Guest Feature: Lubbock in the Dark IV: Racism

Ruth Bradley is a crack reporter and an official Friend of the Brink. She's got a five-part series on social issues in Lubbock, Texas running in the Texas Tech student paper, the Daily Toreador. We'll link to the articles, and we'll also run them here since you have to sign up to view them on the site.

Eddie Richardson experienced the civil rights movement firsthand, watched as the vestiges of slavery disappeared from Lubbock. But, nearly 40 years later, he said the bigotry the movement fought to abolish remains.

"Racism is alive and well in Lubbock," he said. "And it's a lot more sophisticated racism than you'll find in a lot of places."

As the co-publisher of The Southwest Digest, a newspaper oriented toward the black community of Lubbock, Richardson has studied the history of his race in the town. Though signs of outright discrimination have vanished, Richardson said in some ways things really have not changed.

"Instead of calling your boy a n*gger, they'll call you son," Richardson said. "But the results are the same."

Richardson said he believes that old racist attitudes are forming anew in the upcoming generation, and that, combined with economic setbacks, is a large part of why many blacks in Lubbock have difficulty finding opportunities.

"Until the playing field is leveled," he said, "it will always be that way."

Blacks are not the only ethnic group dealing with racism. City Councilwoman Linda DeLeon, a member of the Hispanic community and another longtime resident of Lubbock, said many Hispanics in Lubbock face similar attitudes, particularly in the job market.

"I think there's still some lack of sensitivity," she said. "I think some people are still chosen by their ethnicity, instead of by their qualifications."

DeLeon, who travels regularly, said she has found many people outside Lubbock have similar views about the town.

"Lubbock has a reputation for racism," she said.

Christopher Blue, president of the African American Student Society, said part of this reputation might be Lubbock's location in a conservative part of the country. But where college students are concerned, he said another reason may be the low number of minorities at the school.

According to Texas Tech's Institutional Research and Information Management Web site at www.irim.ttu.edu, 878 blacks attended Tech in fall 2005, about 3 percent of the university's 28,001 students. Hispanic students formed approximately 10 percent of the student body, with 3,073 attending.

Comparable numbers at the University of Texas at Austin found at www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/ show close to a 4 percent enrollment for blacks and a 14 percent enrollment for Hispanics.

Crystal Ramirez, president of the Hispanic Student Society, said she believes these low enrollment numbers are partially due to a lack of emphasis on the recruitment of minorities at Tech.

Bidal Aguero, a Lubbock native and editor and publisher of El Editor, a Hispanic newspaper, said he believes Tech should be helping to spread diversity in other ways.

"I think that the university's not doing enough to show the different cultures that exist in our community," he said.

Demographics are not only a problem at Tech, Aguero said. North Lubbock is primarily populated by blacks, he said, while a large group of Hispanics has made their home in Northeast Lubbock.

"We can still see a lot of segregation," Aguero said.

The 2000 Census of Population and Housing at http://planning.ci.lubbock.tx.us shows that a majority of Hispanics and blacks do inhabit these areas. Hispanics appear to be more integrated into the community as a whole, the lowest percentage of Hispanics in a given area is 4.6 percent. Blacks, however, seem less integrated, with less than 1 percent of the population living South of 98th Street and a little more than 1 percent living in several midtown areas.

"A lot of it is the availability of the houses people can afford," Aguero said. "I guess you could also put a little blame on (the fact that) people want to be were they're liked and where they're welcomed."

Aguero, who grew up in Lubbock, said certain practices have changed, but he still feels unwelcome in certain places in Lubbock. And though signs prohibiting blacks and Hispanics from businesses are gone, he believes the attitudes behind them have sometimes remained.

Other things have remained, too.

In 1923, the city of Lubbock issued Ordinance No. 225, prohibiting persons with 1/8 or more black blood from living or owning property anywhere south of 16th Street and East of Avenue C, with the exception of hired servants. Violation of the ordinance was punishable by a fine of not more than $200, with each day lived outside the district considered a separate offense. The ordinance states that blacks living outside this area are a threat and that "their residence is dangerous to the health and pollutes the earth and atmosphere."

Jane McDaniel, assistant to the city secretary, said that there is no evidence that the ordinance was ever enacted. But Richardson said there was a time when blacks were forced, if not by law, at least by precedent, to stay on that side of town. Moreover, he said that even if the law was never enforced, the fact that the ordinance is still on the record troubles him.

"Lubbock should have the decency to have a meeting and take it off the record," he said.

He believes that by doing this, the city will be able to take a stance against the attitudes that once were so prevalent.

"It would show the heart of the city," he said.

Richardson's business partner, T.J. Patterson, said the ordinance and others like it in other cities helped plant the seeds of racism during that time period, seeds that brought about racist mindsets in following generations.

"Segregation was a national word," said Joan Y. Ervin, a native of Lubbock.

Ervin recalls the times of forced segregation and said she now chooses to live in the part of town where people of her race were once forced to stay. She believes the situation in Lubbock have improved dramatically.

"There has been a complete change - a shift in knowledge because of intelligence," she said.

Erwin said it is important for people of all races to prepare themselves to be qualified to serve as pathfinders in their community. She said she is proud of her own accomplishments in Lubbock, namely becoming the first black to serve on the University Medical Center's Hospital Board of Managers.

But perhaps her greatest achievement was accomplished while serving on the school board beginning in 1970. The first black and first woman elected to public office in Lubbock, Ervin helped create and enact a plan to integrate Lubbock schools.

There have been improvements in diversity as well.

David Buckberry, a planner with the City of Lubbock, said he has observed a trend toward more varied neighborhoods.

"We're actually very far from complete integration," he said "but we've made a lot of progress there."

And there's the North and East Lubbock Redevelopment project, created by Mayor Marc McDougal, which Patterson believes has great potential to help bring economic prospects to minorities.

"Many young people leave Lubbock because there aren't opportunities," Patterson said.

DeLeon said she agrees minorities are often overlooked when it comes to jobs.

"Until we get people in leadership that do not hire by color, but do hire by qualifications, things will change very slowly," she said.

DeLeon said she believes the best way to fight racism is for the community to work together and for people to get involved politically to incite change.

Patterson said although laws and ordinances are good, they are not the answer.

"You cannot legislate it," he said. "You gotta live through it. And your heart's got to be right."

Patterson said he believes all Americans need to work on their heart attitudes and realize that "we are all God's children."

But the greatest key to eliminating racism, he believes, is instilling respect and understanding in the upcoming generation.

"Tell the children, we all got to get along," he said.


© Copyright 2006 Daily Toreador


filed: social.issues