eventually I found them”
They were in fragments of slave receipts
in the library archives.
Commerce, TX
Date?
Black Screen
Stevedores. Photograph.
12 Million Black Voices.
(Richard Wright). New
York: Basic, 2008. 20.
Print.
Slave Receipt.
Houston, TX
Commerce, TX
Date?
1865
*Draw relevant information on international and national aspects of narrative.
Nuance KA
Blurb on compensatory history & its purpose
27
*Draw relevant information from sources like Wright, including relevant quotes to push the narrative forward.
29
replace with
Stevedores
in Houston
28
Absent absence & absent presence
Available jobs from lords of the land & bosses – Richard Wright’s 12 MBV, Native Son, Black Boy?
Quotes from bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins, Zora Neal Hurston, Phyllis Wheatley
How was slavery in E Texas?
Quote from William Owens on paternalism of slavery, This Stubborn Soil, Juneteenth
Including something about Juneteenth? (see also Juneteenth collection)
Empire for Slavery: the Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865; Randolph B. Campbell, Louisiana State University Press,
1991. ISBN 0807117234
30
The Laws of Slavery in Texas: Historical Documents and Essays. William S. Pugley, Marilyn P. Duncan, Randolph B.
Campbell. University of Texas Press, 2011. ISBN 0292728999
Blacks in East Texas History: Selections from the East Texas Historical Journal. Bruce A. Glasrud, Dr. Archie P.McDonald,
eds. TAMU Press, 2008. ISBN 1603440410
Till Freedom Cried Out: Memories of Texas Slave Life. Julie P. Baker. TAMU Press, 1997. ISBN 0890967369
The Slave Narratives of Texas. Ron Tyler, ed. State House Press, 2006. ISBN 1933337036
The African American Experience in Texas: an Anthology. Bruce A. Glasrud, James M. Smallwood, eds. Texas Tech
University Press, 2007. ISBN 0896726096
"Slavery is, as an
example of what white
America has done, a
constant reminder of
what white America
might do.” --Derrick A.
Bell
Black Texans: a History of African Americans in Texas, 1528-1995. Alwyn Barr. University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. ISBN
080612878x
Conrad’s black towns info
03_Laborers and Labor
Houses
Where did they settle? On land no one else wanted.
(Bell 22)
Faces at the
Bottom of the Well.
31
Need Jennifer to source this picture because it’s not in 12MBV
(positive side? About neylandville, Juneteenth, a positive side of “freedom” (see also WPA guide on “first and oldest all-negro
community in Texas”),
A Thirteen-year-old
Sharecropper.
“I found them in photos of cane press
workers.”
Cane Press Workers.
“They were in records of cafeteria
workers in the 1930s”
African American Cafeteria
Workers 1930s.
Commerce, TX
1930
*Draw relevant information from sources like Wright, including relevant quotes to push the narrative forward.
(perhaps emphasizing negative/downside, limits, in contrast to above)
Sharecropping, economic stats, perhaps from Wright, link to Neylandville?
For further reading, see
The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture. Neil Foley. University of California Press,
1999. ISBN 0520207246
Texas, Cotton, and the New Deal. Keith J. Volanto. TAMU Press, 2004. ISBN 1585444022
General life of farmers
Maybe emphasize more of above, perhaps the element of paternalism?
*Draw relevant information from sources like Wright, including relevant quotes to push the narrative forward. – formations of
NC & paternalism; court cases, Opal Pannell walkout (link to OH), James Baldwin “the black face is not qualified 5:25-5:30
pt1), Patricia Hill Collins – jobs on campus 17-118 12MBV paternalistic code, This Stubborn Soil
32
33
34
“By the late 19th century, former slaves and their children had begun moving into Commerce from area farms, settling into
this historically segregated neighborhood on the other side of the tracks (literally) to take jobs on campus serving meals to
students, cleaning offices and faculty homes, and maintaining the growing physical plant. Opal Pannell was one many
denied access, walking to work from the Norris Community each day to feed students on a campus neither she nor her
neighbors could attend until 1964.” (Carter and Conrad, “In Possession of Community,” forthcoming)
4
“In 1937, they were captured in photos of
sewing room employees”
Sewing Room Employees.
Commerce, TX
1937
Also: Jobs on campus, in Norris, paternalistic code (pastor on “benevolent paternalism
Use panel as lens for this
More on panel, specifically, as it helps us understand local access to work (Pannell in high school working on campus from
neylandville)
35
*Draw relevant information on international and national aspects of narrative.
Forms of employment open to blacks & black women, especially – more on employment discrimination – Conrad
CAPTION
“Separate educational
facilities are inherently
unequal.” -- Judge
Warren, 1954, on
Brown vs. the Board
of Education
NARRATION
VIDEO
Fade to black
IMAGE
MAP
DATE
CONTEXT
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed its decision in 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson when it ruled
that state-sponsored racial segregation in educational facilities were unconstitutional. African Americans across the nation
greeted the Brown decision with elation and immediately bestowed upon it the ability to alleviate all forms of racial
discrimination, not merely education. However, the Brown decision addressed de jure racial segregation in public schools. It
said nothing about the de facto segregation that plagued housing, employment, and socialization. Those battles may have
drawn upon the example provided by Brown, but Brown itself did not address them. Unfortunately, racial segregation did not
disappear May 18, 1954; in fact, some might argue that it has not disappeared. Where racial segregation has faded into
memory, it took a long, often painful, struggle on the part of activists. The when, where, and how of desegregation plays a
major role in the effects of desegregation that American continue to live with.
FOOTNOTE
Oliver Brown, et al.
v. Board of
Education of
Topeka, et al.
36
MISC.
37
347 U.S. 486
Though the Brown decision enjoined schools to desegregate “with all deliberate speed,” districts across the South were able
to postpone desegregating for years. Rural Commerce, Texas, desegregated its schools only in ????, ???? years after
Brown. Even after black and white students attended schools together, racial discrimination in Commerce remained. Blacks
living in the Norris community continued to endure substandard housing conditions and access to city services. Brown
eliminated racial segregation in education, but did nothing to improve the lives of black Americans outside the schoolhouse.
More about intro of de facto segregation in the South, and the differences between South & North
http://www.naacpldf.org/case/brown-v-board-education
For further reading, see
Brown v. Board of Education: a Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy. James T. Patterson. Oxford University Press,
2002. ISBN 0195156323
Mosley, in the
archives (2012)
June 1964.
Commerce, TX
"Complete Integration
Ordered ET: To Be
Effected Next
Registration." The
Commerce Journal
[Commerce, TX] 11 June
Commerce, TX
2011
1964
NPR + contemporary; footnote 81 from US v. Texas (reformat and include), domino effect, Wright 64-7, black schools
Segregation was, of course, a deeply divisive issue in Commerce. However, the events that most characterize local
struggles here and, indeed, throughout much of the rest of the southern states, were fought not in the streets among local
publics but in mundane documents ranging from interoffice memoranda among campus administrators, letters exchanged
between campus leaders and area, state, and federal officials, legal documents, and petitions (Shabazz; Sokel; Dittmer).
A particularly useful example of this can be found in in the circulation of documents surrounding two local segregationists
and bitter enemies: US Senator Sam Rayburn, this university’s most famous alumnus, and James G. Gee, ETSU president
from 1947-1966. From 1913 until 1961, Sam Rayburn represented this rural district dominated by voters loyal to Jim Crow
and remained himself equally loyal to his constituents and, especially, ETSU, the institution that had given this poor farmer
without a high school diploma a chance at a college education. Despite his stance on the issue (which some argue had
softened considerably after decades in Washington DC) and the likely threat to his voting base it posed, he was an even
more loyal Democrat and, as Speaker of the House, helped sign into law the most significant civil rights legislation since
Reconstruction: the Civil Rights Act of 1954. His public connections to Lyndon B. Johnson, combined with this piece of
legislation, made him a bitter enemy to a number of powerful local leaders. (Carter, “A Clear Channel”)
“ That summer then university president and outspoken segregationist James G. Gee called together all faculty and staff to
announce ET’s immediate compliance with civil rights legislation mandating desegregation at the last two public colleges still
upholding racial barriers.” (Carter and Conrad, forthcoming)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964 Gee/Rayburn rivalry
38
Clipping in Gee
Papers, along with
countless other
such headlines
from across the
nation. Clearly Gee
39
5
1964: 1.
Jerrold Moore,
--and/or
His harshest local critic by far was President Gee. However, like Rayburn, Gee would find himself overseeing public
transformations that effectively ended de jure segregation. Though a loyal segregationist, he did not challenge what he called
the “inevitability of racial integration” (Gee). Instead he formed “a secret committee” whom he charged with studying
desegregation elsewhere and offering recommendations. The primary and stated goal for our campus was what Gee and the
committee called “a dignified integration,” arguing demonstrations against desegregation would threaten the local
community’s sustainability far more then any new admission policy ever could (Carter and Conrad; Wilkinson; Shabazz). In
June 1964, Gee followed the committee’s recommendations to the letter when he announced the lifting of “racial barriers” to
admissions. By all accounts desegregation at ETSU occurred largely without incident. In this sense, perhaps it was, indeed,
a “dignified integration,” a characterization that remains a significant point of pride for local citizens. (Carter, “A Clear
Channel”)
was following this
issue very closely.
Northeast
Texas
Cold War fears – from Sokol or Gilmore
(Moore 179)
James G. Gee at Field
House.
Commerce, TX
Link Gee’s position to the Cold War bit from above, perhaps also foregrounding his links to folks like Shivers and Daniels
Its advocates expected that the Brown
decision would cut through the dark
years of segregation with laser-like
intensity. The resistance, though, was
open and determined. At best, the Brown
precedent did no more than cast a halflight on that resistance, enough to
encourage its supporters but not bright
enough to reveal just how long and
difficult the road to equal educational
opportunity would prove to be.
St. Paul School Bus
Neylandville, TX
Velma Waters applied for enrollment four
times before she was finally admitted.
Velma Waters.
I particularly remember his attitude
toward integration of the college which
he announced by saying there would
never be any blacks at East Texas State
Teachers’ College.
James G. Gee,
President, East Texas
State University,
1947-1966
Velma Waters
(Commerce, TX),
Class of 1968
James G. Gee at Desk.
Moore, Jerrold.
Memories of Old
ET.
1948
Neylandville, TX
1938
Our arguments throughout this remix are significantly informed by Derrick A. Bell and other criticalists of the movement his
work helped establish (Critical Race Theory). As a tribute to Bell, our remix draws from several of his key texts, especially
those articulating his notion of “interest convergence” as it helps shape our own local context and relevant responses. This
particular quote is from his later work Silent Covenants (2004), published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the
Brown decision. (SC)
(Bell 19)
Bell, Derrick A. Jr.
Silent Covenants:
Citizen’s Council & Southern Manifesto, so Rayburn & LBJ, busing for school
42
NOTE:
consider Bell
excerpt from
lecture on
same
For further reading, see
Brown v. Board of Education: a Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy. James T. Patterson. Oxford University Press,
2002. ISBN 0195156323
Commerce, TX
For further reading, see
(Wilkison 2)
Paragraph about struggles they faced on campus – pull Belford Page & Harry Turner snippets (Sunchai), and upload or
locate so we can link to them – link to JN OH, Q from Turner on advancing ????
Wilkison, Debra.
“Eyewitness to
Social Change:
The Desegregation
of East Texas
State College.”
M.A. thesis, East
Texas State
University, 1990.
Print.
(Wilkison 2)
Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas. Amilcar
Shabazz. University of North Carolina Press, 2006. ISBN 0807855057 – desegregation attempt at Texarkana
As a small child, Velma Waters could
walk across the campus of East Texas
State Teachers’ College to bring her
father his lunch where he was employed
as a laborer on a WPA project, but she
could hardly hope to grow up and study
at this whites-only state-supported
41
See http://www.shannoncarter-blog.org/2011/05/03/in-the-archives-correspondence-between-gee-and-daniel/
1948
1938
40
Velma Waters.
Commerce, TX
African American Air Force veteran James Meredith petitioned to enter the University of Mississippi in 1961 and met with
opposition from university officials, the state college board, the governor, lieutenant governor, and other state officials.
Though the university lost its legal battle to deny Meredith admission, federal marshals and attorneys from the U.S. Justice
Department had to escort him to ensure his admittance. Unfortunately, Meredith’s admission sparked a riot that left two
dead, hundreds injured, nearly 200 arrested, and required 16,000 federal troops to put down. President Gee would have
witnessed the upset in Mississippi, perhaps further highlighting the need for a “dignified” integration. There would be no
Mississippi riots or Arkansas attacks here.
Wilkison, Debra.
“Eyewitness to
Social Change:
The Desegregation
of East Texas
43
Gee
Segregation
Letters
refusing
admittance
to Negroes,
44
Gee
Segregation
Clippings on
Brown v
Board of
Education
6
institution of higher learning in her
hometown of Commerce, TX.
“… we could only
work for the university,
but we could not go to
school here.”
More about Neylandville & Waters, focus on dignified integration as compared to upset experienced elsewhere
Coming
Together: A
Conversation
with Norris
Community
Members and
Other Experts.
Maydell Pannell
(Commerce, TX)
As Derrick Bell insists, “Whites may
agree in the abstract that blacks are
citizens and are entitled to constitutional
protection against racial discrimination,
but few are willing to recognize that racial
segregation is more than a series of
quant customs that can be remedied
effectively without altering the status of
whites.”
Diversity Now
Commerce, TX
2011
Cambridge, MA
April
28,
1990
Getty Images
“… racial segregation
is more than a series
of quant customs that
can be remedied
effectively without
altering the status of
whites.”
At table w jack Greenberg
place
date
http://legalhistoryblog.blog
spot.com/2007/05/newarchive-derrick-bellpapers.html
*Draw relevant information on international and national aspects of narrative. – OP OH ???? iles to nearest black college,
Gee letters in response to African student applications, Lulu B White In Struggle Against Jim Crow born in Elmo (Kaufman),
TX, six miles from Terrell, and had to go to PV for college, became leader of Houston NAACP
http://books.google.com/books?id=ohivicYNUs8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
-Patterson re-segregation along socioeconomic lines, negative impact still hits black Americans because of income and
earnings power, plight of black ghettoes.
-desegregation only benefitted middle class
-Brandt
-Lopez case pushes theme of access
- new underclass is poor ppl
-Neylandville
*Include relevant information about the work Bell was involved in, especially as it informs our arguments and lived
experiences here. Who is Bell, Crenshaw tribute
-CRT can’t eradicate w/o changing societal norms
-paternalistic code
-intro to Bell & CRT, link to CLJ
Paternalistic code
– include info about meeting – Pull from Jack Greenberg autobiography
State College.”
M.A. thesis, East
Texas State
University, 1990.
Print.
45
Gee
Segregation
Letters on
the issue of
desegregatio
n
(Bell 19)
46
Bell, Derrick A. Jr.
“Interest
Convergence.”
Harvard Law
Review, 1980.
(Bell 19)
47
Bell, Derrick A. Jr.
“Interest
Convergence.”
Harvard Law
Review, 1980.
--Derrick A. Bell
What About
Prejudice?
*Include regarding interest convergence
-material determinism, magic pill
-recognitions of limits of law and multiculturalism
-will continue until its no longer in their interests not to
-Lamos interests 2011
Velma Waters was the first African
American to enroll in classes and attend
East Texas State University.
Waters
Commerce, TX
Family and neighbors like Maydell
Pannell and her children would soon
follow.
“Last state college drops
racial barriers”
Commerce, TX
Dallas Morning News 6
June 1964. Print.
*SC for additional details, including info regarding “stolen typewriter” from CCC piece (2012)
1964
SC additional, especially regarding the Norris Community and Norris Community Club (see Community Literacy Journal,
2012)
Evans – AA came, but then left, so efforts died – Talbot article, Brewer article
Increase numbers of blacks on campus – Amilcar Shabazz has some information
Wilkison, Debra.
“Eyewitness to
Social Change:
The Desegregation
of East Texas
State College.”
M.A. thesis, East
Texas State
University, 1990.
Print.
Wilkison, Debra.
“Eyewitness to
Social Change:
The Desegregation
of East Texas
48
What is
prejudice?
And why
does it exist?
What do you
think?
49
50
7
Maydell Pannell would later earn her (BA and MA I think) from ET, as would her children.
Find Pannell in Alumni Records from Jane Martyn
“Here, as in the
abolition of slavery,
there were whites for
whom recognition of
the racial equality
principle was sufficient
motivation. But, as
with abolition, the
number who would act
on morality alone was
insufficient to bring
about the desired
racial reform.”
John Carlos, Harlem,
New York, attended
East Texas State
University, 1966-67
In the case of Brown vs. the Board of
Education, Derrick Bell insists, “… as in
the abolition of slavery, there were whites
for whom recognition of the racial
equality principle was sufficient
motivation. But, as with abolition, the
number who would act on morality alone
was insufficient to bring about the
desired racial reform.
Derrick bell walking
East Texas State University recruited
John Carlos from Harlem in 1966, just
two years after this rural teachers college
began the process of desegregation and
one year before Dr. Carlos would join
Tommie Smith on the medal stand at the
1968 Olympics, raise a gloved fist in
black unity and solidarity, and then to
history.
He didn’t expect to find in Texas the
racial issues he was seeing elsewhere
across the south.
John Carlos as a student
(source info coming soon)
John Carlos's Raised Fist.
place
date
*Draw connections between what happened nationally and local experiences
information about the present presence of blacks at ETSU, and the material changes required by the admittance of blacks
Jefferson/Douglas interest convergence
What’s July 4th to Negro, Douglass
Juneteenth
Checkerboard society
Commerce, TX
Mexico City,
Mexico
Image of dog attacking
child in Alabama.
Elizabeth Eckford and
Hazel Bryan
http://www.army.mil/article/
2004/
Birmingham,
Alabama
196667
State College.”
M.A. thesis, East
Texas State
University, 1990.
Print.
(Bell 518)
51
Brown v. Board of
Education and the
Interest
Convergence
Dilemma.
(Carter 16)
1968
In 1968, at the Mexico City Olympics, sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith rhetoricized race, calling global attention to
the persistence of racism by taking full advantage of the means of persuasion available to them as black athletes
representing the nation to the world (see Figure 2). That single iconic image of two African Americans, black-gloved fists
raised and heads bowed as the national anthem played and millions booed, remains indelibly etched in our collective
memory. Until recently, however, the message they intended, like the meaning behind much of the rhetoric of black power
(see Stewart, Burgess, Scott and Brockriede), was rewritten and then altogether silenced by the racist politics the movement
opposed. (Carter, “A Clear Channel”)
1963
*NOTE: Details concerning events in Alabama and Little Rock, perhaps just a good link to reputable description will do.
(Carter 16)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/8813134/Elizabeth-Eckford-and-Hazel-Bryan-the-story-behind-thephotograph-that-shamed-America.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Little_Rock_Desegregation_1957.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine
http://www.npr.org/books/titles/140953114/elizabeth-and-hazel-two-women-of-little-rock
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/09/littlerock200709
http://www.army.mil/article/2004/
Carter, Shannon.
“Writing
Democracy in
Rural Texas
52
Carter, Shannon.
“Writing
Democracy in
Rural Texas
53
Of his time spent at this Dallas area school, he’d later tell reporters: Like most Harlem kids, I thought any place
away from the ghetto would have to be beautiful. . . Texas was in the South but I was sure it was nothing like Mississippi or
Alabama” (New York Magazine, 1968). It was Alabama, of course, not Texas, making headlines in a fight for social justice-where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, where Dr. Martin Luther King would write his Letter from Birmingham Jail in
1963, insisting that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”The Freedom Riders stopped short of Texas,
reaching only as far West as Louisiana. A second ride began in California and ended in Houston, but the disconnect between
the image of civil rights struggles of the Deep South and everywhere else was clear.
Despite the invisibility of Texas in our collective memories of the civil rights movement, this state played a
surprisingly significant role. Before James Farmer helped launch what became Freedom Riders, he was in Texas--the son of
a university professor in a town far more remote than Commerce, where he studied at Wiley College with the radical poet,
activist, and formidable debate coach Melvin Tolson (played by Denzel Washington in the 2007 film The Great Debaters). It
was in Texas that one of the earliest challenges to segregation was launched—Sweat vs. Painter in 1947, leading to the
desegregation of the University of Texas law school. It was, of course, a Texan who signed into law the crucial Civil Rights
Act of 1964—Lyndon B. Johnson, the same Texan who envisioned the Great Society. Before that, yet another Texan—then
Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, helped pass the Civil Rights Act 1957, the most significant civil rights legislation since
8
Reconstruction. Though an outspoken segregationist serving a conservative district in Texas with similar views, Rayburn
was an even more loyal democrat who graduated decades earlier from the same rural university Dr. Carlos would later
attend. Indeed, the rhetorical events that capture our imaginations when we consider the strength and impact of the civil
rights movement are not these protracted struggles. Rhetorical events like these unfold through a series of interrelated
“mundane texts,” which, as Rivers and Weber point likewise shape far more dramatic and powerful events like those
surrounding the Freedom Riders or Rosa Parks silent protest. Rivers and Weber suggest “the scope of public rhetoric”
should include the “mundane”–the “multiple, mundane documents, interpersonal networks, historical influences, and
rhetorical moves and countermoves” that likewise shape any rhetorical event. They look at the texts surrounding the
Montgomery Bus Boycott. The national “text” (Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus) was surrounded and
enabled by a great variety of far more mundane texts, which deserve our attention as well. I suggest similar insight may be
drawn from an investigation of the network of mundane texts leading up to the Silent Protest at the 1968 Olympics, drawing
attention to the local articulation of this rhetorical event.
John Carlos
Book Signing,
Paris Incubator.
2011.
Belford Page (Dallas,
Texas) attended East
Texas State University
1968-71
Paris, TX
Belford Page as a student
(source info coming soon)
Belford Page,
2012 Black
History Month
Speaker Series
2011
Commerce, TX
1968?
Commerce, TX
Date?
Commerce, TX
2012
No doubt Dr. Carlos was right. Texas was not Mississippi or Alabama. Neither was Commerce Birmingham or
Memphis or Selma. Yet racism is here, present and obvious and altogether complicated. No less firmly entrenched than
anywhere else.
Oral history with John Carlos available at <http://dmc.tamu-commerce.edu/cdm/> Recorded February 2012, with interviewer
Shannon Carter
John Carlos Oral
History
ET recruited John Carlos from Harlem in 1966, just two years before this global demonstration of what Edward P.J. Corbett
would call “The Rhetoric of the Closed Fist.”9 In Harlem, Dr. Carlos had walked with Malcolm X—literally, catching as many
of Malcolm X’s frequent presentations at the mosque on 116th street as he could, then following him around the
neighborhood “like a scampering puppy dog” (Carlos and Zirin 26), peppering him with questions along the way. As part of
the counterpublic called up in the discourse surrounding collective resistance “by any means necessary” (Malcolm X), Carlos
was highly attuned to racism’s complexity and ubiquity. He knew racism’s key challenges were just as present in the North
as they were everywhere else. Yet he had never before experienced the covert forms of racism segregation presented--not
personally, at least. Along with his young wife and their two-year old daughter, “We agreed to make a home for ourselves in
Commerce,” Dr. Carlos recalls decades later. “But every last shred of dignity that we took with us to Texas was challenged”
(Carlos and Zirin 64). (Carter, “A Clear Channel”)
Oral history with Belford Page available at <http://dmc.tamu-commerce.edu/cdm/>
54
55
Recorded February 2012, with interviewer Shannon Carter
Urban-rural tensions,
Q from Peace, Carlos, move from black neighborhoods in DFW to rural locations
Details about ubiquity of similar incidents across the nation. Commerce is hardly unique. – I thought we were going to get
the Loved them some Belford Page snippet. Are we dismissing that in favor of what’s here?
56
Articles from 1968-1971 in East Texan/Locust about football team? Dallas at that time versus Northeast Texas?
Elizabeth Jacoway, Turn Away Thy Son, they finally got in, and it was horrible because no one inside school worked to
protect them
Belford Page,
2012 Black
History Month
Speaker Series.
Belford Page as a student
(source info coming soon)
Commerce, TX
Date?
Belford Page,
2012 Black
History Month
Speaker Series.
http://remixingruraltexas.pb
works.com/f/James+Belfor
d+Page032jpg.jpg
Commerce, TX
2012
Point about how Page moved from majority-minority situation in Dallas to a minority-minority situation in Commerce. For first
time in his life, he was outnumbered by whites, and surrounded by whites unwelcoming of his presences.
*Additional details about the local, drawing in activist efforts on campus and in the community to overlap with Page’s time on
campus (see especially the Afro American Student Association and the Norris Community Club). Draw extensively from
Carter’s CLJ piece on activism (2012)
AASET/NCC
This is the rocks story
Carter, Shannon.
“Writing
Democracy in
Rural Texas
57
58
Turn Away Thy Son about how the students were allowed in, and abandoned to their fate with no protection and no redress
for grievances
Or: consider something on Peace on perception of Norris (not thinking there was something inequitable about local
conditions, rather “I just thought they were country” (but maybe this goes better with NCC vid, actually)—move to the master
9
Decades later, I find myself. I know the
struggles aren’t over. I know there
struggles are my struggles; my struggles
are theirs.
Velma Waters
(Commerce, TX),
Class of 1968
Jamar Mosley
(recorded
2012)
I search the archives, and I wonder.
Commerce, TX
Velma Waters
Commerce, TX
2011
themes
*Draw connections across national and international timelines, as well as Jamar’s original insights
59
1968
JC renounced by fellow athletes, Delmar Brown apology, Baldwin, Detroit violence, Rodney King beating, London riots,
Rivers of Blood, desegregation of the North (de jure turns to de facto, and remains), AASET
Stats on current population of African Americans enrolled in the school, showing steady progression from the 1960s – Jane
Martyn for info
*Draw connections across national and international timelines, as well as Jamar’s original insights
60
What did this mean for me? For my
people? For those missing African
American faces? For those there?
The NAACP, in its campaign in favor of Brown, defined segregation as inherently evil, regardless of its purpose. This would
call into question the legitimacy of black institutions created or made essential by the reality of racial segregation. In time, the
effect of the NAACP’s ideological framework would put Historically Black Colleges and Universities on the defensive because
they were relegated to the status of constitutionally suspect institutions that had to justify their very existence.
continued struggles, HBCU justification & nationalism – Is Separate Unequal, impact of a person like Meredith, Breaking the
Huddle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnOpZvEulvY&feature=related ;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N7grNxOaSU&feature=related ; using sports to desegregate, effects of desegregation on
teams, Rodriguez vs SA ISD and focus on property taxes, JC & Mex
Charles Garvin
(Greenville, TX),
Class of 1966
Dr. Ivory Moore
(Oklahoma), Dean of
Minority Affairs
Charles Garvin
Commerce, TX
1966
Charles Garvin was ETSU’s first African American graduate student.
61
Dr. Ivory Moore
Commerce, TX
Date?
Glenda McKissic
(Mineola, Texas)
Homecoming Queen
1969
Dr. David Talbot
(Georgetown,
Guyana), Professor of
Counseling
Glenda McKissic
Commerce, TX
1969
Ivory Moore was ETSU’s first African American administrator. He became Dean of Minority Affairs, brought in millions of
dollars of grants to establish a range of campus and community programs for local poor and minority citizens. He was also
the first African American citizen to be elected to the City Council, a position he held for 18 years before becoming
Commerce’s first African American mayor. Moore is the subject of our first remix “A Clear Channel,” also available at this
site.
In 1969, Glenda McKissic became ETSU’s first African American Homecoming Queen (see the Commerce Journal)
62
http://newspaperarchive.com/the-commerce-journal/1969-11-13/
Dr. David Talbot (source
info coming soon)
dates
Dr. David Talbot was ETSU’s first African American professor (Counseling).
63
See also North Texas eNews.
J. Mason Brewer
(Texas), Professor of
English
CAPTION
It meant change.
Commerce, TX
NARRATION
It meant change.
VIDEO
J. Mason Brewer (source
info coming soon)
Commerce, TX
Dates
?
IMAGE
Buildings on campus over
a few different decades
showing change over time
MAP
Commerce, TX
DATE
Date?
*Additional details on Talbot here, especially with respect to his impact on local scene and through nationally-recognized
programs like the Checkerboard Society and other integrated housing initiatives. Much beloved, outspoken
- link to Henry Louis Gates incident & lawnmower incident
-ET Special article
http://remixingruraltexas.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/50813245/KIC%20Document%200007.pdf
http://remixingruraltexas.pbworks.com/w/file/51031961/ETSpecialMay84p19.pdf
http://www.ntxe-news.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=3&num=4136&printer=1
J. Mason Brewer was ETSU’s first African American Professor in English Department and to teach courses in “Negro
Folklore.” Professor Brewer was also the first African American president of the Texas Folklore Association. Evidence of his
extensive contributions in both poetry and folklore can be found in his many publications, including the first collection of
poetry by African Americans in Texas, the most comprehensive study of African Americans in the Texas legislature, and
several collections of African American folklore in Texas. In this time, many compared Brewer to Zora Neal Hurston,
especially their work recovering African American folklore (Hurston in Florida, Brewer in Texas) and extensive use of dialect
(Hurston in prose, Brewer in poetry).
--See also, Texas State Historical Association
http://remixingruraltexas.pbworks.com/w/file/51031958/ETSpecialDec69p4.pdf
CONTEXT
Jamar Mosley used “All Black Everything” in his original remix and we felt it was perfect for this extension of his original
story. For details about his original choices for the remix he produced, see his oral history interview in the Northeast Texas
Digital Collections.
64
FOOTNOTE
MISC.
65
10
--------------We claim “Fair Use” for this song (“All Black Everything”), utilizing it not only as tribute to Jamar’s original remix and because
of its relevance to the current project but in order to demonstrate principles of “Fair Use” as it applies to music held by a
major record label.
Journey Into Blackness.
Commerce, TX
1976
Field House. 1951.
Commerce, TX
1955?
Pottery Demonstration.
Commerce, TX
1976
Whitley Hall.
Students. Photograph.
Black Awareness Week.
Commerce, TX
Commerce, TX
1969
1976
For further reading on Fair use, see see especially Bound By Law (Duke Law, Center for the Study of the Public Domain)
and Lessig’s Free Culture (2004) and Remix (2009)
-----------------------For further reading, see
Library. 1930.
It meant “change.”
It is really sad to me
that these people are
still fighting a battle
that was over years
ago. I hope that one
day they will get
enough White money
from the White
taxpayers to pay for
the education they
will receive from
White institutions
with White
professors so they
can learn just exactly
what it is they are
fighting against. –
Elvin Helmsley,
Seagoville Senior
1930
Campus Guest Gloria
Steinem_6.
Commerce, TX
1972
Campus Guest Gloria
Steinem_1.
Commerce, TX
1972
Letter to the Editor. East
Texan. November 6, 1970.
*Additional, details about change over time, including black awareness week and associated efforts in the community (SC)
- local & national explosion of activism
-problem seemingly solved, so activists left and headed on to the next cause, but problems still existed
-backsliding
*Can we get some blurb about the history of Black Heritage Week or related events on campus, including details concerning
controversy on Dick Gregory, who we invited yet soon disinvited. Much about this in the East Texan and the Locust.
66
For further reading, see
Commerce, TX
I meant “change.”
The Struggle for Black Equality. Harvard Sitkoff. Hill and Wang, 2008. ISBN 0809089246
Links to Wikipedia on Dick Gregory, complete citation for Gregory’s autobiography (1964) and related local and national
headlines, etc)
*Details on Steinem’s visit to ET and her work more generally
67
*Details on Steinem’s visit to ET and her work more generally
feminist movement
*Unfortunately, the heavy upsurge in activism was tempered by ____ & ____. Tie to CRT and national events
Reaction and rejection of African Americans on campus through Letters to the Editor, Cross Burning, introduce theme
*Draw forward connections with more contemporary challenges and international perspective.
68
69
 white backlash & being turned off
 -forum response from ET
 JC to Jesse Owens
 Contextualize this in terms of jobs & freedom
 Hillbilly v Black Panther
 99% movement join forces
 CLJ
By the time African American students like Carlos and Evans enrolled, local whites largely accepted racial integration’s
inevitability. Increasingly, however, the material changes that accompany that process--especially in this era of student revolt
and black power/women’s rights rhetoric—began to be characterized by many locals as “the racial problem.” “In regard to the
increasingly troublesome ‘racial problem’ in Commerce,” says a local sophomore in a 1970 letter appearing in the campus
paper, “. . . things may be getting worse” (Helmslwy). For him and many other whites, evidence of this was the increasingly
common presence of “incidents” like the one he describes in his letter. Not only had an African American box office worker
recently challenged a white patron who had treated her unfairly, but the local press had printed letters from others praising
black resistance. He appears as outraged as he was eloquent:
It is really sad to me that these people are still fighting a battle that was over years ago. I hope that one day they will get
enough White money from the White taxpayers to pay for the education they will receive from White institutions with White
professors so they can learn just exactly what it is they are fighting against. (Helmsley)
11
The fight “over long ago” included abolition of both slavery and segregation, of course. The fight that remains, according to
critical race studies, is the systemic racism that persists across an America that allowed the sale of humans and laws built on
a logic of white supremacy. In our color-blind society, race had been rendered invisible while racism’s effects remain firmly
entrenched in everyday life. While racism as a national problem, even at the height of the civil rights movement, may appear
abstract, distant, symbolic, the local, the everyday, is rarely abstract. When that local is sparsely populated (rural), when
resources are scarce, as is the case here, major changes at local levels are hard to enact. In fact, “… racial segregation is
more than a series of quant customs that can be remedied effectively without altering the status of whites” (Bell 19b). Thus,
perhaps, we can understand the town’s slow uptake on social justice issues like these, as I will explain. In similar ways, as
Catherine Prendergast has argued, race has become what she calls “an absent presence” in our discipline—the ever present
element we learn to look past or look around, forgetting the important ways race remains in our classrooms and our
scholarship just as it remains a defining element in the rest of our everyday lives. (Carter, “A Clear Channel”)
It meant opportunity.
It meant opportunity.
It meant
“opportunity.”
Civil Rights March on
Washington, D.C.
Washington,
DC
March on Washington
Washington,
DC
1963
Paris, TX
2009
White Supremacists.
Photograph. KKK vs. New
Black Panthers in Paris,
Texas.
1963
“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by
the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of
poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the
corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a
shameful condition.”
70
I Have A Dream, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Though the heady atmosphere surrounding the Civil Rights Movement seemingly heralded great change in American race
relations, nearly fifty years after Dr. King, racial tensions remain problematic. In addition to continued discrimination against
African Americans, Latinos, gays, and Muslims are experiencing oppression.
Symbols, opportunity to exploit hatred, creating a protest for $$$$, staged demonstrations, the right to protest, link to
controversy, Quannell X, short story about Patriots & Black Panthers, Patriot Act
http://www.click2houston.com/news/Quanell-X-reacts-to-verdict/-/1735978/13416978/-/2ac8x3/-/index.html
http://www.khou.com/home/Chad-Holley-bonds-out-after-latest-arrest-with-Quanell-X-by-his-side--159095845.html
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/14/texas.alleged.rape/index.html?iref=obnetwork
It meant
“opportunity.”
It meant opportunity.
Black America Endures
Modern Day Lynchings.
Carlos & Zirin
Jasper, TX
date
See CBS News, July 2009 and
“Racial Unrest in Paris, Texas” (Southern Shift), 2009
“In 1998 in Jasper, Texas, James Byrd, Jr., a black man, was chained to a pick-up truck and dragged to his death by three
white men. The town was forever altered, and the nation woke up to the horror of a modern-day lynching” (see PBS’s Two
Towns of Jasper).
Washington,
DC
2011
See also the Humanities Texas exhibit, “Jasper, Texas: The Healing of a Community in Crisis”
------*Additional details concerning book launch of John Carlos’s memoir, to coincide with the Troy Davis memorials. As Zirin
(wearing an “I am Troy Davis” t-shirt like many in the audience) asks why that Silent Protest still matters, we can certainly
understand why. Carter was in the audience that day, paying tribute to this former student and the campus he features in the
memoirs chapter “Trouble in Texas”). Later that night she would nominate Carlos for an honorary doctorate from this very
university. In May 2012, he will receive this honor with great support and celebration from the vast majority of the campus
and community.
71
Record
numbers of
black prison
population,
oow births,
divorces,
debt, etc, de
facto
segregation
Hate crime legislation, non hate crime legislation, Sweet Tea, LGBT/Black controversy
For further reading, see
Race, Reform, and Rebellion: the Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006. Manning Marable.
University Press of Mississippi, 2007. ISBN 1578061547
12
And We are Not Saved: the Elusive Quest for Racial Justice. Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Basic Books, 1989. ISBN 046500329x
It meant . . .
everything.
Transcript on this issue
*Draw forward connections with more contemporary challenges and international perspective. Wrap up (SC)
72
With great appreciation for our university’s current and former students, faculty, and administrators.
*Obituary (NYT, Washington Post), and link to Derrick Bell video tribute from the Geneva Crenshaw Society
73
74
Credits
Please see “About” link at RRT homepage for profiles on each of these individuals.
75
Credits
Please see “About” link at RRT homepage for profiles on each of these individuals.
76
End slide
Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities and extensive
support from Texas A&M-Commerce.
77
“It meant . . . everything.”
Dedicated to Derrick
A. Bell, (November 6,
1930 – October 5,
2011)
Any views, findings,conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect those of the
National Endowment for the Humanities or Texas A&M-Commerce.
13