The Other Great Migration: The Movement of Rural African Americans to Houston, 1900-1941

Conclusion: New Beginnings, New Institutions, New Migrations

Born in Carthage, Texas, a small community in Panola County just south of Marshall, in 1891, Anna Johnson, the eldest of six children, lived a typical East Texas life as the daughter of African-descent wage earners. The family moved in 1904 to Galveston, where Anna, a domestic, met her future husband, Clarence A. Dupree of Plaquemine, Louisiana. Orphaned at age seven, Clarence worked odd jobs at Galveston hotels and barbershops . White customers cared for Dupree by providing him with shelter, food, and clothing, probably in exchange for rendered services. Anna and Clarence soon met, fell in love, and married in 1918.1 The newlyweds moved to Houston shortly thereafter, although Clarence was subsequently drafted into the US Army and served as a cook during the remaining months of World War I. After returning home, Clarence worked as a porter at the Bender Hotel; his bride worked as a beautician in a White beauty salon. Anna soon joined a more exclusive establishment in the city’s River Oaks subdivision, securing a prosperous clientele among River Oaks and Montrose housewives. Although the two struggled during the Depression years, residing in Fourth Ward and living off Clarence Dupree’s meager earnings, they managed to save $20,000.2 By the late 1930s, they invested their savings in real estate ventures that provided important services to the Afro-American community. They reopened the Pastime Theater on McKinley in Third Ward, built the Eldorado business center at Elgin and Dowling Street, right across from Emancipation Park in Third Ward, opened a pharmacy, men’s apparel shop, paint store, and nightclub. The Eldorado Ballroom for decades would host parties , dances, and social events. Dowling, the Lennox Avenue of Houston’s African American Third Ward community, was an intelligent choice for the business center, which also made the Duprees a good deal of money.3 ~ Conclusion New Beginnings, New Institutions, New Migrations Conclusion 278 The Duprees made money and built lasting institutions. In the early 1940s, they opened the Negro Child Center on Solo Street in Fifth Ward, an orphanage for Black youths (fig. 47). Having lived as an orphan, Clarence realized the importance of a first-class orphanage in the community for African American children. During World War II and after the war, Anna also opened the Eliza Johnson Home for the Negro Aged at 10010 Cullen Boulevard. The facility, named for Anna’s late mother, was home to ninety seniors. The community builders also donated $11,000 to Houston College for Negroes Negro Child Center and the construction of the Thorton M. Fairchild Building. They contributed annually to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF); formed the first Little League Baseball team for Black children; raised money for Camp Robinhood, the first Girl Scout Camp in the state for African American girls; and encouraged others to donate money and land for other causes, including the South Central YMCA and the St. Luke Episcopal Church, both on Wheeler Avenue near Texas University for Negroes.4 The wealthy Duprees formed a bridge between the poor and middle class. They never forgot where they came from and bettered the lives of thousands of African American college students, seniors, club members, youths, and church members, as well as the indigent. Without question, their activism came in the form of migration and community agency. Their protests rarely provoked criticism among Whites. Nor did they threaten their traditional White clientele by publicly denouncing Jim Crow segregation, although near the end of her life, Anna Dupree did speak out against regular injustices faced by Blacks. Nevertheless, they utilized segregation as a beneficial ploy to secure land, businesses, needed services for African Americans, and racial autonomy through the pocketbook and self-help programs. The Great Migrations of Clarence and Anna Dupree into the city not only shaped their destiny, but also inspired thousands.5 Between 1900 and 1941, an estimated thirty-two thousand Afro-Americans migrated to Houston from surrounding rural and small-town communities in Texas and Louisiana. Until now, their stories have largely gone untold. Interestingly, large numbers of African Americans remained in the South, deciding to refrain from interregional migration and instead invest in short-distance relocations to Houston from eastern Texas and Louisiana . Blacks emigrated from their hometowns and stepwise communities in search of opportunities.6 conclusion 279 Four separate but similar migratory groups settled Houston between the turn of the century and the Japanese invasion of...