Posted by Tina
We’ve had a few debates over the last couple of years about textbooks and how they are written. Today I found myself at home in the afternoon and I happened to tune-in to Glenn Beck’s “Founders Friday”. The show featured David Barton, a Texas author and evangelist who’s book, “American History in Black and White”, suggested the topic of the show. Barton brought documents, newspaper articles, and photos revealing history about black leaders that has never been represented in our school books or even in many (most..all) black studies courses. During the course of his research he found many of the documents and pictures under a stairwell, tucked away and out of sight…for posterity, no doubt.
You can find out about these early black Texas/American patriots and the contributions they made at the Texas State Library & Archives Commission:
The right to participate in politics was hard won for African-American Texans. After emancipation, African-Americans were still denied the right to vote or to hold political office. It was not until Reconstruction of the former Confederate states began that African-Americans were able to register to vote and participate in political life.
During this era, three African-Americans won election to the Texas Senate (with thirty-two others serving in the Texas House of Representatives).
Two of the three men who gained prominence in Texas government following emancipation follow:
Matt Gaines was born a slave in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1840. Gaines secretly taught himself to read by candlelight with books smuggled to him by a white friend. He escaped slavery twice, once in Louisiana and once in Texas, where he attempted to flee to Mexico. He was caught and returned to slavery, where he worked as a blacksmith and sheepherder. After emancipation, Gaines settled in Washington County, where he became a minister. Gaines was known for his powerful and persuasive speaking. In 1869, Gaines was elected to the Texas Senate and served in the 12th, 13th, and 14th legislatures. He crusaded tirelessly for education, prison reform, tenant-farming reform, and the participation of African-Americans in public life. After leaving the Senate in 1873, he continued his activism from the pulpit, sharing in the hardships of his people and encouraging them not to give up the struggle for their full rights as citizens. He died in Giddings, Texas in 1900.
Walter Burton was born a slave in North Carolina in 1829. Burton came to Texas at age 21 with his master, Thomas Burke Burton. Walter Burton was taught to read by Thomas Burton, and after emancipation Thomas Burton sold him several large plots of land in Fort Bend County, making Walter Burton one of the wealthiest and influential African-Americans in the county. Burton was elected sherriff and tax collector of Fort Bend County in 1869 and won election to the Texas Senate in 1873. He championed education and helped establish Prairie View Normal School (now Prairie View A&M University). He left the Senate in 1882, but continued to be active in politics until his death in 1913.
It couldn’t be possible that this history has been left out of textbooks in order to manipulate attitudes and further political ambitions and prejudices, could it ? How could we think otherwise?
Go HERE for a tour through the Texas exhibition site that has recorded the early black leaders who were elected to office in Texas and then removed to obscurity by those who were entrusted to record American history and pass it to future genrations.
One black man in Beck’s audience asked whether the British ban on the slave trade had any immediate effect in the colonies. The surprising answer was that it did. That in fact slave ownership continued in England and after several states enacted anti-slavery laws King George summarily overturned them when he was made aware of them…so much for the history we’ve been taught. These distortions don’t have to be blatantly lied about in order to become our remembered history; they need only be left out of the historical record passed on in deficient history books.
A black woman asked Barton if he would consider running a black history month because, as she said, “We aren’t doing a very good job”. She’s right of course. A great injustice has been done to the black community and to all Americans and it’s time it was righted once and for all.
I intend to get a copy of “American History in Black and White”. I hope you will too. In the meantime I now have a better sense of what those evil conservatives in Texas, charged with deciding what is included in our school textbooks, are up to. They should be roundly applauded for working to restore an accurate historical record of our American heritage.
Editors note: I discovered an error for the exhibit site; find that wonderful archive here:
Texas State Library & Archives Commission (scroll down to enter)