Texas History Lessons

In lesson 17 we take a look at al-Andalus, Islamic Spain, and the Reconquista.

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

The song at the end of the episode is by Texas History Lessons new spotlight artist, Jason Harrell. The song, Free is on his More Than I Was album..

If you are enjoying Texas History Lessons, consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking here!

Help make Texas History Lessons by supporting it on Patreon. And a special thanks to everyone that already does.

Website: texashistorylessons.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TexasHistoryL

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On May 2, 1874, Texas Governor Richard Coke, who was originally from Virginia, gave a man named John B. Jones command of the recently created Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers.

John B. Jones is one of those interesting characters that fill the pages of Texas history. He’d been born in South Carolina in 1834 and came to Texas with his family in 1838, while Texas was still in its early phase of being an independent republic. He lived in Travis County at first and over the years moved to land that became part of Matagorda County and then to a site in modern Navarro County.

Being from South Carolina, it should be no surprise that Jones was one of many Texans that opposed Sam Houston’s desire to remain in the United States when the Civil War started. During the war, he established a reputation that led nineteenth century Texas Rangers’ historian Wilburn Hill King writing that Jones had established “an excellent record as a man of superior business tact and judgment, and on the battle-field his coolness, quickness of judgment, breadth of comprehension, soldierly skill, and management had marked him as one to trust in time of difficulty." 

Unhappy with the war’s results, this unreconstructed rebel decided to go to Mexico to create a Confederate colony for likeminded folks. This didn’t last long and he returned to Texas.

In 1868 he ran and won a spot in the Texas state legislature as a representative for Ellis, Hill, Kaufman and Navarro counties. He never served, however, because the Republicans in power denied him his seat.

The legislature authorized the formation of a battalion of Texas Rangers in January 1874 to enforce Governor Coke’s demand an end to raids on settlements by Native Americans and the enforcement of law in the already settled interior. This became known as the Frontier Battalion, with six companies containing 75 men in each.

This lead to Governor Coke naming John B. Jones as commander of the Frontier Battalion with the rank of major.

Jones reported that during the battalions first six months of service the Frontier Battalion had engaged with fourteen of the forty known raiding parties. During the second six months they only engaged in four fights with the Native American raiders. After the first year, the Frontier Battalion Jones reported only six raids and one small battle.

During this time, Jones reported an estimated thirty-seven Indians killed with the battalion only having six men wounded and losing only two to death. 

It’s important to remember that this time coincided with the United States Army’s Red River war against the Southern Plains Tribes that resulted in the majority of the Comanches and Kiowas moving to the reservation at Fort Sill, near modern day Lawton, Oklahoma.

Jones commanded the Frontier Battalion for seven years. One of the highlights of his command was the pursuit of outlaw gang led by Sam Bass, which led to Bass’s death near Round Rock in 1878.

Jones died at 46 years old in Austin on July 19, 1881 while serving as the state’s adjutant general and still commanding the Frontier Battalion. A court order ended the battalion in 1900.

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

The song at the end of the episode is by Texas History Lessons new spotlight artist, Payton Matous. The song, The Boy With Blood on His Hands is on the Campfire Sessions EP.

If you are enjoying Texas History Lessons, consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking here!

Help make Texas History Lessons by supporting it on Patreon. And a special thanks to everyone that already does.

Website: texashistorylessons.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TexasHistoryL

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We celebrate May 1, 1718 as the day that San Antonio had its beginnings.

The site had already been a very important one for a very long time. For the Coahuiltecans it was home and a sacred site. San Pedro Springs and the San Antonio river were sacred waters for the Coahuiltecans.

Spanish explorers had visited the area several times before, but it was in 1718 that the governor of Coahuila y Tejas, Martín de Alarcón, received instructions to found a mission, presidio, and settlement on the San Antonio River. He set out from San Juan Bautista in April.

Andalusian Spain born Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares was supposed to have traveled with Alarcon but due to some kind of disagreement and chose to travel separately.

 Olivares had already been to the area in 1709 when he accompanied Pedro de Aguirre’s expedition north as chaplain. On that trip they reached the site of San Antonio which was the location of a Payaya Indian village at San Pedro Springs known as Yanaguana. He worked for years to get permission to return to Yanaguana to set up a mission. And in 1718 it happened.

Father Olivares arrived on May 1, 1718, the day that Governor Martin de Alarcon formally founded Mission San Antonio de Valero. Two different witnesses give different locations. One says that it was about three quarters of a league down the creek from San Pedro Springs, about two miles. Another says it was only about a mile down the creek. Both agree that it was on the west bank. It would be moved a few times until reaching its current location.

The Mission was named after Portuguese Catholic priest Fernando Martins de Bulhões who lived between 1195-1231 and was canonized as Saint Antonio (Anthony) of Padua by Pope Gregory IX on May 30, 1232. 

Father Olivares began his mission work his missionary work on the banks of the San Antonio River in a jacal or thatched hut, with three or four converted Indians. A diarist wrote that wrote that “The place in which we find ourselves is very pretty because of the woods near the spring.”

Writing in 1785, Fray Jose Francisco Lopez wrote that the mission was “founded with Indians of various nations, such as the Hierbipiames, Pataguas, Scipxames, Xaranames, Samas, Payatas (these last two were the principal ones), Yutas, Kiowas, Tovs, and Tamiques; but all these may be considered as Samas and Payas, whose language is in general use.”

The Mission relocated three times until it ultimately arrived at its current location in 1724. Four days later, on May 5, 1718, marks the founding of four days later by the nearby San Antonio de Béxar Presidio and the civil settlement, Villa de Béxar.

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

If you are enjoying Texas History Lessons, consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking here!

Help make Texas History Lessons by supporting it on Patreon. And a special thanks to everyone that already does.

Website: texashistorylessons.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TexasHistoryL

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artists

Jerrod Flusche

Rosmand – Mando Salas

Zach Welch

Seth Jones

Derrick McClendon

Kade Anson

Randy Hoyet on Spotify

Robert Herrerra

Jacob Charles

Chris Cunningham

Tristyn Sanchez

The Oliver White Group

Podcast Recommendations:

Wild West Extravaganza Podcast

The History Cafe Podcast

Hymns of the Highway Podcast

Off Mic, Off the Record Podcast

Texas River Tonk Podcast TXRiverTonk Podcast

LINKS:

If you have any photography, videography or aerial photography and video, go visit PANTHER CITY AIR to see how they can fulfill your needs.  

Tio Bruce's The Greatest Playlist In Texas and Hence the World. 

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artist Spotify Playlist

301 Productions Spotify Playlist

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 30, 1926, Bessie Coleman, the first black person in the world to obtain a pilot’s license, died during a test flight before a Negro Welfare League sponsored air show in Jacksonville, Florida. An amazing person, Bessie Coleman had been born in Atlanta, Texas on January 26, 1892.

It was in Chicago during the First World War that she heard stories about the aviators exploits overseas and she began to dream of flying herself. A nice dream, and a dream it would have stayed had she not persevered. As a couple of sources explain, “her brothers served in the military during World War I and came home with stories from their time in France. Her brother John teased her because French women were allowed to learn how to fly airplanes and Bessie could not. This made Bessie want to become a pilot.”

American flight schools would not let her enter to learn. But she did not give up. 

With aid from Robert S. Abbott, editor of the Chicago Weekly Defender, she contacted schools abroad, learned French in night classes, and in 1920 she traveled overseas to an aviation school in Le Crotoy, France. She studied for ten months and on June 15, 1921, the same year Amelia Earhart began to take lessons she was issued an international pilot’s license by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. She was the first Black person in the world to become a licensed pilot.

Bessie Coleman returned to America thrilled crowds with demonstrations of her sensational flying abilities. Her daredevil feats in air shows led to her getting the nickname "Brave Bessie."

Bessie encouraged other young African Americans to fly and dreamed of opening a black aviation school. She refused to participate in any air show that didn’t allow black people to be in the audience.

Sadly she did not live long enough to see her dreams come true. She died in 1926, in an accident while taking a test flight at a Florida air show.

But Brave Bessie Coleman left a powerful inspirational legacy for others and in 1929, a flying school for African Americans was founded in Coleman's honor in Los Angeles. 

--

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

If you are enjoying Texas History Lessons, consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking here!

Help make Texas History Lessons by supporting it on Patreon. And a special thanks to everyone that already does.

Website: texashistorylessons.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TexasHistoryL

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artists

Jerrod Flusche

Rosmand – Mando Salas

Zach Welch

Seth Jones

Derrick McClendon

Kade Anson

Randy Hoyet on Spotify

Robert Herrerra

Jacob Charles

Chris Cunningham

Tristyn Sanchez

The Oliver White Group

Podcast Recommendations:

Wild West Extravaganza Podcast

The History Cafe Podcast

Hymns of the Highway Podcast

Off Mic, Off the Record Podcast

Texas River Tonk Podcast TXRiverTonk Podcast

LINKS:

If you have any photography, videography or aerial photography and video, go visit PANTHER CITY AIR to see how they can fulfill your needs.  

Tio Bruce's The Greatest Playlist In Texas and Hence the World. 

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artist Spotify Playlist

301 Productions Spotify Playlist

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 29, 1554 a severe storm blasted a convoy of four Spanish treasure ships. Three sank and one escaped.

Four ships, the Espiritu Santo, the San Esteban, the Santa Maria de Yciar and the San Andreas set sail from San Juan de Ulúa, down near Veracruz, Mexico, on April 9, 1554, with Antonio Corzo as captain-general. 

The combined cargoes of the four ships had an estimated value of a little over two million pesos. This equaled more than $9.8 million in value in 1975, which means today the cargo has the value of $52,370,617.10.

Twenty days later they were caught in a storm and the Espiritu Santo, the San Esteban, and the Santa Maria de Yciar sank. The San Andreas escaped and reached Havana. It was so damaged that it had to be scrapped rather than undergo repair.

It is believed that half to two thirds of the 300 people on the three battered ships that sank drowned before they could make it to the shore of Padre Island. For perspective, recall that Cabeza de Vaca and his surviving cohorts from the ill fated Narvaez expedition had crashed ashore just about twenty five years before, in 1528. Things had not gone well for them and things did not go well for the survivors of these ships.

A small group, including some skilled mariners, set out to sea in one of the boats that had been saved from the sunken ships. Their goal was to reach Mexico and organize a relief expedition.

The larger group that remained set out on foot. They did not understand the distance they would have to travel. 

As you might expect, they ran into some problems with some of the indigenous bands along the way and as the Handbook of Texas puts it, the trip became a death march.

They made it as far as the Rio Grande before they started suffering casualties. But when they crossed the Rio Grande they lost the few crossbows they carried. After that they were constantly stalked and picked off.

Only one person survived to reach Panuco: Fray Marcos de Mena, a Dominican lay brother.  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 28, well a lot of things have happened on April 28th.

I have a confession to make. Usually I have a hard time narrowing it down to the one historical event that I want to cover in the Daily Dose of Texas History, and after doing that I have a hard time making it short enough to justify being called a daily dose. 

Well…April 28th is not that kind of day. A lot of cool things can be remembered about this day but I haven’t found the one quite yet that gets me into digging much deeper. So here are multiple important events that happened on April 28th in Texas history.

On April 28, 1854, Henry Philemon Attwater was born in Brighton, England. He spent a considerable time studying natural history in Texas and he is the namesake of Attwater's greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri) in addition to several other species.

Actress Carolyn Jones was born April 28, 1933 in Amarillo. She went out to California and starred in about 30 movies, including 1955’s Seven Year Itch. She died in 1983.

Barton “Botchery” Koch, Baylor star football guard and 1930 All American, died in Temple, Texas on April 28, 1964. He’d been born in Temple in 1907.

On May 28, 1980, Dallas’s Reunion Arena opened. It served as the home for both the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars, as well as many music events over the years before being closed in 2008 and demolished in 2009.

And on May 28, 1981, Houston born football star Mike Singletary, was drafted by the Chicago Bears as the 38th pick in the NFL draft after being a three time All-Southwest Conference player. Even if you are just a little bit knowledgeable about football, you probably know that he had an amazing career in the NFL.

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

If you are enjoying Texas History Lessons, consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking here!

Help make Texas History Lessons by supporting it on Patreon. And a special thanks to everyone that already does.

Website: texashistorylessons.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TexasHistoryL

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artists

Jerrod Flusche

Rosmand – Mando Salas

Zach Welch

Seth Jones

Derrick McClendon

Kade Anson

Randy Hoyet on Spotify

Robert Herrerra

Jacob Charles

Chris Cunningham

Tristyn Sanchez

The Oliver White Group

Podcast Recommendations:

Wild West Extravaganza Podcast

The History Cafe Podcast

Hymns of the Highway Podcast

Off Mic, Off the Record Podcast

Texas River Tonk Podcast TXRiverTonk Podcast

LINKS:

If you have any photography, videography or aerial photography and video, go visit PANTHER CITY AIR to see how they can fulfill your needs.  

Tio Bruce's The Greatest Playlist In Texas and Hence the World. 

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artist Spotify Playlist

301 Productions Spotify Playlist

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 27, 1950, the Barker Texas History Center opened on the University of Texas at Austin Campus. Today it is known as the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Collection.

It was named in honor of Eugene C. Barker, a very distinguished professor at UT and one of the major Texas historians of all time. Born in Walker County, Texas, on November 10, 1874, Barker first entered the University of Texas in 1895. He spent the rest of his life there. He received the B.A. degree in the spring of 1899 and the M.A. in 1900. He then worked in the university history department as tutor from 1899–1901, then as an instructor from 1901 to 1908), an adjunct professor from 1908 to 1911, an associate professor from 1911 to 1913, a professor from 1913 to 1951, and professor emeritus from 1951to 1956.

He was director of the Texas State Historical Association from 1910 to 1937. He collected, edited, and published The Austin Papers. This collection of Austin’s correspondence that covered the years from 1789 to 1837 was published by the American Historical Association between 1924 and 1928, and the University of Texas Press, 1927. He then published his classic, The Life of Stephen F. Austin was published in 1925. In addition to these significant accomplishments he also published Mexico and Texas, 1821–1835 in 1928; Readings in Texas History in 192); The Father of Texas in 1935, and in collaboration with Amelia W. Williams, The Writings of Sam Houston from 1938 to 1943. He also worked with William E. Dodd, Henry S. Commager, and Walter Prescott Webb on a series of public school textbooks for Row and Peterson..

The Barker Center originally was in the Old Library Building, now called Battle Hall.

It move in 1971 to Sid Richardson Hall, located on the eastern edge of the campus adjacent to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. Then, in 1991 the Barker Center became a division of the university's newly organized Center for American History. The Center for American History is now the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. The Center became an independent operating unit in August 1994.

The Barker Collection is a thing of wonder for many, especially someone like me. It has more than 130,000 books and periodicals, about 3,500 individual collections of personal papers and official records, and a vast newspaper collection. In addition to all of that treasure it also has about 750,000 photographs, 30,000 recordings and over 30,000 printed and manuscript maps. So, yeah, send me down to Austin to have access that and I’d be in heaven.

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

If you are enjoying Texas History Lessons, consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking here!

Help make Texas History Lessons by supporting it on Patreon. And a special thanks to everyone that already does.

Website: texashistorylessons.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TexasHistoryL

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artists

Jerrod Flusche

Rosmand – Mando Salas

Zach Welch

Seth Jones

Derrick McClendon

Kade Anson

Randy Hoyet on Spotify

Robert Herrerra

Jacob Charles

Chris Cunningham

Tristyn Sanchez

The Oliver White Group

Podcast Recommendations:

Wild West Extravaganza Podcast

The History Cafe Podcast

Hymns of the Highway Podcast

Off Mic, Off the Record Podcast

Texas River Tonk Podcast TXRiverTonk Podcast

LINKS:

If you have any photography, videography or aerial photography and video, go visit PANTHER CITY AIR to see how they can fulfill your needs.  

Tio Bruce's The Greatest Playlist In Texas and Hence the World. 

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artist Spotify Playlist

301 Productions Spotify Playlist

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 26, 1854 the United States War Department ordered Randolph B. Marcy to assist Indian Agent Robert S. Neighbors in locating and surveying land for reservations in unsettled territory. 

Marcy and Neighbors did their job and after consulting with the Native American groups that the reservations were being created for, the chose a site of four leagues of land on the Brazos River near Fort Belknap, near modern Newcastle in Young County. This would be home for the Caddos, Wacos and others. 

A second site was selected forty miles away on the Clear Fork of the Brazos. 

This would be the reservation for the Comanches.

Too make a long story short, things were difficult for the reservations.

The Brazos Reservation became home to about 2,000 Native Americans. Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, and Tonkawa Indians had their own villages. These peoples were already successful farmers and had been for generations and grew corn, wheat, vegetables, and melons.

After the treaty of August 30, 1855, about 450 of the Penateka or southern Comanches settled on the reservation established for them. They were taught to cultivate corn, melons, beans, pumpkins and other vegetables and they did very well, or would have had it not been for extreme drought that kept them from growing all that they needed.

When Kickapoos, northern Comanches and others raided, the inhabitants of the reservations were blamed. The reservations were too close to the old Comanche raiding trail into Mexico and troublemakers would intrude from it and entice some Comanches to join them on raids. There wasn’t enough protection from the federal troops for the reservation, and disappointingly, white hostility to the Native Americans living on the reservations was intense and hard to control from erupting into violence.

Things were on the verge of getting out of control by 1858 and the safety of the reservation dwellers was a major of great concern due to white hostility and threats. They were removed from Texas and sent to Indian Territory in 1859.

Both reservations reverted to the state when this happened.

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

If you are enjoying Texas History Lessons, consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking here!

Help make Texas History Lessons by supporting it on Patreon. And a special thanks to everyone that already does.

Website: texashistorylessons.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TexasHistoryL

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artists

Jerrod Flusche

Rosmand – Mando Salas

Zach Welch

Seth Jones

Derrick McClendon

Kade Anson

Randy Hoyet on Spotify

Robert Herrerra

Jacob Charles

Chris Cunningham

Tristyn Sanchez

The Oliver White Group

Podcast Recommendations:

Wild West Extravaganza Podcast

The History Cafe Podcast

Hymns of the Highway Podcast

Off Mic, Off the Record Podcast

Texas River Tonk Podcast TXRiverTonk Podcast

LINKS:

If you have any photography, videography or aerial photography and video, go visit PANTHER CITY AIR to see how they can fulfill your needs.  

Tio Bruce's The Greatest Playlist In Texas and Hence the World. 

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artist Spotify Playlist

301 Productions Spotify Playlist

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 25, 1875 three Black Seminole Scouts performed acts of bravery that earned them the Medal of Honor.

If you want a little more information on the history of the Black Seminoles and the Black Seminole Scouts then go check out the full episode I did on Johanna July and the Black Seminoles.

After living in Mexico since 1850, several Black Seminoles crossed the Rio Grande in 1870 with hopes of someday returning to Indian Territory. With that goal in mind, many of them agreed to serve as scouts in the United States Army and they quickly gained a great reputation for their valor and service as Black Seminole Indian Scouts. Based out of Fort Clark near modern Bracketville, Texas, they participated in regular patrols to watch against property raids by Native Americans. For much of the existence of the Black Seminole Indian Scouts were commanded by Lieutenant John L. Bullis. One of the scouts, Joseph Phillips, had this to say of Bullis: “That feller suffer just like we did out in the woods. He was a good man. He was a Injun fighter. He was tough. He didn't care how big a bunch they was, he went into 'em every time, but he look after his men. His men was on equality, too. He didn't stand back and say 'go yonder,' he say 'come on boys, let's go get 'em."

For over a week Lieutenant Bullis and Black Seminole Scouts Sergeant John Ward, Private Pompey Factor, and Trumpeter Isaac Payne had been pursuing a band of Comanche or Apache raiders that had stolen about 75 horses on a raid. Remember that this was after the Black Seminole Scouts had participated in Mackenzie’s Red River War the previous winter that pretty much led to most of the Kiowas and Comanches settling in Indian Territory on their reservation near Fort Sill. Still, some bands did not completely end their raids.

Four days before April 25, the four had separated from a larger force and traveled west alone. They road their horses with a few supplies and armed with Spencer carbines. They followed a trail for 170 miles over three days. They found a fresh trail and northwest towards Eagle Nest Crossing and reached the Pecos River. 

They found the raiders herding the horses across to the west bank of the Pecos. They counted 75 horses and twenty-five to thirty raiders. So what do you do with a force of four against those odds? Well, Lieutenant John Bullis decided to attack.

Bulis, Ward, Factor and Payne crawled down the canyon until they were 75 yards away and opened fire. They held the position for about 45 minutes and their efforts had started to disperse the horse herd. The Comanches located the position of the four men and started to outflank them.

Bullis and the Scouts started to draw back towards their horses. The Comanches were in hot pursuit. Ward, Factor and Payne were able to mount their rides and started to withdraw but Lieutenant Bullis’s horse spooked and he was stuck afoot.

Sergeant John Ward realized the dire predicament his commander was in and wheeled around to head to the rescue with Isaac Payne and Pompey Factor following. Payne and Factor laid down cover fire while Ward reached Bullis and pulled him up behind. Ward’s carbine’s stock had been shattered by a bullet just behind the breach. Bullis was definitely a dead man had they not done this and the threat was so great that their return could have meant their deaths too. Instead, as the raiders fired on them, all four were able to ride away and escape.

For their courage above and beyond the call of duty at Eagle’s Nest Crossing on April 25, 1875, John Ward, Isaac Payne, and Pompey Factor were awarded the Congressional Medal of honor on May, 28, 1875. 

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 24, 1931, O.P. DeWalt was assassinated.

You might not have heard of Mr. DeWalt before so let’s fix that right now. I had some trouble finding out a lot about Mr. DeWalt, and that’s sad, but I’ll do my best.

Olen P. DeWalt, usually referred to as O.P. was born near Livingston in Polk County, Texas around the year 1890 to John and Caroline DeWalt.

After getting educated in a rural area school, DeWalt entered Prairie View College in 1907 and graduated with honors in 1910. 

He moved to Houston and started working as a real estate agent with T.M. Fairchild. In 1913 he married Maud Pernetter.

He served briefly as the principal for Independent Heights High School before opening the Lincoln Theater, the first exclusively black theater in Houston. He also maintained a real estate office in the theater’s upper floors. The upper floors also served as a professional space and meeting place for African-American fraternities.

Mr. DeWalt was a charter member of the Houston branch of the NAACP when it was founded in 1918 and served as its president during the 1920s. 

The KKK was growing and spreading its message of hate during these years. It became quite strong in Texas. The Klan controlled many town and city governments throughout the state and even had significant control in the Texas state legislature.

Mr. O.P. DeWalt took a vocal stand against the Ku Klux Klan and worked as an influential civil-rights leader decades before the important Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He fought against the Democratic Party’s effort to exclude black participation by having “white only” Democratic voting primaries. Mr. DeWalt also worked for the establishment of a branch of the National Urban League in Houston. The National Urban League is an historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States.

After speaking out passionately against the KKK, Mr. O.P. DeWalt was shot to death on April 24, 1931 in front of the Lincoln Theater. The police left it on the books as an unsolved crime. 

Funeral services were held both in Houston and in Livingston. He was buried where he was born. He packed a lot of good into his 41 years. 

So, today with this Daily Dose of Texas history, we honor the memory of this valiant man that stood and fought on the side of justice.

The Texas History Lessons Theme song, Walking Through History, was written and recorded by Derrick McClendon. Listen to his new album, Interstate Daydreamer! Available everywhere you find good music. Thank you Derrick! Twitter: @dmclendonmusic

If you are enjoying Texas History Lessons, consider buying me a cup of coffee by clicking here!

Help make Texas History Lessons by supporting it on Patreon. And a special thanks to everyone that already does.

Website: texashistorylessons.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TexasHistoryL

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artists

Jerrod Flusche

Rosmand – Mando Salas

Zach Welch

Seth Jones

Derrick McClendon

Kade Anson

Randy Hoyet on Spotify

Robert Herrerra

Jacob Charles

Chris Cunningham

Tristyn Sanchez

The Oliver White Group

Podcast Recommendations:

Wild West Extravaganza Podcast

The History Cafe Podcast

Hymns of the Highway Podcast

Off Mic, Off the Record Podcast

Texas River Tonk Podcast TXRiverTonk Podcast

LINKS:

If you have any photography, videography or aerial photography and video, go visit PANTHER CITY AIR to see how they can fulfill your needs.  

Tio Bruce's The Greatest Playlist In Texas and Hence the World. 

Texas History Lessons Spotlight Artist Spotify Playlist

301 Productions Spotify Playlist

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices