African Americans in South Texas History

Introduction

Introduction The African American Experience in SouthTexas BruCE A. GlAsruD tHE FIrsT AFrICAN AMErICANs TO ENTEr sOuTH Texas came with spanish explorers, and thousands more came later as slaves from the united states,in the tow of Anglo owners. later still—after the Civil War—freed blacks often migrated to Texas for a better life than they could expect in their home states, especially in the deep south. In 1877 one such former slave, solomon Melvin Coles, arrived in Corpus Christi, Texas, on a permanent assignment from the Association of the Congregationalist Church to the Freedom Congregationalist Church of Corpus Christi. For nearly twenty years Coles remained in Corpus Christi, where he became an influential religious and educational leader in the small, struggling black community of that city. Born into slavery in Virginia in 1844, Coles had received some basic education while enslaved.soon after the CivilWar, when further educational opportunities proved limited or unavailable for a young black man, he moved to Connecticut.There he attended and in 1869 graduated from Guilford Institute,the first African American to do so. Barred by his race from attending nearbyyale university, Coles moved to Pennsylvania and entered lincoln university, where he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in 1872. He delivered the salutatory address at commencement. In the same year Coles realized an unlikely dream. He became the first African American to enroll in the Divinity school of yale university , which had eliminated its racial restriction two years previously. He did well in the three-year course of study and graduated with a bachelor of divinity degree in 1875. During the summer Coles, like other students, was sent to small churches on behalf of the American 1 2 BruCE A. GlAsruD Missionary Association (AMA) in order to develop ministerial skills and to help the churches build their membership. A trip to leavenworth ,Kansas,the summer before he graduated left him impoverished; his church, which was small and poor, could not pay him the agreedupon sum for his salary. After graduation Coles was unable to find a suitable position despite his degrees from lincoln university andyale Divinity school.As a result he continued work for the AMA, helping establish the Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn.A subsequent trip to south Carolina proved difficult for his health; he asked for a leave and did not return to south Carolina. soon after arriving in Texas to answer the call of the Freedom Congregational Church, Coles was ordained in Goliad and set out on his new ministry. His financial prospects did not improve, at least not initially. Corpus Christi’s African American community numbered about three hundred, and the Congregational Church (like the church in leavenworth before it) lacked the wherewithal to pay his entire salary. Coles quickly discovered that the members of the black community had almost no educational opportunities,and in the fall of 1877 he started a small private school. He taught there in addition to performing his pastoral duties.The next year he accepted a position as principal and instructor at the public school for blacks, called the Public Free school for Colored. For four years Coles both taught and preached. Then, in 1880, he resigned his pastorate to teach full time. Coles’s life was dedicated to educating black children and supporting the black community, and his influence spread. He joined and was a contributing member of the southwest Texas Congregational Association ,and in 1883 he helped establish the ColoredTeachers state Association of Texas (the African American teachers’ association), which sought equality for all races in educational matters. Coles served as its president, wrote articles on issues of race, education, and religion for the Lincoln University Alumni Magazine, and in 1892 delivered the graduation address at Prairie View state Normal school. However, a deteriorating racial climate in Corpus Christi as well as a discriminatory salary led Coles to become disenchanted with that city, and in Introduction฀ 3฀ 1894 he moved to san Antonio, where he taught for twenty years before retiring. He died in 1924 in Oberlin, Ohio. Coles’s career as a clergyman and educator spanned six decades of south Texas history after the Civil War. Born a slave, he lived through long years of poverty and racism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, yet he was able to make important contributions that are still honored today. A school was named for him in 1925, and...