A.C. McMillan African American Museum

William Sydney Pittman, Texas' first practicing African American architect, left an indelible mark, helping to shape the landscape of the African American community in Texas.

After marrying Portia Washington, Booker T. Washington's daughter, they moved to Dallas. His arrival in Dallas not only marked a milestone in Texas architecture but also provided the Black community with access to a professional architect that understood their needs.

Designed by Pittman in 1915-16, the Knights of Pythias Temple (now known as the Kimpton Pittman Hotel) stands as the first major commercial structure in Dallas for African Americans. It became a professional and cultural epicenter in Deep Ellum with storefronts, offices, a drugstore, barbershop, and a ballroom.

After 16 years practicing in Texas, Pittman designed 15 known buildings. Today, only seven of those buildings stand.

📸: Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons
Texas Historical Commission

I'll Be Home For Kwanzaa (Full Album: 1997 Bagel Label/Produced by H.McMillan) I'll Be Home For Kwanzaa was recorded live in Austin, Texas at Top of the Marc (Katz's music club) in 1997. The album features some of Austin's most gifted a...

in 1955, civil rights activist Rosa Parks was arrested for “refusing to obey orders of a bus driver.” When Parks refused to give up her bus seat, she set off a chain reaction in Montgomery, Alabama, that helped fuel the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Her arrest sparked a bus boycott that lasted 381 days. Press coverage made the boycott and the issue of segregation national news stories. The struggle in Montgomery brought respect and national, and as international, attention to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., the spokesperson for the boycotters.

Earlier that year, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for defying segregated bus seating. Colvin was arrested in March of 1955 for the same form of civil disobedience, but the civil rights lawyers did not think hers would be the best test case.

Given the title "First lady of Civil Rights" by Congress, Parks received national recognition and acclaim for her lifelong advocacy work. Her awards include the NAACP's 1979 Spingarn Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal. Posthumously, she became the first Black woman to have a statue in the United States Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.

Explore a hat that belonged to Parks and other objects related to civil rights activism in our online Searchable Museum: https://www.searchablemuseum.com/straw-hat-owned-by-rosa-parks

📸 A booking photo of American civil rights activist, Rosa Parks, following her February 1956 arrest during the Montgomery bus boycott. The boycott was originally sparked by her earlier arrest on 1st December 1955. Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images

“I just write with a clash between reality and fantasy, mostly. You have to use fantasy to show different sides of reality – how it can bend.” - Jimi Hendrix, 1970

in 1942, musician and songwriter Jimi Hendrix was born. A fan of science fiction, Hendrix established a unique musical aesthetic with lyrics about the future, the cosmos, liberation, alien life, African mysticism and more. Hendrix’s song “Purple Haze,” developed from a dream he had of himself walking under the sea. The song’s narrative was originally 10 pages in length. As a guitarist, Hendrix had a seismic effect on musicians across genres, making him one the most significant musical artists and cultural icons of the 20th century: https://www.searchablemuseum.com/sun-ra-and-jimi-hendrix -hendrix

📸 Photograph by G. Marshall Wilson. Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Happy birthday to Bobby Seale.
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Bobby_Seale

...and Emory, Texas will have one soon!

On this day in 1950, a burger stand opened in Corpus Christi and launched a Texas icon.

Harmon Dobson, a World War II veteran, had no prior restaurant experience, but sought a business investment. In true Texan form, his vision was to make a burger so big that it would elicit an incredulous cry from those who saw it: “What a burger!”

On August 8, 1950, the first Whataburger opened at 2609 Ayers St. That day the stand sold $50 worth of burgers, chips, and drinks, with a hamburger costing 25 cents. (The price increased to 35 cents after 1951.)

At 5 inches across, Dobson’s burgers were so much larger than other restaurants’ 2½-inch sliders that bakeries didn’t make buns big enough to hold them. Dobson had to commission a handmade set of extra-large pans.

Explore Corpus Christi and other coastal destinations on our historic road trip itinerary: https://www.thc.texas.gov/blog/historic-road-trip-south-texas-coastal-bend

📷: The first Whataburger, Corpus Christi. Photo credit: Whataburger

On August 6th, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed The Voting Rights Act, which enforced the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and made it illegal to place restrictions on federal, state, or local elections that would deny Blacks the right to vote. A speech by activist Fannie Lou Hamer in front of the Democratic National Convention that brought attention to the abuse that African Americans faced on the path to suffrage galvanized President Johnson to sign the Act.

After the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the law was weakly enforced or ignored, largely in the South and in areas where the Black population was large enough to threaten the political status quo.

📸 Courtesy of LBJ Library. Photo by Yoichi Okamoto.

Our history is American History!

Mr. Russell.

Bill Russell
February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - R.I.P.
professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and a 12-time NBA All-Star, he was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career. Russell and Henri Richard of the National Hockey League are tied for the record of the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Russell is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He led the San Francisco Dons to two consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956,[4] and he captained the gold-medal winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Just in case you think it's rare for Black quarterbacks to compete against each other, it's not! They do it every weekend at HBCUs. Ijs 🏈

We invite you to join us in celebrating the life of Juanita J. Craft on her birthday.

Thursday, February 9, 2023
6:30 pm
South Dallas Cultural Center
3400 S. Fitzhugh Avenue
Dallas, TX 75210

In 1963, as the Civil Rights Movement swept the nation, a reluctant President John F. Kennedy introduced the Civil Rights Act. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's successor, signed the Act into law in 1964, creating sweeping reforms to ensure and increase equal rights for African Americans. The legislation also prohibited racial discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and federally funded programs. The Act opened the door for additional reforms, including the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which ended discrimination in housing. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is part of a long continuum of civil rights acts created to ensure and expand the rights of African Americans. Learn more: https://s.si.edu/3P4CwI6

📸 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act as Martin Luther King, Jr., others look on. Courtesy of LBJ Library. Photo by Cecil Stoughton.

TSHA Handbook of African American Texas --> https://bit.ly/3jkPm9J
In honor of Black History Month, TSHA invites you to explore the Handbook of African American Texas, a special project of the Handbook of Texas. This project was created to bring greater awareness, and to increase research on the roles and contributions that African Americans in Texas have made to their neighborhoods, cities, state, nation and beyond. TSHA Handbook of African American Texas --> https://bit.ly/3jkPm9J

On the left, is the flyer from the African American Museum's current exhibit. On the right, photo of my family member, was a West Texas rancher.

History in the making ... 2023 Super Bowl will feature 2 African-American quarterbacks. Both are from Texas.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!