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“Race Man (or woman)” is a term that many people raised immediately outside of the Civil Rights era, particularly non-Black Americans, are not immediately familiar with.
But for others, the term conjures up images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, Rosa Parks, Assata Shakur, and Julien Bond (who’s estate released a book called ‘Race Man: Selected Works, 1960-2015”) -- Black individuals who directly contributed to the betterment of Black people.
And there are others. Many of these individuals' names and faces have been lost to time, but they dedicated their lives to lifting up their community. While this article will highlight some Race Men and Women in Beaumont’s history, there are many more living in the legacies of families, churches and our schools:
- Graham and Ida Charles, a married couple that established a clinic, a grocery story and the first Black Boy Scout troop in 1931
- Charles Charlton and Thomas Pollard were both principals at their respective schools, united in the mission to education not just those in southeast Texas, but across the country, setting up education programs as far as California
- Elmo Riley Willard built successful homes for the Black community post-emancipation, after being enslaved on the Calder Plantation himself. He and his wife, Sarah Addams, whose family opened the first Black school for children, could be counted among the first race men and women who were able to grow their family to hold the same principles.
- If the name Elmo Willard sounds familiar, it is probably because of the Elmo Willard Library, 3590 E Lucas Dr. That and the Theodore Johns Library, 4255 Fannett Rd., are memorials to two Black Beaumont lawyers who worked together to sue several institutions, including then-Lamar State College of Technology in Jackson vs McDonald to allow Black students to go to school; and the city of Beaumont over Tyrell Park's integration -- working case-by-case to de-segregate the community.
- Woodson Pipkin, a formerly enslaved Methodist preacher, was instrumental in the education efforts as one of the few people in that time period who knew how to read and write.
- Francis Elizabeth Willard-Kelso Morris, a teacher at Charlton-Pollard
- Martha Mack, who donated land for one of the first cemeteries, adjacent to Magnolia, where Woodson Pipkin is buried today.
There are no ‘small’ contributions, particularly when a society is starting from the ground up. Even after the days of slavery, during the 1950s and 1960s, trained lawyers, like Theodore Johns and Elmo Willard III, couldn’t approach the bench. Black police officers couldn’t arrest a white criminal. And children were harassed by fearful angry adults while trying to learn their multiplication table.
Race men and women across the country planted their feet in their communities, refusing to be second-class citizens in their homes. Their commitment in history shows us now what the real meaning of community and love is -- it’s putting the necessity of those around you first and worrying about any consequences second.