HISTORY OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH - Victoria ‘home to a substantial history in the Black community of national leaders called for local people to visit their mark in history.

To begin Black History Month, here are 10 small pieces of black history of the area known as Crossroads.

1. Dorothy Harris: The first black president of the Licensed Professional Nurses Association of Texas

Bloomington native Dorothy Harris, octogenarian, was the first black president of the Licensed Professional Nurses Association of Texas in 1970. For over 25 years, Harris worked as a licensed professional nurse, with the majority of his work at Devereux Foundation. Throughout his career, Harris also has many other awards, including the appointment as vice president of the National Nurses Association of Vocational Education and Service, Silver-haired legislators in Alzheimer’s disease and the membership committee of the Board of Nurse Examiners. Currently, Harris is retired and spends his time willingly and actively in his church, Palestine Baptist Church.

2. Thurgood Marshall visited Victoria:

On October 21, 1955, Thurgood Marshall Victoria as part of the National Association for the Advancement of colored people claim conference. Marshall, who worked as a constitutional lawyer and general counsel of the NAACP at that time, along with Gloster Current, the national director of branches for the NAACP, served as keynote speaker. This year’s conference theme is “complete desegregation in Public Schools 1956.”

3. One of Victoria’s first sit-ins:

One of the first sit-ins in Victoria in the spring of 1955 at Ferguson’s Pharmacy, located in the center of the strip at the corner of Airline Road and Laurent Street. Organized by the NAACP, members of the group gathered at the drugstore soda fountain. Sit-ins took place without major incidents. Sit-strategic location on the same day Dorothy Hobbs was the first black student to register for classes at Victoria College.

4. William Hill: Victoria’s first black police

Victoria Police works of William Hill, the first black sergeant in the state. His badge Rangers Hall of Fame in Waco.

In 1950 he joined as a city cop. In 1962, when Hill was promoted to sergeant, he became the highest ranking black officer in the state, according to newspaper reports. Hill has 18 years in the city police. After retiring, Hill worked for 15 years as a bailiff for a district court. He died in 1991 at age 87. His portrait hangs in the Victoria County Courthouse.

5. Conrad O. Johnson: The world famous musicians

Johnson, known by many as “Prof,” the national attention as a jazz saxophonist and music educator before his death in 2008 at age 92. Born in Victoria, Johnson moved to Houston at age 9. After graduating from Yates High School, Johnson attended Houston College for Negroes before finally graduating from Wiley College. He became known for his ability to musical genres of jazz, funk, R & B and rock into original compositions together. Johnson began his career 37-year-old in music education in 1941. Later, Johnson made a lasting contribution to music through the formation of Kashmere Stage Band, a renowned school band won numerous awards during his decade-long run. Known for their wardrobe and matching platform shoes crushed-velvet dress, and the choreography carefully coordinated with, the band has won 42 of 46 matches between 1969 and 1977 recorded eight albums with more than 20 original compositions by Johnson and holiday accommodation throughout Europe, Japan and the United States. Johnson is an accomplished musician and, at one point, played with Count Basie. He was inducted into the Texas Band Masters Hall of Fame in 2000. Conrad O. Johnson School of Fine Arts at Kashmere High School name.

6. Homes Townsend-Wilkins

Homes Townsend-Wilkins was associated with a prominent black doctor in Victoria. Located at 106 N. Navarro St., was originally the home of Dr. GR Townsend, who practiced there until the late 1880s. He then set up medical offices at 108 W. Santa Rosa St. He was a prominent member of the black community until 1904, when he moved to Los Angeles.

Dr. John H. Wilkins, the Lone Star Medical Association was established, the medical practice Townsend and well maintained homes and offices in the house.

His son, Dr. George Wilkins, finally got on the practice, working as a doctor for 52 years until his death in 1969.

7. Cologne:

Located in Goliad County on U. S. Highway 59 near Victoria County line, was founded in Cologne in 1877 by former slaves of Joseph Smith and George Washington. Smith and Washington, which operates the passenger and freighting business from Indianola to the west, bought 500 hectares at the site in Perdido Creek. In 1870, the first families began moving into the settlement, originally called the Colony and then Perdido community. Center name passed to Jim Hall noted that this site is midway between Goliad and Victoria. The city, including the white settlers until after the railroad was built. In 1889 the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway built the depot in center, but the name Ira power station, a name known to the public for about 10 years. Hall traded to the depot land to a lifetime job as a station agent and does not guarantee that the train will leave the station. Trains run from Rosenberg to the Beeville bottom rail line, which the Southern Pacific Railroad became known. In 1896, it was a train depot building with two rooms – one for sending and the waiting room – by stopping the city. The people of Cologne to donate land for the railroad. According to the former resident, Frederick Douglas Young in 1970 in his book on Cologne – From these roots, “There is a separate waiting room had no passengers All Black, white and Germany -. -. Occupying the same waiting room” Over the past 10 years, the town just a train depot built in Texas. The city is a cow, cutting and shipping center, reportedly with pork rendering plant, as well. In 1898, was a post office was established under the name of Cologne by the efforts of William Young. The new name was made because Abattoirs make the community “as a place that smells sweet.” It is suggested Cologne word given to the community and the smell of hog slaughtering plant urban combat. A Methodist church was founded in Cologne in 1880, then Baptists, although both were destroyed in the 1930s. Methodist Church to be rebuilt, but the Baptists began to leave for nearby Fannin. A one-room school served as a recreation center, and a permanent horse racing and baseball teams provide sports. In 1914, about 35 people live in Cologne. The post office was discontinued in 1925, and the population declined to 25, 1940. Thirty-five people registered from 1970 to 1986. The station and stables no longer exist, although some of the original church is now the site of large power plants. The city is mentioned in John F. Kennedy ‘s June 1963 speech in Cologne, Germany, where the president said, “I bring greetings from American cities, including the citizens of Cologne, Minnesota, Cologne, New Jersey, and even Cologne, Texas.” In 1990 the population was 85.

8. Dr. Charles Dudley: Players in the Negro League Baseball

Charles Arthur Dudley Jr. of the most widely known as a doctor in Victoria.

In practicing medicine, but Dudley is one of the first black Texan Major League baseball to play in the Negro. Born in the basin, Texas, on January 10, 1894, Dudley attended Bishop College in Dallas, where he excelled in football and baseball, then Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. He financed education by working as a Pullman porter and play summer professional baseball Negro League with stars like Satchel Paige. During his time in the league, Dudley played for the St. Louis Giants 1920-1921 and 1922-1923 for the St. Louis Stars.

In 1923, after completing his medical training, Dudley received license to practice medicine in Texas. He moved to Victoria on 1 January 1924, and accepted that the practice of his cousins, CA Whittier, who moved to San Antonio. Dudley is a long time supporter of public education for black children in Victoria. Working with teachers in black FW Gross High School, he helped equipment by the school administration. On January 17, 1940, he organized athletic council consisting mainly of black people. The Council is a fence, shrubs, grass and concrete walkways to the school. School Board later named an elementary school for Dudley. He won the fundraising drive the George Washington Carver Civic Center Board, or the Carver Center, to determine the development of recreation and culture of black youth. He is a member of the Citizens Committee for the American Legion, Victoria State Chapter of Progressive League, and NAACP. During the struggle to gain voting rights for blacks, he worked closely with the NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall, a future United States Supreme Court associate justice. He died on 24 January 1975.

9. The Five TSU

On May 16, 1967, more than 300 people, most of them are students at Texas Southern University, a demonstration of the city of Houston to protest. The students were angry because Wheeler Street, one of the main street of black Houston, always filled with heavy traffic that flows directly through the campus of TSU.

A riot broke out, and a white police officer was shot. Five people are known as 5 TSU was responsible for his death. Charles Freeman is the only one in five of the trial.

The case was transferred to Victoria because of all the intense publicity the case. He believed that no black person will be available to show support for the TSU 5 and terror from the jury verdict is not guilty, but at least 12 buses full of black people of Houston are packed Victorian courtroom in this case. Freeman trial ended in a mistrial. In November 1970, a judge rejected all charges against the five students, because the bullet that killed the officer of one of his colleagues.

Freeman later became a lawyer in Harris County.

10. Pete Rydolph: first black millionaires in Victoria County

Born on April 19, 1888 McFaddin, Pete Rydolph is what many people say the first black millionaires in Victoria. A prominent cattle farmer, is farm Rydolph located on Bloomington Road. Rydolph national attention in May 1954 when he was kidnapped by three men and a woman who poses for nude photos of her and forced her to pay $ 30,000 to keep images from being used in a fictional rape stories. The person was convicted and served time in jail. Rydolph is a veteran of World War I and member of several lodges and civic organizations, including NAACP, Victoria County Farm Bureau and the Texas and Southwestern Cattlemen’s Association. Rydolph died in 1980 at age 92.

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