PALESTINE (TYLER MORNING TELEGRAPH) — African-American life in Palestine
and Anderson County dating as far back as the mid-1800s is displayed in
the black history room of the Museum for East Texas Culture.
Pictures,
legal documents, news articles, books, other historical items and
artifacts assembled by black women are exhibited on the walls, on
shelves and in display cabinets.
The black history room is a permanent exhibit
among many exhibits on several different topics throughout the two-story
museum, open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Besides
having the year-round black history room exhibit, the museum features a
black artist in its upstairs gallery during February in observance of
National African American History Month.
Currently being shown
are original hand-sewn quilts made by Mildred Thibodeaux, an
African-American quilter/fiber artist, who comes from a family that has a
150-year tradition of quilting and who committed herself to create
fiber art about 25 years ago.
"Occasionally, some people say that
my cultural origins are reflected through my work or that a particular
quilt has a mystical quality," Ms. Thibodeaux stated in a written piece
for the museum. "I've remained committed to using the structure of the
traditional hand sewn quilt, hoping to create meaning within its lines
and spaces."
Upon leaving the art gallery and entering the black
history room, museum visitors find a wealth of historical information
about the black community – schools, businesses, leaders, politicians,
educators, artists, churches, everyday citizens, social organizations,
outstanding athletes and black life in general for more than a century.
Samuel
T. Williamson Sr. was Palestine's first black postal carrier and
continued for 30 years, according to a display in the black history
room.
"His first route was in a poor white section of town. Some
refused to take mail from (his) hands. Postal authorities refused to
deliver mail to them at all (and) they had to pick it up at the post
office. Some whites discussed lynching Samuel," the display states.
"Later he delivered mail on the wealthier side of town where he was well-received. He and his family moved to Chicago in 1925."
Another
exhibit in the black history room recalls there was once "a block of
Negro businesses in Palestine called McKnight Plaza, referred to as
McKnight Square or the square."
In the black shopping plaza were a
bank, a drug store, doctor and dentist offices, a dry goods store, a
restaurant, an undertaking parlor, a notary public, an insurance office,
a cab company, a barber shop, a cleaning and pressing shop, a ladies
hat shop, a meeting hall, soda fountain and other businesses.
H.L
Price, founder of Farmer and Citizens Bank in McKnight Plaza, which is
now the site of First National Bank, had large acreages of land and
could probably be called the first black real estate agent in the
Anderson County area, according to the exhibit.
"He was a family
man, a church leader and a pillar in his community. He was a voice for
his people at a time when it was not acceptable to speak out against
unjust laws imposed on the people," states information attached to the
exhibit.
An exhibit on railroad history displays a white linen
serving jacket worn by Willie Myers when working as a waiter on a
railroad dining car.
"He became a cook and waiter exclusively on
Private Car No. 20, which was furnished for the general manager of the
Gulf Coast Division and his staff. When the era of dining cars ended,
Mr. Myers worked briefly as a porter," the exhibit information states.
At
the beginning of his career in 1942, passenger trains had steam engines
but were diesel operated when before his retirement in 1962, the
exhibit states.
Also displayed is a stocking jacket worn when
getting grocery supplies from the commissary at Union Station in Houston
to restock the dining car.
Baptist missionaries began working in
Texas as far back as 1830, according to an exhibit on historical black
churches and congregations.
By
1845, there were 400,000 black Baptists in Texas, which led to Noah Hill
being called to represent the black Texas Baptists at the Texas Baptist
Convention, the exhibit states. "Among the 400,000 were those who lived
in the small East Texas town of Palestine," it further states.
One
of the early churches in Palestine was Antioch Missionary Baptist
Church, organized in 1856. Other early black churches in Palestine
included Beulah Missionary Baptist Church, organized in 1861, Mount
Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church, started in 1873; and Pilgrim
Hill Baptist Church, organized in 1880.
The black history room contains information about present-day leaders and contemporary outstanding blacks.
A
display about outstanding black athletes contains a newspaper article
reporting that Adrian Petersen was named the NFL's top rookie in 2008
and honored with a parade through Palestine. Another athlete featured is
Keith Crawford, who broke 10 school records at Howard Payne University.
An
exhibit on blacks in the military notes that Air Force Major General
John Phillips was appointed by President Clinton as deputy
undersecretary of defense for logistics in August 1995. It points out
that Lucy L. Tyler, a resident of New York City, was born and educated
in Palestine and had a wide and varied army career on the home front and
overseas in Europe.
The Rev. Kenneth Earl Henry, also born in
Palestine, earned a divinity degree from Yale University and became a
published author. His lectures appeared in publications such as the
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History.
Palestine
artist Alma Pennell Gunter exhibited her art work throughout Texas. Her
works were significant in development of the folk art tradition, art
critics stated in the exhibit.
The black history room contains
history of many other people, black institutions, such as Lincoln High
School, and developments such as, challenges to the validity of the
apportionment of Anderson County into election precincts in the 1970s on
the grounds that it diluted black voting strength. Judge William Wayne
Justice ruled on behalf of the plaintiffs, according to documents in the
exhibit.
