The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, Volume 59, Number 1, Summer 2023 Page: 14
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The Texas QufffistoricaandBiographicaRtecord
The first speaker was Alex Perez (Strong Wind), a Karankawa descen-
dant from Galveston. He spoke about the devastating impact of Euro-
pean colonization but also about how the first people in what became
Jefferson County worked with and lived through extreme change. He
visualized the oil pipelines in the Gulf as so many huge straws, which
when they rupture will make the BP spill look like spilled milk. As he
said, "Things have happened. It's our response that matters."
As part of her reflections on pre-Civil War Jefferson County, Judy Lins-
ley told the story of the mixed-race slaveholding Ashworth family. At
one point they had the most cattle of any family in the county. In 1840, a
special Ashworth Law allowed them to stay in Texas at a time when free
Blacks were denied entry but by the 1850s, vigilantes forced them to
leave with next to nothing. After Emancipation, jobs in the rising lumber
industry attracted freed slaves as well as white people. It was Beaumont's
first economic boom.
David Willard detailed the history of his family as an example of the
persistence and success Black people found in industrial-age Jefferson
County. According to oral history, the family patriarch was enslaved on
a plantation located at Eleventh and Calder in Beaumont. Another de-
scendant served on otherwise white juries and joined with other commu-
nity leaders to educate people on Black history. As a student at Howard
University, David's father was part of the Brown vs. Board of Education
landmark case integrating US public schools. He returned to Beaumont
to win local integration cases. The solemnity of a 1925 Juneteenth march
down Magnolia Street that was captured on film in 1925 and shared
among the November 5 participants alludes to both victories and de-
feats.
Jim Sanderson drew a picture of the land of "Pine, Petroleum, and Pen-
tecostals," quoting from one of his novels. He observed the rootedness
of people in Jefferson County; nobody wants to leave, or if they do, they
return-despite the punishing summers and storms. He also mentioned
the poet Katherine Hoerth, whose work opens this volume (page 7).14
VOLUME 59
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Texas Gulf Historical Society. The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, Volume 59, Number 1, Summer 2023, periodical, Summer 2023; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1621145/m1/16/?q=green+energy: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Gulf Historical Society.