Paul Palmer; Gene Brooks; Lizzie Adams; Conner Museum; Lois Lott Craig
36 Oral histories, 59 photos, 176 slides, 6 boxes
A1981-049; A1989-026; A1989-028; A1997-021
1890-1945 (unknown)
The collection chronicles the African-American community in Kingsville, Texas. The first African-Americans worked for the railroad arrived with the St. Louis, Missouri, and Brownsville line in 1904. In 1913 houses were first constructed by the King Ranch for the railroad workers families; these where shotgun structures with small frames on a block foundation. The first permanent structure built in the community was the church, King Star Baptist Church, under the supervision of Rev. William Green. The second church, Scott’s Chapel United Methodist Church opened in 1909. The hurricane of September 1919 destroyed the original church but it was rebuilt. The church moved to its present location in 1949 after the “white” Methodist Church gave them the building. In 1909 the Kingsville School District hired the first African-American teacher, Miss Jessie Mead, who taught in a room rented by the school district at the King Star Baptist Church. Then in 1913, a two-room school house was built, named Frederick Douglas School, it burned down in 1926, and was rebuilt at its present location. The school remained operational until 1969 when the students were integrated into King High. The 1960’s saw a push from prominent African-American businessman Charles Andrews and Kingsville Mayor John McCrocklin who organized the Human Relations Committee where businessmen from the city where invited to discuss integration. The first business targeted for integration was a restaurant whose owner, the largest and most influential in town, did not attend the meeting. Mr. Andrews sat in the middle of the restaurant to be served and waited until he was served. The restaurant became integrated after this incident. Unfortunately with integration came a decline in the community. The influx of chain restaurants and grocery stores, increased educational opportunities outside of the city, and the decline of the railroad and passenger services aided in the decline. During this time the churches continued to be vital and meaningful centers for the community.
The collection contains thirty-six separate oral history interviews, video tapes, slides, photographs, and written histories documenting the history of the Black community of Kingsville. Slides and photographs contain images of events, people, businesses, and houses of the Black community. Materials created from this collection for an exhibit at the Conner Museum are included. Complementing this collection is a three volume manuscript by Dan Eggleston on the Quarters and documents left by Hosea Bush about the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, a Black union of railroad workers.
Arranged into Series: Series I: Oral Histories Series II: Photos Sub-Series A: Conner Museum Exhibit Materials Sub-Series B: General Kingsville Sub-Series C: Slides Series III: Documents Series IV: Multi-Media
South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Open for Research
Permission to publish, reproduce, distribute, or use by any and all other current or future developed methods or procedures must be obtained in writing from South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.
Kingsville Black Community Collection, A1981-049.XXXX; A1989-026.XXXX; A1989-028.XXXX; A1997-021.XXXX, South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
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A1981-049 – Paul C. Palmer,A1989-026 – Gene Brooks,A1989-028 – Conner Museum,A1997-021 – Lois Lott Craig
Original processors for A1981-049, A1989-026, A1989-028, and A1997-021 are unknown. In 2017 Matthew Tallant reorganized the collection, input records into the database and created the finding aid. Daniel Thacker encoded the EAD document.