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.

Grover Martin was born and raised in Prairie View and went to Prairie View A&M for his BA and MA. He moved to Amarillo to work in the local air force base and continued on in another federal government job until the early 1990s. He was part of the Amarillo NAACP and experienced all black education institutions.

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.

Floyd Price was born in Lubbock and grew up in a near by town. Floyd graduated from Dunbar High School in 1959. He received a Bachelors of Science degree in Criminal Justice and Sociology from Wayland Baptist University in 1976. Floyd is a retired veteran of the Lubbock Police Department where he served for 33 years. He also served in the U.S. Army. Currently he works part-time with the Lubbock County Sheriff's Department.Floyd has always been a public servant, and especially enjoys working with young people. He had the honor of speaking to United Youth Congress in 1989, 1993, and 1997. Floyd enjoys singing, teaching the Bible, and playing sports. He has received numerous awards in his lifetime, including Citizen of the Year in 1995 and 1996, Man of the Year in 1990, and Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Readers Choice Award for Best Law Officer in 1994, 1995, and 1996.Floyd has also served on many boards, including Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Consortium Committee for the Homeless, Hospice of Lubbock, and Texas Agricultural Extension Board. Currently, Floyd serves on the YWCA Cancer Survivorship Cancer Coalition Advisory Board and the South Plains Association of Governments Criminal Justice Advisory Committee.

Clyde “Chico” James grew up in segregated 1940s and 1970s Lubbock. He later graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He spent time in Mexico City and has lived between Lubbock and Mexico City for several decades. In Lubbock, James has been active in city politics and neighborhood associations. Specifically, James helped start an effort to save a Lubbock magnet school attended by Mexican Americans from destruction by a anti-Mexican school board.

Elisha Demerson was born and raised in Amarillo. Elisha Demerson and his twin brother both received appointments to West Point, but returned to Amarillo after two years to be near their ill mother. Elisha Demerson first worked at Pantex as a yard worker but entered West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M University) where he gained a bachelors then a masters in engineering. He has his own congregation as a minister. In addition, Elisha Demerson became the first African American Potter County Commissioner, the first African American county judge in Texas in the late 1980s, and the first African American City Council Member.

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.

Guzman was born in Edinburg and moved to Hart as a child. He later moved to Amarillo and bought his own small buisness. He helped revitalize the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in the 1980s.

T.J. Paterson was born in Waxahachie, Texas and grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas. He went to Bishop College in Marshall, Texas and majored in physical education. He then moved to Lubbock to work for a private school. Upon meeting and marrying his wife, he stayed in Lubbock. Patterson was the first African American elected to the Lubbock City Council and served in that role for two decades.

Iris Lawrence was born and raised in the North Heights neighborhood of Amarillo, Texas. She attended African American universities, including Howard University, and earned a master’s degree in English. While in college, Lawrence also participated in attempting to integrate Amarillo while on school breaks. Upon returning to Amarillo after living in various places like Austin, Texas, Lawrence worked for the state’s comptrollers office and served as the president of the NAACP.

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.

Gene Collins was born and raised in Odessa, Texas. He attended Abilene Christian University, where he was a campus and community civil rights organizer. He completed his college education at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Collins is now a local businessman and minister in Odessa, Texas. He has been president of the Odessa NAACP for over 15 years, and co-chair for environmental justice for the statewide NAACP. He helped lead several efforts toward environmental justice in and outside Odessa.

Emelio E. Abeyta was born in the Santa Rosa, New Mexico area. His family moved to Littlefield for his father’s work. Abeyta began attending Catholic seminary in Santa Fe, New Mexico and then Ohio as a teenager. He served as a priest in various West Texas towns. While serving in Slaton, Texas, Abeyta ran for school board, becoming the first ethnic Mexican school board member and aiding in the integration of the town’s schools. He left the priesthood to work for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Afterwards, he attended law school in the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He returned to West Texas, Lubbock, to practice law. In Lubbock Abeyta also ran for a judgeship.

Isabel Jimenez was born in 1953 in Slanton, Texas. Her family moved to Midland, Texas and she attended De Zavala Elementary (the “Mexican” school), Austin Junior High, and graduated from Midland High School in 1971. Jimenez attended Austin College in Sherman, Texas for one year, then Midland College, and the University of Texas—Permian Basin, which she eventually graduated from in 1987 with a degree in Spanish. Beginning in 1976, Jimenez worked for Southwest Bell. She joined LULAC in the 1970s due to police brutality against Mexican Americans, not wanting her own son to experience such brutality. Jimenez was part of LULAC single member districts at the county, city, school district, and community college levels. Jimenez also participated in the Southwest Voter Registration Project, taught as a bilingual education teacher, and is now a counselor at Midland College.

Audio recording of an interview with Johnnie Mae Carter, who was born in East Texas and grew up partly in College Station, Texas, Colorado, and Slaton, Texas. While living in Slaton, Carter was not allowed to attend the local high school because she is African American. Thus, she attended Dunbar High School in Lubbock, Texas. Her family later moved to Odessa, Texas. In Odessa, Carter attended Odessa College to become a nurse. She worked several years as a nurse and also volunteered and later worked for Planned Parenthood in Odessa.

Lydia Evaro Madrigal was born in Odessa, Texas in 1957 and grew up in the majority minority area of south Odessa. She attended Zavala Elementary, Travis Elementary, Ector County Junior High and High School, and transferred to Permian Basin high school for the higher level of academic classes. Madrigal graduated from high school in 1975. She then attended Odessa College, and began working in a local television station due to a suit by attorney Richard Abalos due to the lack of people of color in that television station. She initially reported on the Larry Lozano case and saw the bias of the local media against Lozano and his family. Madrigal had been part political campaigns since she was thirteen and was offered a job at the Texas House of Representatives while in college. Eventually, she graduated from the University of Texas-Permian Basin 1989 after having attended Southwestern Texas State University. Madrigal has been the Latino outreach coordinator for the DNC in Washington D.C., has worked to make Odessa College a Hispanic Serving Institution, and is now a business owner in Odessa and Midland, Texas.

Jessie Rangel was born in Big Lake, Texas. After working in Lubbock, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico, he joined the Marine Core during the 1960s. He saw action in Vietnam, and upon returning to Lubbock, enrolled in Texas Tech University. At Texas Tech University, he was part of MEChA and the larger Chicano Movement. Rangel graduated with a degree in political science. After graduation, he obtain an administration job at Texas Tech University and continued participating in social justice movements. Rangel was a founding member of TACHE.

Gilbert A. Flores grew up in Slaton, Texas where he attended a segregated “Mexican School” and then a integrated school where he faced abuse and discrimination alongside other Mexican American children. Upon graduating from high school, he moved to Lubbock and began to work in various jobs until he opened up his own successful auto-parts store during the early 1970s. In 1993 he became the second Mexican American to be elected into the Lubbock County Commissioner’s Court.

Wayne Woodward discusses his early life and activism and civil rights issues and the discriminatory culture of the Texas Panhandle,