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).

Patricia A. Thomas was born in 1957 in Andrews, Texas, where she grew up. She entered elementary school in an integrated school where many of her classmates as well as some teachers physically and verbally abused the African American students. Thomas first attended Lincoln Elementary and then Jack and Jill Elementary. In junior high and high school, Thomas adapted many black nationalists or “radical” viewpoints, which led her to call for the teaching of African American history in her high school. She graduated from Andrews high school in 1976. After high school, Thomas moved to Dallas where she attended Bishop College. She subsequently lived in various communities that included Big Springs, Odessa, Amarillo, and Seminole, Texas.

B-roll video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the WBAP-TV television station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story about Louis Bob Conley being released from jail and being reunited with his daughter.

Video footage from the WBAP-TV station in Fort Worth, Texas to accompany a news story about a state governors arriving in Amarillo to prepare for a visit by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to discuss the current severe drought conditions in the Southwest.