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.

Daniel Caudillo was born to Mexican immigrants in Odessa, Texas. He grew up as a migrant child with a home base in Odessa. Caudillo graduated from Permian High School in 2000, and then briefly attended Odessa College and the University of Texas-Permian Basin. He graduated from Texas Tech University in 2003 and then the Law School of Texas Tech University in 2007. Caudillo then went to work for an immigration law firm in El Paso, Texas; he opened his own law firm dedicated to immigration law in 2008 with offices in both El Paso and Odessa. Caudillo advises the public on immigration law through various non-profits.

Rogelio “Roger” Robles was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1929 and grew up in both Laredo and Lampazos, Nuevo Leon. Robles graduated from Martin High School in Laredo in 1948; he then briefly moved to New York City before he was drafted into the Korean War. After returning from the Korean War, Robles attended Midland College and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1960. He permanently moved to Midland to work within the Guadalupe Youth Service Center that same year. While in this job, Robles formed a parent’s organization in order to raise money for student scholarships to attend college. After leaving this job, Robles founded several small businesses and then began working a life insurance agent. Robles later became a real estate agent before running successfully to become a trustee of Midland Independent School District, becoming the first Mexican American to win a spot in the board. Robles helped started the Midland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Mitchell was born and raised in Stamps, Arkansas. Mitchell traveled to the Cleveland area after the saw mill in Arkansas was shut down. Mr. Mitchell received his barber's license and started his own barbershop in the 1960s. Mr. Mitchell worked in other industries while sustaining his barber shop. Mr. Mitchell and other members of the Cleveland Black community organized in efforts to integrate Cleveland. They attended several government meetings and negotiated with officials. Mr. Mitchell once showed up at a meeting of the local white citizen council and received death threats after revealing his opinion about the council's proposal of halting integration by providing more funding for the Cleveland Black school. Following the meeting, Mitchell received a death threat by a local pastor. Mitchell ultimately served for decades on the Cleveland school board after being elected in the 1960s.

Mr. Wright was born and raised in Liberty, Texas in the 1930s. HE grew up on a farm and went to segregated schools. After his graduation in 1954, he went to Prairieview A&M for a brief period of time before joining the army, where he was stationed in Germany. He returned to Texas in 1960 and began working as a medical technologist. Later, he worked for NASA on the Apollo 11 mission, the EEOC, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In his interview, Mr. Wright describes Liberty in the 1940s and 1950s, his experience in the army, discrimination on the job in the 1960s and 1970s, community activism, his experiences as city councilman in Ames, and his hopes for hte area's future.

Jew Don Boney, Jr. was born in 1951 in Temple. His first experience with segregation was when his mother was initally denied entry into Scott and White Hospital when she went into labor with Boney. His parents were educators and his father wrote a dissertation on the racial biases in standarized testing while pursuing a doctorate in Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Boney relocated to Austin in 1966 and attended the University of Texas at Austin in the Fall of 1969. He became involved in Black-Brown student activism at this time. After spending a few years in radio and TV, Boney worked for the Urban League and became the Chairman of the National Black United Front Chapter in Houston. He later served as a city councilman for District D and a Mayor Pro Tem. Boney dedicated three years to the Free Clarence Bradley Campaign in order to exonerate a man falsely accused of the rape and murder of a white woman in Conroe, spent time bridging African and U.S. relations, advanced economic initiatives in Africa, and secured grants to process the Mickey Leland Papers at Texas Southern University while he served as the Associate Director for …

Mr. Garcia discussed growing up in the Coastal Bend area and his career as a principal in Corpus Christi.

Tijerina-Taylor discussed growing up in Robstown and her career as a teacher.

Mr. Polanco is a former San Felipe student and former football coach with Del Rio High. He talks a little bit about his youth, some about his experiences at Texas A&I, and mostly about the school district consolidation. Some experiences about discrimination. One interesting fact about many of the Del Rio interviews--each of them seem to remember the segregated San Felipe District with special fondness despite, or perhaps, because of the segregation.