WE MUST NEVER FORGET DUVAL COUNTY, VIDOR AND THE SLOCUM MASSACRE
Duval County, Vidor and Slocum Massacre must never be forgotten in America.
In Duval county, a Black or hispanic male was tied up, put in the back of a truck, taken to the county, shot in the back of the head with his hands and feet tied up three times with a single loading gun, dragged from the truck and put in the bush. A judge Parr in Duval County ruled this death to be a suicide.
In Vidor, there was a reputation of murder of Blacks on a routine basis. There was one incident in which white men in two trucks tied a man to each truck and split him in half while driving fast. It is not known what precipitated such a heinous crime except he was Black.
The Slocum Massacre is notorious. Whites decided that the Blacks were too prosperous in Slocum. They owned land, stores and homes. Whites became angry and jealous that Blacks were doing so well. Whites formed vigilante groups and went to the town and killed every living Black person they could find. They even took dogs and found the Blacks who ran and murdered them as they ran. No one was ever charged with a crime.
There is no question that the whites in Brazos probably feared and were angry with me. I was different. I had not lost a case. They thought I was too smart and they could not allow me to get a good job with the federal government. I was above myself. The prosecutor kept saying that I was a Social Worker and lawyer—had been a criminal for a decade because of my profession. They did not want Blacks like this in their county. I experienced this attitude from my landlord the other day.
My refrigerator has not worked for six months. Management has lied and said they are calling Sears or they are requesting parts. They have not done anything. They did this before with these cheap refrigerators. They finally put in a new refrigerator. It does not maintain temperature. Milk spoils in two days. Food molds in a few days. They will not do anything about the refrigerator. I have requested that maintenance not enter my apartment when I am not present. They claim this is the reason they have not done anything. When I stated that I did not want maintenance in my apartment because of the high number of thefts and break-ins in my apartment, I was ordered from the office and told that if I told anyone about the break-ins I would be evicted. This is a superior white female who thinks that Blacks are less than human and their losses of their property do not matter. When I told her I was not going to lie to anyone if asked, she told me that she was giving me a three day notice to vacate. I was not prepared to leave in three days. She did this to a white tenant and forced her to leave for complaining about noise . I took the path of least resistence. I apologized. I am in the middle of litigation where my files and papers are being stolen daily. My car is being burglarized. Almost two thousand dollars of damage was done to my car. My front tires were stolen and my files were stolen from my car two times in two weeks. I am being stalked again by someone. Moving is a stress that I cannot afford. My rent is paid for the month. Paid rent does not mean anything to unscrupulous landlords. I can fight. The cost of fighting is too great. Blacks are not treated fairly by the judicial system. I walked away from this fight.
In Texas and in America, Blacks can be shot down and their are no repercussions. They are not treated fairly. I am fighting not only for myself but to make changes in the judicial system in Texas. We must never forget Duval County, Vidor and the Slocum Massacre. They must never be repeated. I am fighting for something bigger than myself. It is a privilige for me to be able to fight for a cause bigger than myself.
I have learned to love the law and feel its protection should be provided to everyone. The Declaration of Indepence makes us equal under the law. It is time for the Declaration of Independence to be true and to live up to its principles and promise. Spencer and our President want to return to a time when races were separate. This was Charlotteville. They want to go back to a time before the Civil Rights Act was passed. Our one Black jurist on the United States Supreme Court opposes Affirmative Action. By his beliefs and rationale, he denies slavery and the historical discrimination of Blacks in America. He espouses a belief that Blacks should be able to pick themselves up by their boot straps even if they do not have shoes on their feet. They are not entitled to any protection to make things equal. He is the “spook” at the door that our ancestors used to talk about. We need not go into a discussion about Black bigotry and the self hatred that this position supports and epitomizes. This will only make us sad. We need to be more loving to each other than this position supports or this argument raises. All you have to do is look at him and you can feel the pain he must have gone through in his lifetime to reach such a position. We can pray that he finds love of himself and his people and enlightment before he makes his transition. It hurts me to get to this level in a discussion. I feel guilt that I am abandoning my grandmother’s teachings about the tribe and how we must conduct ourselves at all times. This train of thought makes me appear to be abandoning my strict following of the commandments: Love thy neighbor as thyself. Love one another as I have loved you. Despite all of that we must be mindful that Duval County, Vidor and Slocum must never be forgotten!!!
