HISTORICAL RESEARCH
26 Texas Counties
I never made a “D” in school until I asked too many questions of my college professors in American History classes. That is when I learned that if I wanted to know something about the Civil War, I would have to seek those answers for myself.
So, although I did not major in history, I made history my major. After all this research, I am still learning, fifty years later—including what I learned from my parents. Now I am waiting on the installation of a historical marker for the United States Colored Troops who fought at Palmito Ranch Battlefield in the last battle of the Civil War. This year it will be installed not 25 miles from where I was born in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. My research also helped secure a historical marker for Marshall and Malinda Mitchell, my paternal grandparents at our family farm, now in our family for 105 years.
Until you make history personal, it will not matter.
The Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, my books on Reconstruction Era Texas, and Go Down, Old Hannah, for me it is all personal. I keep trying to get this history out of my head and into the heads of others. Everyday I thank God for a precise memory—historical memory. Inside the reenactments, exhibits, events documented for performance in these Texas Counties are stories that may never come to light. Underground Railroad stories. For this reason, I write books, I perform reenactments, erect exhibitions, search and perform Ex-slave Narratives on stages, in the woods, in the community. It has become urban interpretation in Houston’s Third Ward. Black communities are under siege. Black history is fleeting, along with our heroes and heroines, like Bessie Coleman, educated in France, a pilot; or my hero, Scott Joplin, King of Ragtime. This history, American history, my Black history is front and center of my life. I share it lovingly with everybody I meet—in one way or another.
1) Austin Bellville Bernardo Plantation Archaeology
2) Brazoria Angleton Austin Town Festivals/2019 PBS Documentary /Plantation Tours
3) Brazos Bryan/College Station Heritage Tour
4) Cameron Brownsville Civil War Trail & Historical Marker
5) Colorado Columbus CountyLine School Documents
6) Coryell Gatesville Lincolnville Freedmen’s Town History
7) Fayette LaGrange Rhône Family of Fayette County
8) Fort Bend Richmond George Ranch Historical Park, Texian Market Days Festivals
9) Galveston Galveston Heritage Tourism and 2001 UGRR Conference
10) Grimes Anderson Stage Coach Inn
11) Harris Houston Heritage Tourism
12) Harrison Tyler Reconstruction Era Texas
13) Henderson Athens 2000 UGRR Texas to Mexico Conference
14) Lavaca Hallettsville Mitchell Museum/Pleasant Hill Church/Lavaca Historical Museum
15) Matagorda Bay City Reconstruction Era Oral HIstory
16) McClennan Waco “The Making of a Lynching Culture” - Birth of Annie Mariah Rhone Davis
17) Montgomery Montgomery Reenacting “Underground Railroad from Texas to Mexico”
18) Nacogdoceus Nacogdoceus Stephen F. Austin University – Stone Fort Museum Pre-1900 AA Quilts
19) San Jacinto Coldspring Reenactment
20) Travis Austin East Austin Gentrification/Annie Mae Musical at St. Edwards’s Univ.
21) Val Verde Del Rio Artist in Residence for Reenactment
22) Waller Hempstead Reenactment “Plantation Liendo” at Civil War Annual Reenactment
23) Walker Huntsville Sam Houston Folk Festival (1999 – 2011)/1999 UGRR Conference
24) Washington Brenham Texas Parks & Wildlife – Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park Festivals
25) Wharton Wharton Egypt Plantation Slave Cabin Sleepover for National Trust Conference
26) Wichita Wichita Falls Booker T. Washington High School – Hometown Musical, “Wichita Falls”
Texas Counties
Researched County Seat Cities Nature of Research
