Ennis J. Williams Jr. is president of Old Central Cultural Center Inc. and co-chairs the Galveston Juneteenth Coalition with Maggie Williams, his wife.
Islanders know Galveston as a place of many firsts in the history of Texas, the South and America
By Albert C. Jones
America, The Diversity Place
GALVESTON ISLAND, Texas — There is this mystique about Galveston Island that makes it distinct from the rest of Texas.
This is not cowboy country and the western ethos for which Texas is known seems as distant as it is far removed from the long horn ranches over near Johnson City; the two nation’s metropolitan region across the state west in El Paso and Juarez, Mexico; different from the cosmopolitan feel of Austin and its stacked, elevated highways; different from the Chisholm Trail, drive-cattle-to-market of San Antonio; dissimilar from Dallas or any place else in the state, save for Houston.
The forty-five miles between Galveston Island and Houston — which is all of what Texas is and more — are far enough separated by the causeway for each to lay claims of distinction. Stetsons can be doffed in the swish of a horse’s tail for dress-for-success suits in exchange for cowboy lore and regalia of the West.
Houston, through more than just a few annexations, sprawls more than any other American city. Galveston, on the other hand, is limited in space, just three miles wide and thirty-five miles long. Galveston is not, however, a junior Houston. Rather, Houston is Galveston supersized. Galveston all grown up, what it, Galveston, started out to be fully realized, is Houston.
Space as a stop-gap, diminishing distance through time, is Interstate 45, a link in the nation’s Eisenhower Highway System.
“There is no other place like Galveston,” said James Josey, accompanying a visitor on a photo shoot of places of interest on the island, including the “Law Maker” at Ashton Villa, another island homage to distinction, the African American Museum, and the seawall along the beach at the Gulf of Mexico.
“I am BOI, Born on the Island,” he said. “We left and moved to Compton, California. All the while I was gone away, every day, I had this longing to return, so we came back after seventeen years.”
Josey is among a long list of Born on the Islanders who are preservationist, thinking ahead as they pluck out of history the notable contributions of BOIs and the particular African American experience since the time of slavery on Galveston Island.
History here, where “screwmen” and “jammers” once held an uncommon expertise, is bigger than the big associated with Texas. They had their own unions — Screwmen’s Benevolent Association and the Lone Star Cotton Jammers — purchased land then named the gathering place “Cotton Jammer’s Park.”
Those two organizations gave way after 1913 to the Longshoremen’s Association Local 815.
Josey was born into this purview, letting no one ever say history and the time of this time is a trivial pursuit. The same said preservationists can be found in Columbus, Ohio and elsewhere. If there stories are similar, they can never be the same.
Next up in Galveston is the beginning of public education for blacks in Texas. The Annex to Central High School, the first Colored high school in the state, still stands at 2627 Avenue M. The Annex was the high school’s library, also housed the Colored Branch of the Rosenberg Library. Many here believe it was the first publically funded Colored library in the nation.
We tread lightly with the preacher’s cunning, knowing the risk of mentioning some and not mentioning others. We are to be excused, especially if the catch phrase is to be adhered to: “If you know them, you know the story; therefore, you are considered mentioned.”
Still, others may come and become the stop-gap between what was told, not told and could have been told. For sure, there are as many stories here as there are people, who because hurricanes come, wreak havoc, and in the aftermath, weary people come back and collect what is left and leave for good or don’t bother to come back at all to sort through the blight.
Of the ones here, people like wife and husband, Maggie Williams and Ennis J. Williams Jr., Douglas W. Matthews, the Underground Railroad’s Tommie Bourdreaux, Samuel Collins III, a mainlander, and Josey; they are preservationists with the acumen to teach, if not altogether lead.
Mrs. Williams compiled and wrote “Galveston’s African American Historic Places and Pioneers: A Guidebook,” the resource to knowing what was seen that day on Galveston Island. She and Mr. Williams are chairpersons of the Galveston Juneteenth Coalition. He is president of Old Central Cultural Center Inc., the nonprofit that runs the Annex and leads a capital campaign to continue renovation.
The Old Central Annex, built in 1893, is home to Central High School memorabilia and office of the Martin Luther King Day Committee, planners of the annual Kingfest MLK Parade and essay contest for islanders.
Texas’ first black Baptist churches were founded and organized on Galveston Island. Among them are Avenue L Missionary Baptist, an outgrowth of the Colored Baptist Church formed in 1840, West Point Missionary Baptist Church (1870) and First Union Missionary Baptist (1870).
Big history in Galveston, momentous history on Galveston Island is the specter of hurricanes. New starts come after hurricanes. Many structures on the island still date their reconstruction to the hurricane of 1900.
Josey leads a visitor on the street north of Broadway where the island begins to ascend — artificially raised by bringing in sand — raised six feet to seventeen feet to be a buffer against storm surges. This part of the island was raised after the Storm of 1900 that killed thousands and still ranks notoriously as one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
Since then there are many memories on Seawall Boulevard, especially between 28th and 29th streets, for African Americans. When people were mostly segregated in the times, it was the center of black business and social life. People came from all over to stay at Gus Allen’s Villa, experience good eating at Jambalaya Restaurant and dance the night away at The Manhattan Club. Those venues are but memories and fortune testifies through still photos.
There is hope black businesses on the island will experience a rival if discussions are acted upon to establish casinos and the cottage industry that supports gaming. For now, islanders boost with chamber of commerce passion the seafood and steak at Clary’s Restaurant, which overlooks the bay, and Simp’s Kitchen, where the broccoli casserole leaves everything else second.
At Seawall Boulevard, Josey points out how the curved seawall usually rolls storm surges back into the Gulf of Mexico. Most estimates say the seawall would have held Ike’s storm surge. The seventeen-foot storm surge from Hurricane Ike, however, came from Galveston Bay and West Bay, northwesterly, the opposite direction from which storm surges typically come crashing in from the Gulf of Mexico.
Flood waters receded in fewer than three hours, Josey recalled, but not before the first floor of the African American Museum, 3467 Sealy Avenue, sustained heavy damage. Built four feet off the ground, all carpeting was ruined and has to be replaced. Sheetrock on walls must be replaced. Electrical outlets need to be rewired.
Josey started the African American Museum with incorrigible youths on the island in mind. What he so desperately wanted to get away from in Compton, gangland feuds between the Bloods and the Rolling 30 Crips, was suddenly acted out in the island’s children. Gangland-style feuds with semiautomatic weapons left some young people dead and others wounded for life. Some young people fled or were sent by family across the causeway. Police street operations began to identify and then bring charges to some and jail to others.
He had an associate’s degree from Compton Community College. He got a degree in social work at Texas Southern University in Houston after returning to Galveston. Josey worked gang violence prevention in Compton on gang turf in parks. To work with gang members is to be around them and come to know them.
In Galveston, he tried to show young people role models, while also educating those who did not know Black History on island or off island. For those who could still be saved, adults held street rallies demanding a stop to the violence.
With help of the artist known as E. Herron, Born on the Islanders that everyone here are proud of, were portrayed on the exterior of the African American Museum.
“We want our children to know they could grow up and do positive things with their lives and not get caught up in the gang stuff,” Josey said.
Images of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, and Barry White, the world’s most romantic baritone and maestro of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, both Born on the Islanders, are prominently featured. White grew up here as Barrence Eugene Carter.
“When I did this, I didn’t know how fast it would take off,” Josey said. “It was the only black museum in the state of Texas.”
Men and women, police officers, doctors, preachers, athletes, Douglas W. Matthews, the first black city manager (Galveston) in Texas, all were born on the island.
Before Hurricane Ike, busloads of school children from the Galveston Independent School District came to see the paintings of those Born on the Islanders, the ones who left and became famous or the ones that stayed and made significant contributions. Josey, three years running chairperson of the annual Juneteenth Jubilee Parade, would like to see the African American Museum reopen in time for the weeklong Juneteenth celebration on the island.
“Hurricane Ike did a job on me,” Josey said.
Bearcat yearbooks from Central High School, which merged with Ball High School in 1968 to end segregated schools on the island, were waterlogged. It’s questionable if the books can be salvaged. Knickknacks sharing cultural experiences with Jamaica and the Bahamas were ruined by water. The museum sustained twenty-five thousand dollars in damages.
“It’s another place where people, especially those who come from out of town, can come to learn black history of Galveston during the Juneteenth celebration,” he said.
James Josey returned from 17 years living off Galveston Island in Compton, California to found the African American Museum.