Joe Sing
Joe Sing had many names in his life. He was born Jo Feng Sheng in China in 1860 and when he came to the United States to find work he became known as Jo Sing. In New Orleans he worked under the name of Joe Hall.
Jane Legette Yelvington McCallum
Jane Legette Yelvington McCallum is known as a suffragist leader and Texas Secretary of State. She attended school in Wilson County, at Dr. Zealey's Female College in Mississippi, and studied at the University of Texas, though she never received a degree.
Annie Web Blanton
Annie Web Blanton (1870-1945), known for being a teacher, suffragist, and the first woman in Texas to be elected to statewide office, was born in Houston as one of seven children and a twin (though her twin sister died as a child)
She graduated High School in 1886, she taught in Fayette County and then in Austin. While teaching in Austin, she studied at UT. Graduating in 1899 and going on to serve on the English faculty of North Texas State Normal College (Now University of North Texas).
Erminia Thompson Folsom
Maude Craig Sampson Williams
Maude Evangeline Craig Sampson Williams (1880-1958), suffragist, civil rights activist, and educator, was born and raised in East Central Austin. After she graduated from Prairie View State Normal College (now Prairie View A&M) in 1900, she moved to El Paso and began teaching at Frederick Douglass School. In 1906, she returned to Austin to teach at Gregory Town School, one of the first schools for Black children in Austin.
Pauline Lynch Evans Creighton
Pauline Lynch Evans Creighton was born on May 18, 1868 in Clay County, Mississippi to Hettie M. Cochran Lynch and Judge James Daniel Lynch. Little is known about Pauline's life during and after her two years of college, but it is believed that she married H. L. Evans. Together, they had a son, Hugh McCord Evans on March 12,1891.
James Albert Michener
James A. Michener was born in NYC in 1907, but never knew who his birth parents were. As a foundling he was adopted by Mabel Michener and raised as a Quaker. In his teens he hitchhiked and traveled by boxcar all across the US gaining life experiences that fed into his later writing. After graduating from Swarthmore College summa cum laude he became a teacher. He began his writing career with articles on teaching social studies published between 1936 and 1942.
William H. Holland
William H. Holland was born a slave in Marshall, but the exact year is not known for sure. In Negro Legislatures of Texas his birth year is recorded as 1849 but other sources like Dictionary of American Biography has it listed as 1841. He and his brothers were likely the sons of Capt. Bird Holland, a white man who bought their freedom and moved them to Ohio in the late 1850s. William and his brother Milton attended the Albany Enterprise Academy, a black owned and operated school.
Día de los Muertos
Día de los Muertos has become a popular holiday held throughout major cities in the United States. It’s an event that is still mysterious and misunderstood by many. But in Mexico, it’s a holiday that is rooted in Mesoamerican mythology and Catholic beliefs of Spain.
Hart Stilwell
Hart Stilwell was born in 1902 in Yoakum, Texas. When he was two, his large family relocated to the Rio Grande Valley. His life growing up pretty chaotic and there was a lot of conflict with his father, a former Texas Ranger with anger issues who was prone to mood-swings and threats of violence.