Band Park Association, 1931. Known officially as the Band and Park Association for Colored People of Huntsville, Texas. The Association formed in 1931 under the leadership of David "Dave" Williams (standing behind the band in a dark suit). The purpose of the organization was to establish a park for Huntsville's African Americans on a nine acre site in East Huntsville known as "Sims Grove" where they had been holding the Juneteenth celebration since 1914 or 1915.
Little League team organized by Felder Jones, 1950
Dr. Joseph R. Griggs presenting ten-year pins to HISD teachers, ca. 1950s. Left to right-, ?, ?, Herma Johnson, Australia Robinson, Lilian Green, ?, Mary Oliphant.
Black Chamber of Commerce, 1950. First Row, left-right; Percy Howard, Dr. J. A. Johnson, Calvin Lewis, Scott Johnson, Miss Holloway, Iowa Jones, O. B. Toliver,K. H. Malone, Second row; Johnny Roberts, J. R. Powell, Alex Holt, ?, Ernest Grover, Sr. , Sapp Delaney, ?, George Oliphint, Aaron Curington, Herman Harper, Lucas Smith;Back row, Andrew Perkins, John Sowells, Earl Larue, Cecil Williams,Earnest McCowan, Carny Allen, Goree McGlothlin, Lucious Jackson.
Mr. Earnest Grover, Sr., Huntsville's First Black Policeman, 1950.
Two girls at Emancipation Park, 1950
Ruthie Lee Mosley Nauls
Alvin Baker after a rattlesnake hunt, 1960-1970
Mr. and Mrs. Earnest Grover with Earl Murray
Girl Scout Troop, 1950
One of the first Black Airmen at Tuskegee (Alabama) Institute,1941-1946.
Mr. R. H. Williams, owner of Williams and Sons Funeral Home.
Earl Murray working for McGowen's Ice House, 1950.
Felder Jones,with apprentices? Archie and . Jones established Felder's Shoe Shop in 1946. Located at 1210 Avenue M, Jones operated the shop until 1981, when he "semi-retired" to his home in the Galilee community near where his grandmother Melinda (Bailey) Williams donated the land for Sam Houston Industrial Training School.
Linford Williams Barber and Beauty Shop, 1518 10th Street. Mr. Mrs. Willie Lee Smith Williams, owners.
Williams and Sons Funeral Home
First Black Embalming School: Southern School of Embalming, 1937. R. H. Williams, Vice President of Class of 1937 and graduate.
Opening of K. H. Malone's Grocery, 13th Street and Avenue M, ca. 1950s. K. H. Malone was appointed the first African American Agricultural Demonstration Agent for Walker County in 1932 and provided services and information for African American farmers in Walker County until his retirement in the early 1970s. During the Great Depression Malone assisted many African American farmers in keeping their farms and helping others become farm-owners through the various New Deal programs such as the Farm Security Administration. Malone was also involved in the African American business community as this photograph and accompanying photographs reveal.
K. H. Malone's Chicken Farm, Richards Road, 1950. Back round-K. H. Malone, ? Smither, Rev. Eli ?(lives out on Old Colony Road).
Bart Carter barbering Walter Glaze and Ed Crawford barbering ? at Crawford's Barber Shop, located between 12th and 13th Streets on Avenue M, 1940. Crawford's Barber Shop was established by Ed Crawford around 1930 and operated for twenty-one years until 1951. Crawford, interviewed in the early 1940s, related that he had been in the barber business for 41 years and received his training from his father, Bob Crawford, who in turn was trained by Joe Mettawer (1837-1915), a free black who had come to Huntsville in the years before the Civil War, and was a leader in Huntsville's African American community for many years.
Dr. Arthur J. Johnson was the only African American dentist in Huntsville. Dr. Johnson received his Bachelor's degree from Bishop College and his medical training at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Johnson began his practice in Huntsville in 1941.
Baker Grover Cox, K. H. Malone, William C. Johnston, Felder Jones, looking over plans for Malone Construction Company, Richards Road, 1960.
Andrew Smither and Lee Carter on Jesse Baker's Farm, 1932
Andrew Smither, Lee Carter, James "Bo" Roundtree, carpenters at work on Jesse baker farm in 1930s.
Ben and Laura Willis, Grandparents of Wendell Baker. The Willis family lived in the Pine Hill community which was situated where the Spring Lake subdivision is now located approximately four miles west of Huntsville on the south side of Possum Walk Road (FM 1374). Ben and Laura Willis had three daughters; Fannie, Hattie and Leola and two sons; Jimmy and Frank. Fannie Willis later married Jesse Baker and they had eleven children; Albert, Claude, Alvin, Herbert, Frank, Jessie Bee, James, Nannie Lee, Wendell, Alystene and Leola.
Genoid McGuire
Emma Hightower, seated and holding grandson Eugene Johnson, Callie Allen (left)and Phyllis Murray (right).
Mr. Williams
Ben Bradley. Bradley was a well known figure in Huntsville who sold peanuts on the streets downtown during the 1930s.
Adair Smither and Rufus Craft, farmers in the early 1940s
African American school, Dodge, 1950.
African American school classroom. (either Mt. Zion or Hopewell)
Samuel Houston High School Home Economics Building, in Rogersville. Wendell Baker says there was no separate Home Economics building at Sam Houston High School.
Interior, Samuel Houston High School Home Economics Building (see entry 37).
Mt. Olive African American schoolhouse, Highway 30, 1940
Rural outhouse
African American Rural schoolhouse (Cotton Creek?)
Girls studying
African American rural schoolhouse
Teacher at her desk, African American rural school
One-room African American rural schoolhouse (Martha Chapel or White Oak).
Students in front of African American rural schoolhouse