“In the Houston Heights historic districts, named streets run north and south. East-west streets are numbered, beginning with 4th St just north of I-10 and continuing to 20th St on the north side of Heights East. Sixth Street is also known as White Oak Boulevard. Numbered streets are named ‘West’ on the west side of Heights Blvd are ‘East’ on the east side of Heights Blvd. “
~ http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/HistoricPres/HistoricPreservationManual/historic_districts/heights_boundaries.html
While searching for something memorable about Houston from the New Years Eve reports of 100 years ago that remain lodged in the news sources available to The Pecan Park Eagle, the following short story in The December 31, 1914 edition of the Galveston Daily News simply jumped off the page:
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AGED NEGRO WILL ENTERTAIN SEVERAL FORMER SLAVES ON NEW YEAR’S DAY
Special to the Galveston Daily News, Dec. 31, 1914 ~
Houston, Tex., Dec. 30 ~ A novel dinner will be given New Year’s in honor of several ex-slaves who live in Houston by John Brant, an aged negro of Houston Heights. The ages of his guests will range from 80 to 116 years. Bob Holmes is the oldest man to whom an invitation has been sent. J.B. Marmion, mayor of Houston Heights, will deliver a short message to the negroes, as will W. Oliva.
~ Galveston Daily News, December 31, 1914, Page 3.
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That’s it? We are left to wonder what was said? What was the Houston Heights mayor’s message to those former Houstonian survivors of slavery a mere 59 years after the end of the Civil War? As far as we have come since then, we now know this much. – It would still be another half century from 1915 before the heavy walls of segregation fell that separated local blacks and whites well into the 1960s – and another half century for Houston to become a world class economically diverse and international community in which all Houston citizens have a much more balanced opportunity to rise or fall on the basis of their individual abilities and activity energies for success against all obstacles.
Has the issue of “race” improved in Houston over the past century? Of course, it has. It’s way better today. Could it be better than it is? Absolutely! When the day comes that no one in Houston is hired or not hired because of race or skin color is as non-existent as discrimination by sex, sexual preference, or age, we will be a stronger community. When being Black, Hispanic, White, Asian, Native American, Straight, Gay, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Old no longer counts for you as an entitlement – or against you as a basis for negative profiling – things will be much better.
Will that kind of ideal ever be seriously possible? Probably not.
The self-serving interest of the human ego is not going away – and the human ego thrives strongest in a world in which it is possible to polarize all people into camps of “us” and “them” – those who are “for us” and “against us”. To this day, I cannot imagine how the southern Protestant ministers and southern Catholic priests prior to the Civil War got up in the pulpit each Sunday and preached anything about brotherly love in oversight of the fact that a few million of our brothers and sisters were providing the slave labor that built their churches. Yes, it was a different time, but slavery was just as wrong then as it is now.
And that depressing thought raises an even scarier one: What are we ignoring today that is just as wrong as our culture’s ability to ignore slavery until the 1860s?
Flip quickly to the brighter side. – With the power of all races and ethnic groups working today, side by side, Houston has a chance to be one of those points of light that former President George H.W. Bush used to talk about during his term as our 41st President. The more Houstonians drop the “us” and “them” mentality of hate, fear, and acted-out animus that some parts of the country seem to be feasting upon recently, the better our chances grow for a strong and bonded one-people of America.
God Is Love. ~ You, of course, are equally free to believe what you believe. For me, I just hold to the idea that life’s too short to devote one’s energies to hate. All we peacefully can do is wake up each day and give life our best run possible in the name of love. Everything else we do is ego – and being human, we all have one that’s just waiting for us to slip it on like a favorite Halloween costume.
The fact is, unlike the ego demands, we don’t really have to be perfect in what we do. All we can do is hit the wind-up handle each morning and keep on moving in some positive and giving direction for as long as possible. If we make mistakes, those are our lessons. We can either learn from them and move on in greater wisdom – or wait to see the lessons we refused again down the road – in some similar form.
(In my case, nap times, of course, are included in my daily plan these days. They didn’t used to be there on the calendar, but they sure are now.)
Happy New Year Again, Everybody! ~ Go out and – do that thing you do – the one that feels good to you and some others – without causing injury to innocent bystanders.
And may God Bless the memory of two Houstonians from 100 years ago that we should learn more about and never forget. John Brant and Bob Holmes, two Houstonians who spent parts of their early lives as slaves. Based on the report we read today, the 116-year old Bob Holmes was a former slave, for sure. We are simply assuming here that John Brant was a slave as well based on his story description as the “aged negro” host of this gathering in the Houston Heights.
Anyone who knows more about either man is invited to leave a written informational comment below. Also, anyone who knows the exact spelling of the Houston Heights mayor’s last name in 1914 could really help us out there too. The old type on this story made his last name beyond the reach of my abilities to decipher blurred print. Thank you. Mike Vance for answering the call. Now corrected above, the mayor of Houston Heights in 1914 was J.B. Marmion.
Have a great Saturday too, everybody. Looks like Houston is in for another rainy day.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
December 27, 2014 at 5:30 pm |
The Heights Mayor was Marmion. There is a park at 18th and Heights Blvd. named for him today. He was the last mayor of Houston Heights before it became part of Houston in 1918.
December 27, 2014 at 5:34 pm |
Robert Holmes was listed in the 1910 census as being 104 years old and born in Virginia. He lived alone with Lucy, his wife of 30 years, who was 90 herself. No address is shown on the form.
December 27, 2014 at 5:36 pm |
Thanks twice, Mike.
December 27, 2014 at 5:44 pm |
And here’s one from my old STHS ’56 friend and recent published author of the fine intrigue novel, “Ground Truth”, ROB SANGSTER. His wonderful contributions came by e-mail, but they deserve their place here:
“Bill, a fine year-ender.
“The heart of it was, I thought, ‘And that depressing thought raises an even scarier one: What are we ignoring today that is just as wrong as our culture’s ability to ignore slavery until the 1860s?’
“I’m afraid the answers are many. Ignoring? Harder to do in the Information Age. How about ‘permitting?’
“I’d nominate:
– zero-sum-game capitalism
– American militarism (okay, a little redundant)
– politicians corrupt to the bone
– a totally dysfunctional political system (yes, there I go again)
– the corrosive impact of living in a culture of fear (as if Americans had a clue about what living in real fear is).
“May the wind be ever at your back,”
~ Rob Sangster
December 27, 2014 at 5:45 pm |
I cannot find John Brant (or Brent or any other old black man named John whose name stars with B). There were 20 black Harris Countians between 90 and 100 years of age in 1910, every one born in a place that would have potentially placed them in slavery. The math means that in 1910 these people would have lived AT LEAST half their lives in slavery, if that was the bondage into which they had been born.
Also for the record, Harris County operated two old folks homes for the indigent elderly, one white and one black. There was also a Home for Aged Ex-Slaves that operated in Houston in the mid 1920s. It appears to have been run as a charitable institution.
The WPA Slave Narratives, part of the Federal Writer’s Project, a government funded program that preserved unimaginable stories of our nation’s past and much more, did at least one interview with a woman who had been enslaved and was living in Houston in the 1930s. She lived near Freedmen’s Town, if I recall, though I haven’t read her interview in several years.
December 27, 2014 at 5:54 pm |
Thanks again, Mike Vance. I had a hunch that if anyone had better information on these people in our city’s history, that it would be you. Keep up the great work – forever, if possible. And Happy New Year too.
December 28, 2014 at 8:34 pm |
I PRAY YOU HAVE HAD A GREAT LONG LIFE AND MORE TO COME GOD BLESS/