TEXAS ~---------------------------.
PASSAGES
The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio
Winter 1987 Vol. 2, No.1
Artemisia Bowden: Dedicated Dreamer
Editor's note: As part of The Institutes Afro­American
History Month Celebration, the Smith­sonian
poster series Black Women: Achievements
Against the Odds will be on display throughout
February. Featured in the poster series are the
stories of several black women recognized for
their achievements in a variety of areas. Beyond
those included in this exhibit, however, are
countless black women who have made signi­ficant
contributions to our communities, the state
and the nation. This article highlights one such
woman whose life and work will long be remem­bered
and admired. For more information on the
events and activities related to Afro-American
History Month, turn to page 3.
We can't give up; we have got
to continue .... We are not here to
hold a position or to be the head of
this, or that, or the other; we are
here to mass our power and our
thinking and our souls to see what
we can do to make it better for that
mass that can't speak out there. That
is why we are here .... We can't give
up! We must keep on.
- Mary McLeod Bethune,
educator and director of
the Negro Division of the
National Youth Association
during the Franklin D.
Roosevelt administration
Reflected in the words of Mary
Mcleod Bethune are the same tenac­ity
and strength of purpose exhib­ited
by other black teachers and
administrators as they confronted
the many obstacles that impeded
their efforts to attain quality educa­tion
for blacks. In Texas their strug­gles
began soon after emancipation,
when it became clear that abolition
carried no guarantees for the social,
economic, political or educational
equality of blacks.
Between 1866 and 1900 the
Texas Legislature created an elabo-by
J 0 Eckerman
Miss Artemisia Bowden
rate set of segregation laws, includ­ing
those designed to channel the
state's educational resources away
from its black citizens. Though
Texas established and maintained
public schools for black children,
they were poor-quality institutions
with limited curricula. Thus, the
provision of adequate education for
blacks at the elementary, secondary
and college levels fell to private enti­ties
such as the Freedman's Aid
Society and various white and black
religious organizations.
The schools instituted by these
groups, however, suffered greatly
from the attitude of white Texans ­ranging
from apathy to violent
opposition - toward the education
of blacks. They received little mone­tary
or philosophical support for
their endeavors and remained virtu-ally
impoverished throughout their
early years.
Without the courage and deter­mination
of the men and women
who served as administrators, many
of these institutions could not have
survived. Most of these individuals
were ingenious, pragmatic, notori­ously
optimistic and totally dedi­cated
to keeping their institutions
alive despite small enrollments, con­stant
funding problems, overworked
and underpaid staffs, and hostility
from the white community.
Among the most dedicated was
Artemisia Bowden, a woman who
devoted more than 50 years of her
life to building a solid educational
foundation for the black youth of
Texas. Born in Albany, Georgia, in
1879, Artemisia was the eldest of
five children. Shortly after her birth,
her parents, Milas and Mary
Molette Bowden, moved to Bruns­wick,
Georgia, where Artemisia
attended St. Athanasius Church and
Parochial School. Artemisia was
very young when her mother died
and, following the advice of the
priest in charge of St. Athanasius,
her father sent her to St. Augustine's
School in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She graduated from St. Augus­tine's
in 1900 and began her career
in education as a teacher for St.
Joseph's Parochial School in Fayette­ville.
A year later she moved on to
teach at the High Point Normal and
Industrial School in High Point. It
was here that Bishop James Steptoe
Johnston found her during his
continued on page 2
continued from front cover
search for a new leadu of St. Philip's
Schoo! in San Antonio, Texas, a
small private black school estab­lished
by the Episcopal Church.
In "St. Philip's College: A Case
Study of a Historkally Black Two­Year
College;' Clarence Norris writes
that Bishop Johnston was looking
for "a black woman imbued with a
vitality, spirit, and vision of St.
Philip's School becoming a great
educational institution:' In Artemisia
Bowden he found all these qualities
and more.
She arrived at St. Philip's in
1902 to assume her duties as both
chief administrator and primary
teacher. In her first year as principal
she made several changes, including
organizing the school into three
departments. The Primary and
Grammar Departments consisted of
basic education at the elementary
and secondary levels, while the In­dustrial
Department focused on the
development of vocational skills.
Unfortunately, with the incor­poration
of industrial education into
the local public school curricula in
1907, St. Philip's experienced a dra­matic
decrease in enrollment. Be­cause
the tuition fees were consid­ered
quite high for the times (SO¢ a
month for the Primary Department
and 7S¢ for the Grammar Depart­ment),
many students transferred to
the public schools.
To counteract this change,
Artemisia set out to recruit students
from communities outside of San
Antonio. Although the lack of
boarding facilities at the school's
location in La Villita hampered her
initial efforts, it wasn't long before
she arranged to rent a nearby house,
and the first out-of-town students
began to arrive.
Another measure she employed
to encourage enrollment was the
addition of a Normal Department
for the preparation of elementary
school teachers. According to Nor­ris,
the incorporation of the teacher
training program brought "added
prestige and status, additional stu­dents,
and fulfilled a real need for
more elementary school teachers in
the public schools:'
2
Through these efforts much of
the enrollment which had been lost
was recovered by 1908, but the
school continued to experience ma­jor
financial problems. In the midst
of this funding crisis Artemisia suf­fered
a tragic blow when her sister,
Mary Bowden, who had been hired
as a teacher a few years earlier, died
suddenly in 1909. Her death was a
great loss to Artemisia, who both
loved Mary as her sister and valued
her talents as a teacher.
With the school's monetary
problems and Mary's death, the next
few years were a trying time for
Artemisia. Her vision of St. Philip's
as a great educational institution of
the future remained strong, howev­er,
and she continued to wear her
many hats - teacher, principal, busi­ness
manager, fund raiser, public
relations agent and curriculum de­veloper-
with skill and enthusiasm.
In the years prior to World War
I her role as the school's fund raiser
took on added importance. The
Episcopal Diocese was itself experi­encing
financial difficulties, and
what limited funds were available
for educational support went to the
schools enrolling white students. If
not for Artemisia's efforts to solicit
contributions, locally and in other
areas of the country, St. Philip's
could not have survived.
Norris cites the observations of
William Hudgins, who knew Arte­misia
in his early days as an instruc­tor
at what is now St. Philip's Col­lege,
as an example of her commit­ment
to the school and to raising
whatever funds were necessary to
keep it alive. "She was unafraid and
she had no qualms .... People like
her and Mrs. Bethune were pioneers
in an era when they had to beg and
be willing to be insulted. They even
received threats in trying to further
the education of young black men
and women. Miss Bowden wasn't
afraid to ask any person from whom
she thought she could get money for
a donation to keep St. Philip's open:'
Artemisia's fund-raising capa­bilities
were especially needed when
the decision was made to relocate
the school in 1913. It wasn't until
1917, however, that she had col-lected
enough money to make the
initial payment on the new location
on the east side of San Antonio. Fol­lowing
the move, several events oc­curred
which temporarily improved
the school's financial footing.
In 1921 St. Philip's was accept­ed
as one of the schools to be spon­sored
by the American Church Insti­tute
for Negroes, an organization
which directed fund-raising cam­paigns
and solicited grants for edu­cational
purposes. Approximately
$2,000 a year was given to St.
Philip's through the organization.
A few years later a successful
fund-raising campaign made it pos­sible
to construct a new main build­ing,
which included classrooms,
space for boarding students, a gym,
music rooms, a dining hall, a handi­craft
room and a library. With the
money problems at least somewhat
diminished and the new facilities
complete, the stage was set for
Artemisia's most ambitious under­taking,
the establishment of St.
Philip's Junior College.
Developing the school into an
institution for higher education had
been her vision from the beginning,
and she intended to make it a reality.
She presented the idea to various
continued on page 10
Texas Passages is published
quarterly by The University of Texas
Institute of Texan Cultures at San
Antonio as an informational re­source
on subjects related to Texas
history and culture as well as current
issues affecting the state. Comments
and suggestions concerning the pub­lication
should be directed to the
Office of News and Information, The
Institute of Texan Cultures, P.D. Box
1226, San Antonio, Texas 78294,
(512) 226-7651.
Editors: Jo Eckerman, Director of
News and Information
James C. McNutt, Director
of Research
Contributing Author: G. William
Jones, Professor of Cinema
and Video, Southern
Methodist University;
Director of the Southwest
Film/Video Archives
Designer: Meredith Rees
Afro-American History Month Celebration
This February during Afro-American History Month The
Institute of Texan Cultures, with assistance from San Antonio radio
station KAPE, will sponsor several events and activities, beginning
with a series of films and discussions focusing on independent black
filmmaking scheduled for February 6-8.
director of black films; and Pearl Bowser, film historian and director
of Third World Newsreel.
Combining historic films from the Tyler, Texas, Black Film
Collection with contemporary selections from the works of William
Greaves and the Journey Across Three Continents: Images of
Women of the Black Diaspora exhibition program, the series will
provide a broad view of the various themes, cinematic styles and
artistic structures within the field of independent black filmmaking.
Other activities included in the February 6-8 event are a per­formance
by the Houston High School Jazz Band and a presentation
on the achievements of black women by Myra McDaniel, Texas
Secretary of State under the Mark White administration. In
addition, the Smithsonian Institution poster series Black Women:
Achievements Against the Odds will be on display throughout the
month of February. Specialized tours for school groups, including
a pre- and post-visit activities packet, and a self-guided tour for
families will be available in conjunction with the exhibit.
Accompanying the films will be presentations by Dr. G. Wil­liam
Jones, professor of cinema and video at Southern Methodist
University and director of the Southwest Film/ Video Archives;
William Greaves, an internationally recognized actor, producer and
If you have questions about the events and activities scheduled
during February, call the News and Information Department at
(512) 226-7651.
February 1-28
Black Women: Achievements Against the
Odds -This poster series highlights the
achievements and contributions of
black women in a variety of subject
areas and fields of study.
Friday, February 6
6-10 p.m.: Black Images on HIm: IDustrations
of the Black Experience by Black film­makers,
presented by Dr. G. William
Jones and William Greaves
Souls of Sin (65 minutes) -Talented
musician ''Alabama'' goes to New York
and meets up with "Dollar Bill;' a
gambler from Harlem, in this 1949
film directed by Powell Lindsay and
produced by William Alexander.
William Greaves stars as Alabama.
Boogie Woogie Dream (13 minutes)­Directed
by Hans Burger in 1942, this
musical short stars actress and singer
Lena Home.
Produced and directed by Christine Choy,
Namibia - Independence Now! is scheduled
to be shown Saturday, February 7, as part
of "journey Across Three Continents ­Program
I," which features an introduction
by Pearl Bowser.
Schedule of Events
Booker T. Washington: The Life and the
Legacy (30 minutes) - With Maurice
Woods as Booker T. and AI Freeman
Jr. as W.E.B. DuBois, this docu-drama
explores the life of the controversial
Booker T. Washington. Produced and
directed by William Greaves, this film
has won numerous awards.
Frederick Douglass: An American Life
(30 minutes) -This award-winning
docu-drama, also produced and di­rected
by William Greaves, relates the
story of 19th century abolitionist
Frederick Douglass through scenes
portraying the people and events
which influenced his life.
Saturday, February 7
2-5 p.m.: Journey Across Three Continents:
Images of Women of the Black Dias­pora
- Program I, with an introduction
and discussion by Pearl Bowser
Namibia - Independence Now! (50 min-utes)
- Produced and directed by
Christine Choy, this film is a portrait
of the thousands of Namibians living
in settlement camps and their courage
in the face of oppression.
Winnie and Nelson Mandela (58
minutes) -This poignant documen­tary
focuses on the life of Winnie
Mandela, the foremost woman activ­ist
in the struggle against apartheid
in South Africa. The film was pro­duced
by the National Black Pro­gramming
Consortium.
6-10 p.m.: Journey Across Three Conti­nents-
Program II, with an introduc­tion
and discussion by Pearl Bowser
Baara . . . The Porter (90 minutes)-
Soulemane Cisse directed this 1978
journey through the Malian commu­nity
of Bamako revealing the class
struggle and social ills which beset
independent Mali.
Hairpiece: A Film for Nappyheaded
People (10 minutes) - Produced and
directed by Ayoka Chenzira, this wit­ty,
upbeat animation takes a satirical
look at the definition of beauty.
Sunday, February 8
Noon-2 p.m.: Journey Across Three Conti­nents
- Program III, introduced by
Mary Lee Copeland, director of Audio­visual
Production at The Institute
Bless Their Little Hearts (80 minutes) -
The story of an unemployed factory
worker and his wife as they struggle
to keep their family together and
retain a sense of dignity and self­worth
in their relationship is the focus
of this film produced and directed by
Billy Woodberry.
A Different Image (25 minutes) - Writ­ten,
produced and directed by Alile
Sharon Larkin, this film is an incisive
and poetic portrait of a young wom­an
who refuses to be defined by the
standards of commercialism, peer
pressure or male dominance.
2 p.m. : Performance by the Houston High
School Jazz Band
3 p.m.: Guest Speaker: Myra McDaniel
4 p.m.: Reception in the Lower Gallery
4:30-7 p.m.: Journey Across Three Conti-nents
- Program IV, introduced by
Mary Lee Copeland
Arusi Ya Mariamu (The Marriage of
Mariamu) (36 minutes)-This film,
directed by Nangayoma Ng'oge and
Ron Mulvihill, is set in contemporary
Tanzania and centers around the art
and science of healing through tradi­tional
medicine.
The Passion of Remembrance (80
minutes) -A new release from
SANKOFA, a London-based film and
video collective, this film presents
images of protest and celebration
through the eyes of the central char­acter,
Maggie Baptiste.
3
King Tut's Warehouse: Discovering the Tyler, Texas,
Black Film Collection
In August of 1983 the offices of
the Southwest Film/ Video Archives
at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas received a call from a Mr.
Roy Larsen, manager of several
warehouses in Tyler, Texas.
"Would your archives be inter­ested
in taking a look at what ap­pear
to be some old films, which
have been sitting in one of our ware­houses
for a long time?" he asked.
"Nobody here wants them, they're
taking up a lot of space, and we're
getting ready to dispose of them
unless you want them:'
As Director of the Archives,
my principle of collection has al­ways
been the same as that of the
late Henri Langlois of the Cine­matheque
Fran<;:ais in Paris: "If it's
on celluloid, we want it:' That week­end
in their warehouse I saw a stack
of octagonal steel film cans ten feet
high, ten feet deep and ten feet wide
sitting in a corner. It was obvious
that these were films indeed, of the
35-millimeter size shown in theaters.
But when I opened the first can
my heart sank. A yellow-brown
cloud of nitrate dust billowed out at
me, signifying that at least some of
these films were on pre-1950 nitrate
stock and were already in a state of
decomposition. Mr. Larsen helped
me pull a few more cans down off
the stack. Opening them, I saw that,
so far, all of the films were on the
old nitrate stock, but some of them
seemed still to be in good shape.
What began to excite me, how­ever,
were a few of the titles which
I recognized: Murder in Harlem,
Blood of Jesus and Souls of Sin. If
the films were actually what their
reel-wrappers said they were, these
were perhaps the last-or the best­remaining
prints of a little-known
but important group of films made
from the twenties through the early
fifties strictly for black audiences.
There was little room in the
warehouse for us to dismantle the
4
by C. William Jones
Dr. C. William Jones and the Tyler, Texas, Black Film Collection
entire stack and take an immediate
inventory. That process had to wait
until the films could be moved. Isa­dore
Roosth of Roosth and Genecov,
owners of the warehouse, was kind
enough to donate all of the films to
the archives, and Dr. Eugene Bonel­li,
dean of the Meadows School of
Arts at Southern Methodist Univer­sity,
provided the funds for trans­porting
the films from the Tyler
warehouse to their new home in
Dallas, where they were stored in a
specially designed vault.
By the fall of 1983 I knew that
the collection contained more than
100 short and feature films, of which
22 titles were black-audience films.
Beyond the black-audience films, the
rest of the collection were either
standard Hollywood films of the
same 1930's and 1940's period, or
independent "exploitation" films,
with titles such as Lash of the Peni­tentes,
Swamp Girl and Enlighten
Thy Daughter.
With only a few exceptions, all
of the films were on the highly flam­mable
and delicate nitrate stock,
with many of them in various stages
of disintegration. Nitrate was used
for 35-millimeter theatrical films un­til
World War II. By 1950 most the­atrical
films were printed on "safety
stock;' but the brilliance and visual
depth of the old nitrate was lost
forever to the screen. Estimates are
that almost 50 percent of the world's
pre-1950 film heritage is now lost­most
of it to nitrate decomposition.
The next dilemma centered
around trying to preserve the pre­cious
black-audience films from
further disintegration. Checking
with several film labs around the
country, I found that restoring only
the black-audience films would run
nearly $120,000. Raising the money
to restore the films was going to be
difficult, but as it turned out, I had
a little help.
In response to a press release,
a reporter from Tyler's Courier
Times Telegraph, Ann Levin, came
to Dallas to interview me. Her arti­cle
about "the miraculous discovery
of a long-lost chapter in black cul­tural
history" prompted Peter Larson
at the Dallas Times-Herald to do
another, even longer article. Larson's
article was picked up by the wire
services, and a "media blitz" was on.
I would like to be able to say
that I was so smart that I planned
to release the first news of my dis­covery
on the eve of the nationwide
Black History Month, knowing that
the media would be avidly looking
for news that was black, posItIve
and - for television - visual. The
discovery of the black-audience
films cache was all of these things,
and 1 should have known that. After
nearly 20 years of trying to get the
media interested in the film events
that 1 had helped launch in Dallas
and at my university, including the
highly regarded U.S.A. Film Festi­val,
this was the big opportunity.
But 1 have to admit that the
dawn-to-midnight long-distance
calls, the visiting teams of commen­tators
and their television crews, the
trips to New York and Washington
to be on Nightline, CBS Morning
News, Nightwatch, etc., the reams
of newspaper and magazine clip­pings
took me by delighted surprise.
News about the films was on
every television network, in every
metropolitan and small-town news­paper,
in black readership maga­zines
such as Jet and even in a two­page
spread by film critic Richard
Shickel in Time. Almost every item
broadcast the fact that 1 needed
funds for restoration of the films,
but it was not until a local interview
was aired on National Public Radio
that 1 got a call from the person who
was to become the sponsor of our
restoration project.
William Harris, senior vice­president
of the Zale Jewelry Divi­sion
of the Zale Corporation, of­fered
their help. Not dissuaded by
the potential cost, he said, "I believe
it will be worth it- to my company
and to everyone concerned:'
Finding a laboratory which
would do the difficult and exacting
work of restoring and reprinting was
my next chore. Only four or five
labs in the entire country would
attempt to do the work. A lab lo­cated
in Pittsburgh was finally se­lected,
but then there was trouble
finding an interstate carrier which
would transport the nitrate film.
After encountering many other
obstacles, the Tyler, Texas, Black
Film Collection, as it became
known, is now well on its way to
to being restored, with the first seven
of the features and seven of the
shorts ready to be seen in a form as
close as possible to the original. Giv­en
proper archival care, these films
should now last as long as there are
people who want to see them.
Regardless of their ethnic back­ground,
most Americans seem to
think that all-black-cast films began
in the 1930's with Hallelujah!, Cabin
in the Sky, Stormy Weather and
Green Pastures. Although these titles
were mostly well made and were
enjoyed to some degree by both
white and black audiences of their
time, they were Hollywood films
which were made by white studio
filmmakers and directed largely
toward white audiences. Before the
all-white Biograph Company pro­duced
its ethnically stereotyped
films, however, all-black-cast films
were being made in Chicago by
black independent filmmaker Wil­liam
Foster as early as 1910.
Most Americans - white and
black - also think that black film­making
began in 1969 when Gordon
Parks, already a Pulitzer Prize win­ner
for his work as a photographer
for Life magazine, wrote, produced
and directed The Learning Tree for
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Although
this film was a milestone in terms of
black artists gaining control of the
Hollywood filmmaking process, it
was made more than a half century
after the first black independent
filmmakers began producing films
for segregated theaters in the South
and de facto segregated theaters in
the North.
For 40 years there were as many
as 1,200 theaters across the U.S.
which played black-audience films
either exclusively or on a preferen­tial
basis. Nineteen twenty-one was
a peak year for distribution within
this highly organized and tightly run
system, which operated efficiently
until its demise in the mid-1950's - as
much through changing economic
tides as through the growing sense
that all-black theaters and films
were no longer needed in the face of
growing "integration:'
During the 40-year span when
black-audience films were in their
heyday, few black artists other than
the legendary Oscar Micheaux had
their own production companies.
Most of the companies were owned
by white entrepreneurs who used
white technicians behind their cam­eras.
But a host of black producers,
directors and screenwriters - not to
mention a multitude of black actors
and actresses - had the opportunity
to work on films which whites were
never meant to see and in which,
therefore, they could be truer to the
realities of life as they experienced
and felt them.
Although we may still see some
"stereotyping" in the films they
made, it is not the ethnic stereo­typing
which marred many, if not
most, of the Hollywood studio films
of the same era. There was no need
for such pandering to white preju­dices,
because the audience as well
as the casts would be black.
continued on page 8
Jimmy Wright (left) and William Greaves (right) in a scene from Souls of Sin
5
A fair amount of augurin' has
gone on for some time now - close
to 100 years, in fact-about the
literary accomplishments of cow­boys.
(Augurin' is cowboy for talk­ing.)
In 1896 John A. Lomax com­pared
the poetry of William Law­rence
Chittenden, author of "The
Cowboys' Christmas BalI;' with
Shakespeare, Browning and the
"sweet music of Lanier:' But he could
not convince his professor at the
University of Texas that such mate­rials
were not rubbish. By 1920,
however, Theodore Roosevelt en­dorsed
the idea that Lomax should
collect cowboy verses, the "ballad
literature of the back country and
the frontier:' Some ballad collectors,
such as Nebraska folklorist Louise
Pound, protested that such stuff
didn't measure up to the narrative
ballads of European origins. Never­theless,
public recognition of cow­boy
verses increased to the point
that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was
quoted - or misquoted - as declar­ing
that "Home on the Range" was
his favorite song. Quite a number of
years later, J. Frank Dobie, who
grew up on a South Texas ranch and
channeled his own fierce desire to
appear in print into memorable liter­ary
anecdotes, allowed that Eugene
Manlove Rhodes's "Hired Man on
Horseback" was "the sole and soli­tary
piece of poetry to be found in
all the myriads of rhymes classed as
'cowboy poetry:" Dobie's dismissal
of "cowboy poetry" acknowledged
and damned it at the same time.
Cowboys have persisted in writing
poems nevertheless, as any reader of
The Cattleman and Western Horse­man
is aware.
The differences between poetry
and song no doubt contributed to
the divergence cf opinions. Poetry
is something that supposedly makes
cowboys queasy; "singing cowboys;'
6
Augurin' Cowboy Poetry
however, appear to be quite "natu­ra!:'
If movie westerns had featured
as many cowboy poets as they have
western crooners, things might be
different. As a matter of fact, a great
many verses have become known as
songs as well as poems. Poets recite
the rhymed couplets of "The Chis­holm
Trail" and the quatrains of
"The Zebra Dun" and "The Cow­boys'
Christmas Ball," and sing
them, too. The category into which
a particular verse falls may depend
on time and place. If the legal pro­hibition
against dancing prevails in
Anson, "The Cowboys' Christmas
Ball" may become primarily a poem
once again, the way it started out.
Reviewing the arguments -
which occupy a significant chunk of
library shelf space -leads eventually
to the realization that cowboy
poetry emerged with the develop-
Melvin Whipple at home
ment of western cattle culture during
the latter 19th century. At that time
oral recitation was a common prac­tice
in schools and at public gather­ings,
and rhymed, metered verse
was the popular standard. Working
cowboys might be familiar with
poetry through formal education, or
through magazines and newspapers
that circulated from one hand to
another, or through hearing other
cowboys recite.
Printed cowboy poetry first
began to appear in the 1870's. Since
then, a steady flow of cowboy
poems has appeared in newspapers
and magazines. Books like William
Lawrence Chittenden's Ranch Verses
(1893), N. Howard Thorpe's Songs
of the Cowboys (1908), Charles
Badger Clark's Sun and Saddle
Leather (1915) and Curley Fletcher's
Rhymes of the Roundup (1917) have
become cowboy "classics:' Books by
non-cowboys have also kept the
verses rolling; John A. Lomax's
Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier
Ballads (1910) was the first to reach
a wide public audience.
The odd fact is that for all the
mythical proportions of the 'Texas
cowboy;' contemporary cowboy
poets are hard to find. Inquiries put
to a number of experts around the
state turned up a few positive re­sponses.
Cowboys, of course, are
not so plenteous as they once were.
Looking for a cowboy poet in
the fall of 1984 took me on a long
drive to the Panhandle, where I met
Melvin Whipple. On my first visit
to Melvin's home in Hereford, Texas,
I sat across from him at the dining
table and listened to him reading
several of his poems aloud. A work­ing
cowboy who had for 25 years
been writing down poems about his
experiences, Melvin was eager to
share his poetry. Originally from
Utah, raised in the Arizona Strip, he
had come from a family of cowboy
poets and cowboyed in several
states. He read his painstakingly
typed and sometimes illustrated
poems with a careful sense of meter
that would be hard to discern on the
printed page, and he recited 'The
Zebra Dun" in its entirety with
scarcely a hitch, then told me he had
first learned it 50 years ago.
Melvin read to me and talked
for three solid hours. I recorded
everything on tape, photographed
him seated behind the table with his
hat on, and eventually sent the re­sults
off to Hal Cannon, then Direc­tor
of the Utah State University
Folklore Center in Logan, Utah. Hal
invited Melvin to the first Cowboy
Poetry Gathering in January 1985 in
Elko, Nevada.
I
1
by Jim McNutt
Elko that year was a most
amazing experience, filled with
cowboy poets reciting or reading,
displays of cowboy art and books,
interviews and concerts, and a
crowd of folklorists and media peo­ple.
Many poets who had read or
heard about one another actually
met for the first time in Elko. Before
it was all over, a number of cowboy
poets were eager to form a cowboy
poetry association.
I was not so sure about possible
outcomes of an official association,
but that was a matter for the cow­boys
to decide. Melvin, however,
seemed to be someone for other
Texans to hear about- and hear.
Melvin sent a number of his poems
to The Institute, and after due con­sideration
- perhaps overdue, since
this project has taken two years­Institute
staff members decided to
publish a small volume of Melvin's
poems, along with a cassette tape
recording of his readings. Melvin's
son, Lucky, who is also a cowboy
poet, illustrated the book. The spare
lines of Lucky's drawings fit the
understatement of the poems well;
both reflect real cowboy experience.
Echoes of the Past: The Cow­boy
Poetry of Melvin Whipple,
book and tape, will appear in 1987.
It will probably not conclude the
augurin' about cowboy poetry, but
it will serve as a reminder that tra­ditional
expression is a part of
everyday life, and that, in the cor­ners
we least suspect, people are
making poetry and music and cele­brating
the ways that they know.
Melvin and Justin Bishop of Colorado at
the Cowboy Poetry Gathering
Tranquilizer Pills
I hung up my chaps and saddle, then I up and bought a farm,
Please don't worry little darlin' there's no cause to be alarmed.
We will sell our home and rancho, then northeastward we will go,
Goodbye Arizona, Colorado there hello.
"On this farm we'll make a fortune," that's the very words he said,
No more high-heeled boots er stetson, buy a straw hat fer yer head.
The farm agency man told me that these 01' bow legs of mine,
Was just right to fit a tractor, break it, clutch it, let 'em hang.
Call him a dawgone liar, our mailbox is fulla' bills,
My little darlin' has got ulcers, I take tranquilizer pills.
Uncle Sam our great adviser, made an agricultural change,
Sign up in the federal office if you want to plant some grain.
Then the mail man brought a letter, yes our county taxes come,
And my heart almost quit beatin', see that large six-figgerd sum.
Finance company holds our mortgage, my six-shooter's on the shelf,
Can't afford to file bankruptcy, so I think I'll shoot myself.
Then I wonder why I worry takin' tranquilizer pills,
Uncle Sam's a great provider, passed a brand new poverty bill.
Call that real estate man a liar, that dern bailer doesn't tie,
Cattle's back in the alfalfa, watch 'em bloat and watch 'em die.
Then I dreamed I went to heaven, but couldn't git inside,
Didn't have no reservations, turned away with tear-stained eyes.
For a moment I just pondered, then I took the downward trail,
The air kept gittin' hotter, till I heard the devil wail.
Go away yer not a farmer, just an 01' time buckaroo,
There's no place in hell er heaven, fer the likes of folks like you.
Little darlin' how's yer ulcers, the mail man just brought more bills,
Finance company wants a payment, pass the tranquilizer pills.
7
New Members
Associates
Ms. Kathy Andera
Mrs. Janie Dillard
Mr. and Mrs. Bob Gardner
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Henk
Mr. Ernest E. Karam
Mr. Roy Kosaka
Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Potter
Mr. and Mrs. Ed Ring
Mrs. Charles J. Sebesta Jr.
Mr. Sydney Sako
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Sethness
Ms. Susan Thomas
Mr. and Mrs. Gus VanSteenberg
Dr. and Mrs. Duncan Wimpress
Lt. Col. Michael J. Yndo
Ambassadors
Mr. Jack L. Pirtle, Reklaw
Alliance
Ms. Gloria Birdsong
A New Release:
The Japanese Texans
At the turn of the century there
were only 13 Japanese living in
Texas. Forty years later, prior to
World War II, their numbers had
reached approximately 500. But
even today they represent less than
one-tenth of one percent of the
state's total population and rank
fourth behind the Koreans, Chinese
and Vietnamese as the most numer­ous
Asian-American group in Texas.
Yet the lives and times of Japanese
Texans are a unique part of Texas
history as told in our most recent
addition to The Institute's Texians
and Texans publications series.
The Japanese Texans by Tom
Walls, to be available in March,
takes an in-depth look at the state's
Japanese population and explores
their valuable contributions to the
cultural and economic growth of the
state. Himself of Japanese descent,
Walls has chosen to relate the his­tory
and heritage of Japanese Texans
through their individual stories ­tales
of triumph and failure , pride
and disgrace. Illustrated with more
than 125 photographs, these stories
of people and events offer a personal
approach which creates a sense of
kinship, a feeling that these families
could be our own.
8
Mrs. Mary Burrow
Mrs. Carol Canty
Mrs. Mary Anne Crosby
Mrs. Cleo Dalson
Mrs. Adelaide Darling
Ms. Debra Ann De La Garza
Mrs. Irma Dovalina
Ms. Joan Gindorf
Mrs. Marcia Hanson
Mr. Ralph Holloway
Miss Marian Jones
Mrs. Alice Klein
Mrs. Mary Maude Kone
Ms. Guizelle Lehman
Miss Wendy McCoy
Miss Laura McKey
Miss Lucille Mazuca
Mrs. Edith Mills
Mrs. Rose O'Grady
Ms. Carol Pfrommer
Mrs. Gracie Rhodes
Mrs. Florine Schmidt
Mr. Joe Zavala
In his preface Walls writes,
"Japanese Texans must be seen in
terms that go beyond the stereotypes
and misconceptions of the past ...
if a story about the lives and times
of the Japanese in Texas can give us
such a view, then it is a story well
worth telling:'
For further details and ordering
information concerning The Japa­nese
Texans or other Institute prod­ucts
and services, call the Marketing
Department at (512) 226-7651 .
Black films: continued from page 5
Of the 22 separate titles repre­sented
in the collection, 15 have a
black artist as either producer, direc­tor
or screenwriter, and the majority
of those have either a black writer-
Memorials
The following tributes help support a variety
of programs and publications at The Insti tute of
Texan Cultures and create a legacy of cultural
pride that commemorates these individuals.
Tributes were made in memory of:
Mr. Rufus Carhart by Mr. and Mrs. Cliff
Morton
Mrs. Charles K. Devall by Jack R. Maguire
Mr. Ernest G. "Putch" Eiband by Mr. and
Mrs. George T. Barrow
Lt. Col. Charles Hahn by Buford and
Dorothy Otwell
Mr. Chet MacMillan by Mr. and Mrs.
Ballard F. Dixon Jr.
Mrs. Tony Mangone by Mr. and Mrs. Earl
Truax Jr.
Everyone enjoyed the Winter Holiday
Extravaganza on December 6. The colorful
event, intended to promote The Institutes
membership programs, featured some of the
food and fun found at the Folklife
Festival held each August.
director or a black producer-direc­tor.
Thus, the Tyler, Texas, Black
Film Collection is a significant testi­mony
to the longer-than-supposed
history of the black independent
filmmaker in this century, and one
of the best sources of knowledge
about the black self-consciousness
in America from the mid-1930's
through the mid-1950's.
copyright 1986
by C. William lanes
Dr. Jones is a professor of cinema and video in
the Center for Communication Arts of the
Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Metho­dis
t University in Dallas. He is also the founder
and director of the Southwest Film / Video
Archives and has written numerous books,
articles and screenplays. This article is adapted
from his recently completed manuscript Black
Cinema Treasures: Lost and Found.
1
Photo Heritage Days: Texas Families
This spring a new Institute photographic project
is being designed specifically to encourage public par­ticipation.
Institute staff members will organize an
exhibit featuring photographs of Texas families at work
and play - families doing everyday things.
Persons interested in loaning their photographs for
the exhibit may bring them to the Institute Library
between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., March 24 through March
29. Institute staff will accept photographs for potential
inclusion in the exhibit, advise lenders about at-home
conservation and give clues about dating the images.
The exhibit itself will be on display April 7-26 in The
Institute's Lower Gallery. Persons simply desiring in­formation
about particular photographs are welcome
La Mota Ranch, La Salle County.
L-R: John W Baylor and Willie
Baylor. Jack Baylor on far right.
Others unidentified. c. late 1880's
L-R: Otto, "Tala" and Ted Poppe; Edward and
Louise Recknagel; "Tonie" Poppe, c. 1906.
Victrola is thought to be the first one
in Round Top.
with no obligation to enter images in the exhibit. Lend­ers
to the exhibit may retrieve their photographs from
the ITC Library after April 27.
This project is a special effort to enhance The Insti­tute's
photographic preservation work and increase
public awareness of The Institute's photograph collec­tion
. The photographs on this page are samples of the
types of items that will be chosen for Photo Heritage
Days, but any photographs pertaining to Texas history
and ethnic culture are welcome. For further informa­tion,
contact Susan Harwell or Tom Shelton at The
Institute, P.o. Box 1226, San Antonio, Texas 78294,
(512) 226-7651.
John Dugosh family making
molasses in Bandera, c. 1900
Johnny and Daisey Power,
Refugio, c. 1895
Harold Harwell and his sister, Susan, at their
grandmother's farm near Jacksonville, Texas,
March 1956
9
Artemisia: continued from page 2
organizations and individuals in San
Antonio and received enthusiastic
endorsements. The mayor, the
Chamber of Commerce, a number
of black organizations and several
businessmen pledged their support.
And in September 1927 St. Philip's
Junior College officially opened.
The college expanded quickly
the first few years, and everyone was
optimistic that it would grow to be
a successful and respected institu­tion.
Unfortunately, no one could
have predicted the financial devasta­tion
brought on by the depression.
By 1934 it was clear that St. Philip's
was on the verge of economic disas­ter.
The Episcopal Diocese was faced
not only with foreclosure on the
school's property, but also with the
possibility of losing other church
assets to cover the school's debts.
In a 1976 oral history interview,
W.W. McAllister, who served on the
board of St. Philip's in the 1930's,
recalled Artemisia's struggle during
this period to find enough money to
pay the teachers' salaries. /I • • • she
would call on me regularly, and I'd
give her $5 or $10 or whatever I
could afford at the time, and she
then would make other solicitations,
and if she got together, say, $300,
well, the teachers all got 60 percent
of what they were entitled to - that
was it. And that's the way the school
continued for a long, long time:'
At the urging of Bishop Wil­liam
Capers, who had succeeded
Bishop Johnston upon his retire­ment,
a special committee within the
diocese was appointed and charged
with resolving the college's financial
problems. Eventually the committee
was successful in obtaining an exten­sion
on the school's loans, develop­ing
a plan to eliminate the indebted­ness
as quickly as possible, and
raising enough funds to keep St.
Philip's solvent until all debts could
be retired.
Though the diocese supported
the college through the financial
crisis, a great deal of resentment
. developed over the threat of the
school's constant funding worries.
Consequently, after the debts had
been resolved in 1940, the diocese
10
Architect's sketch of Bishop
;,~~,..,;.~,\~~~,~,~~:~IE~j:i~~1'\-~~~~~~~~~~1 Johnston Memorial Building,
~~:.......--,-...;.;;..;._....;;....---,~"",,--~ ........ __ "";";' ___ ....I St. Philip's College
severed all ties with St. Philip's, leav­ing
it to stand, or falter, on its own.
As administrator of St. Philip's
Artemisia found the depression
years difficult, but in terms of per­sonal
fulfillment they were a time of
great achievement. In 1935 she com­pleted
the requirements for her
bachelor's degree from St. Augus­tine's
College, and later that same
year she received an honorary mas­ter's
degree from Wiley College in
recognition of her many years of
distinguished service and education­al
accomplishment in Texas.
It wasn't until 1942, however,
that she attained her personal and
professional goal of a secure future
for St. Philip's College. After many
years of effort she finally convinced
San Antonio Independent School
District officials to incorporate the
school through an affiliation with
San Antonio Junior College. Under
the new administration, Artemisia
became the Dean of San Antonio
Junior College - St. Philip's Branch,
a municipal educational institution
serving the black community.
In 1945 the San Antonio Union
Junior College District was created,
separating the colleges from the
school district system. At the same
time a bond issue was passed to
generate revenue for repairs and new
construction at both colleges.
Though funds were still limited, it
appeared as though St. Philip's, after
years of struggling to stay afloat,
finally had a firm financial base
from which to operate.
After 52 years of educational
leadership at St. Philip's, Artemisia
retired in 1954 and was named Dean
Emeritus. Her boundless strength
and enduring dedication to further­ing
the education of blacks in Texas
won her the respect and admiration
of many. Two years before her re­tirement
she received an honorary
doctorate from Tillotson College in
Austin. She also was recognized by
numerous local groups and organi­zations,
and was cited as one of the
ten most outstanding women in the
field of education by the National
Council of Negro Women.
An article appearing in the San
Antonio Express on her death in
1969 described her in these words:
"She was a Georgia-born black
girl whose intelligent mind and sen­sitive
soul put her in the forefront
of efforts to raise the educational
level of her community in an era
when not much was being done
about that work . . . . She pursued
formal education with a quiet zeal
that was to mark her work here for
many years. She retired in 1954 with
a backlog of achievement that made
her the pride of those who knew
her. Wherever she was and whatever
her assignment, she taught human
understanding and intellectual ad­vancement
as well as the text-book
learning that was her business:'
When Artemisia first set out to
transform St. Philip's, a small pri­vate
school for black children, into
a "great educational institution;'
many people looked upon her as a
dreamer. They were right. Miss
Artemisia Bowden was a dreamer­one
who never gave up striving to
make her dream come true.
Sources for the information in this article in­cluded
"St. Philip's College: A Case Study of a
Historically Black Two-Year College," a doctoral
dissertation by Clarence Windzell Norris Jr. ,
University of Southern California, January 1975;
and Private Black Colleges in Texas, 1865-1954
by Michael R. Heintze (College Station: Texas
A&M University Press, 1985).
FY 1986 Development Results
The Institute of Texan Cultures
received an increase in gifts, grants
and donations in the fiscal year
1986, according to Hugh Moore,
director of development.
In a report to The Institute's
Development and Advisory Boards
which met November 20 and 21,
Moore disclosed that cash gifts and
grants exceeded those of any pre­vious
year. Although The Institute
is part of The University of Texas
System and receives some monies
appropriated by the State Legisla­ture,
Moore stressed that more than
50 percent of The Institute's budget
is raised through donations, gifts,
sales of products and services, and
other local activities.
Grants and gifts from founda­tions
and similar funding agencies
hit a four-year high in FY 1985-1986.
Among these were a grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts
for research and related expenses to
develop an Afro-American commu­nities
area and an accompanying
publication for the 1986 Texas Folk­life
Festival; an unrestricted gift from
Houston Endowment; and a grant
from the Kathryn O'Connor Foun­dation
for indexing names in the
Bexar Archives, an effort designed
to make documents accessible to
historians and genealogists.
Additional grants included
funds from the Meadows Founda­tion,
through the City of San Anto­nio,
to restore and preserve a set of
Spanish colonial gates which will be
incorporated into the Spanish area
of the exhibit floor, and the San
Antonio Area Foundation for the
composition and presentation of a
Sesquicentennial concerto. The
Ewing Halsell and Elizabeth Huth
Maddux Foundations also contri­buted
to the concerto.
Several corporate grants and
individual gifts funded a variety of
educational activities and exhibit
needs. Southwest Airlines, with a
most generous gift, enabled The
Institute to produce Reach for the
Sky: Aviation in Texas, the largest
single exhibit ever undertaken' by
The Institute. Mr. and Mrs. 0. Scott
Petty and Mr. and Mrs. Scott Petty
Jr. and family provided a major
contribution for the large geophys­ical
globe which is the centerpiece of
our new Introductory Area to the
exhibit floor. And USAA added
funds to their large, multi-year
donation to cover the cost of con­structing
an adobe structure in The
Institute's "Back 40" area.
Other gifts included a new van
from Mr. and Mrs. Torn Billings of
Corpus Christi; funds from Foley's
of Texas for the How Texans Dressed
traveling exhibit, and a contribution
from National Bank of Commerce
to help defray the fabrication costs
of the What They Say about Texas
traveling exhibit.
In addition, Mr. Louis Pearce
Jr. of Houston donated the longhorn
steer now on the exhibit floor, in­cluding
the cost of taxidermy and
mounting. Rounding out the dona­tions
were a gift from the Central
Park Merchants Association for
educational programs, another from
The University of Texas Chancellor's
Council for an additional copy of
the Cowboys and Cattle Drives
traveling trunk, and several gifts and
memorials supporting The Institute's
endowment programs as well as a
variety of Institute projects.
The Jack and Pat Maguire Out­reach
endowment fund, established
by the Development and Advisory
Boards in 1985, continued to grow,
and reached a total of more than
$56,000. A second endowment for
the Alliance program, The Institute's
local volunteer organization,
amounted to nearly $21,000 at the
close of the fiscal year.
For more information concern­ing
The Institute's development pro­grams,
current funding needs and
ways to contribute, call the Develop­ment
Office at (512) 226-7651, or
write to The Institute of Texan
Cultures, p.o. Box 1226, San Anto­nio,
Texas 78294-1226.
Traveling Exhibits
Traveling exhibits are designed by The Institute of Texan Cultures so that all
Texans can enjoy learning about the state's ethnic heritage. The exhibits can be
found at schools, businesses, libraries, shopping malls, museums and other public
buildings throughout the state. The following list will help you locate the Institute
exhibit on display near you.
Afro-American Texans
February 1-28: DALLAS/The University of Texas at Dallas Library
February 1-28: SAN ANTONIO/Kelly Air Force Base, Ed. Bldg., #210
February 1-28: TEXARKANA/Texarkana Public Library
EI Vaquero: Genesis del Cowboy Texano
February 1-28: BROWNSVILLE/Independent American Savings Association
March 1-31: ABILENE/Franklin Middle School
Mexican Folk Toys
Through January 19: WINNIPEG, CANADA/Manitoba Museum of
Man and Nature
March 20-April 20: COLLEGE STATION/Texas A&M Memorial
Student Center
Ranch Women: Roles, Images, Possibilities
January IS-February 13: PARIS/YW.C.A.
March 1-8: AUSTIN/Capitol Rotunda
Reach for the Sky: Aviation in Texas
February 1-28: ALPINE/Museum of the Big Bend
Saints Preserve Us
January 14-March 1: AMARILW/Amarillo Art Center
Scholars, Scoundrels and Schoolteachers: Education in Texas
March 1-30: NEDERLAND/Nederland Historical Society
11
-
Calendar of Events
Check the list below for upcoming events and activities of interest at The Institute of Texan Cultures and other University
of Texas institutions in San Antonio.
January
January 12-February 9; Mon., Wed., Fri.,
9 a.m. to noon: Volunteer Training-New
volunteers are given an overview of
Texas history, in-depth lectures on a
number of the exhibited ethnic groups,
and workshops on the techniques of
teaching with artifacts in this training
session for exhibit floor tour guides.
January 15-February 27 at The University
of Texas Health Science Center at San
Antonio: Andrea Peyton ... Paintings
of Texan/Kenyan Wildlife-This exhibit
of paintings includes a special-edition
etching for Bat Conservation Interna­tional.
In addition, internationally rec­ognized
bat expert Dr. Merlin Tuttle will
speak on "The World of Bats" at 6:15
p.m. during the opening reception on
Thursday, January 15.
February
Through February 9; Mon., Wed., Fri., 9
a.m. to noon: Volunteer Training
Through February 27 at The University of
Texas Health Science Center at San An­tonio:
Andrea Peyton ... Paintings of
Texan/ Kenyan Wildlife
February 1-28: Black Women: Achievements
Against the Odds (see related article and
listing, page 3)
February 6-8: Afro-American History
Month Celebration, (see related article
and listing, page 3)
March
March 3-April 5: Of Birds and Texas­Nearly
40 paintings of Texas bird life by
Scott and Stuart Gentling of Fort Worth
are included in this exhibition. The
paintings are on loan from the Fort
Worth Museum of Science and History.
March 10, 7 p.m., at The University of Texas
at San Antonio (Recital Hall): Distin­guished
Lecture in Education - Maxine
Greene, professor of philosophy and
education at Columbia University, will
present the inaugural lecture in this new
annual series sponsored by the Division
of Education at UTSA. Professor
Greene will discuss "A Nation Prepared:
Teachers for the 21st Century;' the
report of the Carnegie Task Force on
Teaching as a Profession.
March 24-29, 10 a.m~3 p.m.: Submission of
Entries for Photo Heritage Days -
During this period Institute staff mem­bers
will be accepting entries for the
exhibit Photo Heritage Days: Texas
Families to be presented in April. See
page 9 for more information.
Spring Preview
Through April 5: Of Birds and Texas
April 7-26: Photo Heritage Days: Texas
Families - Designed to encourage public
participation and enhance The Insti­tute's
photographic preservation work,
this exhibit features photographs of
Texas families at work and play. Inter­ested
individuals can submit photo­graphs
from their personal collections.
These events and exhibits are subject to change.
April 27-June 7: A Russell Lee Portfolio­Forty
of Lee's photographs portraying
the people of Texas are included in this
display. On loan from the Amarillo Art
Center, Lee's photographs of politicians,
cowboys, athletes and children with
special needs, show a compassion and
genuine interest in the human condition.
Teachers' TI-IN Note
Institute presentations to be included in
the TI-IN NETWORK's schedule of upcom­ing
programs are Musical Heritage of the
Texas Frontier and Texas History: Four
Ethnic Groups. TI-IN is a satellite transmis­sion
system which provides resources to
subscribing school districts throughout
Texas. For a complete list of districts that
subscribe, contact the TI-IN NETWORK
office at (512) 271-7611.
February 13, 1 p.m.: Musical Heritage of the
Texas Frontier-Students discover the
important role of music in Texas history
in this 25-minute enrichment program.
Institute Educational Specialist Jim Fox
plays tunes brought to Texas by early
settlers and discusses such traditional
instruments as the whistle, fiddle, con­certina
and accordion.
March 28, 10 a . m~5 p.m.: Texas History:
Four Ethnic Groups -The history and
culture of four groups - German, Span­ish,
American Indian and Afro-Ameri­can
- will be discussed in this six-hour
Advanced Academic Training course for
teachers. Accompanying each presenta­tion
will be examples of hands-on activ­ities
and other teaching techniques.
The University of Texas
Institute of Texan Cultures
at San Antonio
Nonprofit Organization
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
San Antonio, Texas
Permit No. 364
Po. Box 1226
San Antonio, Texas 78294
Grinding corn to make hoecakes was just one of the pioneer
activities of Texas Heritage Day, a family-oriented membership
event held at The Institute on October 19.