Booker T Washington High School
Booker T Washington Elementary is the first HISD African American School renamed between 1911 and 1913 in honor of Booker T. Washington. During the time, it was the only school to be named after a living person. Booker T. Washington was admired by many and considered the wizard of Tuskegee. Therefore, when his name was presented to the school board, it was adopted without thought of its effect upon custom. The school's first principal was E. O. Smith.
Later, the Old Colored High School founded in 1893 located on San Felipe was renamed Booker T High School in 1928. The school’s first principal was Charles H. Atherton. The first student to graduate from the high school was Wright Mungin in 1896.
Booker T Washington
On April 5, 1856, Booker Taliaferro Washington was born into slavery on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia near Hale's Ford. His mother's name was Jane and his father was an unknown white man. Jane was the slave of James Burroughs.
The Civil War ended when Washington was nine years old. Washington recalls the day in his 1901 book Up from Slavery to the White House: As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom... Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper, the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading, we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying but fearing that she would never live to see." Jane immediately moved her family to West Virginia to join her husband Washington Ferguson.
When Washington was ten years old, he worked as a houseboy for a white family. He also worked in a salt furnace and coal mines to earn money to further his education. Washington attended and worked his way through Hampton Institute in 1862 at the age of 16. He later attended Wayland Seminary, Washington, DC for six months. After graduating, Washington returned to Hampton Institute and became a teacher. Former Union Brevet Brigadier General Sam Chapman Armstrong, Hampton Institute's President, recommend the 25-year-old Washington to head Tuskegee Institute in 1881. Washington modeled Tuskegee Institute after Armstrong's philosophy at Hampton Institute.
Washington was married to Fannie N. Smith, Olivia A. Davidson, and Margaret James Murray. He fathered three children, Portia M. Washington, Booker T. Washington Jr., and Ernest Davidson Washington. Washington credits his three wives for their contributions to the success of Tuskegee Institute. The success of Tuskegee Institute won Washington support amongst Colored leaders and northern white philanthropist especially Julius Rosenwald.
In 1895, during his Atlanta Compromise address at the Cotton States Exposition, Washington struck the keynotes of racial accommodationism: Cast down your buckets where you are. In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. Washington was an educator, author, orator, and adviser to United States Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
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It is important to tell our stories from our perspective. What I have realized is that no one perspective is the same. There is no wrong or right. Our experiences and environment divides us on seeing eye to eye on many things especially on racial issues. I had the pleasure and opportunity to participate and tour Fort Sam Houston on September 28, 2018, 100 years after the last six soldiers were hung at Camp Travis on September 17 and 24, 1918. I sat in the very same place, Gift Chapel, where the first 63 soldiers of the Third Battalion of the all Black Twenty Fourth United States Infantry Regiment sat for their trial and received their convictions.
Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan spoke to the audience on the topic of good leadership versus bad leadership paralleling the subject with leadership regarding Black soldiers in Waco versus Houston. The presentation was very insightful in regards to Houston's Commanding Officer, Major Kneeland S. Snow. I had the honor of speaking to the audience after the General, followed by a local historian who lead the bus tour. After completing the meet and greet in Gift Chapel, we loaded the Bowtie Boys bus for a bus tour throughout the base. The group deboarded the bus at Hangman's Grove. After a short lecture describing the events at the location, we proceeded to the 19 soldiers' first resting place after being hung. I must say it was truly a chilling experience walking on such sacred ground. The tour ended at the soldiers' final resting place, Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
The Bowtie Boys were either placed behind a grave of given a flag to place in front of a headstone. A wreath was placed on Private William D. Boone's grave site because he was the only soldier hung alone on September 24, 1918. After Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan remarks, I am more convinced than ever that the President of the United States should posthumous pardon the 4 soldiers killed on August 23, 1917, 109 soldiers initially convicted, and one soldier not prosecuted because of insanity. These men were American Hero’s but because of the color of their skin were treated disrespectfully because many white southerners believed that African American soldiers were inferior and should not be allowed to wear the uniform. Many of Houston, Texas whites including the police department resented the soldiers’ display of pride, exhibition of self-worth, and badge of authority of the United States uniform which they construed as arrogance and a threat to Jim Crowism.
The men of the 3rd Battalion of the 24th US Infantry Companies I, K, L, and M unapologetically exhibited their pride, self-worth, and understood their value. They believed that their contributions to the security of the country, the United States of America, had earned them the respect and recognition of their constitutional rights. The actions of these Colored soldiers have been miss characterized and historically blamed for the mutiny that they did not initiate. The commanding officers, military, local, state, and federal government failed to protect the soldiers and remedy situations involving brutality on numerous occasions. Therefore, faced with fear and imminent danger, the soldiers reacted as any reasonable person would when faced with possible death in a hostile environment regardless of orders from superiors. They were acting out of fear in an effort to protect themselves from the gunfire fired into and outside the Negro Troop Barracks.
The one hundred and fourteen soldiers were stripped of their honor, died, and lived in disgrace. Given the circumstances and the time in which they lived and despite the situations still excelled. If the Houston Police Officers involved in the riot can be held in a place of honor at the Police Memorial, then from a humanity perspective so should these soldiers. Give them back their honor or take the honor away from the officers involved.
The one hundred and fourteen soldier names are as follows:
Sergeant Vida Henry
Private Bryant Watson
Private Wily L. Strong
Private George Bivens
Sergeant William C. Nesbitt
Corporal Larsen J. Brown
Corporal James Wheatley
Corporal Jesse Moore
Corporal Charles W. Baltimore
Private First Class William Brackenridge
Private First Class Thomas Coleman Hawkins
Private First Class Carlos H. Snodgrass
Private Ira B. Davis
Private James Divins
Private Frank Johnson
Private Risley W. Young
Private Patrick Pat McWhorter
Private Earnest E. Adams
Private John Adams
Private Wash Adams
Bugler Reuben W. Baxter
Private Douglas T. Bolden
Private Fred Brown
Private Richard Brown
Private Robert Brownfield
Private Walter Burkett
Private Allie C. Buttler
Private Harrison Capers
Private Ben Cecil
Private James Coker
Private Abner Davis
Private Gerald Dixon
Cook William Frazier
Private Callie Glenn
Private Henry Green
Private James R. Hawkins
Private George Hobbs
Private Norman B. Holland
Private William J. Hough
Private First Class John H. Hudson, Jr.
Cook Nathan Humphreys, Jr
Private Thomas Jackson
Private First Class James R. Johnson
Private Walter T. Johnson
Private Richard Lewis
Private Douglas Lumpkins
Private Ben McDaniel
Private Dean New
Private George H. Parham
Private Stewart W. Phillips
Private Leroy Pinkett
Private Harry Richardson
Private Luther Rucker
Private Jesse Sullivan
Private Roy Tyler
Private Joseph Wardlow
Private Joseph Williams, Jr
Private Oliver Fletcher
Private First Class Alvin Pugh
Private Henry T. Walls
Private Walter B. Tucker
Private Babe Collier
Private Thomas McDonald
Private James Robinson
Private Joseph Smith
Private Albert D. Wright
Corporal John Washington
Corporal Robert M. Jones
Corporal Earl Clowers
Private Louie O’Neal
Private Ed McKenney
Private London Martin
Private Will Porter
Private John Smith
Private Eugene B. Taylor
Private Ernest Wilson
Private Charles Banks
Private William D. Boone
Private Henry L. Chenault
Corporal John Geter
Private John H. Gould
Corporal James H. Mitchell
Private Edward Porter
Private Robert Smith
Corporal Robert Tillman
Private Hezekiah C. Turner
Corporal Quiller Walker
Private Grant Anderson
Private Fred Avery
Private William Burnette
Private Isaac A. Deyo
Private William L. Dugan
Private James Gaffney
Private Charles J. Hattan
Private Albert T. Hunter
Private John Lanier
Private William Mance
Private Sherman V. Vetelcer
Private James E, Woodruff
Private Howard E. Bennett
Private Tom Bass
Private Glenn L. Hedrick
Private Doyle Lindsey
Private James V. Wofford
Private Warsaw Lindsay
Private Edie Maxwell
Private Samuel Riddle
Private Henry Thomas
Private John Jackson
Private Joe McAfee
Private David Wilson
Private Joseph T. Tatums
Private Grant Wells
Wilder P. Baker
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]]>Freedmen's Town is one if the most endangered, Post Civil War, National Register Historic Districts of its kind in the United States. Freedmen's Town was founded by previously enslaved people and their descendants immediately after Emancipation in 1865.
Since its designation as a National District in 1985, over 500 Freedmen's Town historic structures including six churches have been destroyed and its historic bricks have been damaged and are still in jeopardy. However, thanks to many volunteers and generous donors, six structures on 10 lots have been saved.
Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum is committed to preserving historic structures on their original homesteads and to preserving archaeological resources for the continuous study of Freedmen's settlement nationally and internationally.
Please donate to create an African Heritage, Cultural Research, Educational, and Tourism destination for Texas!
Your Gift will be used toward:
Or towards:
Mailing address:
Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum
PO Box 130726
Houston, Texas 77219-0726
All donations are tax deductible. Your donations may be eligible for Exxon Mobile or She'll Employees Easy Match Program.
The Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum, Inc. is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, incorporated in the State of Texas on December 26, 1996. Grand Founder: Olee Yates McCullough, M.A.
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Honoring our heroes who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. We salute you and pay respect to you and your family for your sacrifice with the greatest gift of all!!! On May 26, 2014, Memorial Day over a thousand men, women, and children gathered at Houston National Veteran's Cemetery to honor and pay tribute to the soldiers that have made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure people living in the United States are free. Military leaders along with local, state, and federal government officials addressed the families, friends, and troops in attendance.
http://priscillagraham.zenfolio.com/memorialday2014
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