Interview with Bettye Mitchell a community leader from Tyler, Texas. In the interview, Mitchell discusses her family background, going to segregated and integrated schools, experiences with racism, civil rights activism, her church community, and her political activism.

Interview with Salvador Balcorta, the CEO of Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe clinic in El Paso. Mr. Balcorta discusses his work in providing healthcare in El Paso and surrounding communities, his Chicano activism,working against gang violence, the Chicano AIDS Coalition, substandard housing and education in El Paso. This is the second of two interviews Mr. Balcorta participated in.

Interview with Wayne Sadberry, a curator at the Brazos Valley African-American Museum from Prairie View, Texas. Sadberry discusses his early life, family background, and living under Jim Crow segregation. Sadberry also discusses his education at St. Emma Military Academy in Powhatan, Virginia and service in the Air Force. He also discusses working as a research assistant on a grant project to Antarctica while a graduate student at Texas A&M.

Interview with Jerry Alonzo from Laredo, Texas. He discusses his childhood and education, military service in Vietnam, his work at Southwestern Bell, the Communication Workers of America labor union, and his involvement in election campaigns.

Interview with Mildred Davis, teacher from Bryan, Texas. Davis discusses her childhood, education, career, and community involvement. She also discusses the Brazos Valley African American Museum.

Interview with Darryl Bowdre, a minister, journalist and community leader from Tyler, Texas. He discusses his early life, education, work, and civil rights activism .

Interview with Jimmie Poindexter from Prairie View, Texas. In her interview, Poindexter discusses her family history, education, attending Howard University, community organizations and civil rights activism.

Interview with Joreen Waddell, a teacher from Huntsville, Texas. In her interview, Waddell discusses her childhood, racial discrimination and segregation in Huntsville, community activism, civil rights organizations, school integration, and the HA-YOU (Huntsville Action for Youth) student organization

Interview with Oscar Martinez, a retired Justice of the Peace from Laredo, Texas. Martinez discusses his childhood and family background, education, experiences with discrimination, service in the U.S. Air Force, and his activism and membership in LULAC.

Interview with Salvador Avila, a civil rights activist from Canutillo, Texas. Mr. Avila discusses his early life, education, career, race relations and his involvement with civil rights and community organizations in the El Paso area.

Interview with A.C. Jaime, an accountant from McAllen, Texas. Jaime was the first Mexican-American mayor of Pharr, Texas. In his interview, Jaime discusses his early life, education, political and professional career, the riots in Pharr, and race relations in the Rio Grande Valley

Interview with Alicia Chacon, the first Mexican-American woman to be elected as a city council representative from El Paso, Texas. She was also elected to the school board and as county clerk. Chacon discusses her community involvement and political career, including working in the Jimmy Carter administration.

Interview with Fernando Chacon, lawyer and activist from El Paso, Texas. In the interview Chacon discusses his early life and education, his advocacy for migrant workers, his activism in the Chicano movement, and El Paso politics.

Interview with David Ojeda, a civil rights activist from Carrizo Springs, Texas. In the interview, Ojeda discusses his childhood, experiences with segregation, becoming involved with civil rights organizations, the Chicano Movement, and Raza Unida.

Interview with James E. Johnson, a retired professor of education from Prairie View, Texas. Johnson earned a doctorate from Texas A&M in 1967 and taught at Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern University. In his interview, he discusses his early life, military service, attending Texas A&M, racial integration, and his career as an educator.

Feliz Abalos was born (1979) and raised in Odessa, Texas. Abalos graduated from Odessa High School in 1996 a semester early and attended one spring semester at Sul Ross State University. She graduated from the University of Houston in 2001 and then attended law school at Ohio Northern University Abalos has been chair of the Ector County Democratic Party. She has worked in various local political campaigns since she was a child. Abalos was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Premium Basin Planned Parenthood.

Delma Abalos was born and raised in Odessa, Texas. She attended Odessa College as well as the University of Texas-Permian Basin. Abalos gained her undergraduate degree in political science and her master’s degree in history. She now teaches courses in history, including Mexican American history, at Odessa College. Delma also served within the Ector County ISD board of trustees.

Dr. Morris Baker was born in 1939 in Ranger, Texas, the son of a mechanic and a domestic worker. As a child in Ranger, Baker lived in a mixed neighborhood of Mexican Americans, poor whites, and African Americans. Although, Ranger had segregated black and brown neighborhoods as well. Baker attended a one-room, all-black school called Slaughter Ward Elementary up to 6th grade. From 6th to 10th grade, Baker had to be bused to Eastland, where education ended for African Americans before they could obtain a high school Diploma. Thus, when the Brown v. Board dissension came in, his parents simply signed him up for classes in the white Ranger High School. Baker was allowed to attend as long as he did not socialize with the white high school female students or attend many of the school’s social events. He graduated as the school’s first African American graduate in 1957. Other African Americans followed. Baker then graduated from Cisco College (A.A. 1959), McMurry University (B.A. in Biology 1963), Harvard University (M.Ed. 1970), The Ohio State University (Ph.D. in clinical psychology 1976). Baker has worked for the Peace Corps, public schools in Los Angeles, California and other cities, and has taught at …

Dallas “Dally” Willis was born in 1920 in Dallas, Texas but grew up in Cleburne, Texas, raised by a single mother of seven children after his father abandoned the family. Willis attended high school in Cleburne and joined the Marine Corps in 1941. In the Marine Corps, Willis worked as an aerial photographer mapping the Pacific territories controlled by Japan. Upon returning to Cleburne, Willis worked for Southwestern Bail and joined the Communication Workers of America union. He moved to Midland, Texas in 1949. From 1961 to 2005 he served within the CWA’s Political and Legislative Committee, lobbying in the Texas Legislature. Dally also began the Labor Day Celebration of the Permian Basin in 1957. He has been a delegate for the DNC convention and was the decades long president of the Permian Basin Central Labor Union.

Lilia Escajeda was born in El Paso, Texas. She grew up between El Paso, Van Horn, and Amarillo; and she remembers going to segregated schools in Van Horn. She settled in Amarillo as an adult after her husband died, and she eventually became the first female loan-officer for any bank in Amarillo, at the Amarillo National Bank. She joined various community organizations, boards, and became both the first Mexican American women Amarillo College board member and City Commissioner (later City Council Member).

Hector Mendez was raised in Big Lake, Texas and attended Angelo State University, where he was part of the Mexican American Student organization that called for ethnic studies in the university. He later attended the university of Texas Permian Basin for his master’s degree in education. He became the superintendent of Ector County Independent School District in the 2000s as conservative trustees led the district.

Karen Hildebrand was born in Odessa, Texas in 1958. She graduated from Permian High School in 1976 and attended Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, where she graduated in 1981. Hildebrand returned to Odessa and worked for various non-profits, including Planned Parenthood. She served various capacities within Planned Parenthood, including becoming CEO for twenty-three years. Hildebrand has also served in the Peace Corps, earned a Master’s degree in public administration from the University of Texas-Permian Basin, and now heads for a women’s crisis center.

Interview with Odel Crawford, president and CEO Black Chamber of Commerce of the Permian Basin. Crawford was born in Brownwood Texas. He attended Abeline Christian University.

Berta Perez Linton was born in 1942 or 1943 in Brady, Texas. She attended schools in Melvin, Texas until 7th grade while her family lived in a ranch. Linton’s family then moved to San Angelo, Texas where she graduated from Central High School in 1961. Linton attended Angelo College for one year and a half before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin. Linton graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a major in elementary education in 1967. She taught bilingual education in Austin Schools before attending Texas Southern University’s Welcome to Thurgood Marshall School of Law, graduating in 1977. Linton then moved to San Angelo where she was the counsel for the local LULAC council. She still practices law in San Angelo.