The African Texans

Chapter 4. From Discrimination to Participation during the Twentieth Century

Discrimination to Participation ▼▼▼          From Discrimination to Participation during the Twentieth Century BLACK TEXANS BEGAN the century facing discrimination in jobs, segregation and exclusion in many public places, and limitations on voting. Those problems had begun in the late nineteenth century and in most cases continued into the middle of the twentieth century. Most African Americans lost the right to vote because of actions , by the state and political parties, aimed primarily at black voters. White citizens in  adopted a poll tax requirement for voting, despite opposition from racial and political minorities. The Democratic Party added a white primary in , after it had developed earlier in many counties. A “Lily White” movement also rose to leadership in the Republican Party during the early twentieth century. These combined actions reduced black voting from a peak of , during the s to about , by . The number of African American voters did expand as their population grew, however , reaching , by . Still their influence remained limited except in some local elections. Because Texas did not employ the registration laws and literacy tests that were used in most of the Deep South states, limits on voting did not reach the level of nearexclusion that existed in those states. Violence, which had been used at times to discourage black voting , continued into the twentieth century in the form of lynchings. African Texans ▼▼▼  Lynchings of African Americans by whites occurred to maintain white social and economic dominance. Most white mobs hanged their victims, but in  lynchers in Sherman set fire to the county courthouse instead. From  to , Texas ranked third in the nation with  lynchings of blacks. In  Ethel Ransom, a nurse from Fort Worth, became the Texas director of the national AntiLynching Crusaders to fight lynchings and other outrages against black people in Texas. Under the growing pressure of national attention, lynch mobs across the South declined during the s and disappeared in Texas during the s. The Ku Klux Klan, which had revived in the s, spread to Texas,where anti-black violence formed one aspect of Klan activities.African Americans in Texas experienced most of the same pressures and loss of life from white prejudice that limited the lives of all black southerners.1 Bessie Coleman (–) Bessie Coleman wanted to fly. She became the first African American to attain a pilot’s license and to entertain as a stunt flyer. After her birth January , , in Atlanta, Texas, her family moved to Waxahachie . She picked cotton to help pay family bills while completing high school. Lack of money cut short her attendance at a black college in Oklahoma. Then she entered a beauty school in Chicago and later managed a small café. Through her career she longed to fly. Meeting rejection from U.S. flight schools because of racial segregation, she went to a flight school in France. The license she received in  made her the world’s first black pilot. After more study in Germany she returned to the United States where she became a popular figure doing “Hangman’s Day in Wharton” is the caption on this photograph taken of the execution platform where a crowd is gathered to watch the hanging of two black men, c. February, . Institute of Texan Cultures illustration no. - Discrimination to Participation ▼▼▼  Another problem of race relations, segregation, had increased during the late nineteenth century in public places such as hotels, theaters, and restaurants, as well as in transportation and state institutions , including schools. Some cities segregated residential areas , beginning with Dallas in . Several towns excluded blacks from parks and libraries or offered separate but unequal facilities in air shows across the nation. After a crash in  she spent a year regaining her health. In , she made Houston her base camp for her travels. That summer she performed an exciting exhibition in Houston that led observers to call her “Brave Bess.” She spoke often to students, urging them to pursue their dreams, including the possibility of being pilots. On other occasions she spoke out against discrimination. In Florida on April , , she crashed and died when her plane failed in a test flight. During the s black pilots organized exhibitions in her honor. Her amazing career led the U.S. Postal Service to issue a postal stamp honoring her in . Source: Rich, Queen Bess; Tyler and Barnett, eds., New Handbook of Texas, v. , pp. –. A certificate from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale granted Bessie Coleman a pilot’s license...