HomeMy WebLinkAboutShall We Overcome Our Racial Divide n the night Jim Reddick, Louis
Whitehead and George Johnson,
all cellmates in Bryan city jail,
were lynched on a remote stretch
of Boonville Road, the Parker sis-
ters were entertaining their visiting out -of-
town friends on the verandas and lawn of their
spacious home near the downtown.
Their party was, by all accounts, a brilliant
social affair. Milton Parker, one of Bryan's
0
U most prominent and wealthy residents, appar-
0 .
ently spared no expense for his daughters'
guests. Music, dancing and conversation
abounded, with "ices and salads temptingly
served," while the sounds of Herb's Light
RActik.L
Guard from Houston drifted through on the
warm June evening.
Meanwhile, about 12 blocks away, a mob
of 100 residents of Brazos, Grimes and
Madison counties who were "armed to the
....-0 - DI te eth," smashed the locks of the city jail doors
an d hauled out Reddick, Whitehead and
Jo hnson. All three were black, and all were
IDE? accused of raping or assaulting white women
in separate and confusing circumstances. The
three were loaded onto a wagon, dragged out
to the edge of Carter Creek — just east of
where FM 158 intersects with Boonville Road
C AN WE BRIDGE THE GULF today — and hanged from separate limbs of
the same Tree by the light of an enormous
bonfire.
BETWEEN BLACKS AND WHITES But other than occupying space on the
same page of the next day's edition of The
IN BRYAN /COLLEGE STATION? Daily Eagle, the two events, of course, had
nothing to do with each other, and the Parker
sisters and the lynching victims had nothing
to do with each other.
Thar is just the point. Despite their geo-
BY CINDY NEVELS graphic nearness, the Parker sisters and the
lynching victims lived in two different>
-••411. 8 INSITh /FrrtrtIMu 1997
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worlds that had almost nothing M.. change, we citizens still
in common. One world was. stand on opposite sides of a
white; the ocher, black. In one racial chasm, visible in near -
world were wealth, power, ly every aspect of our lives —
access and privilege; in the '• where we work or go to
other, poverty, powerlessness, school, where we live, where
desperate need and coral exclu- we shop, where we play,
Sion. . where we worship.
That was 1896, the same / "There are those who say
year the U.S. Supreme Court, 7 we have no problems, who
in Plersy r: Ferguson, instituted i t don't even realize rhere is
the "separate but equal" doc- ; J another Brazos County," says
trine, driving a deep and '
b P the Rev. Maurice Green. "IE
wounding wedge in race rela- you live on one side of Brazos
dons from which the nation County, you see only one
has yet to recover. This article _ lifestyle." Green, who grew
will look at the rift as it has "".z, up in Bryan, is an assistant
played our in Brazos Counry,, `� *` bishop for his denomination,
focusing primarily on relations the Church of God in Chrisr,
between blacks and whites ry for an east - central region of
because it is here — rather Texas. "Bur if you go into
than in any other racial rela- another area of Brazos
tionship involving Hispanics County, you see a Locally dif-
or Asians — that the rifr is ferent world."
deepest and most enduring. "There is a fence up,
More than a cenrury lacer, there is a barrier, There is a
how well have these racial separation. There is a part of
wounds in Brazos Counry THEY WOULD COME IN THROUGH Brazos County that is in
healed? What is different in denial than there is a prob-
our area from a century ago, or A LITTLE GATE THAT WAS AT THE END lem existing in our world,
25 y ears ago, or even to years ZONE AND OUT OF THE SEA OF and we choose to overlook it
back? How do African- or choose to look rhe other
American and Anglo residents WHITES AT ANY OF THE GAMES, YOU way. And as long as ir's not
of Brazos County compare with in your backyard, or at your
one another, and how well do COULD ALWAYS SEE TWO LITTLE BLACK front door, then we can eas-
we understand and ger along DOTS ily wish it away. And that's
with each other? ' unfortunate."
And how far and how much And yet because he is a
have we put behind us our — ELLA DONOVAN pasror, Green, whose deep,
sometimes violent, often sad Retired Bryan schoolteacher whose father and uncle were once resonant voice rolls like soft
and usually embarrassing his the only blacks allowed to attend Texas A &M football games thunder, would also be the
Cory of racial division? first to say that there is
ample cause for hope. Orhers join him in his optimism for the
I nrerviews with more Than 50 local African - American, future. While some point ro significant change going on right
Anglo and Hispanic residents, as well as examinations now in places of influence — such as city government, civic and
of U.S. Census data and other statistics reveal a county neighborhood organizarions, and a possible new role that Texas
chat, like the rest of the nation, has undergone enormous A &M Universiry may play in the community — Green and
change in race relations. Here, as elsewhere, civil rights many others point to the largely unfulfilled bur nonetheless
laws have dramatically altered the landscape, at least on enormous potential of the church communiry to bring about
the surface, and opened opportunities that African- Americans true racial healing.
a generarion or two ago could never have foreseen except in "Let's address the problems we have in Brazos County," Green
fantasy. argues. "Let's take care of it. Let's eliminate it. We're intelligent
Yet those same interviews and statistics reveal a troubling pic- enough to sir down ar rhe table and get it done. We shouldn't
cure of a profound and lingering schism in our midst. Much evi- have the problems we're having now in 1996. There should not
dente suggests that beneath all the political and insrirurional be two cities [of Bryan]; There should not be two [Brazos] coun-
10 /NSITEIFrrs::unnr 1997
WHITE BLACK HISPANIC
Median family income
Texas $35,080 $20,613 $20,121
Brazos County $35,635 $14,404 $21,157
% Unemployment
ries. ... One of die greatest things we can Texas 5.8 13.4 10.9
do is heal together. We realize we have a Brazos County 4.6 15.4 7.6
% Holding
lot of wounds, age -old wounds, that we Managerial /Prof. Jobs
can heal. Is ours to do." Texas 29.0 17.2 13.4
Brazos County 34.5 15.8 14.6
WHERE WE'VE BEEN % Families Below
ppil understand race relations Poverty Line
in Brazos County today Texas 10.2 27.6 29.7
requires a shorn history ght Brazos County 9.1 39.6 25.7
son. And for that, you might % High School
sit down and have coffee Graduates
some morning with Ella Texas 76.2 66.1 44.6 —
Donovan, a call, elegant and gracious for- Brazos County 85.1 59.6 48.2
mer schoolteacher who lives in a Bryan Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 Census
neighborhood called Freedman Town.
Freedman Town is the county's first in the city limits were allowed co live in idents who lived in large and spacious
black neighborhood. The name has lin- one place, and one place only: a three - homes needed cooks, maids, laundresses
gored through the years like a haunting; block -by- three- block area next to the city and gardeners.
a persistent memory of unfulfilled hope. cemetery. Thar is the same reason for the location
Nor on any map, and largely unknown Home to the "freedmen" of Bryan, as of College Station's largest African -
now among white residents of Bryan, the the former slaves were known for some American neighborhoods. College Hills,
name itself is an evocation; a conjuring years after the Civil War, the neighbor- near the intersection of University Drive
Of a rime past, when enslaved residents hood also was locared conveniently wirhin and Texas Avenue, was home to the maids
of Brazos County who had been sec free walking distance of what is now the Bryan and laborers for the college professors'
and who wanted CO continue to live with- Hisroric District. There wealthy white res- homes built nearby in East Gare in M A R K E T P L the P L A C. ]
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Bryan, 1501 Ftdl 2818 • College Station
I N.SIJ 1 /I rnRtiARv 1997 1 1
s;,
i
1930s. The Southgate area =."'''''''''''''- ` _ to attend football games
developed in the 1910s and were her father and uncle,
1950s in response co domesric the football coach at Kemp
work available in the neighbor - �r' High.
hood along George Bush Drive, ' They would come in
as well as custodial work ar through a little gate that
Texas A &M. r ' was ar the end zone, and out
Much has not changed. To zy of the sea of whirrs at any of
this day, the same lines of the games, you could always
demarcation between black and , see two little black dots,'
white neighborhoods set decades s h e says, laughing and shak-
ago reappear in current census L ing her head.
reports. While African - Racism then was virulent
Americans in Bryan gradually
read out to the east inro s and obvious. Any black res-
P , ident of the county who is
neighborhoods of Candy Hill " older than say, 40, can tell
and Easr Park, and to the west bitter vales of exclusion and
into what is now Carver -Kemp humiliation. Women were
and North Bryan, they moved nor allowed m try on clothes
inro only a few areas south of in department scores or to
William Joel Bryan Parkway. return or exchange them if
And in College Station, the they did nor fir. Hamburgers
black neighborhoods remain from the Dairy Queen had to
basically where they were 50 41 DON T THINK GOVERNMENT CAN be bought through a back
years ago. HEAL ANY WOUNDS THAT PEOPLE HAVE door and eaten outside.
As the 1990 derailed census "Whites Only signs were
tracts show, historically white BUT CERTAINLY GOVERNMENT CAN SET standard decorations of any
neighborhoods in Bryan and public doorway or waiting
College Station remain over- AN EXAMPLE., room.
whelmingly white. And while "It put a bitter taste in
Hispanics can be found in vir- — LONNIE STABLER people's mouths," recalls
wally every neighborhood of Green, 48, whose father and
the two cities, the census shows Bryan mayo grandfather grew up in
many neighborhoods with no Bryan. "I don't think a lot of
black residents at all. [white] people meant any harm, as much as They were jusr reared
that way. Ir was a way of life. We were inferior, and that's the
B ut back to Freedman Town and ro Ella Donovan, who way they perceived black people.... All of those things that were
was born in 1929, though you would never guess it in place brought about a negative thought about the powers who
from her youthful air. Slim and stylish down ro her were in place, who could have easily brought about a uniting of
gold- colored sandals, Donovan can rell 100 or more peoples instead."
stories of what it was like ro grow up in Bryan's old- School integration came late to the area — and only by fire
est black neighborhood. or court order. College Station schools were forced to inregrare
Her father, R.C. Neal, was principal of the ciry's all -black almost overnight in 1966_ when a fire of mysterious origin
Kemp High School for 28 years until his retirement in 1958. destroyed the all -black Lincoln High School on Holleman Drive.
The city's newest elementary school on Martin Luther King Jr. Bryan schools succumbed at lasr in 1971 after a 10 -year legal
Street is named for him. battle involving federal court orders, and was among the last dis-
Donovan remembers a close -knit community of hard- working rricts in the nation to inregrare fully.
parents who cared for one anorher's children and depended on Until the 1970s, other than a handful of black -owned busi-
each other for support and help of all kinds; of street ball games nesses and some reaching jobs in segregated schools, most of the
before there were any city parks where black children could play; jobs available for African Americans were back- breaking labor in
of a quirky county sheriff who terrorized the neighborhood by corron fields near the Brazos River, farming Their own plots or
galloping through on horseback long after other law enforcement sharecropping other people's l,uul, custodial and laundry work on
officials had swirched co automobiles. the Texas A &M campus, or domestic work in white people's
In chose days, African Americans were nor allowed on the cam - homes.
pus of Texas A &M except as laborers. The only blacks permitted As many residents recall — and rheir recollections are con -
12 /NS /TL-7Frmiumty 1997
firmed by census data — not even score Sel'l'ing the Bmzos Valley
clerk jobs or restaurant work was available
very widely until the 1970s, and it wasn't
until the 1980s and into the 1990s that a Health care especially for you.
scattering of African Americans holding
professional and managerial jobs appeared.
Only in the past decade have the two
Medical specialties at the
school districts made serious efforts to tic
Scott & White Clinic,
recruit minority Faulty, and persistent College Station, include:
complaints still focus on the low numbers •Allergy
of black public school Teachers. • Audiology
The result, as scores of residents resti- • Cardiology
• Dermatology
tied, is that many of Brazos County's best a Family Practice
b young and brightest black residents — 4 a
} o Gastroenterology of whom might have served as badly ... ' ' ,i, • General Surgery
needed role models and who might have
• • Health Education
played a significant role in the growth of " • Hypertension
the black community — have left. Many / , - • Internal Medicine
black residents who had strong aspirations, r Mental Health Services
ability or skills had to move away from the •. •= € ,. ` • Nephrology
county to find good jobs, leaving behind 1'' • Neurology
a persistently poor and, in terms of pope- +i ' : Obstetrics and Gynecology
Occupational Medicine
larion growth, stagnant community that Ophthalmology
was
quickly our paced
1 Y 1 by } a burgeoning, • _ ` ` • Orthopedic Surgery
white, upwardly mobile, college student- • Otolaryngology
centered populace. „ , , • Pediatric Dentistry
' l-t� • Pediatrics
C
ensus figures tell the srory: • Plastic Surgery
Ar rhe rime of the lynching, t ' 1 ` <_ • • Radiology
blacks outnumbered whites '''t • Speech Pathology
— 8,845 to about 8,800. Bur • Urgent Care
a cennu later, n 1 bout Alcohol and Drug Depen
blacks made up only about
dence Treatment Program
11 percent of the county population — Serving Scott & White Health Plan members
13,638 blacks compared ro 94,782 whines. along with all other Brazos Valley residents.
While many whites also lefr rown to
pursue careers, their exodus was compara- S Q_
tively smaller and had less of an impact on i SCOTT W I IITE
the community. Far more jobs were avail- ��11��// (JL
able for those whites who srayed, includ- & CLINIC, COLLEGE STATION
ing work in family businesses, new and 1600 University Drive East
existing industries, banking and govern- (409) 691 -3300 or (800) 299 -1212
ment — occuparions not widely available
for blacks until rhe last two decades.
"All the people I grew up with and Comprehensive, personalized, high quality health care.
went to school with have left because there _
weren't very many opportunities here," r i
says Lt. Larry Johnson, who, as chief of
BRYAN GOLF COURSE
criminal investigation, is rhe highest rank-
ing African American on the College
Station Police Department. "In order to 4 for s44*
realize Their goals, they had to move on."
Melt Pruitt, a retired school counselor, Mondays and Tuesdays Only
iesclu(tln�; hotktat•s zn d special woos)
saw the same pattern repeated in Bryan:
When Bryan students went to college or includes green f ees and cart
when they graduated from high school, for two players
they went to where they could Find work. otter expires February 28. 199
Many of them went to Houston, many of 'Must 17tesent col ipon to Receive. Discount
then went to Dallas, or ro California, > I 823-0126 [r1
Please see RACE. page 18 , A•,n'sn Golf
206 West villa Maria (Northwest ii detsection 01 South College Avenue and villa Marini
L J
/NSITE /Feoeunity 1997 13
i Y c,., , 'r1 -:'<a RACE continued _ Iron/ page 13
a�� FwiS+ =��C;t �'
ti01.7gC c3=i: •- 1 Philadelphia, New York. Some of them
a.;
..-=.4 `"":-fit;, C O j have gottten excellent jobs."
'"%isq,!`y I .5r c Since 1990, local governments have
-4" > h?.-i. made str concerted efforts co recruit
Y' • ,*0:`;~. � P roducts
l l� ; t , > LS�._ t( � . uhdusrry and manufacturing jobs co the
( +, area through the creation of the join(
• •
1 4 "•'' Y' ` , Bryan /College Station Economic
c7��
4,,, � c
r� 4r tg A Development Corp. Until recently, corn-
�i5
.,hitif' + }s ,latent and dependency on Texas ACM
.,. ,
,l!,�:;, } allowed the areas economy ro rest on the
�. si •`•a5s'
: 'fi r • - ;z , Garden shoulders of an instinlcion that had been
, `�3 3 ' " '� all -white and all -male for most of its his-
... ''r�yy
� rot }. Jobs held by African - Americans there r, t, ,t,, 41:,
�, a < T ,A p.
S how still rend be overwhelmingly low -
_ ,,,t ing and menial, and its = 10,000 sntdents •
ents
,C=i yAirtt� ..c.74. comprise a highly competirive wort: force
., ; r %; �4,: in the surrounding community. z`�Y'1f;'' I "Blacks were forced to compete with
5 �j4 •
,i :'.;;, ,•t.J± saiden[s for jobs," says Dale Marsico, who •
`.,r r Y.,. . recently moved to Washington, D.C., after
" T ,I1 � a 22 -year stint as head of the Brazos Valley
t r ��� Community Arrion Agency. "They're corn-
is t:�s `ter % 3 •
..
a peting with someone ger[ing a college
:•ii.4'!0 _ ;.". degree, who is trying to put their husband
+^ .3 : f, sue•;;_ through school, or who is getting a mas-
gi.' . .
Y y ,, ter's degree and is working part time.
. :tom �
, ., ; 3 c'�' �i . r` You've got this huge migrant worker pop-
e,, ; >,� �s,r -5 ;; March 1 -2 , 1997
+d ,K•.,�`-�,:.yn; ularion that comes in with good skills, dri-
",`' • `W�' Saturday 10-6 wing that price down.
§`.11$7:, Sk : ' Some [black] high school kid gets out
,a � ;�,^,, • >a °5 Sunday 12-5 for rhe summer and wants to go to work for
•,t..M, ?•S s [fast-food resrwranrs]. People will look ar
t',: "� "' The Brazos Center the 17- year -old kid who has no work hisco-
', > , 2. 4 ry, and they've also got a 20- year -old A &M
y14r co - � sophomore. Who are rhey going to pick ?"
7 2 4 y BC 01-IBA WHERE WE ARE NOW
1 :3 �eoli : S5 arsico, who is white,
argues that racism itself
y 4-t, rt • G 1: j *,Siff
t. ar �r; Call 846 -1420 plays a small role today in
i' 7;; =� rhe difficulties many of
rS34. Sf:F
` :'
'- for more information the county's black tesi-
F fir'e' denrs experience. And in
fact, all African - Americans interviewed
WE'RE MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION! experienced racist the
open vitriol of 25 or 30 years ago has
CLASSIC REALTY Better I largely disappeared.
INC. 1 I aV Homes,,, I "Really what you still see are the ves-
CALL 846 -8844 • FP:‘ tiges of segregation," says Brazos County
O O Commissioner Carey Cawley, who also
served as head of the local chapter of the
In early February our new address will be:
National Association for the Advancement
Chimney Hill Retail Plaza
o I • Chimney Hill H ilton of Colored People until rwo years ago. Old
cc Plaza . rn H 1 habits die hard, he says, and what was
701 University Dr. East Suite 405 - inculcated over centuries hasn't been wiped
ui College Station UNIVERSITY DRIVE N out by a few decades of relarive freedom:
Conte see us for all your real estate needs! 1 " There 'sno one [white person] our here say -
18 INS!TEIPtbitunity 1997
. ..,, . . . . ._.... . _.. _
. 1 r .
, , : , . . . r :
,...., _ .
, . _(..: .
,,,,.
,,,,,,,,,,..
..
, ...:,,,..
lik
ing, 'Here you have to do this, s spring showed that more than
or you can't do that.' But this 70 percent of the residents
is what you've been used to owned their own home.
doing, and this is the way it's = Countywide census figures
been, and no one's giving you show the majority of black
a sense of hope of it being dif- ,it families — 60 percent — are
fercnr. ' _ `. above the poverty line.
What remains is the disas- Stereotype: Most black
trots harvest of racial division: households receive at least
huge economic disparity, pro- some public assistance, or
found social separation, and : welfare. Truth: The majority
persistent stereotypes held by of African Americans in
both blacks and whites that Brazos County receive no wel-
can keep even those who work fare at all. Figures from the
with each other daily from state Department of Human
understanding one another. Resources and the U.S. Census
"America, and I'm not just Bureau indicate than as many
speaking of Brazos County, has as 70 percent of black resi-
not, in the words of Martin dents do not receive food
Luther King, fulfilled its dream stamps, Aid to Families with
or lived up to its potential," Dependent Children, or other
says Jeffery Bailey Jr., who public assistance.
grew up in Benchley and, after Lt. Johnson is also the
a stint in the military, returned THIS GUY [A STORE EMPLOYEE] IS city's first African American
to Brazos County in the early JUST FOLLOWING ME AROUND. WAS IT to hold elective office as a
1970s to launch a successful member of the school board.
crocking company. BECAUSE I'M BLACK? I THINK SO. ... More than once he has been
"And there's ample blame mistaken for a shoplifter.
to go around, so we don't have THOSE KINDS OF THINGS HAPPEN. Repeating similar stories
to point fingers. A lot of WHEN I TALK TO MY WHITE FRIENDS told by many African
blacks have not lived up to Americans, Johnson says a fel-
their capabilities, their poren- HERE ABOUT THAT THEY HAVE A HARD low police officer who worked
tial. And a whole lot of whites as a security guard in his off -
have not done what they could TIME UNDERSTANDING THAT. You CAN duty hours once told him that
— morally or financially." GET MAD ABOUT IT, BUT YOU'D JUST BE a score owner had alerted
security after Johnson walked
0 ne of the major MAD ALL THE TIME, AND BE ALL ANGRY in the store because he had
causes of divi- assumed Johnson was there
sion, as Bailey ABOUT EVERYTHING. only c steal. Then there was
and many others the time when he went book -
pointed out, are — LT. LARRY JOHNSON br
poisonous "This guy la store employ -
assumptions that both blacks Chief detective, College Station Police Departmen eel is just following me
and whites believe about one around. Was it because I'm
anorher. Here's what census data, crime reports, state agencies and black? I think so. Finally, after several minutes of this, with this
taw enforcement officials say about the truth behind a few stereo- guy hiding behind the shelves and trying to follow me, I said,
types about blacks: 'Sir, if you're going to follow me, why don't you help me find
Stereotype: Most of those arrested in our area for the most what I'm looking for ?'
violent crimes are black. Truth: Whites and Hispanics arrest- "He goes, 'Oh, I wasn't following you.' Well he'd been every-
ed in Brazos County for violent crimes in 1995 outnumbered where I'd been for the lase 10 minutes. After a while I had played
blacks rwo to one, according to state police reports. games with him; you know, 1'd go this way and see if he'd come
Stereotype: Most of those who live in predominantly black too. It was obvious that he had been following me. And all I had
neighborhoods are poor and do not own their homes. Truth: done was walk in through the door. Those kinds of things hap-
An extensive survey by the neighborhood revitalization group, pen. When I talk to my white friends here about that, they have
Project Unity, of the vast Carver -Kemp area in North Bryan last a hard time understanding that. You can ger mad about it,
INSf1'E /Fi wuiAKY 1997 19
CHARLES C. SCHROEPPEL, O.D. P.C. but you'd just be mad all the rime, and
Doctor of Optometry be all angry about everything."
505 University Dr. East, Suite 101 A woman from North Bryan who was.
College Station, Texas 77840 the first African American to be hired as
a secretary in her department at Texas
Most Serving A&M was unprepared for the stereotyping
Insurance The Brazos she encounrered front fellow employees
Plans t " Valley For when she started' work there several years
Accepted Over ago.
"I didn't think anybody had a problem
--`-''V, 19 Years [with racial stereotypes] because I never
CALL 846-0377 FOR APPOINTMENT experienced it before," says the women,
MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY who is single, and did not want to be iden-
rifled. "I have to go out of my way to ler
We Have VERY COMPETITIVE PRICES On All Types these people know that no, 1 don't have
of Contact Lenses — Tinted, Opaque Colors, i four or five children; yes, I did graduate
Disposable, Toric, Gas Permeable, Etc. from high school; I didn't go to the uni-
versity but I did go to business school; and
WE BEAT HMO PRICES ON CONTACT LENSES I can read and write.
CALL FOR OUR CURRENT SPECIALS "And I've seen people who I would say
VISA ; Mc. rcord
111.1.111 WHILE THEY LAST don't have as much going for them as I
do, but they don't have a problem [with
stereotypes) because they're white."
conta 1 i E 8, TOTAL COST
C For Llglht or 1 lfter $40 Mail -In debate tit George Beckworth, an um i-
es Available able former college baseball
Dark E'i 20 More ▪ 12 Pair (4 Multipacs) Freshlook Disposable
For $ - Clear Contact Lenses By Wesley-lessen
player and neighborhood
activist who spends a great
• Exam, Follow -up & FREE Care Kit deal of time among youngsters
in the Carver -Kemp area,
would be the first to say char whites do
_ in face incur problems with stereotypes
o Q�i l [�O Binford Insect Control the African eCt ite s
somecies tend of
O W OQ
° 0 , O I Complete MEMBER racism and intentional discrimination in
CON Pest & Termite cases where there may have been no actu-
•,NS a CONTRO( NATIONAL al ill - will.
I / C ontrol PEST ASSOCIATION "A for of the black kids that go into
*76 i the classroom, they're already thinking,
'I'm not supposed co like white people.'
Edward H. Binford It's not the fact that they don't really like
This area's pest control ENTOMOLOGIST white people, it's that they hear their par-
specialist for 50 years ents at home, mad and saying all this scuff.
822 -5524 • 1224 S. COLLEGE AVENUE • BRYAN Then [after] the first thing that happens
in class, rhey'll say, Is she a racist because
she don't like me ? "'
And char preoccupation with possible
racism, says Ronnie Jackson, youth services
coordinator for the ciry of Bryan, is per-
' haps just as destructive as the real thing,
• and ultimarely just as divisive.
"Primarily for African Americans,
News /Sports/Talk 1150 AM 2 l everything is abour race," says ,Jackson,
who grew up in La Marque, a small town
k' t ' between Galveston and Houston, and
S P O S L "LIVE? arrived here about eight years ago. "It's
with hard for us co see anything happening that
''{ isn't somewhere, in some kind of way, asso-
� 1
'' Chip Howard dared with race. For white Americans,
5 °00 - 7'�® p.m. a y they don't have char orientation, so very
20 INSITE /Fettitunuy 1997
Few things are about race. * 6
One of the things that has to happen is that
k have CO r educe this preoccupation with race to 13i'i clg iii gUlac s p p gap
some extent, and whines have to increase their aware -
■ ness of race, and avoid their denial about race, so we , Si x steps people of all races
can talk about ic."
can take to promote healing
T hat vast economic disparity exisrs here is
beyond doubt. The 1990 census data
shows, for example, the median income Despite the complexity of race relations and the profound nature
of black families in Brazos County is less of our racial wounds, there is a number of commonplace, every -
than half that of whites. Abour 40 per- day actions ordinary people can take co bridge the gap. Everyone,
cent of local black Families are b elow the not just employers, school or city or law enforcement officials, leg -
poverty line, compared with about 9 percent of white islators or policy makers, has a part to play to hasten the healing.
families. While 35 percent of Anglo workers hold Here are some suggestions offered by Brazos County residents:
professional or managerial jobs, only 16 percent of
African Americans are employed at similar levels. 1. Take the time to get to know someone
And while a similar division exists nationally, it
is wider in Brazos County. Census figures show that of another race:
in just about every measure of socioeconomic well- Jeffery Bailey, trucking company owner: "You'd be surprised
being, African Americans here fare worse than how many white people will say they know a black man, and they
African Americans in the state of Texas as a whole don't know him at all, because they only know him in a work sit -
and in the nation as a whole. These measures include uation, or in passing."
median family income, unemploymenr, percent of The Rev. Maurice Green, pastor: "Let's talk. Let's just sit
families below the poverty line, high school gradua- down and talk. Get to know me. You'll find I'm an interesting
Lion rares and the number holding professional and person. We may not be on the same economic level, but if we can
managerial jobs. get together and communicate- and find out our likes and dislikes
For example, according to the 1990 census, the — what kind of food do you like, where do you come from, or
median income for Brazos County's black families whatever — we can learn something abour each ocher."
was $14,400; for black families statewide, the
median income stood at $20,613. Meanwhile, for 2. Invite a family of another race over for
whites the situation was reversed. Sratewide medi-
an family income was $35,080; in Brazos County, dinner:
it was higher, $35,635. Another way ro look at it Rodney McFadden, cleaning business owner: "It's nice to
is that black families in the state of Texas as a reach out. We have friends who have invited us over for dinner,
whole earned a median income that is about 58 and we turned around and invited them to our home, and we've
percent of what white families earned, but in had a great time with one another. That's the only way you're
Brazos County they earned only 40 percent of what going to get to know a person, to really get the feel of a person,
white families earned. is to invite them into your home."
You can see a similar disparity in unemployment Carolyn Nobles, Brazos County extension agent: 'It's not as
figures. The 1990 census shows an unemployment different as you'd think (ro be in the home of someone of anorh-
rate for Brazos County blacks at 15.4 percent, tom er race). We all like nice Things. We all like to eat, we all wear
pared with a statewide unemployment rare for blacks clothes. We have couches to sit on televisions, VCRs. I think we'd
of 13.4 percent. At the same rime, however, the all be amazed at how alike we really are — more than how differ -
unemployment rare for whites in Brazos County was ent we are.
4.6 percent, compared to a white statewide rate of
5.8 percent. 3. Ditch the stereotypes, and make a sin -
Hispanic residents, who have been pouring into cere attempt to see someone of another race
the county since 1970, and Asians, who began
appearing in significant numbers in the 1980 census as a unique individual:
reports, fare buret- in most categories in our county Carol McFadden, former Bryan school board member:
rhan do African Americans, according CO the 1990 "We're all carrying around a lot of old baggage, a lot of miscon-
census. ceptions about each other."
And nowhere in the county is char economic gap Ella Donovan, former schoolteacher: "Thar is one of the
wider than in the census tract on the southern bor- main problems with all of us — when you don't know somebody,
der of Texas A &M Universiry. Abour six blocks you have a tendency to be in the negative about them."
south of Kyle Field is the privately owned Carolyn Nobles: "[Blacks] have a serious prejudice too, and
Southgate Apartments and a neighboring black it's because of our history, of looking at the white man as [there]
community. Residents here are mostly retired just to do me in. 'IIe doesn't care if I succeed,' or He wants to
sharecroppers, custodians ar Texas A &M and keep me down' — I get so sick of hearing char. ... If I had >-
domestic workers, and their children and
!NStTGFrukuakY 1997 21
thought that, I wouldn't be where I am today. ... It's a two -way grandchildren. Census figures suggest and city offi-
rhing. We both need CO change our mentality." cials agree that possibly the most concentrated and
Lonnie Stabler, Bryan mayor: You basically have to forget debilitating poverty in the entire county can be
what you know, you have to forger what you've been taught, and found here.
you have to try to put yourself in their situation and their place and In this predominantly black neighborhood, the
sometimes it's difficult, I don't know that I always do it, but I try," median annual family income is $7,000. Seventy-
seven percent of the black residents are below the
4. Show sensitivity and courtesy about say- poverty line. Residents living in the nearby, large-
ly white neighborhood bordering George Bush
in or displaying things that can cause some- Drive, recently designated as "College Station
one of another race intense discomfort: The Sourhside Historic Area," have a median family
Confederate flag, for example, is a symbol to income of X540,000, well above the area's median for
whites.
many African Americans of a slave society, and Sunny Nash, a writer and photographer who
grew up in one of Bryan's most dilapidated neigh -
its display can cause deep resentment and pain.
Gerome Bonner, Texas A &M engineering student: "Self -seg- borhoods, Candy Hill, recently published a mem-
regation is not just the non - minorities' fault, it's the minorities' fault oir of her childhood, Big Ildvmn/u Didn't Shop at
also. At lunch we eat with ourselves. But it's real hard to sit and 1l ✓ooleaort /J'1. Several years ago she paid a visit to an
eat lunch by someone with a Confederate flag on the back of their aspiring poet who lived in Southgate and who
T- shirt, that says, The South will rise again.' There's a whole lot of wanted Nash to evaluate her writing. Nash was
that going on, and it's hard for us to just smile and eat with them appalled at the environment in which this woman
and be happy -go -lucky all the time.... You see it on bumper stick- lived.
ers. It's really a problem. It's just dividing, big - time." "I don't know how in the world she could write,"
she recalls, "with all that noise, and babies crying,
and people screaming obscenities at each other, and
5. If you are white, take the time to read a j ust hanging out all over the place, cars going up
book about race relations, or magazines that and down. When I got our there, I was afraid to get
highlight the accomplishments and points of out of my car. It's like North Bryan — they have
been conditioned to have nothing, and when condi-
view of African- Americans and Hispanics: cloning goes through generations, it gets stronger.
Carolyn Nobles: "If a person really wants to change, they're And when they've been conditioned to have nothing,
going to do something on their own to improve their knowledge. and have no hope of ever having anything, they set -
If I really want to change my attitude about a person, I'm going to rle. They settle for that situation."
start be either adopting a friend who is nor like me, or I'm going
to read literature, and literature that's more factual and not just arsico agrees: "If you look at Brazos
something that sells.... Buy a black Enterprise magazine. You'd be County, you will find that many of
amazed at businesses that blacks have started or been in, or [who the people who are on the lower
are] CEOs. We never see that part of our society." income levels are the descendants of
individuals who were engaged in
6. Visit a church attended primarily by agriculture or very difficult physical
labor that's no longer required. So what do they do?
people of a different race: What can they do? They have no skills, and we're
Carolyn Nobles: "Make that first effort. Go to a black church living with that.
if you've never been before." Most of the people I met who used to be share -
Rick Larsen, attorney: "Cross those lines to worship at your croppers worked a hell of a lot harder than other
brother's congregation. There's huge power [for reconciliation and people I knew, but their jobs were made obsolete.
friendship] in that. Huge power." ... Set chose people loose from their economic base
Maurice Green: "Churches can fellowship together. One time I without any transition — that's what were trying
took my congregation to Aldersgate [United Methodist Church], to cope with and crying to find our way around all
and my choir. We went in, and I ministered. ... We have a for of this time.
pastors [of different races] who involve themselves in a prayer group, "We're living with the fact that this system has
but unfortunately it doesn't filter into the churches, where we could been created, and now ir's economic, and they can't
come together in a mass fellowship." find a way out."
Dr. Marilyn Kern - Foxworth, journalism professor: "When I Nash is flooded with discouragement whenever
wake up in the year 2000, and I go to church and there are a lot of she comes home from California to visit her Bryan
white people in my church, or I go to a whine church and there a neighborhood, despite some physical improvements
lot of black people there, [if] we have a for of little microcosms of in housing conditions and in the general appearance
Aldersgate all over the city, that's when well know were at the level of the area. As in countless cities across the nation,
we want to be. That's one way of gauging how far we've really cone."
from St. Petersburg to Pittsburgh to couch- central
– Cindy Neeelt Los Angeles, economic and
b psychological wounds
22 INSITEIPeak 1997
£ Y:
k
A v
inflicted on this community `'. to use toward building a coin-
generations ago have neve, .1, munity center in her long -
healed. They continue to fes- , neglected neighborhood.
ter, carrying over from one y, 1 Casrle Heights sits on the
generation to another. d " ., far eastern edge of the city of
"I don't believe people's . ' . Bryan, a lone outpost divided
lives have really and truly from the rest on the city by
improved," she says. "People Highway 6. This is a neigh -
who live in the Candy Hill _ borhood of more than 300
neighborhood, people who live j residents who made do with
in north Bryan, on the west f �,� '• v " ? outhouses until the early
°
side or the east side, or in • s � ; 1970s when the city extend -
some of the outlying areas like * t . j., ed sewer lines. Until then,
the Castle Heights area, their = v j municipal services consisted
lives have not improved rhac i ` ,, of a city truck that came
much. Their incomes have nor . 1 i through regularly to pour
kept up with everybody else's "" `'' 'k• lime down everyone's outdoor
incomes. There are still very toilers.
few opportunities here for When White returned to
young black people. her childhood home last year
"I think a lot of them have after 26 years of traveling the
come to the conclusion that if j world with her military bus -
there's no opportunity for band, she was outraged. The
them, then why even try! ... ` BLACKS WERE FORCED TO COlMI- outhouses were gone, the
The key word to the whole streets had been paved, but lit -
thing of survival is hope. If PETE WITH STUDENTS FOR JOBS. ... tle else in the virtually 100
you have hope that you can S OME [BLACK] HIGH SCHOOL KID GETS percent African American
survive, then you will make a neighborhood had changed.
way to survive, because you OUT FOR THE SUMMER AND WANTS TO And after having seen what life
have some kind of light some- was like beyond the borders of
where down the road. You can GO TO WORK FOR [FAST -FOOD RESTAU- Brazos County, White decided
see it, you know where you're RANTS] . PEOPLE WILL LOOK AT THE ro speak up. That's putting it
going. mildly.
'
But when the light is our, 17 YEAR -OLD KID WHO HAS NO WORK Although the city was
and the hope is gone, then AND THEY ALSO GOT A eventually responsive to
HISTORY
people just don't try anymore. many of her concerns, it was
They actually give up. They 2O -YEAR -OLD A &M SOPHOMORE. not without something of a
throw up borh their hands, fight on her parr. Her
they'll do anything. They WHO ARE THEY GOING TO PICK? 1 weapons were old city maps,
don't care about other people's historical facts and statistics
property, because they don't -DALE MARSICO of all kinds. One of her first
have any; they don't feel like projecrs was to rake an exren-
they'll ever have any. They Former head, Brazos Valley Community Action Agency sive survey of the neighbor -
don'r care about their physical hood co find our exactly how
bodies, because rhey take drugs, they drink — why try to take many residents lived there, the racial mix, the income levels,
care of the body, why try to do anything right if none of rhac is the jobs they hold, and so forth.
going co make your life better ?" When I go in [to speak with city officials]," she told a class
of Texas A &M sociology undergraduates who took a field trip
WHERE WE'RE HEADED our ro meet her last fall, "I'm loaded for bear."
First she asked for sidewalks. Then she wanted the waisr -high
o understand where Brazos County could be headed, con- weeds along the roadways and empty lots cut. Next it was park
T sider spending time some afternoon in the Castle 1-Ieights maintenance. Finally, she asked for the Brazos Transit System bus
Park with Caroline Whire, a cheerful, self - described route to be extended to the far east end of Castle I-leights. That's
"hell - raiser" with a deep and throaty laugh, who landed where transir officials drew the line.
a $25,000 federal Community Development Block Grant They cold her no way — the far end of Casrle Heights was
INStTEIFrnnuARv 1 997 23
■
outside the city limits. ' 7Iute j '51 the university system and its
came back with "yes way," and surrounding communities that
produced a 1955 plat of the - a will enable the expertise and
city that clearly showed all of " �' knowledge reaped from count-
Castle Heights inside the city less research projects and pro-
limits. , .
, grams co benefit the local area
"Then they explained ro me k directly.
that the roads were coo bad for
the trolley to come our here. I
said, 'Okay, then you're telling hat all this
me the school bus, die yellow means for
school bus that picks our kids race rela-
up, can go up and down all of 1[
�;.i � dons is that
these streets every day, and the the African
trolley can't because the trolley ., s A m e r i c a n
is more important to you than t -I community, which until now
the school kids ?' I G
11 = ' 1 1 has been bypassed by the
"They didn't like that, so l f ' explosive growth of the rest
ex F ve tS
they gave me some explana- f> 4.6;71: x; of the county, may have an
Lion why the trolley needs to `1 5 fi unprecedented opportunity to
do this and die trolley needs 3 be heard and seen — to end
ro do that, and it all boiled '' what has been dubbed "the
down co a bunch of malarkey. invisibility factor," which
Bur now [Brazos] Transit ` WHEN I GO IN [TO SPEAK TO many readily concede has
comes out here, I think, every been partially self - inflicted
40 minutes." CITY OFFICIALS , I'M LOADED FOR through generational fear and
BEAR. deep feelings of intimidation.
A
c about the same "I don't think government
time White was can heal any wounds that peo-
discovering the — CAROLINE WHITE ple have, but certainly gov-
joys of neighbor-
hood activism,
Castle Heights community activist ernment can set an example,"
says Bryan Mayor Lonnie
another neighbor- Stabler.
hood -based group was raising its collective voice on the western "The doors are open now," says Ronnie Jackson, Bryan youth
end of the city. Project Unity, as the effort became known, is a services coordinator, who has repeatedly urged groups such as
partnership of community residents, government, charitable groups the NAACP and others, particularly church leaders, in the black
and businesses whose focus is ro revitalize the Carver -hemp area, community to overcome widespread disunity and historic reluc-
as well as provide leadership for similar efforts elsewhere in the Lance to make noise, to be persistent and active in pushing for
county. change. "This is a window of opportunity. If you don't do any -
Meanwhile, seismic shifts have occurred in local government thing, if you don't move on it, the door will close. Ir may be
in recent years. Among other changes, Bryan is finishing a grad- another 10 years before it will open again."
ual switch to single - member districts in both its school board and Others, however, argue that no matter how many governmen-
city council, enabling areas of the city that heretofore had no par- cal and institutional doors are open, and no matter how many
titular voice or representation to speak up. Three of the seven neighborhood activists push for revitalization of their communi-
members of city council are minorities — two blacks and one ty, real healing of racial division — of the "age -old wounds" of
Hispanic. which the Rev. Maurice Green spoke — will nor rake place until
College Station schools, in hiring its first black administrator, a significant number of people change Their attitudes about one
started at the cop with Superintendent Jinn Scales. Voters put another.
African American Larry Johnson on the school board in 1995, Carolyn Nobles, a county extension agent, often wonders if the
and recently Major Lynn Mcllhaney has held community meet- frequent invitations she receives to serve on various boards and
ings and open breakfasts in a deliberate attempt to solicit citizen commission are not in fact mere tokenism, rather than repre-
input. senting a rrue change of heart.
And, coincidentally, the new chancellor of the Texas A &M "If I come to you and say I really want you to be on this
University System, Barry Thompson, has created a "community board bur I haven't changed my attitudes or my image of you,
development initiative," a new attempt to build bridges between then we're still at square one, because it's just going through
24 1NSITE /Ftanumty 1997
the motions," she says. "God made all of Where • • •
us, and we're all made from the same
dust of the earth. How can one clump of i
lust think it's better than another ! 7 An Atmosphere Perfect to Create New Ideas?
lump ?" 4
A nd t he church community is ' , �; A Way to Escape
Brazos County's one best
�► '� Interrupting Phone Calls?
hope for changing those atti- !, 1 . .� I
lutes, Green says, echoing • o `
sentiments expressed by 1 AMeetingPlanner's
Best Friend?
many others. It's the one ! � `� •
1
place, he says, where deeply divided cit-
izens — whose perceptions and under- A Great Place
standing have been poisoned by stereo-
types, who have been embittered by eco- ' • nomic inequities and wounded by racism e to Meet
— can at last reconcile.
"The church is where it should hap-
pen," he says. "If it doesn't happen there, Your assignment is to plan theperfect business meeting, seminar, banquet or wedding.
the bit about love your neighbor, loving Allow us to attend to your every detail. Anticipating your needs. Eliminating the hassles.
one another, is all farce. ... If we're just Catering services offer tantalizing meals and delectable buffets, all based on your specifica-
going to church without an understand lions. Spacious one and two bedroom suites with iNL
ing of the needs of our neighbor that we
Gulf -view balcony feature separate living areas.
pass by on the side of the road, we Sparkling swimming pools, whirlpools and more 1 4
await your leisure.
become hypocrites. We're just going
through the motions." 1-800-231-6363 & CONFERENCE CENTER
Dr. Marilyn Kern - Foxworth, an as 6301? Seawall boulevard •Galveston, Texas i s
ciate professor of journalism at Texas
A &M, says she has seen true racial
',regress, up close and personal, ar
lldrrsgare United Methodist Church, The perfect
where substantial numbers of blacks,
whites, Hispanics and Asians worship
together regularly. It was particularly Valentine
evident, she said, during the funeral of
Trina Rigsby, a much -loved African
American librarian at the predominantly 1 f t .,.
white Brazos Christian School, who died
of cancer in September. YOU!
She had one of the most integrated ! v
funerals I've ever seen in my life," Kern- i t
Foxworth recalls. "It was one of the best. -
You had white people talking about how eg<aW�
good Trina was there were black people `'
there, and everyone saw her as a person." "" �
Green insists: The only thing thar -, . _
can really heal us is the church. Nor , �: • B/W 52551011
church in the sense of visible structures;
the church in the sense of the evangeli- • 5x7 "Movie Star" B/W Portrait
cal outreach of God to help fallen man. ,,. ,
If Christ doesn't do ir in you it's all
in vain. This is what Christ died for Ir s,
goes deeper than mere integration; we've � .
• •r•• :r• ,rc
gor integrated schools bur we still have
division. Call Gloria
"We can do it rogether. All we have to ! for more information
do is heal the hurt. ... But for whatever d, $46 -2174
eason, we all feel like it's not our respon- $
.,ibility. We have a serious problem. What 3601 E. 29th Street, Suite 11
are we going CO do about ir?" Tuts. -Fri. 9 -6, Sat. 9 -12
INS/TE!t utu_ARY 1997 25