African Americans in Amarillo

by Claudia Stuart, Jean Stuntz

Overview

Amarillo became a town in 1887 when merchants opened stores to cater to railroad workers. The first African Americans in the area were Jerry Callaway, who came to the area in 1888 with a white family, and Mathew "Bones" Hooks, a highly respected cowboy who moved to Amarillo in 1900 and later worked for the railroad. By 1908, five African American families had moved to Amarillo. The black community grew and people established churches, businesses, and schools. With the 1950s and 1960s, Amarillo citizens participated in ending segregation and bringing about equality. Today African Americans in Amarillo are still bound together by their churches but have access to many opportunities both locally and nationally. They are justifiably proud of their rich heritage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738571287
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/06/2009
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,125,098
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Churches, the Black Historical Cultural Center, fraternal organizations, and area families preserved their history in photographs. Claudia Stuart and Jean Stuntz, professors at nearby West Texas A&M University, gratefully acknowledge the contributions of both the pioneer families and the modern-day Amarillo citizens who have created and sustained this community.

Editorial Reviews

Title: Area black history painted in novel

Author: Barb Amrhein

Publisher: Amarillo Globe-News

Date: 6/17/09



Mathew "Bones" Hooks was not the first black man to live in Amarillo.



That honor belongs to Jerry Calloway, who came to the city from Georgia a year after Amarillo was officially settled in 1887. Hooks didn't arrive until 1900.



This fact about the African-American history of Amarillo can be learned in the recently published book, "African Americans in Amarillo" by West Texas A&M professors Claudia Stuart and Jean Stuntz, available at Hastings and Barnes and Noble Booksellers and online at arcadiapublishing.com for $21.99.



Stuart and Stuntz, both faculty members at WT teamed to produce the pictorial history book that was very much needed, according to senior members within the community.



"Everyone kept saying 'we need to write our history'," said Helen Neal, who appears in the book and is the widow of Nathaniel "Nat" Neal, whose memory is honored with the naming of the Nathanial J. "Nat" Neal Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division.



"Obviously, the book couldn't contain everything, but it is a good start," Neal said. "So many people don't know the history (of Amarillo's African-Americans) and it needs to be told."



Willetta Jackson has been a member of Mt. Zion Baptist Church for 60 years and also saw the need for preserving history in a written or pictorial form.



"I'm excited to see the book because we haven't done anything like this before," Jackson said. "Our kids don't know history, and they need to. We had several of us go to St. Andrew's (Episcopal) School a couple of years ago to do a freedom bus ride and help them learn history, and the kids asked all kinds of questions."



Stuart said she also saw a need for preserving the African-American community's history in a method other than oral.



"I'd been thinking there was no history written except (about) Mathew 'Bones' Hooks," Stuart said. "I thought we needed written history of schools, churches, the first settlers and the present."



Arcadia publishes a series, "Images of America," that are community-centered books. Stuntz met the publishers at a conference and liked their concept of publishing local histories.



"We (Stuntz and Stuart) got to talking and worked out a plan with them," she said.



Stuart agreed the book was long overdue and necessary, and the two began working on it last summer.



"I thought this would be a great opportunity to combine the history of Amarillo with knowledge of the community network," Stuart said. "I can't say how grateful I am that people of the community wanted to share their stories and find a venue to get them out to people.



"Their excitement is really what spurred Jean and me to do the book."



And the community members who dug through archives of pictures said they are also pleased the general public will have a chance to know more about African-American roots in the city.



"People need to know their history, both good and bad," Neal said. "When I went to school, there wasn't much black history. The children of Amarillo need to know the history of our people so they can have a better self image."

From the Publisher