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Oral History Interview with Sam Collins, July 26, 2016
Samuel Collins was born in Galveston, Texas in 1971. He grew up in Hitchcock with his mother and grandparents, and spent time in Galveston with his father's family. He grew up in a predominantly African American community but attended the integrated schools. He attended Texas A&M University. After he graduated, he moved to Corpus Christi in 1995 but quickly returned to Houston in 1996. In 2012 he decided to become his own boss and opened his own business. In 2005, Collins and his wife purchased the Stringfellow Orchards after he saw a historical marker on the road. Since then, he has endeavored to restore the property and highlight the histories of African Americans who worked in the orchards following the Civil War. Collins has also been involved in Juneteeth Celebrations in both Galveston and Hitchcock, and other historic preservation efforts in Galveston County. In his interview, he details the need for historical preservation in the African American community.
Date:
July 26, 2016
Creator:
Collins, Sam & Enriquez, Sandra
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Tino Gonzalez, July 25, 2016
Florentino "Tino" Gonzalez was born in 1959 in Galveston and came of age in the Eastend, an African American and Mexican American neighborhood. He attended Catholic school for his primary and secondary education and struggled initially to learn English. After doing construction work for a few years post-graduation, Gonzalez attended Galveston College where he recieved the individualized attention necessary to thrive and matriculate. As the Vice President of Moody National Bank, he served on many boards of historical and non-profit organizations. Gonzalez talks about how his family migrated from Monterrey, Mexico to Galveston, how his cross-ethnic experiences growing up provided him a broad perspective, how his high school did not prepare him to go to college, and how Galveston College provided him the environment necessary to gain an education and prosper in life. He also talks about how his ability to listen and read coupled with his desire to represent Latina/o perspectives afforded him the opportunity to serve on several institutional boards, such as the Family Service Center, the Galveston Sustainable Community Alliance. Gonzalez describes his position as a Galveston College Board of Regents member and how he has focused on the recruitment and retention of working class, ethnic, and …
Date:
July 25, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Gonzalez, Tino
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jesse Shead, July 22, 2016
Jesse Shead was born in 1947 in East Austin, a segregated African American neighborhood with thriving businesses. He grew-up going to African American schools, such as Campbell Elementary and Kealing Junior High, and experienced a middle-class lifestyle in his ethnic enclave. Shead went to Anderson High School before its closure and and reopening as an integrate school in 1971. After attending Huston-Tillotson University in Austin for two years, he was employed for the Humble Oil and Refinery Company in Baytown as it was transitioning to Exxon. While in Baytown, Shead witnessed instances of discrimination where he was refused service at local businesses. He talks about how desegregation efforts in Austin lead to the drain of African American professionals in the schools and overall community of East Austin, the weak company union at Exxon, how he was one of the few African Americans to work in the Exxon's processing department, his inability to rent in certain areas of town due to his race, and racial discrimination at Lee High School during the time that his two sons were attending. Shead also describes his unsuccessful bid to serve on the board of regents for Lee College, organizing around the police brutality case …
Date:
July 22, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Shead, Jesse
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Izola Collins, July 19, 2016
Izola Collins was born in Galveston, Texas in 1929. Her mother's family has been on the island since the 1860s when her great grandfather, Horace Scull, moved his children and wife into the area. Her grandfather, Ralph Albert Scull, was one of the first African American teachers in Galveston. She grew up in the East End of the Island, where she believed a life of luxury although her family was poor. She attended Central High School and joined the band and learned about African American history. She left the Island in the late 1940s to attend Prairie View A&M and graduated with a degree in music. She began teaching the Bay City band, then left to Evanston to attend Northwestern where she received her Master's in music in 1953. Collins returned to Galveston and taught music at different schools in the area (Hitchcock) and at Goliad and Stephen F. Austin schools. She became celebrated as her students represented Galveston in different state competitions. In 1986, she ran for the board of the Galveston Independent School District and won. Collins served for 9 years and became president of the board during her last term. She has been recently involved in the …
Date:
July 19, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Collins, Izola
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jew Don Boney, July 27, 2016
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 …
Date:
July 27, 2016
Creator:
Boney, Jew Don; Enriquez, Sandra & Rodriguez, Samantha
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Leroy Bunch, July 12, 206
Discussed his career as president of the local Hi-Alco neighborhood organization
Date:
July 12, 2016
Creator:
Accuna-Gurrola, Moises; Wall, James & Bunch, Leroy
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Georg Johnson, June 20, 2016
Georg Johnson is from Corpus Christi. In his interview, he recounts growing up during the Jim Crow era, desegregation, and civil rights activism in Corpus Christi.
Date:
June 20, 2016
Creator:
Acuña-Gurrola, Moisés; Wall, James & Johnson, Georg
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Joe Cavasos, June 29, 2016
Cavasos discussed his role as a principal during Cisneros/desegregation in Corpus Christi
Date:
June 29, 2016
Creator:
Acuña-Gurrola, Moisés; Wall, James & Joe Cavasos
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Butch Escobedo, June 15, 2016
Butch Escobedo recounted role in the Alonzo I & II decision & political reform in Corpus Christi.
Date:
June 15, 2016
Creator:
Acuña-Gurrola, Moisés; Wall, James & Escobedo, Butch
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Doug Matthews on July 21, 2016
Doug W. Matthews was born in 1951 in Galveston and was raised in the Westend community. While he experienced the segregation of public venues, such as the seawall, restaurants, and movie theaters, Matthews' parents encouraged him to control his own future by working twice as hard. Matthews attend Central High, the first African-American High School in Texas, for three years and benefited from the school's academic rigor and dedication to all of its students. His senior year at the integrated Ball High played a critical role in Matthews' career path, as his academic and athletic achievements along with the relationships he forged paved the way for his tenure as a grants coordinator and city manager. He talks about the multitude of federal grants available in the 1970s and how he secured monies for urban planning and employment training. Matthews also discusses his experiences at Lamar University, how he worked to bridge the gap between the city government's middle class perception of neighborhood improvement and the unmet basic needs of the African-American community, how Galveston cultivated its tourist industry, the resurrection of Mardi Gras celebrations on the island, his role in the maintenance of Juneteenth celebrations, the struggles to preserve the …
Date:
July 21, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Matthews, Doug
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Richard E. Reyes on June 30, 2016.
Richard E. Reyes was born in 1951 and grew-up in the Northside of Houston. As a young adult, he would become heavily involved in the arts and would create the Pancho Claus play about a Mexican Santa Claus donned in a Zoot Suit that provides toys for barrio youth. Reyes also served as the director of Talento Bilinque de Houston, a bilingual arts center that has played a critical role in providing creative outlets for Latina/o youth. He discusses his involvement in gang prevention efforts, addressing AIDS in the Latina/o community though the Chicana/o Family Center, the benefits of the Low rider culture, the struggle to find funding for Latina/o art, cross-racial efforts in the art scene, and his thoughts on the recent gentrification of Second Ward.
Date:
June 30, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Reyes, Richard E.
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Clifton Lyons and Diana O'Neal
Diana Lyons was born in Galveston, Texas in 1954, and grew up on the west side of the Island. Although she experienced integration during her school years, Lyons faced discrimination in the schools she attended, including colorism and being placed in Special Education classes due to her behavior. Lyons also witnessed several episodes of racial tension on the Island. She would drop out of school and attend beauty and nursing school. Most recently, she has been involved in the Residents’ council of the Holland House, a public housing building, where the group addresses the needs of the community.Clifton O’Neal was born in Galveston, Texas in 1954. He group up in housing projects such as Palm Terrace and Oak Terrace. He attended Booker T. Washington, and all-Black school, where he had teachers that cared about his success. O’Neal began attending Ball High School in 1969, and was part of the first integrated class. O’Neal witnessed racial tensions in Galveston as he grew up during the Island’s integration. He currently serves as the President of the Holland House’s Resident’s Council, where he serves as a liaison between the community and the administration.
Date:
June 29, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Lyons, Diana
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Bryan Parras.
Bryan Parras was born in 1977 in the East End, a Mexican-American enclave in Houston, TX. His parents, Jesusa Moreno and Juan Parras, played influential roles in his political consciousness. He talks about discrimination and how he has became involved in Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say as well as the immigrant rights movement. Parras also discusses how the creation of Cesar E. Chavez High School right near the oil refineries in Houston sparked his involvement in the environmental justice movement. He provides an in-depth discussion of how the environmental justice movement has taken him all over the world, particularly in Canada and South American, and how through his organization, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, he has forged relations with indigenous communities as well as African-American communities.
Date:
June 24, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Parras, Bryan
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Cornelia Harris Banks, July 6, 2016
Cornelia Harris Banks was born in Galveston in 1947.She grew up in a neighborhood on the South of Broadway, which was a mixed neighborhood. Harris Banks witnessed segregated public spaces on the Island and the integration of schools in the 1960s. She graduated from high school in 1965 and attended Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, where she remained until 1996. Upon her return to Galveston in the late 1990s, she became very involved in the community. Subsequently, Harris Banks became the first African American Woman City Council member on the Island in 2000. During her tenure, she became involved in housing efforts (which she continues to work on in present day), in creating parks and recreation spaces, and revitalizing Galveston in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in 2008. Harris Banks is also involved in the local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and in local preservation efforts that highlight the history of African Americans in Galveston.
Date:
July 6, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Banks, Cornelia Harris
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with James Aaron, June 8, 2016
James Aaron was born and raised in Pleasantville, a predominately African American neighborhood in Houston, TX. After highschool, he would join the People's Party II. He discusses growing up with Carl Hampton, segregation in Houston, the community activities of the People's Party II, and how he would become the leader of the party after the Dowling Shootout. He also talks in depth about the goal and purpose of the Rainbow Coalition, which comprised of the People's Party II, the John Brown Revolutionary League and the Mexican American Youth Organization.
Date:
June 8, 2016
Creator:
Aaron, James; Enriquez, Sandra & Rodriguez, Samantha
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Edward Castillo, June 9, 2016
Edward Castillo was born in Houston in 1948. He grew up in the Fifth Ward and the Northside neighborhoods. Castillo talks about his activism in the University of Houston Mexican American Youth Organization and the organization's efforts to recruit and retain Chicana/o students, to establish the Center for Mexican American Studies, and to create the UH Marcha por La Humanidad mural. He also talks about co-founding Centro Aztlán, a cooperative that is dedicated to providing educational and social services to the Latina/o community in Houston.
Date:
June 9, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Castillo, Edward
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Patricia Gonzales, July 29, 2016
Patricia "Pat" Gonzales was born in 1967 in Houston in the Gulfgate area. She moved to the toxic Manchester neighborhood, a predominately Latina/o area of town next to the oil refineries, after she graduated from high school. Gonzales became active in the environmental justice movement due to the health issues she acquired while living next to the refineries. She later worked for the Texas Organizing Project to address the lack of infrastructure in the Northern Pasadena area. Gonzales discusses the risk of explosions in Pasadena, attending EPA conferences and addressing environmental racism, how the Anglo power structure functions in Pasadena, and how both African Americans and Latinas/os are neglected. She also talks about the recent voting rights violations in Pasadena and how the city capitulates to the interests of the oil industry.
Date:
July 29, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Gonzales, Patricia
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Gloria Rubac on June 6, 2016.
Gloria Rubac was born in Oklahoma, TX. in 1946. After witnessing racial discrimination in Oklahoma throughout her youth, Rubac traveled to Houston in 1968 to teach in the Northforest School District. She became involved in the John Brown Revolutionary League, a radical white youth organization that was a part of a Rainbow Coalition with the People's Party II. Wanting to become more active in supporting Brown and Black organizations, Rubac joined the Huelga School movement as a teacher and protestor. She talks about her succeeding involvement in supporting the Chicana/o Moratorium, the Mexican American Youth Organization, the People's Party II, the Worker's World, and the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, which she has dedicated her life to. Rubac also discusses inter-racial solidarity as well as discrimination in Houston, particularly police brutality as it relates to the assassination of Carl Hampton, the Jose Campos Torres incident, and the Moody Park Rebellion.
Date:
June 6, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Rubac, Gloria
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Ruell Parker on June 7, 2016.
Discussed the history of labor unionism in the Golden Triangle, the challenges of growing up working-class, and the ongoing problems facing organized labor.
Date:
June 7, 2016
Creator:
Krochmal, Max & Parker, Ruell
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Sandy Newkirk on July 28, 2018
Described her family's rural life, her travels, and her parents attempts to shelter her from racism. Also, she described her own encounters with racism in Texas and elsewhere, and her work on behalf of civil rights.
Date:
July 28, 2016
Creator:
Bobadilla, Eladio & Newkirk, Sandy
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Margaret Toal on June 29, 2016.
Discussed her experiences as a white woman living in a quickly changing racial environment, her experiences with gender and race, and her work as a journalist covering the civil rights movement and its struggles.
Date:
June 29, 2016
Creator:
Grevious, Danielle; Bobadilla, Eladio & Toal, Margaret
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Shane Sinegal on July 1, 2016.
Discussed his early life in a segregated Port Arthur, his education, and his work with youths in the criminal justice system, and later, in education.
Date:
July 1, 2016
Creator:
Bobadilla, Eladio & Sinegal, Shane
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Fernando Ramirez on June 23, 2016.
Fernando Ramirez is an activist, advocate, and media professional for the Hispanic community in Port Arthur, Texas. In his interview, he discusses his personal history, and poverty, race relations, and minority struggles in the Triangle region of Texas.
Date:
June 23, 2016
Creator:
Grevious, Danielle & Ramirez, Fernando
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jesus Abrego, June 13, 2016
Discussed the history of the Hispanic community in the region, the role of religion, and the ongoing struggles to integrate and include Hispanics in local politics and society.
Date:
June 13, 2016
Creator:
Abrego, Jesus; Grevious, Danielle & Bobadilla, Eladio
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History