- há 20 horas
This documentary captures the indomitable spirit of a group of Black volunteers in Jasper, Texas to overcome adversity through hard work, self-reliance, and community engagement. Plagued by a long history of virulent racial violence, including the lynching of James Byrd Jr in 1998, the volunteers have made enormous strides in reclaiming the dignity of their community and advancing social justice.
Categoria
📚
AprendizadoTranscrição
00:00:28Transcribed by —
00:00:30I don't know.
00:01:05Racism was terrible in this part of town.
00:01:10It always has been racist in Jasper.
00:01:14People had to go to the back door and it was Mr. Fletcher.
00:01:18You had to call Mr. to a child and all that kind of jive.
00:01:23Very dividing.
00:01:25A white section and a black section.
00:01:29Everyone stayed at his place and did his own thing.
00:01:33They didn't mean to socialize or anything like that.
00:01:39Jasper was a town of mixed emotion in my opinion.
00:01:42I'm not sure that that is a good description, but that would be my way of saying
00:01:47it had some good people and some people who were not so good as far as the relationship
00:01:53between black and white.
00:01:55I remember one particular time walking downtown and I stepped to the side of the street to
00:02:03let a gentleman pass.
00:02:04And he walked by me about two steps and turned right around and said,
00:02:10Big boy, I should kick your whatever.
00:02:15And I never shall forget, I had a little temper at that time and I said,
00:02:20Reply to him, if you do, this will be the last one you'll kick in this world.
00:02:26And I often think about that, but now I would probably smile and say,
00:02:32I pray for you because you need prayer.
00:02:53It was a shop.
00:02:55We hadn't had nothing that terrible.
00:02:57We hadn't had men's kids here before, but it wasn't nothing like my son, James Berry Jr.
00:03:03That was, some hadn't had them in a long time.
00:03:11I couldn't say what led up to it, but it could have been anywhere.
00:03:18Because as long as there is hate, you look for something like this.
00:03:28I did a little research on the population history of Jasper.
00:03:33If you look back, back in those earlier years, population each year, at least from my time,
00:03:38back in the 1930s, populations increased.
00:03:42And then after the 2000s, when all the craziness was going on, the population seemed to decrease.
00:03:48And I don't know if that was the reason, but it began to decrease to where it is now.
00:03:53There needs to be some kind of way to kind of stabilize that.
00:03:58And I think what I'm personally saying is that some of the Black folks who left, along with myself,
00:04:06who've gone off and done well,
00:04:09and other parts and then come back and are trying to give back to the community.
00:04:13And we're trying to help create jobs and create some leadership.
00:04:18And I see that happening now.
00:04:39This is the old school campus, the old Jasper campus, and in our minds, it was just a magnificent campus.
00:04:44And it was just disappearing with the integration.
00:04:48Integration happened in 1968.
00:04:50These nice buildings and things were just being torn down.
00:04:54And names were changing and stuff like this, but there was no history for us.
00:04:59We were J's Road Tigers, and the mascot had become J's Road Bulldogs.
00:05:06And my group that I grew up with, we just thought that was inappropriate.
00:05:09So we wanted to keep the J's Road Tiger alive, and that's where it started from.
00:05:15We put together a committee, and we decided that we would try to put a monument down here
00:05:19that would remember J's Road Tigers.
00:05:22And as you can see on the monument here, we got two tigers up there on the pedestal.
00:05:28I'm an industrial engineer, and I have the ability to design and all that kind of stuff.
00:05:34And so I was named the chairman of the committee, and then we went to work on designing and building
00:05:42it.
00:05:43I wanted it to be all black labor.
00:05:45So we did all of this with all black labor.
00:05:47My role was, I'm a shovel man.
00:05:51I know how to read blueprint and form up for concrete and pour concrete and finish concrete.
00:05:59That's what I done.
00:06:00I also got another friend of mine that's named Tony Brick.
00:06:03He's another black guy.
00:06:04He knew how to lay brick.
00:06:06We got him, and he laid all the brick.
00:06:09These bricks that you see on that wall there came from the old road school.
00:06:14So there's about 3,600 bricks that we used from the old school to build this way.
00:06:19And we sold those bricks for $100 a brick, and that's how we financed it.
00:06:25All of these are in alphabetical order, starting with Betty Faye Adams, and it goes right on along in alphabetical
00:06:34order.
00:06:36Probably about 500, 600 names on this wall.
00:06:40This is the school's alma mater.
00:06:44To our dear Rojai homage we pay, for in our lives you are ever array.
00:06:50In adoration, in our hearts full of pride, our love will forever grow high by us.
00:06:57I, for one, was happy with separate and equal, but it wasn't separate and equal.
00:07:05But we did a hell of a job with what we had, I think.
00:07:09There are no other places like this within 100 miles of Jespera, as I know of,
00:07:15where, where they integrated, they've done something of this magnitude.
00:07:22This wall of honor was generated primarily for the same reason as the memorial.
00:07:28That's an area in Jespera that has a recognition of military folks,
00:07:33and there's not a black person on there.
00:07:35And, uh, and that's where I came up with that idea.
00:07:39This is my dad's brother, Uncle Raymond.
00:07:42He was the only veteran that has an honor with the Purple Heart.
00:07:46He passed in Vietnam in 1970, about four months before the end of the war.
00:07:51Those of us who served and those of us who died,
00:07:55there were four people, four people from Jaspera area, that died in Vietnam.
00:08:01And there's no recognition anywhere in Jaspera about that except at the Long Star Youth Council.
00:08:07I wanted to try to preserve some history for what we've done.
00:08:11And we've done some good things, and then we had a lot of people that done,
00:08:15our parents done what they could do back in the day.
00:08:20So we're supposed to do what we can do.
00:08:49He was almost home.
00:08:51You can't say he did it because he was in the community, disturbing the peace or anything,
00:08:56but he was almost home.
00:08:58And they said, this man, this young man, I'm not going to call his name, and he was told
00:09:06he wanted to be initiated in the Clemen, and that's the way they do it.
00:09:12You got to carry the murder or something, so they just picked him up and carried him
00:09:18out to Huff Creek and just put him behind a truck and just pulled him until they pulled
00:09:24his body apart.
00:09:31They picked Jane Bird up in town, and they drove him out here in Huff Creek, and they
00:09:37crossed the bridge right there with him.
00:09:40It was dark at night, and they pulled up in this dim road right here so they could hook
00:09:46him up with the chain just in case somebody would come by and see him.
00:09:51They hooked him up in here with the chain, and then they come out with him.
00:09:57From what all the indication they said he was still alive, and they drug him up his throat.
00:10:04His head hit a cupboard when they went around the curb, and he was slanging his arm like that,
00:10:10and his head hit that cupboard, and it took his head off.
00:10:14Probably didn't know his head was off, but they kept on going to the cemetery, and that's
00:10:18where they were planning on dropping him at, where he needed to be at, at the cemetery.
00:10:23They took the chains off of Jane Bird right here in the middle of the road.
00:10:29They took the chain off of him, threw it on the truck, then they took off and left his
00:10:33body right here, and came on to the car wash to wash the chains off and wash the truck off.
00:10:40That's where they got him.
00:10:44Well, they called me at church, and asked me when I come out here.
00:10:48They had the road blocked off, and they thought it was a guy that works for me because they
00:10:54couldn't identify me looking like a guy that worked for me, so I was out here doing the
00:11:00whole ordeal.
00:11:20Well, Juneteenth means everything to me.
00:11:23For it to be finally recognized as a federal holiday, that even means more.
00:11:29When Juneteenth became a holiday, it was celebrated three years ago in downtown Jasper.
00:11:36And it's at a park down there, it's a real nice park down there.
00:11:39They had it down there, but there were no participants.
00:11:42Black folks just wouldn't go.
00:11:44You know, Jasper has been a pretty rough place, you know, for black folks.
00:11:48And a lot of folks have those memories.
00:11:50I was on the Chamber of Commerce when they tried to have it that year, and it didn't work
00:11:56out.
00:11:57And so the executive director of the chamber, she told me they would finance it if I'd run
00:12:04it.
00:12:04And so I said, OK, we'll do it.
00:12:06They did exactly that, and we, too, contributed.
00:12:10We thought that if we got 100 people to show up, that would be a good start.
00:12:14Well, lo and behold, there was more than that.
00:12:17And we couldn't even count the number of folks that showed up last year.
00:12:21So this year, we prepared for 200 folks.
00:12:25But then everybody and his brother started donating stuff, donating watermelons.
00:12:29The folks that own restaurants donated the ribs.
00:12:32And we had somebody else to donate the sausage.
00:12:41Oh, yeah.
00:12:42That look good.
00:12:43That one.
00:12:43Oh, yeah.
00:12:44Yeah, that's good looking stuff.
00:12:46That one.
00:12:53Yeah.
00:13:01Woo.
00:13:01Woo.
00:13:02Woo.
00:13:03No.
00:13:04No.
00:13:05No.
00:13:06No.
00:13:06No.
00:13:08No.
00:13:09No.
00:13:09No.
00:13:10No.
00:13:12No.
00:13:45This is
00:13:46Sandy Creek, and about a hundred yards downstream is where my great-grandfather, Billy McRae, who was a free slave,
00:13:57set up his homestead down there.
00:14:02Next time you see, there come a whole troop yanker, all riding horses, big guns hanging on there, all like
00:14:12that, you know.
00:14:12He said, you all are standing looking at them, all going home.
00:14:16And I said, I asked him, I said, I said, Mama, where are they going?
00:14:21He said, they're all going home now.
00:14:22When I found out about Billy McRae was in the Library of Congress, that just made us search a little
00:14:30bit more, just find out a little bit more about him.
00:14:32So Grandpa Billy had a big house and a cabin and all this stuff up here on Sandy Creek.
00:14:38He was born in 1851, and he died in 1947, so he was about 96 years old when he passed
00:14:44away.
00:14:44But there was a group called the WPA, the Works Progress, and it was John Lomax.
00:14:50They came out and interviewed him, not Paul Billy.
00:14:53The way I felt about after I heard him sing and talk, I said, well, oh my goodness.
00:15:00When I read this slave narrative, I couldn't even make out half the words that was on there.
00:15:04And he ended up singing like B.B. King and speaking like Martin Luther King.
00:15:10He said, well, oh my goodness.
00:15:12He said, well, oh my goodness.
00:15:30He said, well, oh my goodness.
00:15:36Holdin' ties up, rousin' rousin' rousin'
00:15:39I like that, that's, that's a good one.
00:15:43Lomax started recording these musicians
00:15:47in areas such as East Texas and what have you.
00:15:50Ordinary folk, but he was fascinated with that music.
00:15:55Blues and jazz and just country,
00:15:59and just the people's music fascinated him.
00:16:02He recorded it.
00:16:03He took it upon himself to record everyday life
00:16:07of a different culture.
00:16:09That wasn't his culture,
00:16:10but he recognized that that was value.
00:16:13And without him having done that,
00:16:16future generations, my generation,
00:16:18the generation following me,
00:16:20would not know about that music
00:16:22because it would be gone.
00:16:24Come on, guys, let's go to huntin'.
00:16:27Come on, guys, let's go to huntin'.
00:16:30Dog in the woods and he done treat some.
00:16:33Dog in the woods and he done treat some.
00:16:36Come on, girl, let's go to huntin'.
00:16:39Come on, girl, let's go to huntin'.
00:16:42Dog in the woods and he done treat some.
00:16:45Dog in the woods and he done treat some.
00:16:48Come on, boy, let's go to huntin'.
00:16:51Come on, boy, let's go to huntin'.
00:16:54Dog in the woods, then he done treat some, dog in the woods, then he done treat some, dog in
00:17:01the woods, then he done treat some.
00:17:11I've done some research about Professor Rowe, and I just thought he was a genius of a man.
00:17:22When you think about the times when this was going on, I just don't know how on earth he was
00:17:28able to pull it off, to get this school, become the principal.
00:17:32He didn't have a college degree when he became the principal of the school, but he got his degree while
00:17:38he was the principal of the school.
00:17:40The school was called the Jasper Colored School, then it wasn't J.H. Rowe. It became J.H. Rowe after
00:17:46his death.
00:17:48I was a good student. I was a good student, and then I was a good athlete.
00:17:53But I was a student athlete, which I preach today. I think kids ought to be student athletes, you know,
00:18:00don't forget about education.
00:18:02And I got a very good education.
00:18:06I am the curator, basically. I'm local. I take care of the museum.
00:18:13After my elementary school years, I came here to J.H. Rowe High School.
00:18:21I was a student and athlete, and I consider myself good in both.
00:18:30I didn't have many run-ins with people because I knew how to stay away from them.
00:18:34I was taught how to stay away from them.
00:18:36I lived the farthest out, so the school gave me the keys to a vehicle
00:18:42that I would take athletes home, park the car in my yard, my parents' yard, rather,
00:18:48and come back to school the following day.
00:18:50They trusted me with the vehicle.
00:18:57They're still the only school that had a state championship in Jasper County in football.
00:19:05And these were the athletes, the coaches, and that jacket has a replica of the championship team.
00:19:20And this is a replica of the sanitation-type stuff that we had back in those years.
00:19:26That's an outhouse.
00:19:27And we had several of those on the campus, but that's what we had to do right there.
00:19:32They had men's and boys' outhouses.
00:19:35I just thought it was important that when we were having a tour,
00:19:38I'd just open it up, show them the stall, and the type of paper we were using.
00:19:45We were using Sears and Roebuck catalogs and anything else we could find to use as paper.
00:19:51We lived in some really unsanitary conditions.
00:19:57This building was originally a Prince Hall Masonic building in 1993.
00:20:04And I believe it was when it was converted to the Lone Star Youth Council.
00:20:08We became a 501c3 organization in 1993.
00:20:12The Lone Star Youth Council is a very good organization.
00:20:16The building is available for rental, and we also give scholarships.
00:20:21Just off the top of my head, we've probably given over $200,000 worth of scholarships to our youth here.
00:20:39These photographs that you see here on the wall were all taken by Alonzo Jordan.
00:20:45There were no other photographers during the era that took pictures of African-Americans, and he was the only one.
00:20:52He took all of these pictures, along with all the principals, and also with all of the pageantry that went
00:21:00on during those years.
00:21:22I, Alonzo Jordan, 95 years old, I was 95 in September, was married to Jordan in 1939, and we lived
00:21:32together until he died.
00:21:37Alonzo was a devoted deacon.
00:21:40He was a barber and a photographer.
00:21:43He photographed about 12 high schools.
00:21:47He loved his job, and loved his work, and loved the brotherhood.
00:21:53My name is Eddie Shelby.
00:21:56Mr. Jordan and my father Cleo and Shelby were Prince Hall masons.
00:22:01Sometimes they held meetings, stressing family values, a sense of community, a sense of belonging, and a sense of responsibility
00:22:10to the community.
00:22:12Alonzo Jordan was one of the first professionals we had in this community.
00:22:17He set an example by being a church member, by being a barber, by being a photographer, but most important,
00:22:26by giving us a sense of belonging to the community and responsibility to it.
00:22:31See, in the black community, we didn't have photographers.
00:22:37Mr. Jordan was sort of an icon to us.
00:22:42Jordan's studio.
00:22:44The only black studio in Jasper in East Texas.
00:22:51His way of taking pictures just made you want to be a photographer.
00:22:57Black photographers had been ignored by the larger community for years, even though they were incredibly important to the black
00:23:06community because they were preserving part of our history and our culture.
00:23:10There were these photographers who documented the black community for decades, and it was documentary arts that came along and
00:23:17said, we want to preserve these works of art.
00:23:37We'll see you next time.
00:24:17When I was working as a columnist for the Port York Star-Telegram, I got a call one
00:24:21day from a woman who happened to be white who said she had in her possession something
00:24:26that she thought I would want to see.
00:24:29And as we talked, what she had was something that her mother had actually given to her as
00:24:33a child, but that she had kept for a long time and had really sort of forgotten about
00:24:39until she was going through things, I think, after her mother passed away and says she wondered
00:24:44why her mother had this photograph, because it was a photograph of a lynching.
00:24:52There were copies of this photograph that had been put on postcards and sent all over
00:24:56the country, perhaps all over the world.
00:25:00When I think about the woman who shared this photo with Barbara Sanders, it raises a lot
00:25:07of thoughts in my brain.
00:25:08I'm going to say she felt socially compelled to tell the world, here's further proof of
00:25:17what did happen historically.
00:25:19And more people ought to know about it.
00:25:22And this image doesn't lie.
00:25:24This is true.
00:25:25People used to get dressed up, put their Sunday dress on to go and see her hanging, and they'd
00:25:32go back home and eat a good dinner and sleep good at night after seeing something like that.
00:25:41And, I mean, children and older people, and it was the entertainment for the day.
00:25:47From the African American community, there is a large segment that believes we need to leave
00:25:55the past in the past.
00:25:56There's an old African saying about the Sankofa birds, you have to look back to know where
00:26:02you're going.
00:26:03But there's a large segment that says, don't do that.
00:26:05Look forward, climb up, and let that be, let the climb be what you're after.
00:26:12That when you look too far back, it's too much ugliness and it just pulls us down.
00:26:16But you have to see it because it's reality.
00:26:19Life is not always pretty.
00:26:21It's beautiful sunshines and all like that, horizons.
00:26:24But living life is tough.
00:26:26And those photographs prove that that happened, and we just have to deal with it.
00:26:33This is only the branch of a dogwood tree, an emblem of white supremacy.
00:26:41A lesson once taught in the Pioneer School that this is the land of a white man's rule.
00:26:49The red man once in an early day was told by the whites to mend his way.
00:26:56The Negro now, by eternal grace, must learn to stay in the Negro's place.
00:27:03In the sunny south, the land of the free, let the white supreme forever be.
00:27:09Let this a warning to all Negroes be, or they'll suffer the fate of the dogwood tree.
00:27:18People read that poem, I'm sure many of them recited it over time.
00:27:24That poem is haunting in itself because it says what the majority of people in that town
00:27:31thought about the other people in that town and in this place.
00:27:55I was waiting for him, he's supposed to come by and carry one of these neighbors to church.
00:28:01But something happened that morning and I didn't go.
00:28:05And it was about afternoon before the police come and told me that my son, James Bird Jr.,
00:28:10they found a body and he thought it was his.
00:28:14They didn't have but two boys, rest of those girls.
00:28:19If he had been in the neighborhood, raising sand, it had been hard if I could accept it,
00:28:26but he was coming home, my son, and they just overtaking him.
00:28:43He was a person, only harm he did was to himself, wasn't nothing too good for him to do for
00:28:48anybody.
00:28:52And he loved music.
00:28:54He was very young, he was in his 40s when they kept him.
00:28:59It had a pretty tremendous effect.
00:29:03In fact, we had never seen anything that heinous before, not in my lifetime.
00:29:11It took some doings from the people in this town to keep a lid on things.
00:29:16And I was here and I lost, I guess, around about 16 days of work, working with our sheriff
00:29:22at that time, and IDA trying to keep a lid on things around here because they could very easily have
00:29:30gotten out of hand.
00:29:32And so the FBI came in and investigated that crime.
00:29:36One of the worst crimes in the United States ever happened to kill a black man at that time.
00:29:46We met at the Coathouse Square, I think a day or two after the incident, and it was hundreds of
00:29:54people there on the Coathouse Square.
00:29:56I belong to the Ministers' Alliance, and we had a vigil, we prayed, and did all that we could to
00:30:02help the community.
00:30:03They asked us not to go down there when the black pastors came and when the Ku Klux Klan came.
00:30:10They came and marched and everything, and we didn't go down there.
00:30:14And they were ready and ready to come and to stand on the Coathouse Square and to proclaim it.
00:30:20The Ku Klux Klan came to say that maybe it was the right thing to do, or they wanted to
00:30:25put in after, but the Black Panthers came loaded.
00:30:28You know, I don't know whether gone through a load or not, but they had them, and I saw them
00:30:32myself.
00:30:32Al Sharpton came and Jesse Jackson came in support of trying to get rid of the hate that might be
00:30:39within our community.
00:30:41So we had people from all over the world came to Jasper, Texas, and we got justice.
00:30:47That's all we wanted justice.
00:30:48We were going to see them men to be punished.
00:30:50We couldn't let them go all free, but we got justice on them.
00:30:54Two of them got a death penalty, and one got life to parole, but it didn't bring Jane Wood back
00:31:01his life back.
00:31:02He got destroyed, but it was sadness for the family here.
00:31:05So we got Jesse here.
00:31:31I knew Barry, one of the guys that participated in the killing of Barry.
00:31:37I knew him pretty good because he worked for a tire company that I'd done business with, and I thought
00:31:45he was a good friend of mine, and it's just something I never thought would have happened.
00:31:50And I had to testify to that in court during the trial that I knew Barry, and I'd done it
00:31:59because I knew it was the truth.
00:32:01I knew him.
00:32:02I thought I knew him.
00:32:05You never know an individual.
00:32:09Some people act differently when they're with a group than they would if they were by themselves.
00:32:18So I think he got in with some hardcore, two hardcore people, and he couldn't back up.
00:32:26He couldn't get out of it.
00:32:28Barry was a good fella, as far as I know.
00:32:30But when you get with the wrong group, things happen.
00:32:40The Huff Creek community is a freedom colony.
00:32:44Once slavery ended, and black folks became freedmen, then they had to have somewhere to go.
00:32:50So they got together, and they would settle in areas, and they called them freedom colonies.
00:32:54And that's what this is.
00:32:55This is one of the freedom colonies.
00:32:57And this is Huff Creek Cemetery.
00:32:59It's a freedom colony cemetery, and then the school back there is a freedom colony school.
00:33:05We put the marker up there so as to have something for the kids to understand when growing up that
00:33:12there was a reason for this building.
00:33:14It went through the first through the sixth grade, and they had two teachers there, and they taught there for
00:33:1916 years.
00:33:21And the school closed in 1960.
00:33:24The Huff Creek Elementary School and the Rock Hill Elementary School are Julius Rosenwald-funded schools.
00:33:32Now Julius Rosenwald Fund was a fund created by Julius Rosenwald, who was a Jewish philanthropist.
00:33:40And they, in turn, would provide a certain percentage of funding, maybe half, to the community,
00:33:47and then the community would do the other half to get these schools built.
00:33:51In my mind, the way to get people to understand about black history is to do it.
00:33:56And that's what we have embarked on doing.
00:34:00We lived it, and we just need to bring ourselves together to get it out there in the public.
00:34:07We're doing this by utilizing folks who walk the walk, then demonstrate it to the rest of the public.
00:34:13I'm packing up, I'm getting ready to go, packing up, I'm getting ready to go, packing up, getting ready to
00:34:34go.
00:34:41I'm very passionate about this particular area.
00:34:46My elementary school was here.
00:34:48I went one through eighth grade on this particular campus.
00:34:51Bobby Joe Handout was my very first cousin.
00:34:55And the reason Bobby Joe Handout's name is here is when this property came up for sale.
00:35:00Bobby Joe Handout was very instrumental in the community.
00:35:04And Bobby Joe and I worked through the entire process of getting the financing and everything for this particular building.
00:35:12But he passed away about two years after we purchased the property.
00:35:20I started thinking about freedom colonies after we had gotten the historical marker from Texas Historical Commission.
00:35:29That was about the freedom colony itself, overall.
00:35:33But then I was thinking that, hey, I went to school right here and I'd like to recognize the people
00:35:40that was influential in my life.
00:35:43So I sat down and I wrote this, what's on this marker here.
00:35:48And George Adams and I figured out how to construct this marker monument here, I guess you could call it.
00:35:54But the Sankofa was something that I had learned from Freedom College.
00:36:00That was part of Andrew Roberts' Texas Freedom College projects.
00:36:04And Sankofa is their avatar.
00:36:07So I felt like, well, what I'm talking about here was us reaching back and pulling stuff from the past
00:36:16and bringing it to the future.
00:36:18And we need to continue to do that because there are a lot of young people out here right now
00:36:23who knows nothing about the Freedom College.
00:36:39OK, well, good morning.
00:36:42So how long have you all been in town so far?
00:36:45Third day.
00:36:47Have they worn you out yet?
00:36:50OK, well, not too bad.
00:36:52OK, so this is the Jasper County Historical Museum.
00:36:55Jasper is the county seat.
00:36:58And what we're working to do in here is to tell county history, although we tend to focus a little
00:37:05bit more on Jasper because that's where we're sitting.
00:37:08We're in Jasper.
00:37:10Jasper is one of the original 23 counties in the Republic of Texas.
00:37:14We're part of where Texas history started.
00:37:17My name is Todd Lawless.
00:37:19I'm the director of the Jasper County Historical Museum.
00:37:22I decided that one focus for me would be to make sure that it is a museum that tells everybody's
00:37:30story in Jasper County.
00:37:33That it's not the white museum.
00:37:36There's no black museum.
00:37:37It is Jasper County.
00:37:39There's a section here on Freedom Colonies.
00:37:42If you're not familiar with the story of the Freedom Colonies, it's a very interesting post-Civil War story.
00:37:49And we have one very well-known one here in Jasper, the Dixie community.
00:37:54Again, you're welcome to look around.
00:37:56If you've got questions, I'm here to answer them for you.
00:38:01This program is the American Exchange Project.
00:38:03It is a project to bridge the cultural divide within the continental U.S., to bring students from other parts
00:38:12of the country into an area that is opposite of their own,
00:38:16to be able to immerse them in a different culture and see that we can all live together.
00:38:21I got involved in AEP through my math teacher.
00:38:26She wanted to sign me up to give me the experience to go somewhere else.
00:38:31And she knows I'm a very honest person with my opinions.
00:38:35So she was like, I would really love and appreciate if you did this for me to show our school
00:38:41and our school district that this is a good program to have here in Albany.
00:38:45I'm really concerned about the Earth and where it's going.
00:38:50And people may not be concerned about it just because, like, we live in this era.
00:38:55But I think it's important for our posterity to, like, enjoy this planet like its modern way.
00:39:05They should live in a healthy planet, enjoy their lives, and not having to deal with the mistakes that their
00:39:13previous generations made.
00:39:16In the aftermath of the murder of James Byrd, Jr., Jasper did face a lot of challenges.
00:39:21I'm certain that when students were randomly chosen to come here, when they possibly Googled our town, that popped up
00:39:28and concerned them.
00:39:30But I think since they've arrived, they see that there is much more to offer and that we have healed
00:39:35as a community,
00:39:35and we are interested in moving forward in a positive manner.
00:39:40My impression of Jasper is pretty excellent so far.
00:39:45I love the people here. I love the community.
00:39:48I come from a tight-knit community in Albany.
00:39:51We're a town of about 18,000 people in a square mile, so everybody knows everybody.
00:39:58But I love it here. I love this weather. I love the people.
00:40:03I love just being in the open and having everything kind of spaced out.
00:40:26This is the oldest church west of the Mississippi built by formerly enslaved Christians, poor history suggests.
00:40:36This church was established in about 1853 when Joshua Seale, the slave owner, and Uncle Dick Seale got together and
00:40:46built the church.
00:40:47Uncle Dick Seale was holding church services under magnolia trees on this particular grounds.
00:40:54Joshua Seale realized that, hey, let's build a church. So they got together and built a church.
00:41:03We're from San Diego, California. My family has been in Jasper, Texas since the 1800s.
00:41:10My family, the Seale family, is the founding family of Dixie Baptist Church.
00:41:15My great-great-grandfather, Richard Dick Seale, was a servant of the Seale family. Joshua Seale helped him establish the
00:41:24church in 1853.
00:41:26I was a preteen when I joined here, and we were baptized in the creek down the street.
00:41:34I used to work as a church secretary. I still sing in the choir. I lead three songs. My favorite
00:41:47song is Walking in the Light.
00:41:49Walking in the Light. Beautiful light. Ain't it wonderful how the lights shine?
00:42:08When I come back to Jasper, I feel connected to my ancestors. I feel appreciative for the sacrifices that they
00:42:16made.
00:42:17I do a lot of family history, genealogy, research. It allows me to feel connected to them.
00:42:34Right now we are on the Joshua Seale plantation.
00:42:39This may have been the slave quarters that we're looking at behind us, these small buildings here.
00:42:44There are other stories that it may be some people who came to work on the railroad or whatever, but
00:42:49my impression would be that this were probably some refurbished slave quarters.
00:42:55And I know that there was another plantation, like right across the creek, the Indian Creek, there was a head
00:43:01knot plantation. This was a seal plantation.
00:43:03Both of those plantations kind of came together after emancipation.
00:43:08And most of the people in this freedom colony started out as head knot and seals.
00:43:22We accepted a lot of things because we didn't know anything different.
00:43:28And so growing up to me was a happy time until as I got older and I realized different things
00:43:39and different ways that other people were living.
00:43:43And different things that had happened in the past to my relatives, then the more I learned about that, then
00:43:51I wasn't as happy as I was when I was younger and didn't know anything.
00:43:59It wasn't easy for us to be where we are today in this world.
00:44:03There was a lot of trials and tribulations that the people in this particular community had to deal with.
00:44:10After slavery and emancipation, most of the people that stuck around ended up doing sharecropping.
00:44:18And sharecropping was almost as bad as slavery.
00:44:22All I know is my father was, well, he was just like slave. I'm going to tell it like it
00:44:30is.
00:44:30He had to come from up in Tennessee with the WPA and he never went back.
00:44:37I lived Jim Crow, so I understood where my place was supposed to be according to who was making the
00:44:45decision.
00:44:46So I just kind of de-escalated things rather than escalate them.
00:44:51And when I went into the military, it was the same thing.
00:44:54I mean, it was just like it was living in Jasper, Texas.
00:44:57So there was a lot of situations that I was involved in in the military that I could have made
00:45:02a real big issue out of.
00:45:05But my upbringing taught me to de-escalate rather than in sight.
00:45:13There was a time, right there at the post office, we couldn't drink out of the ones that you all
00:45:23drink from.
00:45:24We had one for ourselves.
00:45:28So we had to sit well in the back, I'll tell you right now.
00:45:35But I'm going to tell it like it is.
00:45:38We couldn't do separate restrooms.
00:45:42We couldn't go in. We had to go in our restroom.
00:45:50We could drive up and down this road.
00:45:52We are way out here in the community, rural community, right?
00:45:55And highway patrol was just running in behind you, you know, just to pull you over to see if you're
00:46:00going 42 miles an hour in a 41-mile-an-hour zone.
00:46:05And you pull over and you're going to get a ticket.
00:46:08And to me, it was just, I don't know, it was just ignorance in what I thought it was. It
00:46:17was ignorance.
00:46:18But we got through all of that and we ended up in a better place.
00:46:24The pains is easy down the whole lot.
00:46:27People be moving on with life here and trying to do good in this city.
00:46:32We don't want no more races.
00:46:33I know that it brought Jasper closer together.
00:46:39We might be a bit divided now, but after the Jamesburg incident, it brought us close together.
00:46:47I know that it did.
00:46:49It must be getting better.
00:46:54Of course, they're beginning to come to your house and sit down and talk to you. They used to didn't
00:46:58do that.
00:46:59President Clinton, he put me up. I had a phone straight to the White House.
00:47:07And he would call Reno. They kept up with it. That encouraged me because they would have seen the thing
00:47:11was going to be carried out.
00:47:19The grave got towed three times after he got killed. But it finally settled down. I had to fix that
00:47:27grave three times.
00:47:29They went there and tore it up and left a sign that said the Ku Klux Klan's been here.
00:47:37That's why I fenced around it now.
00:47:41I come through it with the help of the Lord.
00:47:45You just can't bear down in your sorrow and grief. I just turned over to the Lord.
00:47:52I got a letter today from Austin.
00:47:57In the worship of my son, I still get all kinds of letters.
00:48:02He sent me checks for flowers to go in his grave, all from here over in England.
00:48:12He's in the textbooks.
00:48:17And they got a hate crime name after him.
00:48:21So that helped me to have a little hope that something good come out of it.
00:48:28But it still hurts.
00:48:51The Doe came from Bibbadoe.
00:49:16I'm Reverend John D. Harden, pastor of the Mount Ali Baptist Church.
00:49:20I've been here for 32 years.
00:49:23I came here in 1976 and Brother Jordan was a deacon here.
00:49:28In fact, he took the pictures of our window.
00:49:31We married in 1955.
00:49:33I think one of the better attributes that he had to me was that he was a great teacher.
00:49:39And he taught his men's class.
00:49:42Very, very astute in his study.
00:49:44And he knew exactly what he was teaching about.
00:49:48Mr. Jordan helped people in any way that he could.
00:49:51He wouldn't mind helping.
00:49:52We need more people like that, even in our world today, that's willing and ready to help.
00:49:57He did it more or less for the community.
00:49:59I'm sure right now, if you were to check, some of them still owe him for pictures that he took
00:50:03years back.
00:50:10Anything in the black community that was worthwhile and you wanted to have memories of it, you would call Mr.
00:50:20Jordan.
00:50:20He also would take pictures of school events, church events, Bible school.
00:50:30Mr. Jordan would take pictures of anything that he felt that the community would enjoy as well as he himself
00:50:37and his wife and family would enjoy.
00:50:41He also enjoyed taking pictures of baseball and, in particular, the Jasper Steers.
00:50:48Jasper Steers started as a minor team in the early 40s.
00:50:52And when the Steers started playing, everyone wanted to be a part of that particular ball club, which was the
00:51:00most popular thing in Jasper at that time.
00:51:03I played third base and served as a utility player.
00:51:08I knew Mr. Jordan for approximately 40 years.
00:51:11He became my barber once he moved down to the Jasper Steers area.
00:51:18My brother and I, we would walk from home to the barber shop to get our hair cut.
00:51:27I remember it was every two weeks.
00:51:30As I grew older, I guess you might say I became a teenager, a different hairstyle came out called the
00:51:40crew cut, I think it was.
00:51:42I wanted that new hairstyle.
00:51:45I said, Mr. Jordan, can you give me the crew cut?
00:51:50He said, have you talked with your mother about this?
00:51:54I said, no, sir.
00:51:56He said, well, I'm going to continue to cut your hair the way she has asked me to cut it.
00:52:01That's the way Mr. Jordan was.
00:52:04Even after I had graduated from high school, when I went into the service,
00:52:09when I would come home, I'd always go to Mr. Jordan to get me a haircut.
00:52:18Because I think he was the best barber in East Texas.
00:52:22I think he was the best barber in East Texas.
00:52:27Freedman's Cemetery in Dallas, for me, is such a message to the future and the past.
00:52:36Freedman's Cemetery is a historical burial ground for formerly enslaved Africans.
00:52:43Many bodies were removed, but many are still there.
00:52:48Being here in Freedman Cemetery means to me that the spirit of all ancestors, not just mine,
00:52:56but particularly ancestors of the African-American culture, have not been forgotten.
00:53:01Yes, the symbols are not here, the headstones and all of that, they're all gone.
00:53:06But the spirit of those individuals is here.
00:53:13I pass here all the time, as thousands of people do, in traffic.
00:53:18But I kind of glance over and I think of peace, even though there was such turmoil and hurt and
00:53:26pain.
00:53:26But yet now this location, this ground of earth makes me think of peace, hopefully rest.
00:53:39When we talk about heritage and history and culture, there is a philosophy and opinion that only the people of
00:53:48that culture can tell it.
00:53:49Yes, they need to, but history needs to be told by whoever's going to tell it.
00:53:54Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round, turn me round, turn me round.
00:54:09Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round, keep on walking, keep on talking,
00:54:23marchin' toward freedom land.
00:54:32I love music and I have a strong musical background and I appreciate the songs that have told messages of
00:54:40culture.
00:54:41Getting through these difficult times, I always turn to music.
00:54:45Music is a salve on wounds.
00:54:49Music gives us an outlet for hope that we should never give up and we need to pass it on
00:54:55to the new generation.
00:55:26Music is a salve on the new generation.
00:55:55Bigfoot Rock
00:55:57I think it was 1939, I got around Marshall, Texas, and began to photograph several of the projects there.
00:56:07And the others were incidental as we came along.
00:56:11There's an Anglo photographer by the name of Russell Lee.
00:56:16He would go among the African descendants and photograph their everyday life, which we would not ordinarily see.
00:56:26You might hear it in family stories, but to actually see images of it.
00:56:39When you side him with Alonzo Jordan, who was a black photographer, you get the two dynamics of life.
00:56:48Russell Lee showed the everyday life, which wasn't always pretty, but it was real.
00:56:54And it captured a period of society and of life that we might not have gathered.
00:57:02Jordan showed kind of what black photographers did.
00:57:07Church life, weddings, graduations, community gatherings, that sort of thing.
00:57:12But just that every day with the sweat and the toil, the dirt on your hands, the family sitting on
00:57:20the porch, those images had value.
00:57:24And when you put the two together, they show both sides of the black existence.
00:57:40My name is Mona Smith, and Alonzo Jordan was my grandfather.
00:57:43To all the grandkids, he was known as Papu.
00:57:46And we enjoyed being around him.
00:57:48We enjoyed watching him taking photos.
00:57:53He would go to the different schools, and the kids would get so excited when it was time to take
00:57:58school pictures.
00:57:58And we enjoyed watching him take those photos.
00:58:01And he'd always have this little saying that he would say before he'd get ready to snap that picture.
00:58:06He'd always say, OK, get set, ready.
00:58:10And everybody would get so excited because we know we had to be at attention and in position.
00:58:15And we enjoyed being around him.
00:58:16He was such a fun person.
00:58:18He'd always make those little faces at the kids.
00:58:21Or he'd always hold his hands up over the camera and make little signs with his hand.
00:58:25And kids always enjoyed that because they were excited to get their pictures made.
00:58:30It wasn't often that we'd get to go to the supermarkets or to the discount centers and have photos made.
00:58:37So he did that for us.
00:58:38And that was an exciting time for us to spend with him.
00:58:43I am Emma Sharp Adams, the godchild of Alonzo and Helen Jordan.
00:58:52And I grew up around the barber shop and the photographer shop.
00:58:57Used to just crawl around and tell me when I was a little tot.
00:59:01And he took pictures of my family from childhood on up till his death.
00:59:08And I used to get a kick out of listening to him in the darkroom talking to the pictures.
00:59:14You would swear that he was in there talking to a person live.
00:59:19And he had to get everything just perfect.
00:59:23If there was a strand of hair out of place, he had to get it fixed.
00:59:28I went with him everywhere he went so that people were dressed, the colors and everything like that was on
00:59:35the street.
00:59:36Give them a mirror and see if they were satisfied with their appearance.
00:59:41Everything had to be exact.
00:59:45The lighting had to be exact.
00:59:48The background had to be exact.
00:59:52It would take him almost 30 minutes before he would snap the picture.
00:59:59At the weddings, everyone had to be in order before he would take the picture.
01:00:05He was just that kind of photographer who wanted to have the best picture.
01:00:11And because of his conscientious way of doing things, he became popular all over East Texas.
01:00:25One thing about the pictures, they all were what I would call perfect pictures.
01:00:31I admired him for the motivation that he put into becoming a photographer because he taught himself.
01:00:41He studied a lot.
01:00:43He read a lot.
01:00:45So he was very interested in applying himself to do the good work.
01:00:54I met Mr. Jordan early in life when I was in high school.
01:00:59He was a great photographer.
01:01:01And he visited many of the schools and took school pictures each year.
01:01:06Mr. Jordan took many wedding pictures.
01:01:08He came down to Buena, where I live, and took my wedding pictures.
01:01:13And we were very pleased with him.
01:01:16Not very many pictures were done that you were not pleased with him because he made sure that the subject
01:01:21that he was taking was in the perfect position that they needed to be so that the pictures would come
01:01:28out beautifully.
01:01:29He was a very kind person, but he was very firm and made sure that you understood what he wanted
01:01:37was what he needed to get to get a good picture.
01:01:41He would have loved the digital photos.
01:01:43Now being able to take a picture instantly and you can connect it to your TV and see it right
01:01:48then or even edit it right then, he would have loved that.
01:01:57There's a political movement right now in the United States to wipe out, to erase cultural history, particularly from my
01:02:06vantage point, African-American history.
01:02:08Critical race theory, wokeness, all of that.
01:02:12Such, such hateful resentment.
01:02:15But people like the African-American descendants in small towns like Jasper, they have stepped forward to preserve their history,
01:02:25rich history that very few people know about that needs to be told.
01:02:29They've opened museums and things like that to really preserve that history.
01:02:33That's important, that's key, because without that type of action, history will be erased and has been erased.
01:02:41And that's a diabolical thing to happen, to erase history that somebody fought so hard to make happen.
01:02:50Without the past, how do we even examine the present, let alone think about our future?
01:02:56We go back to our past, we tell our history, and as I say, we've got to tell it all
01:03:00and tell it well.
01:03:02All the pain, all the sorrow, all the suffering, all those things that make up what our past has been
01:03:10in this country will help us, I think, figure out where we're going in this country.
01:03:17And I'd hate to say right now is that we have people now ready to erase everything they consider to
01:03:24be negative in our history, everything they consider to be ashamed of in our history.
01:03:30No, you don't erase it.
01:03:33You don't try to amend it.
01:03:35You tell it, because that will inform us, even about our present right now.
01:03:42It is a shame what is happening in the country as I speak, that people who would dare want to
01:03:48tear down any semblance of the black man's struggle, the red man's struggle, the brown man's struggle in this country.
01:03:59No, we tell it.
01:04:01And you tell how they overcame what a difficult past they went through, that I went through.
01:04:10You know, I'm still standing.
01:04:13But I tell you what, you know, I don't have long to stay here as the old folk used to
01:04:18stay.
01:04:20But I wanted, for my child, I wanted for those children who come after me to know the truth about
01:04:27the history of their country.
01:04:29It's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn,
01:04:36it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn,
01:04:43it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn,
01:04:47it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn,
01:04:47it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn,
01:04:47it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn,
01:04:47it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn,
01:04:48it's a long dawn, it's a long dawn
01:04:59I try long, I try long, and long gone.
01:05:03He's long gone, he's long gone, he's long gone.
01:05:08He's long gone, he's long gone, all gone, oh, bigger don't.
01:05:15The storm is almost gone.
01:05:20The storm is almost gone.
01:05:24I can see the sun
01:05:26Peeping through the clouds
01:05:29The storm is almost gone
01:05:33The storm is almost gone
01:05:38The storm is almost gone
01:05:43I can see the sun
01:05:46Peeping through the clouds
01:05:49The storm is almost gone
01:05:53Wow, look at this.
01:05:55You know, this is a photo of the young James Byrd Jr.
01:06:03It takes my breath away
01:06:05But I look at the promise in that young face
01:06:08Those eyes and that subtle smile
01:06:10And I think about the future he could have had
01:06:13This rips my heart
01:06:16This rips my heart
01:06:17But this picture would not be here
01:06:19Had it not been for Alonzo Jordan
01:06:22The photographer who took it
01:06:24This shows the value of photography
01:06:29The horror
01:06:30The horror of it
01:06:32To look at the promise of this young man
01:06:46It's very important to remember
01:06:48But it's not good to just dwell on it
01:06:50I don't want to dwell on it
01:06:51If you do, it'll eat you up
01:06:53It'll consume you
01:06:54I just don't forget it
01:06:56If you do, it can't happen again
01:06:59Whatever you throw behind you
01:07:01Can come up in front of you again
01:07:03If you don't watch it
01:07:05So we got to stay vigilant
01:07:07And hope, hope you got it done happen anymore
01:07:11But we can't let it eat us up though
01:07:20Jasper just has grown so much now
01:07:23We all are together
01:07:27A community of people working together
01:07:30That's what I like about it
01:07:32And you can't do nothing all by yourself
01:07:35Somebody's got to help you
01:07:37That's what I say
01:07:40Somebody's got to help you
01:07:46We decided we would set it up
01:07:49In remembrance of my son
01:07:51And try to educate
01:07:54We give scholarships
01:07:56To the students
01:07:57One deserves it
01:07:58And most of the time
01:08:00Where this hate comes from
01:08:02Is through ignorance
01:08:02And I ain't been taught
01:08:05So we try our best
01:08:08To help those
01:08:09That want to go to college
01:08:12To get an education
01:08:14Lots of people
01:08:17Really don't know any better
01:08:20If they educate themselves
01:08:21And then consider
01:08:24A feeling of others
01:08:27It would help them
01:08:30And then I want to see
01:08:31Something good
01:08:31Come out of his death
01:08:33As long as I can help anybody
01:08:37You get a release
01:08:39It seems like your living
01:08:40Won't be in vain
01:08:41If you can help somebody
01:09:10The power to overcome
01:09:12It's wonderful
01:09:13I mean you can see it
01:09:14From what's going on
01:09:15With the Juneteenth
01:09:15With my dad
01:09:16And Fred over at the CFHPA
01:09:18And my cousin now
01:09:20Is president over there now
01:09:21And she's my age
01:09:24Younger people are coming up
01:09:26To show that Jasper's
01:09:28More than James Byrd
01:09:34Even my daughter
01:09:35Was just telling me today
01:09:37That she tells people
01:09:39That her family's from Jasper
01:09:40And they always say
01:09:41Oh you don't want to go there
01:09:42That guy was killed there
01:09:43And she's looking at them
01:09:45Saying no my family
01:09:46Is from there
01:09:46You know
01:09:47And so she has to explain
01:09:49To them that Jasper
01:09:49Is bigger than that
01:09:50And that's what's really important
01:09:52You want a better legacy
01:09:53For Jasper
01:10:07I have this belief
01:10:08The Martin Luther Kings
01:10:10And the Malcolm X's
01:10:11They did wonderful jobs
01:10:13Doing what they were doing
01:10:13To get recognition
01:10:14And stuff like this
01:10:15And they were recognized
01:10:18But I have this thing
01:10:19About hometown folks
01:10:20I feel like
01:10:21They ought to be recognized
01:10:23And so that's what
01:10:24We're trying to do now
01:10:28Local communities
01:10:29Have a special responsibility
01:10:33To tell their story
01:10:34And so what you have had
01:10:36Is that communities
01:10:37Like Jasper
01:10:37Where people have
01:10:38Established museums
01:10:40They have gone back
01:10:41And reclaimed their history
01:10:42They're proud of that school
01:10:44They're proud of those situations
01:10:46That helped make them
01:10:47Who they are today
01:10:48That helped them
01:10:49To overcome
01:10:50That bad experience
01:10:51That the world
01:10:52Will never forget
01:10:54They're there
01:10:55To tell their story
01:11:00My uncle's in that museum
01:11:02Who is that?
01:11:04MacArthur Ray Smith
01:11:05He sure is
01:11:06He is
01:11:07He is
01:11:30He is
01:11:32He is
01:12:36We're right back.
Comentários