CAMPING APART: A CASE STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN BOY SCOUTS IN

NORTHEAST TEXAS

A Thesis

by

WILLIAM C. WILSON

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University-Commerce in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTERS OF ARTS December 2016 CAMPING APART: A CASE STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN BOY SCOUTS IN

NORTHEAST TEXAS

A Thesis

by

WILLIAM C. WILSON

Approved by:

Advisor: Jessica Brannon-Wranosky

Committee: Derrick McKisick William Kuracina

Head of Department: William Kuracina

Dean of the College: Salvatore Attardo

Dean of Graduate Studies: Mary Beth Sampson iii

Copyright © 2016

William C. Wilson

iv

ABSTRACT

CAMPING APART: A CASE STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN BOY SCOUTS IN NORTHEAST TEXAS

William C. Wilson, MEd, MA Texas A&M University-Commerce, 2016

Advisor: Jessica Brannon-Wranosky, PhD

The Boy Scouts of America, a Progressive organization, intended to train young men for leadership roles, organized in 1910 and within two years, excluded African American men and boys from joining the youth organization in the South due to legal racial segregation or Jim Crow laws. By the 1930s, the BSA opened membership to African Americans but only according to the local council’s discretion, which the region’s local school segregation plans often determined. In Texas, the NeTseO Trails Council of Paris, Texas, maintained segregation until

1970. African American scoutmasters led segregated troops, which African American donations funded. In the 1960s, scouting in these cities remained segregated, then legal desegregation via an official non-discrimination policy ended de jure segregation in scouting. Yet rather than integrate with white troops, many African Americans abandoned the organization. This thesis evaluates the organization of black scouting, black scouting leadership, and the expansion of black scouting and the development of space for black scouts from 1930 to 1970 in Paris, Texas.

This study aims to examine the rise and decline of African American scouting. Scouting membership primarily falls within the middle class. Responsibility for the rise of scout troops in v the 1930s fell on the activism of the black middle class and the desire for trained youth leadership. Once the Civil Rights Act of 1964 overhauled federal law to make public discrimination illegal, scouting steadily declined among African Americans. This study analyzes the Boy Scouts of America’s endeavors to build and maintain black scout troops and the decrease of membership due to the changes to American society, which include methods of school desegregation and the migration of the African American middle class out of segregated neighborhoods.

This study evaluates the decline of African American scouting in Paris, Texas. The case study examines the segregated culture, scouting operations, and desegregation of Paris. This study relies on detailed analysis of archival collections including The Archives of the National

Scouting Museum and also newspaper articles from The Paris News and other newspapers. In conclusion, by examining primary and secondary documents, this study contributes to the discussion of segregation in the State of Texas and the effects of the Civil Rights movement on de facto and de jure segregation in youth character-building organizations. It is important to note that in no way does this study or its author argue that desegregation was a negative occurrence, but instead seeks to examine the effects this change in social, cultural, and legal practice had on sponsored youth activities affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America in African American communities.

vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Very special appreciation should be given to Dr. Jessica Wranosky, my thesis advisor, for understanding my need to tell this story and providing me with the tools to complete this work. I would also thank my thesis committee: Dr. William Kuracina and Dr. Derrick McKisick.

Further thanks to Dr. Andrew Baker for his advising oral history approaches for this project. I would like to thank Theodore Mathis, Leroy Samuels, and Leon Williams for participating in the oral history interviews and being scouts.

Furthermore, special appreciation is given to Linda Hammond, office manager, and

David Dean, Scout Executive, of NeTseO Trails Council in Paris, Texas. I would also like to recognize Andrea Weddle and the staff of the James Gee Library Archives at Texas A&M

University-Commerce for their assistance in my research. Appreciation is sent to Corey

Krazenburg and the staff of the Archives of the National Scouting Museum and the Boy Scouts of America for their assistance in this vast research project.

I would especially like to thank my parents, Rick Wilson, for local and BSA history, and

Sharon Wilson, for helping with the interviews, plus decades of support and encouragement for my education. I would thank Sandy and Blake Utley, my in-laws, for general support and encouragement. I would also like to remember my other scouting mentors: George Al Wilson,

Dr. Henry Sellers, and Lynwood Hogue for my scouting heritage. I especially wish to recognize my daughter, Amelia Caye Wilson, for letting me know when my writing was appropriately boring by falling asleep. Most importantly I would honor my wife and best friend, Brittany, who pushed, encouraged, threatened, and supported my work on this paper because she believes in achieving your goals and dreams.

vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

TABLE

1. African American Populations of Counties in Lone Star Area Council ...... 9

FIGURES

1. Troop 314 Membership Decline, 1932-1970 ...... 101

2. Troop 300 Membership Decline, 1943-1970 ...... 101

viii

LIST OF MAPS

MAP

1. Map of Lone Star Area Council, February 1940 ...... 7

ix

ABBREVIATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONS

BSA - Boy Scouts of America

CORE - Congress of Racial Equality

GSA - Girl Scouts of America

JRF - Julius Rosenwald Fund

IRS - Interracial Service

LSAC - Lone Star Area Council

LSRM - Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation

NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NeTseO - Northeast Texas Southeast Oklahoma; from NeTseO Trails Council

OA - Order of the Arrow

SCOTUS - Supreme Court of the United States

SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership Conference

YMCA - Young Men’s Christian Association

x

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ...... vii

LIST OF MAPS ...... viii

ABBREVIATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONS ...... ix

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2. “A VERY WISE AND VERY CAPABLE LEADERSHIP” ...... 27

3. “A WORTHWHILE THING” ...... 57

4. “THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER” ...... 82

5. CONCLUSION ...... 109

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 121

APPENDICES ...... 133

VITA ...... 151

1

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

On July 1, 1920, Andrew G. Marple arrived at his office in Paris, Texas as the new Scout

Executive of the new Paris first-class council. The council formed in April of 1920 under the guidance of a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Region IX Region Executive, James Fitch. The new

Council Executive Board elected Maury Robinson to Council President and set an annual budget of $5,000 in order to hire a professional scouter. The Paris Council hired Marple from Hays

City, Kansas, where he worked as a high school principal, to develop the current volunteer based second-class council into a vibrant organization. Like many early scout professionals, he trained as an educator before joining the BSA. After serving as principal at several high schools around

Hays City, he opened a scout troop at his school and became a scout executive. He moved to

Paris in 1920 with his wife, Harriet, and five-year-old son, Max.1

When Marple arrived, the new council only served two scout troops within the city of

Paris. Marple concerned himself with two priorities: first, to organize the council and its

Executive Board made of volunteers and second, to expand scouting throughout the county. His first act as Scout Executive was to set a meeting for the rural boys to join scout troops in five days.

The next day near Powderly in North Lamar County, landlord and farmer J.H. Hodges and his son, William, stormed into the Arthur home place to halt the family’s migration to

Chicago due to tenant debt. The Arthur family of Scott, Violet, Herman, Irving, Eula, Mary,

Millie, Cora, and grandson, Iwy Cannon, rented from the Hodges and they refused to work extra

1 “Boy Scout Executive Has Been Employed To Come To Paris, July 1,” Paris Morning News, June 6, 1920, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com /image/87365823; Frances Fletcher, “Big Boy Movement Hits Paris, New Era Begins,” Paris Morning News, March 21, 1920, March 21, 1920, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/87106350. 2 days to pay off their debt. According to Brandon Jett, the violence that occurred during this conflict was the result of Lamar County’s white residents’ resistance to the overall black participation in the Great Migration. Thus, it appeared that these local whites specifically targeted this family to keep them from leaving the area through planned intimidation and violence. When the Hodges heard rumors that the Arthur family was moving, they stormed the house to confront the Arthur brothers, and found their mother and sisters alone in the home, whom they harassed and threatened. When Hodges and his son returned later in the afternoon,

Herman and Irving Arthur defended their home with shotgun blasts, mortally wounding William, then killing his father. Both Hodges died in the Arthur house while Herman and Irving escaped into the nearby thicket, and William bled to death on their cabin floor.2

The brothers avoided capture for five days. In the meantime, authorities placed the

Arthur’s elderly father, Scott, their mother, Violet, and their sisters in the county jail to keep the family from contacting the fugitives. Search parties searched the woods, thickets, and environs of surrounding counties for the brothers. The posse captured the fugitive brothers near Valiant,

Oklahoma and they promptly returned the siblings to justice. The Lamar County Sheriff secured

Herman and Irving Arthur in the county jail and relocated their family to another facility for safekeeping.3

Marple met with a group of rural, white boys on July 6 and organized a Troop 3 of the

Paris Council under Scoutmaster Charles Fuller. A lynch mob dragged the Arthur brothers from

2 The lynching of the Arthur brothers is cited in “Paris is Burning” by Brandon Jett and Freedom Colonies by Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad. It is important to note that in 1919, the United States experienced a preponderance of race riots; Brandon Jett, “Paris is Burning: Lynching and Racial Violence in Lamar County, 1890-1920,” The East Texas Historical Journal 51, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 52-4; Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad, Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005), 165-6; “Scouring Country in Search of Two Negroes Who Murdered Farmer And Son,” Paris Morning News, July 3, 1920, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/89393821.

3 “Work of Boy Scouts for Lamar County,” July 6, 1920, Paris Morning News, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/89393900. 3 the county jail in Paris, Texas that night. The mob hauled the brothers to the Lamar County Fair

Grounds, tied the brothers to a pyre, and burned them to death. Herman was 28 years old and

Irving was 17. This was the final lynching that occurred in Paris, Texas. It is not odd that these events occurred in tandem. That the scouting events continued despite the missing fugitives exhibits the normalcy of racial violence in the South.4

The rest of the Arthur family migrated to Chicago within the year. The lynching caused a stir among black and white citizens of the region. Many African Americans made preparations to move to the North for safety. White citizens of Lamar County saw this as a threat to the local economy and landowners forced their tenants to remain through threat of violence. Despite their efforts, however, Paris and Lamar County experienced a migration of African Americans between 1920 and 1930. The 1920 Census counted the largest population of African Americans in the county at 12,970, but in 1930 the census claimed a 3,588 person decline in the community.

Black citizens were done with sharecropping and the violence. After a half century of discrimination and poverty, African Americans returned from World War I with new beliefs about their treatment at home and plans to attain equality.5

The Arthur family was part of the emerging movement of African Americans from the rural South to urban areas in the North, West, and southern cities. Commonly referred to as the

Great Migration, historian Bernadette Pruitt divides this period of black agency into four significant phases: the Nadir-Industrial phase, the World War I phase, the Post-World War I phase, and the Great Depression phase. Pruitt further claims that “the intrastate and regional migratory patterns… provide evidence that greater movements occurred within the South” along

4 “Two Taken From Jail And Burned,” July 7, 1920, Paris Morning News, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/8939390; “Work of Boy Scouts for Lamar County,” July 6, 1920, Paris Morning News, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/89393900.

5 “Texas Counties,” University of Virginia Historical Census Browser, accessed October 6, 2015, http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/php/county.php. 4 with the “southern exodus.” African Americans relocated to find better work and safety from racial violence.6

Progressive philanthropists formed the BSA in the United States in 1910. Scouting spread across the country quickly and troops organized in the rural cities of Northeast Texas by

1912. In Paris, Texas, local businessmen formed the Lone Star Area Council (LSAC) in 1920 with a professional executive in command of the council’s growth and expansion. The council encompassed nine and a half counties in Texas and three counties in Oklahoma by 1940.

Although initially denied membership in the BSA, official promotion of black scouting began in the late 1920s under the administration of Stanley Harris. The LSAC allowed the organization of a black scout troop in 1932 with African American leaders in positions of authority as scoutmaster, assistant scoutmaster, and troop committee members. This articulates the narrative of black scouting in the LSAC.7

On July 17, Marple reorganized the Council Executive Board. He added A.A.

Steinheimer, E.M. Edwards, R.D. Curry, H.G. Hennessey, and H.T. Warner to the board. The remaining original members were H.L. Baker, Walter E. Boyd, Will Campbell, J.M. Caviness,

Wortham Collins, W.A. Collins, David Coury, J.D. Gee, L.L. Hardison, Charles House, Clyde

McDowell, J.A. McGill, Ed Moore, Will Russell, J.G. Wooten, and Board President Maury

Robinson. Marple and Robinson created committees to develop campsites and swimming pools

6 Bernadette Pruitt, The Other Great Migration: The Movement of Rural African Americans to Houston, 1900-1941 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2015), 53.

7 David I. Macleod, Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870-1920 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 146-8; “Scout Council in Business Meet,” The Paris Morning News, July 17, 1920, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/89394261; Scouting (Boy Scouts of America: October 1924): 5; Benjamin Rene Jordan, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 202-8; “Negro Scout Troop Has 2nd Birthday,” The Paris News, February 11, 1934, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6009561; “Troop 14, Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 314 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Paris, Texas, accessed March 9, 2016. 5 for the scouts. Within the year, W.C. Clark donated a 14-acre camp to the council that included a swimming hole and a cabin. The Scout Executive surveyed the youth population of Lamar

County to expand scouting in the council. By the end of 1920, membership in the council expanded to 329 Boy Scouts in eleven troops and 200 Cub Scouts in five packs; the BSA introduced Cub Scouting that year to serve boys between the ages of six and twelve years old.

Robinson stepped down as Council Board President and William C. Clark, the donor of Camp

Clark, replaced him as president, a position he held until 1935. Marple was successful as Scout

Executive but resigned in 1922 to return to Kansas. Frank Fuller, a shoe salesman and

Scoutmaster of Troop 2, replaced Marple as Scout Executive and held the position until 1954.8

Scout troops sprouted in Northeast Texas quickly after the organization of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The Rotary Club sponsored the first troop organized in Paris in 1910; Walter

E. Boyd served as the first scoutmaster. The Bishop Ward Men’s Class at the First Methodist

Church of Sulphur Springs formed a troop in 1914. Troops organized in Mt. Pleasant in 1919 and in 1921 at Clarksville and Bonham. In Commerce, a troop formed in 1923 and Honey Grove in 1924. Troops formed in Leonard in 1927 and Mount Vernon in 1928. All these troops worked directly with Region IX leadership or through correspondence with the national office in

New York City. Over the years, second-class or volunteer operated councils developed in each county to organize competitions and camps or form new troops in the communities and counties.

When the volunteers accumulated the adequate funding to support a professional scout executive, the regional executives assisted volunteers to form a Council Executive Board and

8 “Scout Council in Business Meet,” The Paris Morning News, July 17, 1920, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/89394261. 6 establish the council’s jurisdiction, usually a county, perhaps two or more. By 1925, second- class or first-class councils organized in all the communities in Northeast Texas.9

Scout Executive Fuller oversaw the expansion of the Paris Council into the Lamar

County Council and which, in 1928, after adding the City of Commerce and the counties of

Delta, Fannin, Hopkins, Franklin, and Red River counties, reorganized into the Lone Star Area

Council. In 1931, the Kiamichi Area Council of Oklahoma dissolved and the eastern Oklahoma counties of Pushmataha and Choctaw joined the council. McCurtain County in Oklahoma and

Titus, Camp, and Morris counties in Texas joined the council in 1939. Map 1 displays the extent of the council with county seats in 1941.10

During this period, troops camped throughout the region and travelled to exotic locations, such as Yellowstone National Park, for summer camp. Fuller operated summer camps for the scouts at Camp Clark near Paris. William C. Clark donated the 14 acres for Camp Clark in 1920 with additional monies for development. This camp possessed a swimming pool, cabins, and numerous program facilities for the young men. Most troops hiked to the camp from the city, as it was only a few miles away. If there was too much troop equipment, the scout truck was available to haul cargo and scouts. Fuller’s business sense expanded the council and added further professional executives to recruit members, train volunteers, and raise monies. In 1936,

9 Edward L. Rowan, To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America (Exeter, NH: PublishingWorks, Inc., 2005), 81-2.

10 “Scout Executive,” The Paris News, February 7, 1945, accessed May 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/19855328; “Area Now Has 120 Troops And Four Cub Packs,” The Paris News, February 9, 1941, accessed October 23, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6268803.

7

Carter Anderson Jr. began his career as assistant executive and Allan H. Wheeler replaced him in

1938. Jack Stoltz, another field executive, joined the council in 1939.11

Map 1

Map of Lone Star Area Council, February 194112

Most African Americans in northeastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma cultivated cotton or corn on tenant farms. In fact, by the Great Depression, nearly every county claimed a

11 “W.C. Clark Makes Gift To The Boy Scouts of Paris,” The Paris Morning News, November 19, 1920, accessed May 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/89400822; “Area Now Has 120 Troops And Four Cub Packs,” The Paris News, February 9, 1941, accessed October 23, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6268803.

12 “Paris Headquarters for this Lone Star Area Council,” The Paris News, February 13, 1941, accessed June 22, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6269850. 8 majority of its agricultural acreage as cotton producing farmland and tenants worked sixty percent or more of that acreage. They lived in poverty compared to their urban counterparts and white landowners. Many lived in small communities near a local church or school.13

In towns, most African Americans worked as cooks, mechanics, railroad porters, maids, or numerous other laborer jobs. However, a small, educated middle class of African Americans existed in Northeast Texas communities, comprised of teachers, merchants, police officers, and preachers. A smaller, middle-upper class of black physicians, businessmen, and lawyers also resided in the small Texas cities. Many of these African Americans agreed with the “‘New

Negro mentality’” which as historian Bruce Glasrud describes, “emphasized the importance of black culture as separate from but equally important as white American culture.” Historian Chad

L. Williams argues the “New Negro” movement as “an ideologically diverse political and cultural movement characterized by racial self-organization, international and diasporic consciousness, social identification with the black masses, and a commitment to self-defense against white racial violence.” Middle class blacks were core members of fraternal organizations, such as the Freemasons, which allowed them to participate in civic projects and participate in lodge elections. These African Americans recognized the importance of education

13 Cecil Harper, Jr., “Morris County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 15, 2010, accessed September 17, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcm19; Cecil Harper, Jr., “Camp County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 12, 2010, accessed September 17, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcc05; Cecil Harper, Jr., “Titus County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 15, 2010, accessed September 17, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hct06; Michael M. Ludeman, “Lamar County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 15, 2010, accessed September 17, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hc101; Cecil Harper, Jr., “Franklin County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 12, 2010, accessed September 17, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcf08; Bob and Michelle Gilbert, “Hopkins County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 15, 2010, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hch18; Kelly Pigott, “Fannin County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 12, 2010, accessed September 17, 2015, http://www.tshaonlino. org/handbook/online/articles/hcf02; Vista K. McCroskey, “Delta County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 12, 2010, accessed September 17, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcd05; Cecil Harper, Jr., “Red River County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 15, 2010, accessed September 17, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcr05. 9 in the extension of equality and searched for further activities to raise their children into the middle class.14

Table 1

African American Populations of Counties of the Lone Star Area Council15

County/Years 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

Choctaw, OK 4,303 5,242 4,994 5,207 3,771

McCurtain, OK 4,576 6,914 7,795 8,050 5,743

Pushmataha, OK 385 386 363 470 465

Camp 4,415 4,577 4,100 4,219 3,478

Delta 809 1,400 995 1,093 934

Fannin 5,366 5,968 4,618 4,332 3,282

Franklin 735 573 442 525 424

Hopkins 3,283 3,011 2,749 3,043 2,631

Hunt 4,579 5,713 5,653 6,288 6,309

Lamar 10,993 12,970 9,382 9,207 7,971

Morris 3,706 3,751 3,722 3,714 3,126

Red River 8,673 8,452 7,442 6,809 5,230

Titus 3,118 3,180 2,700 3,114 3,197

Annual Total 54,941 62,137 54,955 56,071 46,561

14 Brandon Jett, “Paris is Burning: Lynching and Racial Violence in Lamar County, 1890-1920,” The East Texas Historical Journal 51, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 42-51; Bruce Glasrud, “Black Texans, 1900-1930: A History” (PhD diss., Texas Tech University, 1969), 17-9; Chad L. Williams, “Vanguards of the New Negro: African American Veterans and Post-World War I Racial Militancy,” The Journal of African American History 92, no.3 (2007): 348.

15 “Texas Counties,” University of Virginia Historical Census Browser, accessed October 6, 2015, http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/php/county.php; “Oklahoma Counties,” University of Virginia Historical Census Browser, accessed October 6, 2015, http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/php/county.php. 10

Urban children benefited from dual school systems, such as Gibbons Junior High and

High School of Paris, Douglas High School of Sulphur Springs, and the Booker T. Washington

High School in Bonham. Many of the schools were in the same structures that served fifty years before and few had toilets, libraries, or gymnasiums. Rural children in Texas attended local schools, such as East Caney in Hopkins County, Roxton in Lamar County, Bagwell in Red River

County, and Chapel School in Titus County, but students frequently were absent to assist with the crops.16

Farm community schools benefited only a few black children when they attended. The limited educational advancement enabled African Americans to study only particular fields. As historian Alwyn Barr writes, “the emphasis remained heavily on industrial, mechanical, and agricultural education, which would raise the level of black skills within the occupational areas already acceptable to whites.” Despite these deficiencies, many African Americans still graduated to attend Prairie View College or other black colleges in the state. African Americans knew the value of education for improving their economic positions.17

Despite the low quality of education for black children, teachers were the most educated

African Americans and, therefore, served as community leaders. Historian Adam Fairclough writes that African American educators “played a critical role in defining, articulating, and advancing the aspirations of the race” and thus, “uplifted the race and pointed it in the direction

16 James H. Conrad and Thad Sitton, Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005): 116-7.

17 James H. Conrad and Thad Sitton, Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005): 116-7; Alwyn Barr, Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528-1995 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996): 156-7. 11 of equality.” Therefore, rural teachers and schools organized and sponsored troops for African

American youths to raise the skills and education of their race.18

Violence in Northeast Texas and southeast Oklahoma was not limited to Paris. Eleven lynchings occurred in the region during the early twentieth century. A mob lynched Tom

Williams in Sulphur Springs on August 11, 1905. Mob justice claimed seven men in Paris,

Sulphur Springs, Clarksville, Honey Grove, and Idabel by 1919. The next year, the Arthur brothers died in Paris. A mob claimed another man in Leesburg in 1921. The final lynching in the region occurred at Honey Grove in 1930. Fear was evident throughout the region because

African Americans learned that once a lynching occurred nearby, other lynchings happened throughout the south in bursts. Lynching receded after 1922, as the migration threat to agricultural and manufacturing labor caused whites to reconsider the effects of mob justice.19

The Great Depression struck cotton agriculture in the mid-1920s and cotton prices plummeted. In 1920, the black population of Northeast Texas and southeast Oklahoma was

62,137; 12,970 were in Lamar County alone. In Texas, landowners evicted blacks from their farms or they left on their own accord. The Great Migration sent thousands to the north and west looking for equal opportunity. Many went north for better opportunities and remained there.

The rural towns populated by black farmers dwindled to small communities supported by a

18 Alwyn Barr, Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528-1995 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996): 156-7; Walter L. Buenger, The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas Between Reconstruction and the Great Depression (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2001), 110-1; Anna Victoria Wilson, "Education For African Americans," Handbook of Texas Online, June 12, 2010, accessed October 21, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kde02; Alwyn Barr, Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528-1995 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), 157; Adam Fairclough, “‘Being in the Field of Education and Also Being a Negro… Seems… Tragic’: Black Teachers in the Jim Crow South,” The Journal of American History 87 no.1 (June 2000): 67.

19 Walter L. Buenger, The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas Between Reconstruction and the Great Depression (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2001): 168-173; America’s Black Holocaust Museum website, http://abhmuseum.org/category/lynching-victims-memorial/texas/page/5/; ABHM website, http://abhmuseum.org/category/lynching-victims-memorial/oklahoma/page/5/. 12 church or school. By 1930, the region had a population of 7,182 African Americans less than a decade before; 3,588 people left Lamar County.20

Scouting’s founders intended for the organization to promote the new, preferred form of manhood. Therefore, the BSA was a character-building organization bound to instruct boys to serve the new corporate-industrial complex and reminisce about the past. The leadership initially excluded African American youths from membership as they did not perceive black youths to need character building. This thesis discusses how southern, rural African Americans came to participate in the BSA. Furthermore, this thesis will discuss how segregated scouting in rural

Texas thrived and yet faltered after the commencement of school desegregation and the modern civil rights movement. Therefore, this paper will focus on the period of development of black scouting in Texas, the period of success and popularity, and the period of decline in interest.

This thesis evaluates the organization of black scouting, black scouting leadership, and the expansion of black scouting and the development of space for black scouts from 1930 to

1970 in Paris, Texas. This thesis discusses the events that occurred once black scouting began in

Paris, Texas. The narrative evaluates black scouting through the Great Depression, World War

II, and the Cold War. The civil rights movement will be discussed throughout the thesis as the development of desegregation led to a severe decline in black scouting along with other factors.

Discourse about African American scouting began with Herbert S. Lewin, who commented about the decision of the BSA to exclude African Americans in an attempt to remain

“neutral,” “impartial,” and “maintain the status quo.” Lewin’s short analysis of this decision resulted in an opinion of the scouting organization as having a “vague” concept of “respect to the requirements of our democratic society.” Lewin, however, was a contemporary education

20 Buenger, 169; Michael M. Ludeman, “Lamar County,” Handbook of Texas Online, June 15, 2010, accessed September 25, 2015. 13 scholar without a complete understanding of the BSA and the alterations made to the organization to improve African American scouting.21

Saul Scheidlinger continued the discussion of scouting in different ethnic groups in 1948.

His article focused on the apparent nationalism in the scouting movement and the use of scouting as “social control” among immigrants and African Americans. Scheidlinger commented briefly on the developing African American scouting group, “In general, Scout work among Negroes in the South has been handicapped by their low socio-economic status and the racial antagonisms still operating to a great degree.” Therefore, he placed responsibility for segregated scouting on the accepted norms rather than the organization. Scheidlinger also provided an early description of the dual-council system within in the BSA, in which there existed a smaller African American council or district within and under the management of the larger white council.22

David I. MacLeod completed more research in the early 1980s. MacLeod’s article “Act

Your Age: Boyhood, Adolescence, and the Rise of the Boy Scouts of America,” suggested that the “accepted first lines of control – family, church, and school – had enough gaps; it seemed, to need supplementing.” Scouting, he claimed, filled these gaps in the Progressive agenda for the youth of America. “Act Your Age” goes on to trace the chronology of the Boy Scouts’ predecessors, especially the YMCA.23

MacLeod commented about the early development of the BSA in a time of middle class preoccupation about the management of youth. MacLeod stated that the development of youth organizations in the Progressive era were a defense against immigrant influence. Therefore, he

21 Herbert Lewin, “The Way of the Boy Scouts,” Journal of Educational Sociology 21, no. 3 (November 1947): 170- 1.

22 Saul Scheidlinger, “A Comparative Study of the Boy Scout Movement in Different National and Social Groups,” American Sociological Review 13, no. 6 (December 1948): 744.

23 David I. MacLeod. “Act Your Age: Boyhood, Adolescence, and the Rise of the Boy Scouts of America” The Journal of Social History 16, no.2 (Winter 1982): 3. 14 also claimed that this defense was due to fear of “race suicide” or the “submergence by inferior but hardier and more prolific immigrant stock.” MacLeod emphasized the collapse of masculinity: “To have women colleagues threatened the pride of male clerks and teachers; and women’s rights undercut the simple equation of manliness with power.” According to MacLeod, white males instructed their young boys to become men in a power play to maintain control over immigrants and women.24

MacLeod’s major contribution to the historical research of the Boy Scouts was refined in his monograph, Building Character in the American Boy. He theorized the influence of character-building agencies, such as scouting and the YMCA, as contributing to the “evolution of boys’ work in its social and cultural ecology.” Viewing the formation of these agencies as independent of the Progressive movement, MacLeod displayed a deeper origin story for the Boy

Scouts than that story traditionally told. His history ranged from the temperance movement, through the YMCA to the BSA.25

Most interesting is MacLeod’s references to African American scouters. The narrative of the growth of the organization and the social aspects of its membership only vaguely mentioned the development of scouting in African American communities. However, enough data exists in the text to inform the reader about the social and cultural implications of the organization and provide a meaningful story to inform future research. Regrettably, MacLeod concluded the reason that scouting failed in African American neighborhoods was because “black youths were hard for character builders to reach,” observing that they were “poor” and “heavily rural.” Also he reminded the readers that Jim Crow and white supremacy kept scouting from succeeding in

24 David I. MacLeod. “Act Your Age: Boyhood, Adolescence, and the Rise of the Boy Scouts of America” The Journal of Social History 16, no.2 (Winter 1982): 5-6.

25 David I. MacLeod. Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870-1920 (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), xii. 15 the South. MacLeod stated the “executive board gave southern white’s a veto” when it decided not to allow a “black troop without local council approval.” MacLeod’s narrative provided greater insight into African American scouting than most other works but also was for many years the only monograph that historically and socially analyzed the movement’s importance on

American society.26

Aldon Morris discussed the involvement of religious organizations in the Civil Rights movements. Specifically, Morris analyzed the development of the “modern civil rights movement.” Educated, middle class African Americans led this movement and its participants included lower and middle class African Americans across the South. Morris stated “it was the first time that large masses of blacks directly confronted and effectively disrupted the normal functioning of groups and institutions thought to be responsible for their oppression.” Morris’s analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as the “charismatic leader” benefits the argument of this thesis as it now known that King was a Boy Scout for a short time. Scouting cannot take credit for King’s leadership or dynamic speaking ability, but the evidence alludes to the fact that his middle class parents understood the importance of character building in their children. For this thesis, King’s scouting experience and the experiences of others provide evidence about scouting and class.27

Elisabeth Perry’s narrative about Josephine Holloway and Nashville’s Girl scouting was not about Texas or Boy Scouts, yet it provided an outline for this thesis. While Perry described the work of an individual, Holloway, in building a successful scouting program for African

Americans, she also explained the importance of the volunteer leadership in character building

26 David I. MacLeod. Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870-1920. (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 212-3.

27 Aldon Morris, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change (New York: The Free Press, 1984), xi; Morris, 91-3. 16 organizations. Most importantly, however, Perry narrated the subtle progression from separate troops to integrated organization. Perry reasoned as one hindrance of desegregation that occurred in the BSA, “Separate associations provide [African Americans] with opportunities for leadership which they seldom win in mixed associations.”28

Glenn M. Linden commented on the desegregation of Dallas’s schools. Busing was the first plan to desegregate Dallas schools. According to Linden, busing was effective and popular among African Americans, yet shunned by whites and Latinos. Busing effectively ruined afternoon scout meetings, as buses returned scouts to their homes from schools through the late hours of the evening. By the 1980s, however, busing displeased even African American Dallas residents, yet the school district regressed toward a neighborhood school system. Linden’s narrative provided a more complete history of the school desegregation process over 40 years.29

Robyn Duff Ladino’s treatment of the desegregation of Mansfield, Texas schools provided another case study for massive resistance. Ladino suggested that Mansfield was “a microcosm of the social changes gripping the United States in the 1950s because this small town… portrayed the contrasts of what blacks and whites held in their hearts and minds.” The contrasts Ladino mentioned included the peaceful direct action of African Americans compared to the massive resistance of the white southerners. Ladino concluded “the crisis in Mansfield came to represent an epitome of the southern struggle between those for civil rights and school desegregation and those inflexibly opposed to change.”30

28 Elisabeth Israels Perry, “’The Very Best Influence’: Josephine Holloway and Girl scouting in Nashville’s African- American Community” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 52, no. 2 (Summer 1993): 82.

29 Glenn M. Linden, Desegregating Schools in Dallas: Four Decades in the Federal Courts (Dallas: Three Forks Press, 1995), 82-3; Glenn M. Linden, Desegregating Schools in Dallas: Four Decades in the Federal Courts (Dallas: Three Forks Press, 1995), 187. 30 Robyn Duff Ladino, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1996), xiv; Robyn Duff Ladino, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1996), 93. 17

Ladino contended that the rejection of African Americans from Mansfield High School was in part the responsibility of President Eisenhower and the SCOTUS. These entities allowed

Allan Shivers, the Governor of Texas, to prevent these students from receiving their deserved education. Ladino provided another example of massive white resistance and the reluctance of the federal government to enforce the law.31

Walter L. Buenger discussed the political environment of Northeast Texas and provided numerous sources for race relations and lynching. The region of Northeast Texas experienced all the political movements of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Buenger evaluated the Grange, the Populists, and the Progressives in his analysis. According to this narrative, racial tensions and economic interdependence defined the overarching theme of disparity between the races. Buenger made considerable attempts to explain every political development and regional issue. His research provided substantial information on the region that includes the NeTseO Trails Council of the BSA through nadir of race relations.32

Ariane Liazos and Marshall Ganz commented about the importance of African American fraternal organizations in the legal battle for civil rights. Forming in the nineteenth century, the organizations took on the names and symbols of well-known white groups, such as the Elks,

Pythians, and Shriners, not as “a matter of imitation so much as an assertion of equality or even superiority.” This separate development occurred within the BSA but due to the rigid control of

31 Robyn Duff Ladino, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1996), 117.

32 Walter L. Buenger, The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas between Reconstruction and the Great Depression (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2001), 19-25; Walter L. Buenger, The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas between Reconstruction and the Great Depression (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2001), 86; Walter L. Buenger, The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas between Reconstruction and the Great Depression (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2001), 28; Walter L. Buenger, The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas between Reconstruction and the Great Depression (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2001), 76. 18

Chief Scout Executive West, African Americans formed parallel scout units within official BSA councils with the same “ritual” of character building. Liazos and Ganz continued, “membership in fraternal orders contributed to African Americans’ sense of respectability and self-worth.”

These black fraternal orders, when confronted with opposition to their existence, worked with nation- and state-wide organizations and the NAACP to defend their right to “form and operate.”

The successful cases in these matters, in part, led to the fraternal orders’ “development of national legal networks” to assist legal civil rights litigation.33

The “Long Civil Rights Movement,” as described by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, began as early as the 1940s in labor equality movements. While the endeavor to achieve equality existed since Reconstruction, the post-World War II atmosphere featured a generation receptive to change after serving with African Americans overseas. Hall’s “long civil rights movement” was successful in the 1950s through 1970s, yet her description of the resegregation of schools and neighborhoods by Reagan era courts led to a return to “pre-New Deal” segregation and economic inequality. Hall concluded that although the south integrated more than the Northeast, especially in schools, the economic inequality based on race and class remained prevalent despite the long civil rights movement.34

White Metropolis, however, presents a narrative of whiteness and race conflict in the city of Dallas from its establishment in the 1840s to the early 2000s. In this work, Michael Phillips evaluates a history of race relations in Dallas and provides a historical background of Dallas’s

African American history. Phillips’s narrative alluded to the disparities among the tripartite

33 Ariane Liazos and Marshall Ganz, “Duty to the Race: African American Fraternal Orders and the Legal Defense of the Right to Organize,” Social Science History 28, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 487; Ariane Liazos and Marshall Ganz, “Duty to the Race: African American Fraternal Orders and the Legal Defense of the Right to Organize,” Social Science History 28, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 517-8.

34 Jacqueline Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” The Journal of American History 91, no. 4 (March 2005): 1235; Hall, 1255-7. 19 society of Dallas between Anglo, African, and Latino Americans and the claimed “whiteness” used by Latinos and some African Americans to attain civil equality.35

Brian D. Behnken suggested that the Civil Rights Movement in Dallas or “Big D” was a case study for non-violent resistance to the non-violent protest. Behnken stated that the general belief was that the Civil Rights Movement was a violent event in American history, but he used the narrative of the Dallas experience as evidence of the average urban movement. He suggested that Dallas was different in its desegregation due to the business concept of the “Dallas Way,” a notion that Dallasites held a common ideology concerning race and formed the pillar of communication and negotiation between the races during the civil rights movement. This narrative will benefit the thesis as a guide through the Dallas civil rights movement.36

Theodore M. Lawe claimed that Dallas African Americans were “active actors in their own success, not passive observers depending on external forces,” and demonstrated this statement with bus protests and school desegregation cases that pre-dated the modern civil rights movement in Dallas. Thus, Dallas African Americans were actively pursuing desegregation long before the popular movement took national attention after Brown. Lawe provided a legal and political history of black Dallas residents’ struggle for equality. Lawe mentioned the development of African American scout troops in Dallas as milestones of the 1930s. Lawe determined that by the 1970s, “Dallas white citizens had finally realized that working with

African Americans was the best direction for the future of Dallas.”37

35 Michael Phillips, White Metropolis (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006), 12.

36 Brian D. Behnken, “The “Dallas Way’: Protest, Response, and the Civil Rights Experience in Big D and Beyond, Southwestern Historical Quarterly 111, no. 1 (July 2007), 3-4. 37 Theodore M. Lawe, “Racial Politics in Dallas in the Twentieth Century,” East Texas Historical Association 46, no. 2 (2008): 27-9; Theodore M. Lawe, “Racial Politics in Dallas in the Twentieth Century,” East Texas Historical Association 46, no. 2 (2008): 27-32.

20

The Texas NAACP State conference received overwhelming praise from Ramona

Houston as the “catalyst” for the Brown decision due to the organization’s support of the

Herman Marion Sweatt v. Theophilus Shickel Painter case that desegregated the University of

Texas Law School. Houston’s narrative described the Texas NAACP as an example of state and national leadership and in civil rights legislation. The NAACP, then banned in Texas, was responsible for the results of the expanded school desegregation throughout the state.38

Barbara Arneil’s article compared the declining membership between the BSA and GSA and provided a later analysis about scouting in the African American community. Arneil discussed the drop in membership during the post-Civil Rights Act of 1964 era and plotted the changes that each organization made to raise the number of scouts and units. This article pointed to the BSA leadership’s “narrow organizational path that saw change as negative and new values and people as threats rather than opportunities” as its decline in the 1970s. Meanwhile, the GSA adapted to accept diversity, which caused its ranks to gently increase. According to Arneil, segregation and desegregation each hurt the BSA because the organization lost members in both scenarios. This modern question is simply an echo of a longtime issue of adapting and surviving.39

The Scouting Party written by David C. Scott and Brendan Murphy specifically discussed scouting’s development during the Progressive era. Scott and Murphy do not disclose the details of scouting’s roles in the Progressive agenda or for that matter the exclusion of African

38 Ramona Houston, “The NAACP State Conference In Texas: Intermediary and Catalyst for Change, 1937-1957,” The Journal of African American History 94 n 4 (Fall 2009): 524.

39 Barbara Arneil, “Gender, Diversity, and Organizational Change: The Boy Scouts vs. Girl Scouts of America,” Perspectives on Politics 8, no. 1 (March 2010): 55. 21

Americans. The Scouting Party does provide an insightful chronological history with considerable biographical data that will facilitate future research.40

Brian D. Behnken wrote a comparative history of the African American and Mexican

American civil rights movements in Texas. He described two groups with the same motive yet differing methods. Mexican Americans, long considered white for the civil rights era, sought to retain their whiteness until they recognized the effectiveness of the African American strategy of non-violent protest. At times these groups worked together but eventually separated and fought their own battles. Behnken’s analysis contributed to the discussion of Texas’s civil rights issues.41

Brandon Jett’s article about lynching in Lamar County during the Nadir sets the tone for

African American relations at the outset of scouting. Jett stated that the African American community significantly dwindled after several mob lynchings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, despite white attempts to maintain the “cheap labor force.” Jett cited the violence against African Americans as the impetus for black migration out of Lamar County at an

“unprecedented scale.” The value of Jett’s analysis is undeniable concerning this thesis, as this article set the background for Lamar County and the violence that engulfed the African

Americans of this region.42

Scouting was the subject of Mischa Honeck’s research. Honeck determined that the BSA developed as part of an international movement, therefore when the first World Jamboree occurred and American scouts camped among youths from other nationalities and races the

40 David C. Scott and Brendan Murphy. The Scouting Party: Pioneering and Preservation, Progressivism and Preparedness in the Making of the Boy Scouts of America. (Dallas, Texas: Red Honor Press, 2010), 121-40

41 Brian D. Behnken, Fighting Their Own Battles: Mexican Americans, African Americans, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Texas (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 70-7.

42 Brandon Jett, “Paris is Burning,” East Texas Historical Journal 51, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 54. 22

“inequalities at home” became transparent. Honeck claimed, “The idea of raising male youth in the spirit of cooperation based on characterizations of boyhood as classless, transreligious, and transethnic called established hierarchies of race and empire into question.” He described scouting as an international opportunity for the middle-class to defend white masculinity through exercise and camping, yet after viewing a scouting empire of collaboration, BSA leaders were willing to acquiesce to some desegregation. Americans proved that they could lead through their prejudices.43

Andrew C. Baker analyzed the white flight from urban Houston to rural Montgomery

County, Texas under the pretext of returning to the western cowboy heritage to forget their racist southern history. This flight began in the era of urban upheaval due to school desegregation and the civil rights movement. Baker stated “white flight was not only a migration away from urban violence and integrated public space. It was also a migration to an idealized countryside where the family would be safe, where black populations were small, and where kids could learn hard work, discipline, responsibility, and the joy of life in the outdoors.” Considerable white flight occurred in Dallas and Paris to numerous suburbs and many of these communities adopted festivals as described by Baker to absolve their violent pasts and claim a western future.44

Benjamin Rene Jordan resumed the evaluation of manliness in the scouting movement in

2016. He describes the BSA as the Progressive era reform movement for boys in an emerging

“corporate-industrial” America. Essentially, Progressives sought to transform rebellious, untrained laborers into compliant, skilled workers. The reform began with boys and volunteer leaders of the scouting movement through indoctrination of corporate-industrial values into the

43 Mischa Honeck, “An Empire of Youth: American Boy Scouts in the World, 1910-1960,” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, no. 52 (Spring 2013): 106-7.

44 Andrew C. Baker, “From Rural South to Metropolitan Sunbelt: Creating a Cowboy Identity in the Shadow of Houston,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 118, no. 1 (July 2014): 1283; Baker, 1287-8. 23 scout oath and law; the rest of the scouting program quickly conformed. Jordan further suggests that Jim Crow laws and the costs of scouting set black scouts on a path where they were not expected to succeed. He argues that “pool, camp, and uniform discrimination thus hampered

African American boys’ progress to First Class and advanced ranks and their many privileges, literally marking them as Second Class Scouts.” Jordan’s monograph, an evolution of his dissertation, exposes the effects of segregation on the scouting organization and black youths.45

There are also several national and local histories (or chronologies) of the BSA that may be applied to this research. William Murray’s BSA history is a valuable memoir of the organization. Murray served on the BSA committee in the early years of the organization and paper. Huffman worked as Assistant Regional Executive in the early years of the BSA and provided abundant data concerning council origins and segregated scouting. Rowan described the life of first Chief Scout Executive, James E. West. In this biography, Rowan explained

West’s thorough control over the young BSA and the development of the organization. This biography provided evidence into the development of African American scouting and West’s personal thoughts about the sub-organization. David C. Scott’s history of the Circle 10 council is especially comprehensive and helpful. Written to celebrate the BSA’s 100th Anniversary, this work is the starting point for future history of scouting in this region. Winston Davis’s chronology of professional scouters is also valuable to the narrative of the BSA and segregation.

It was Council and District Scout Executives that decided to pursue segregated scouting and organize committees and units to serve these young men.46

45 Benjamin Rene Jordan, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 194-213. 46 William Murray, The History of the Boy Scouts of America (New York: Boy Scouts of America, 1937), 176; Huffman, 93; Edward L. Rowan, To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America (Exeter, NH: PublishingWorks, 2005), 105; David C. Scott, Where Character Is Caught: A Century of Stories on Service, Scouting, and Citizenship in Circle Ten Council (Dallas: PenlandScott Publishing, 2013), 134; Winston 24

Five general sources provided evidence for this narrative. First, newspaper articles from the period, written by scouters, and published in local periodicals. Articles referenced, specifically mentioned “negro boy scouts,” “negro scouts,” or “negro scout troops.” These articles are highly propaganda in nature, and both promote black scouting while they also suggest the expectations for black scouts. The Paris News is most highly facilitated for this thesis but also other local papers.

Second, unit rosters for each of the troops held once in the office of the Lone Star Area

Council, now in the archives of the James Gee Library at Texas A&M University-Commerce.

These rosters describe the membership of the troops, the boys, and their leaders. They also document dues payments and rank advancement. See Appendix A and B for a more detailed evaluation of these rosters with membership numbers, scoutmaster names, sponsor information, and committee members’ names for Troops 14 and 300.

Third, documentation referenced on African American scouting and general scouting is found in digital copies of the Annual Report of the Boy Scouts of America to Congress, Scouting

Magazine, and Boy’s Life Magazine. These articles report statistical and qualitative data from which the broader context of African American scouting is placed.

Fourth, this thesis facilitates the oral histories of African American scouts and scouters from the 1960s and 1970s for a more detailed understanding of the period. These interviews provide colorful memories of actual participants during the period of African American scouting decline and desegregation. Among the African American scouts interviewed are Leroy Samuels of Troop 300 and Theodore Mathis, the first black Eagle Scout from Paris, Texas.

Davis, Men of Schiff: A History of the Professional Scouters Who Built the Boy Scouts of America (Winston Davis, 2013), 93. 25

Finally, this narrative includes community histories from several sources. The thesis used websites, such as The Handbook of Texas and The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and

Culture and also narratives, obituaries, school and church histories, and town and county histories to place African American scouting in the context of a changing society. These histories are referenced throughout the narrative, though little is written specifically about

African Americans in Northeast Texas and even less in southeastern Oklahoma.

Scholarly research about the segregation of the BSA in Texas is divided into two themes.

First, this thesis will evaluate the racial politics and history of the State of Texas, including scholarly discourse about Dallas and Paris, Texas. The second focus surrounds the historical discussion of de facto segregation among children, including discourse on the BSA and the Girl

Scouts of America (GSA). These themes will drive the discussion of this thesis to understand the motivations of the Civil Rights movement and Black Nationalism in the northeast region of

Texas and how the long-term advances toward equality altered the status quo in the de facto segregation of the BSA.

Research concerning the effect of the Civil Rights movement on children has tended to focus mostly on the desegregation of the school system or the use of public facilities.

Furthermore, these discussions neglect the histories of children in the Civil Rights era by focusing on de jure, discrimination by law, rather than de facto segregation, discrimination by fact rather than law. By researching the story of black scouting in Northeast Texas and southeast

Oklahoma, this thesis analyzes how the BSA handled segregation and desegregation.

Furthermore, this narrative evaluates how black boys and leaders coped with societal change while a member of a character-based organization. This case study elucidates black scouting in

Northeast Texas and southeast Oklahoma before desegregation. 26

Due to inconsistent membership throughout the tenure of segregated scouting, it is difficult to extrapolate a full narrative from a short period of time. Therefore, this thesis will analyze the period between 1930 and 1970 and will encompass the Great Depression, World War

II, the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam War. Chapter 1 discusses the organization and expansion of black scouting in Paris and the surrounding region. After the founding of the first black troop in Paris in 1932, the organization steadily grew in other areas of the council once leaders and youths learned of scouting’s potential. Chapter 2 discusses leadership development among black leaders, whom before received no formal training in scouting. Chapter 3 discusses the development of space for black scouts in Paris, Texas. In particular, this chapter examines the challenges black scouts faced as they advanced in rank.

27

Chapter 2

“A VERY WISE AND VERY CAPABLE LEADERSHIP”

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) incorporated in 1910 when William D. Boyce returned from England with a copy of Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for

Boys. Boyce’s legendary experience with scouting occurred when an unknown British scout rescued a lost Boyce from the dense London fog. Rather than accept a reward for his service, the scout explained the tenets of Baden-Powell’s scouting program and led Boyce to the office of scouting’s founder. Boyce returned to Chicago and with his financial resources incorporated the

BSA and afterward, aligned the fledgling organization with the Young Men’s Christian

Association (YMCA). The YMCA already operated several troops as part of its program but

Edgar M. Robinson took the BSA under his management and began to facilitate the program.

Boyce organized a National Executive Board for the BSA before he departed the organization.

The new National Executive Board included elites, politicians, and Progressives from all over the country and earned the endorsement of President Theodore Roosevelt. Ernest Thompson

Seton and Daniel Carter Beard each joined the National Executive Board after integrating their

Woodcraft Indians and Sons of Daniel Boone, respectively, into the new organization.47

All the men who participated in the organization of the BSA sought to redefine the idea of manhood. At the turn of the century, the western frontier ended and American Indians lived on reservations and children attended boarding schools. Urban men labored longer hours in worsening conditions; women and children also took to factories for work. Immigration allowed millions of Europeans into American cities. American culture was in the midst of change, industrial and progressive. Most importantly, women emerged in the late nineteenth century as

47 David I. Macleod, Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870-1920 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 146-8. 28 the predominant caretakers and educators in urban America. These factors caused a decline of pre-industrial American masculinity.48

By 1910, urban white men worried for their sons. As the external immigrant and feminine forces exercised considerable power over urban youths, boyhood devolved from the hardy, American experience to a manhood unprepared for survival in the new corporate- industrial landscape. The BSA’s troop organization and adult leadership provided a solution to the regressing masculinity among American boys. Dozens of boy-work organizations emerged during this period, including the BSA, American Boy Scouts, Woodcraft Indians, and Sons of

Daniel Boone. All these programs sought to address the flaws created from the emergent industrial society.49

However, victory over those youth organizations went to the BSA as it received the endorsement of Lord Baden-Powell in 1910 at a banquet held in New York at the Waldorf-

Astoria Hotel. Once Baden-Powell selected the fledgling organization as the representative of his scouting program in the United States, all the other organizations consolidated with the BSA or dissolved. While his endorsement favored the group’s further growth, a much more pressing factor also aided in the program’s development and organization, the employment of James E.

West as executive director. West was a lawyer, long involved in boy work and child welfare.

He proved ruthless in his endeavor to ensure that the BSA remained the top scouting organization in the country. West tirelessly lobbied the United States Congress to the charter the

BSA and succeeded on June 15, 1916. This Congressional Charter later allowed the West and

48 David I. Macleod, Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870-1920 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 45-6; Benjamin Rene Jordan, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 157.

49 Benjamin Rene Jordan, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 5-7. 29 the BSA to trademark the word “scout” as a BSA brand. Thereby, West forced many competitors to disband or join the BSA through negotiation or civil lawsuit.50

As the National Executive Committee met infrequently, decisions that required immediate action fell to West for guidance. In order to better serve the masses of new scoutmasters, troops, and scouts, West formalized a bureaucracy of professional staffers in the

BSA’s New York office to cover everything from camping to editorializing publications. He also organized the system of regional, council, and district professional executives to assist volunteer scouts and maintain the consistency of the scouting program and policies nationwide.

In this position, West developed the antecedent of the modern non-profit organization and the position of executive director. According to historian Benjamin Jordan, West and his bureaucracy symbolized corporate-industrial adaptations required for boys to survive in the twentieth century.51

West’s bureaucracy began in the New York office where he assigned deputies for everything from Director of Camping to Director of Editorial. Thereafter, he assigned Region

Executives over the thirteen regions; James Fitch directed Region IX, which encompassed Texas,

Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The regions served the volunteers from community troops and in

1920, assisted in the organization of local second-class councils over a single county managed by a volunteer commissioner. Later, second-class councils evolved into or merged with a first-class council operated by a professional council executive. Frank Fuller was council executive of the

50 David I. Macleod, Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870-1920 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 158; Benjamin Rene Jordan, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 17-18.

51 Benjamin Rene Jordan, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America, Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 25; Jordan, Modern Manhood, 44-45. 30

Lone Star Area Council in Paris. He hired several field executives to assist troops in the many troops across the council.52

Black scouts existed from the beginning of the BSA, mostly in the northern United

States. West wrote in 1911 to D.D. Moore of New Orleans that, “the negro interests in the Boy

Scout movement could be handled in the same way as you handle separate schools, teachers, and administration.” According to biographer Edward L. Rowan, West decided “to follow local custom regarding segregation.” Essentially, the Chief Scout declared that councils decided whether to allow black troops. Therefore, the BSA excluded southern black boys based on school segregation.53

Expansion efforts into the black south began in the 1920s with Stanley Harris of

Louisville, Kentucky and Bolton Smith of Memphis, Tennessee. Harris, the Region V executive, actively promoted scouting to the black community of Louisville, Kentucky. Twenty-six black troops operated in Louisville with high success. Seeing an opportunity to grow membership with white, southern approval, the national board sanctioned the creation of an exploratory committee under Smith. The Interracial Committee chose the “Louisville Plan” of organizing black troops as a template to present before council executive boards in order to convince councils to permit black scouting.54

The Louisville Plan required the creation of a local interracial committee with a white chairman. The chairman appointed a black volunteer commissioner to lead, organize, and promote troops in the African American community. The black district or division was “a

52 Edward L. Rowan, To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America (Exeter, NH: PublishingWorks, Inc., 2005), 83-4.

53 Edward L. Rowan, To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America (Exeter, NH: PublishingWorks, Inc., 2005), 46-7.

54 Edward L. Rowan, To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America (Exeter, NH: PublishingWorks, Inc., 2005), 105-6. 31 parallel but distinctive organization, equal in privileges but with no joint activities.” The national executive board enacted the Interracial Service (IRS) in 1927, under the direction of

Harris, Bolton, and the Interracial Committee. Historian Jordan argued that Smith actively pursued black scouting to improve the lives of black youths, he quoted Smith: “The Boy Scout movement seems to me to be the most effective method by which contact between the negro and white ideals of civilized conduct can be established.” Furthermore, Smith stated that black boys in scout uniform “would prompt white Southerners to give them a modicum of respect and be kinder to them, just as African American soldiers’ uniforms had done in World War I.” He also suggested that black scouting might stifle the migration of African Americans out of the south.

As Jordan stated, being a scout, “carried a significant status in the eyes of the American public, government officials, and employers, even Scouting with restrictions represented a halfway step to demonstrating modern manhood and civic leadership that many African American boys and leaders eagerly grasped.”55

Harris hired black scouters to be assistant directors of the IRS to present the “Louisville plan” to black volunteers across the south. The first was Jack L. Beauchamp, a teacher and

World War I veteran, who was the first black employee at the BSA, other than janitors. Harris next hired the principal of the “Johnston County Negro High School” at Smithfield, North

Carolina, A.J. Taylor. These men promoted scouting to black churches and school leaders in an effort to spread the organization. By 1930, troops existed in cities of every state in the south.56

In 1932, Beauchamp organized Troop 14 in Paris, Texas. He met with the congregation of the St. Paul Baptist Church and George M. Guest led the troop committee of black leaders.

55 Scouting (Boy Scouts of America: October 1924): 5; Benjamin Rene Jordan, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 202-8.

56 “Highlights of the Interracial Service,” Division of Relationships, Boy Scouts of America, Boy Scout Archives, National Scouting Museum, Irving, Texas, United States. 32

The first committee consisted of J.H. Allen, Reverend Joseph Brown, Dr. C.B. Martin, Bennie

Owens, Walter Wells, L. Jefferson, and A.T. Patterson and M.W. Norman, a barber, served as the first scoutmaster. There were seven boys in the troop: James Bennett, Vercie Dabbs, Carl

Ferguson, Clinton Moore, L.J. Peoples, Joel Thomas, and Lonnie Wilson. Thomas and Wilson served as assistant scoutmasters and troop committeemen.57

Beauchamp was no stranger to Texas. A World War I veteran and school teacher, he was the first scoutmaster of a troop for African American boys in Port Arthur, Texas in the early

1920s. Later, in 1925 when the IRS experimented with segregated troops in the south, his troop reorganized. Beauchamp removed to Jacksonville, Florida in the late 1920s to teach school, but

Harris called on him to serve as the black executive of the IRS. He represented the BSA to black men and trained them to be leaders for troops and other units. Historian Benjamin R. Jordan stated, “[Beauchamp] was probably the first non-white on the BSA national office staff, outside of perhaps janitors or maintenance men.” Eventually, he moved to Memphis to be the district executive over the Chickasaw district of African American scouts. When he retired from scouting, Beauchamp served as editor of the Memphis World and chairman of the Memphis

Negro Chamber of Commerce.58

George M. Guest, born a slave in 1858, was the owner of the Guest Funeral Home. His peers selected Guest as the first African American juror in Lamar County, and he attended the

Texas Republican Convention as a Lamar County delegate and served on the commission to recharter Paris in 1948. After his death, his will donated $10,000 to the King’s Daughters civic

57 “Negro Scout Troop Has 2nd Birthday,” The Paris News, February 11, 1934, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6009561; “Troop 14, Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 314 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Paris, Texas, accessed March 9, 2016.

58 Benjamin Rene Jordan, “"A Modest Manliness": The Boy Scouts of America and the Making of Modern Masculinity, 1910-1930,” (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 2009), 170-220, accessed December 11, 2015, http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s56c7cg. 33 club for the erection of a day school for black children. His membership on the troop committee signified the importance of the troop to the African American community of Paris; his influence was enough motivation to attract other middle class blacks to the organization. Dr. C.B. Martin was a respected physician, which owned an office in the black community. Bennie Owens was a mechanic and later served as the first black police officer in Paris. A.T. Patterson was a railroad porter and a World War I veteran. J.H. Allen was the Principal and H.C. Ellison was a coach at

Gibbons High School. Travis G. Givens succeeded Guest as troop committee chairman and

Thomas replaced Norman as scoutmaster in 1933 when the troop sponsorship switched to the

Gibbons High School.59

The first years of scouting for African American boys resembled the early days of scouting in the 1910s. Uniforms were too expensive, immediately, for every scout to own and in some areas of the south, communities banned black boys from wearing uniforms. For example, in Richmond, Virginia the Ku Klux Klan threatened to burn every scout uniform in town to keep

African American scouts from representing the organization. The Handbook for Boys and The

Scoutmaster’s Handbook provided the only guide for African American scout leaders. Luckily, many early African American scouters, such as Pendleton and Givens, served in World War I and benefited from training in drill and basic outdoor survival skills. Harris and Beauchamp orchestrated training sessions at the local and regional levels for black scouters, which combatted the lack of training among black leaders. Much like early scouting, African American scouting survived the learning years.60

59 “Negro Scout Troop Has 2nd Birthday,” The Paris News, February 11, 1934, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6009561; “Appeals Court Reverses Guest Will Case Verdict,” The Paris News, November 12, 1950, accessed January 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/14271184; “Troop 14, Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 314 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Paris, Texas, accessed March 9, 2016.

60 Handbook for Boys (New York: Boy Scouts of America, 1927). 34

The Lone Star Area Council did not share its Camp Clark with its African American troop. Therefore, Troop 14 camped in the pastures and thickets around Lamar County. The troop purchased tents and backpacks from the scout catalog service or borrowed them from the council office. Every scout brought their kitchen supplies from home and contained a personal dish and cutlery. At the camp, scoutmaster Thomas led the scouts on hikes, they practiced their knot tying and pioneering, they learned about nature, and they practiced drills.61

All these activities were necessary for the scouts to earn the Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class ranks each a combination of scout skills, physical exercise and ability, leadership experience, and scouting knowledge. The essential item for all scouts, other than a uniform, was the Handbook for Boys, which contained the basics of scoutcraft, the requirements for each scout rank, and the organization of the troop and patrol units. The book cost $.50 but was a valuable record of their scouting experience.62

Despite the previous race issues in Paris, the white community did not respond to the black boy scouts. The white community in and out of scouting wholly supported the African

American troop. Fuller and the council executive board especially endorsed the troop of black scouts and leaders without dispute. In 1933, Scoutmaster Thomas left Paris for a better opportunity in Houston as an insurance salesman, and eventually he became the president of his own firm in the Houston area. Lonnie Wilson replaced Thomas as scoutmaster of Troop 14.63

Wilson worked as a valet and chauffeur for the Rufus Scott Jr. household, a career he began in high school. When the family patriarch died in October 1932, Priscilla Scott became

61 James P. Smith and Finis Welch, “Race and Poverty: A Forty-Year Record,” The American Economic Review 77, no. 2 (May 1987): 154.

62 Handbook for Boys (New York: Boy Scouts of America, 1927).

63 “Negro Scout Troop Has 2nd Birthday,” The Paris News, February 11, 1934, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6009561. 35 dependent on Wilson’s service and purchased him a home in Paris. Highly involved in the St.

Paul Baptist Church as a choir leader, scouting drew in Wilson when he was still eligible to be a scout in 1932. Under Wilson’s management, Troop 14 grew from eight scouts in 1932 to sixty- nine in 1934. In December 1941, Wilson relocated with educators and fellow scouters, H.C.

Ellison and E.S. Hill, to Portland, Oregon. George A. Jones replaced him as scoutmaster of

Troop 14, but Wilson remained a registered member of the troop committee. In Oregon, Wilson accepted a position as a porter in a pullman dining car with the Union Pacific Railroad route between Portland and Chicago, Illinois due to his work experience. Wilson’s high-spirited management of Troop 14 as scoutmaster and his involvement in the expansion of black scouting into other communities was paramount in the formation of a firm scouting program for African

American boys.64

In February 1934, the council directed every scout in the region to listen to the radio address of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who honored the BSA during February for its anniversary. White scouts in Paris paraded to the Central Presbyterian Church to listen to the speech. Troop 14 scouts heard the speech at Guest’s funeral home. Troops reported the number of scouts who listened to the council for reporting purposes to the national headquarters.65

In 1935, the council board created a council interracial committee with Sam M. Weiss as its chairman. Weiss, a German immigrant, received his citizenship in 1912. He studied at

Columbia University in New York City before removing to San Antonio, Texas. Soon after his service during World War I, friends from northeast Texas influenced him to move to Paris. Once

64 Michael Grice, “Interview with Lonnie Wilson,” African-American Railroad Porter Oral History Collection (OH 29), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon, http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/oh29/index.html; “Rufus Scott, Jr. Obituary,” The Paris News, October 30, 1932, accessed June 21, 2016, http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.obits/53476/mb.ashx; “Negro Scout Troop Has 2nd Birthday,” The Paris News, February 11, 1934, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6009561.

65 “Scouts Hear FDR,” The Paris News, February 9, 1934, accessed May 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6009330. 36 there, Weiss became a successful businessman and worked as a distributor for Gulf Oil for fifty years starting in 1919. He married Mary Lou Lockwood in 1930; they had no children. He busied himself with civic service, especially the Lions Club, the Noon Optimist Club, the

Salvation Army, the Boys’ Club, the Girl Scouts, and the Boy Scouts. He served as president of the Chamber of Commerce and was influential in getting improved highways to Lamar County, which resulted in him being honored by the Texas Highway Department’s Hall of Honor. He received the first Distinguish Service Award at Paris Junior College in 1935. The Interracial

Service of the Lone Star Area Council was only one of many endeavors Weiss occupied his time with until he died in 1974.66

In summer of 1935, the first Region IX camporal for black scouts occurred at Prairie

View University near Houston. While originally “at first experiments, the results were so significant that a number of district Camporalls have been arranged for 1936.” Prairie View

College became the center of both scout and leader activities during the extent of African

American scouting. The A&M College of Texas for Colored Youths, now Prairie View A&M

University, first registered students in 1878 and was the second state university in Texas, after

Texas A&M University. The first class included eight African American men whose curriculum of study specialized in “the preparation and training of teachers.” This curriculum expanded to include the “arts and sciences, home economics, agriculture, mechanical arts and nursing” in

1887. By the time black scouting began, the school offered a four-year bachelor’s degree.67

66 “Sam Weiss Dies Today,” The Paris News, December 10, 1974, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9770967.

67 “Twenty-sixth annual report of the Boy Scouts of America, 1935,” 74th Congress, 2nd Session, H.Doc. 328, March 30, 1936, accessed September 30, 2015, http://www.http://proxy.tamuc.edu:8016/iw- search/we/Digital/?p_product=SERIAL&p_theme=sset2&p_nbid=G6EL63LYMTQ0NTQ3NDE5Mi42NTQ3NTk6 MToxMDo2OC4yMzIuMS44&p_action=doc&p_docnum=32&p_queryname=2&p_docref=v2:0FD2A62D41CEB6 99@SERIAL-11ED2A50C0DAB060@-@0; 37

The Lone Star Area Council realized the success of Troop 14 in 1935 and condoned the organization of other troops for black boys in Paris and Lamar County. The achievements of the troop are not restricted to scoutcraft. The number of African American boys that joined the unit annually and the potential for an advancement of black character roused the white scouters and inspired black scouters. The possibilities of further educational opportunities were enough for black scout leaders to call for more units. So the expansion of African American scouting began in Paris with the organization of Troop 15, sponsored by the Mt. Olive Baptist Church and led by

Stanford Wilson, scoutmaster.68

Regional Executive Fitch visited a “chili supper” at Gibbons High School in December

1935 where forty new scouts registered for Troop 14. In 1936, The Paris News declared Troop

14 the largest troop in the Lone Star Area Council at 67 scouts. More troops were underway.

Scouting representatives from the major towns in the council met in February 25 for a meeting honoring Council President Clark’s reelection and an evening meal at the Gibraltar Hotel.

Entertainment at the dinner was Troop 14 performing its annual minstrel for the scouters. “The troop quartet sang two songs and two scouts performed a short song and dance number,” then,

E.S. Hill, principal of Gibbons High School, gave a speech on “the effect that Scouting has has

[sic] on the Negro boys of Gibbons High School.” Scoutmaster Wilson then spoke about the experiences and educational opportunities the troop provided the boys. This event established

“History of Prairie View University,” Prairie View A&M University website, accessed September 30, 2015, https://www.pvamu.edu/discover-pvamu/history-of-prairie-view-am-university/.

68 “Negro Scouting Making Progress Over Council,” The Paris News, February 7, 1937, accessed September 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7874391.

38 the efforts to expand black scouting. Within the year, two more troops organized in Clarksville and Honey Grove.69

Fundraising is essential to the success of a scout troop; if a troop does not raise enough money from dues and registrations then all funds needed for supplies, food goods, and camping gear must come from the boys. In a location as impoverished as Northeast Texas, even white troops required fundraiser events to survive annually. In 1936, as Troop 14 registered sixty- seven scouts in the unit, the troop’s leadership realized the need for a fundraiser. The solution came from scoutmaster Wilson who wrote a minstrel for the boys to perform and charge admission for the audience. However, like all minstrels, this performance required the scouts to dress in blackface.70

The minstrel in the nineteenth century was a show that included songs, dances, and a play in parody of black slaves performed in blackface. Boy Scouts used the minstrel show as a fundraiser as early as 1913. These minstrels maintained the stereotypes produced by earlier shows, especially the African American male as “ignorant, superstitious, and lacking a productive work ethic,” which directly opposed the ideals of a model scout. Paris’s Troop 2 presented a “vaudeville show” in February 1920, which included a minstrel with “burnt cork brethren.”71

The BSA promoted the minstrel as a fundraiser in the 1910s and 1920s, and Boy’s Life, the official boy periodical of the organization, explained in March 1923 the steps necessary to

69 “Largest Troop in Council,” The Paris News, February 9, 1936, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6365984; “W.C. Clark Elected,” The Paris News, February 26, 1936, accessed September 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6371342.

70 “Negro Boy Scouts to Give Negro Minstrel,” The Paris News, March 19, 1936, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6378196.

71 Benjamin R. Jordan, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), 200; “Scouts Gave A Vaudeville Show,” The Paris News, February 11, 1921, accessed June 2, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/87105262. 39 develop and stage a proper minstrel. The article by H.H. Smaw, “‘Putting On’ a Minstrel

Show,” described how to apply burnt cork, used to create blackface, to the boys’ faces and hands. The article detailed the sets to properly organize a minstrel, where to find songs and plays, how to sell tickets, and buy costumes. Three black caricatures, which depicted the interlocutor, an endman, and a “Mr. Bones,” highlighted the article. The interlocutor featured heavily in the performance and served as the master of ceremonies. Several endmen crossed dialogue and jokes with each other and the interlocutor, while musicians, such as “Mr. Bones” performed solos and along with the orchestra.72

On March 31, 1936, Troop 14 opened its annual minstrel at the Gibbons High auditorium; the audience was primarily African American, but the troop provided separate seating arrangements for their “white friends.” With ticket prices as low as 10¢ for children and

15¢ for adults, the minstrel provided funds for Troop 14 to function for the year. The minstrel program followed the standard minstrel plan. The program’s opening act began with a chorus of

“Negro dances” and songs performed by “20 scouts and eight dancers.” Of course, the performance of black spirituals and other songs was paramount to the production. Minstrels of the nineteenth century structured the program around the mocking of slave culture and this continued into the early twentieth century. The second act was the traditional “oleo,” during which scouts performed “skits, jokes, and special songs by the Troop 14 quartet.” The oleo differed little from the scout campfire program, where troops performed songs in chorus and skits. The troop quartet was not uncommon, as many white troops also had quartets or bands.

The final part of the minstrel was a play, which featured a scene from African American life.

When performed by white actors, the play mocked black culture. In 1936 and 1937, scoutmaster

72 H.H. Smaw, “‘Puttin’ On a Minstrel Show,” Boys’ Life, March 1923, accessed June 2, 2016, http://https://books.google.com/books?id=DcwUr7vspdgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad= 0#v=onepage&q&f=false. 40

Wilson wrote the plays, “The County School, District 14,” and “My Pal’s Undertakers,” respectively. Whether the plays intended to follow minstrel tradition and ridicule African

Americans is unknown as synopses of the plays are not available.73

The need to provide monies for the troop was not uncommon. Scoutmaster Wilson intended the proceeds from the Troop 14 minstrel to pay the registration fees of the scouts. In later years, the minstrel funds paid for Troop 14’s trips to the camp at Prairie View College near

Houston. However, the registration fee was more often an individual payment for scouts, as was the purchase of The Handbook for Boys. The bulk purchase of the book and the payment of the registration fee suggested that the minstrel was paramount in the operation of the troop but was at a cost. Once the black scouts performed their minstrel in blackface makeup and participated in the ridicule of their own culture, they effectively accepted white dominance over their race and future. The blackface minstrel as a form of entertainment dwindled as World War II came to a close, however, the message of blackface continued in radio and television into the 1950s and

1960s.74

Scoutmasters Wilson and Stanford Wilson, and scouters Willis Teal and F.W. Armstrong attended the “Negro Scout Leader Training” at Prairie View State College in the summer of

1936. These four men, representatives of Troops 14 and 15, learned more about the leadership qualities and training needed by every scout and the activities a troop provided to improve those qualities. Their attendance marked a period of change for the Troops 14 and 15 program. The

Paris scouts experienced a greater involvement in scoutcraft and leadership in each troop. So

73 “Negro Boy Scouts to Give Negro Minstrel,” The Paris News, March 19, 1936, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6378196; “Minstrel At High School,” The Paris News, March 30, 1936, accessed September 30, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6381232; “Negro Scout Show Friday,” The Paris News, April 23, 1937, accessed May 19, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6566957.

74 “Negro Boy Scouts to Give Negro Minstrel,” The Paris News, March 19, 1936, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6378196. 41 much a change occurred after the training, that after a two-night camp at Dr. Robert L. Lewis’ farm, several scouts earned the rank of First Class Scout. Evidence suggested that training made a significant difference but also that education in the systems and procedures of the patrol method, and the division of scouts into smaller units led by an older, higher-ranked scout, long understood by white scouters passed finally to African American leaders.75

Members of Troop 14 ventured, beginning in late 1936, into neighboring counties to convince sponsors to organize troops for African American boys in their communities. At the church or club that they visited, Troop 14 performed parts of their minstrel or scoutcraft lessons for the crowd. Seeing the coordination and leadership among the African American scouts of flagship Troop 14 led many churches or clubs to eventually support a troop, though many such organizations accepted a sponsorship slowly. Success, however, came with troops organized in

Clarksville, county seat of Red River County to the east, and in Honey Grove in Fannin County to the west. When the year closed in December, there were 105 black scouts in four troops in

Paris, Honey Grove, and Clarksville. Paris alone composed 79 scouts and 36 total scouts in the other two troops.76

In 1930, the lynching of George Johnson in Honey Grove shocked the region, as lynching was fairly obsolete after the 1920s. In fact, the Johnson lynching resulted from the Sherman riot fervor. Fifty miles from Honey Grove in Sherman, George Hughes, a farm hand, died from mob justice on May 10, 1930. Accused of rape, Hughes stood trial in the Grayson County Courthouse on May 9 when a mob accumulated on the lawn. Authorities anticipated violence and sent Texas

Rangers, the National Guard, and declared martial law to protect the accused man. The mob that

75 “Negro Scouting Making Progress Over Council,” The Paris News, February 7, 1937, accessed September 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7874391.

76 “Boy Scouts,” The Paris News, December 27, 1936, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7861934. 42 surged fought forward until the police retreated. Hughes hid in the county vault as the mob burned the courthouse down around him. Mob leadership dynamited the vault and hauled

Hughes through the streets of Sherman early the next morning. Fourteen lynchings occurred after the Hughes murder; one of which was in Honey Grove.77

Deputy G. F. Fortenberry died from multiple gunshot wounds early Friday, May 16, 1930 and a posse tracked his accused murderer to an abandoned shack outside of town. Johnson, a farm laborer for Fortenberry, was in the process of leaving the tenant farm when confronted by his landlord for an unpaid debt. He replied with three shots from his pistol and fled the property.

The posse found Johnson two miles from Honey Grove “in a shack” and upon arrival of the posse, he opened fire, which 100 men answered by “pouring bullets into the shack as they went forward.” They found Johnson dead, riddled with bullets, and, then, tied his body to a truck and dragged it through Honey Grove, “including the Negro section.” The truck halted “in front of a

Negro church and there the body was hanged by one leg and burned to a crisp after it had been covered with gasoline,” despite the protests of some white citizens. Nearly 4,000 people viewed this lynching, far more than the Honey Grove population in 1930.78

Honey Grove was a small, farming community in Fannin County, twenty miles east of

Bonham, the county seat. There were 2,800 people in the town in 1914 but by 1945, there was a population of 2,500. Farmers cultivated cotton in Fannin County as it sits in the Blackland

Prairie where the soil was prime for cotton growth. Teachers formed the core of a small white middle class in Honey Grove. A population of teachers formed the tiny African American middle class of the community. The Honey Grove Lion’s Club sponsored the scout troop but it

77 Nolan Thompson, “Sherman Riot of 1930,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed October 13, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jcs06.

78 “Bullet-Filled Body of Negro Slayer is Burned by Crowd,” The Dallas Morning News, May 17, 1930, accessed October 15, 2015, http://proxy.tamuc.edu:8016/iw- search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EA...04D24B1E60D25F6&f_mode=104D24B12825F58D. 43 was the middle class African Americans that formed the initial troop committee for this unit.

There were nine scouts in the troop. John W. Pendleton, principal of the Bralley School, was scoutmaster.79

John W. Pendleton first taught at Hickory Grove in Delta County in 1913, then transferred to Carthage, Texas to teach for three years. During World War I, he served as a supply sergeant. Upon his return from the army, he removed to Honey Grove to work as principal at the Bralley School. He married Carrie Seay, a teacher, in 1922. When he arrived in

Honey Grove, only two teachers taught the school’s eight grades. Bralley became a high school when the Smith Hill Elementary School opened in 1925, but the schools reunited within a decade. By 1949, the school relocated to a new building, and when Pendleton retired in 1959,

Bralley was “a fully accredited school with eleven full-time teachers and two vocational teachers” for 275 students. Pendleton retired after 39 years of teaching and the school’s name changed to “Pendleton High School” within the year. He was a 32nd degree Mason, a deacon of the 16th Street Baptist Church, and founded the Nolan Burnett Post of the American Legion.

Pendleton served as scoutmaster from 1936 to 1950. Alphonso Terry, a teacher at Bralley High, replaced him as scoutmaster and then Pendleton continued to serve as troop committee chairman until his retirement. Pendleton died in December 1959.80

79 Rebecca Sharpless, Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices: Women on Texas Cotton Farms, 1900-1940 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 5-6; David Minor, "Honey Grove, Texas," Handbook of Texas Online, June 15, 2010, accessed October 19, 2015, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hjh11; “Boy Scouts,” The Paris News, December 27, 1936; “Three Fannin Troops Would Re-Register,” The Paris News, October 26, 1939, accessed October 15, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/60000497.

80 “Three Fannin Troops Would Re-Register,” The Paris News, October 26, 1939; “Bralley School Honors Principal and Teacher Sunday Afternoon,” Honey Grove Signal-Citizen, May 8, 1959, accessed October 21, 2015, http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth411348/m1/5; “Rites Pending For John W. Pendleton,” Honey Grove Signal-Citizen, December 11, 1959, accessed October 20, 2015, http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth411267/m1/1; “H-G Negro Leader Dies,” The Paris News, December 9, 1959, accessed October 21, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/8058512; “Bralley-Pendleton School,” Fannin County Historical Commission, updated July 16, 2014, accessed October 21, 2015, http://http://www.fannincountyhistory.org/bralley-pendletono. html. 44

Honey Grove Troop 59’s scout membership contrasted greatly to the early scouts of

Paris’ Troop 14. Besides Pendleton and the troop committee that consisted of Will Williams, a preacher; Henry Cooper, a farmer; and L.E. McIntyre, an undertaker, middle class blacks made up the majority of the troop leadership. The scouts, however, consisted of tenant farmers’ sons.

The troop membership came from the Bralley School’s students, but as sons of farmers, they missed class regularly and graduated with no more than an eighth grade education. Scouting offered poor blacks the opportunity to educate their sons in the vocational skills and military discipline to rise out of the working class.81

In Clarksville, scouters planned to organize a troop for black boys in late 1936 after the successes of the Troops 14 and 15. A troop organized under the sponsorship of the Men’s

Progress Club in November with 21 members, “16 Scouts and 5 adult leaders.” Dr. C.J. Boston was scoutmaster and L. M. Becton, Elbert Beard, and Jesse Thompson were troop committeemen. These scouters exemplified the assortment of men who volunteered to work with African American scouts: Boston was a dentist; Becton, a teacher; and Thompson and

Beard were porters at local stores. The diversity of occupations among African American scouters was common between the three towns of Paris, Honey Grove, and Clarksville. Often there was a combination of middle class and working class African Americans who served as scoutmasters and troop committeemen. Teachers were the most common of scouters as their involvement in scouting recruited and attracted young men from their schools to join. This

81 “Three Fannin Troops Would Re-Register,” The Paris News, October 26, 1939, accessed October 15, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6000497. 45 amalgamation of classes for the common good was normal for the early Civil Rights era, especially the involvement of the middle class in civic improvement.82

The development of African American scouting in Paris led a small committee of scouters to plan a scout week in February to celebrate the anniversary of the BSA; however, it was vastly different and separate from the white Boy Scout Week presented to the community.

Included in scout week for African Americans was “Scout Sunday” at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, a special meeting at Gibbons High School, “to which all white friends are invited to attend,” a weiner roast, a day running the high school, a special broadcast on the local radio station, KPLT, and a Father and Son Banquet; 150 people attended. By comparison, the white scouts also attended special scout chapel services, meetings at schools, radio broadcasts of KPLT, and a city-wide court of honor. The differences between the two schedules of events were minimal, except black scouts ran Gibbons High School for a day, an opportunity to display scouts’ leadership skills.83

Troops 14 and 15 held their annual fundraiser “minstrel and jubilee” in April 1937. The fundraiser occurred at Gibbons High and “a section” was “reserved for whites.” Attendance of whites and blacks of the minstrel was necessary, as the troops rarely had enough money to provide the uniforms, handbooks, and camping supplies to the troops. This year in particular, the

“entertainment” went “toward financing the Boy Scout work for the Negro boys in Paris and

82 “Plan Negro Troop For Clarksville,” The Paris News, December 27, 1936, accessed October 22, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7862076; “Boy Scouts,” The Paris News, March 31, 1938, accessed October 22, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6514035. 83 “Negro Scouting Making Progress Over Council,” The Paris News, February 7, 1937, accessed September 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7874391; “Scout Week Programs,” The Paris News, February 7, 1937, accessed September 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7874159; “150 Attend Scout Fete,” The Paris News, February 14, 2015, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7876232. 46

Lamar county.” Not only were the scouts of Troops 14 and 15 fundraising for themselves but also for the benefit of the expansion of African American scouting.84

The new troops required the financial assistance of a fundraiser to purchase copies of The

Handbook for Boys and registration fees for the scouts. While Paris had a large troop of boys from working class and middle class families, the smaller communities of Honey Grove and

Clarksville had majority of members from poorer backgrounds. The money raised from the Paris minstrel supported African American scouting, even if the monies did not originate from the council.85

African American scouting also expanded to Hugo in July 1937. Troop 89 sponsored by the Waters Chapel Methodist Church in Hugo, Oklahoma opened in the summer with 8 boys and

W.M. Marshall as scoutmaster. Other leaders on the troop committee included E. Williams,

Boyer Denman, and Stanley Williams. Interracial Chairman Weiss commented with the announcement of this troop that “members of the council should encourage scouting among

Negro boys as it is good training for them.” Weiss pleaded again for the expansion of scouting into African American communities. The vague mention of “training” attempted to convince white and black members of the community of scouting’s virtues and potential for either prepared subordinates in the workforce or experienced leaders for the future. Either reason was enough to persuade other communities to continue with the growth of African American scouting.86

84 “Tickets On Sale Negro Scout Show,” The Paris News, April 27, 1937, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6566615.

85 James P. Smith and Finis Welch, “Race and Poverty: A Forty-Year Record,” The American Economic Review 77, no. 2 (May 1987): 154.

86 “Hugo Registers Negro Scouts,” The Paris News, July 13, 1937, accessed November 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6185650; “Scout News,” The Paris News, July 6, 1937, accessed November 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6183454. 47

The first National Boy Scout Jamboree occurred in July 1937 on the Mall of the

Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. This event was a celebration of twenty-seven years of scout work across the United States. Originally set to commemorate the organization’s 25th

Anniversary, the BSA cancelled the 1935 Jamboree due to the rise of polio. The Lone Star Area

Council organized a single troop of twenty-three scouts and four adults to travel via train to the jamboree. Boys from Paris, Clarksville, Sulphur Springs, Grapeland, Pecan Gap, and Cooper attended the event. Jamboree Troop 32 with W. E. Storey of Clarksville as scoutmaster travelled to Denison via bus to load onto a train for Washington D.C; Scout Executive Frank Fuller attended as train leader. The jamboree, a great experience for the Northeast Texas scouts and leaders, treated the event as an opportunity to learn new scouting techniques. The scouts, however, explored the nation’s capital; visited Mt. Vernon, the home of President George

Washington; and watched the Washington Senators play a “big league baseball game.” The troop toured the United States Capitol Building with Representative Wright Patman as guide and scouting founder, Daniel Carter Beard, bestowed the Eagle Scout badge to Paris scout Jim

Caviness, Jr. After the National Jamboree, Troop 32 visited New York City and the scouts enjoyed the experience of the city. From the day they left, Anderson, assistant scout executive, reported the details of the trip to The Paris News.87

Not as highly reported, however, was the excursion of scoutmaster Wilson of Troop 14, who also attended the National Jamboree. Wilson travelled by train car with the scouts of

Bishop College in Marshall, Texas. Two scouts, Lawrence Muckelroy of Kilgore and Will

87 “Lone Star Scouts Off To Meeting,” The Paris News, June 25, 1937, accessed November 11, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6195374; Carter Anderson, “Lone Star Scouts Visit Washington’s Monument,” The Paris News, June 30, 1937, accessed November 11, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6197094; “Paris Scouts of Capitol Steps,” The Paris News, July 4, 1937, accessed November 11, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6182666; Carter Anderson, “Paris Scout Given Eagle Badge By Uncle Dan Beard,” The Paris News, July 6, 1937, accessed November 11, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6183393; Carter Anderson, “Paris Boy Scouts Paying Visit To New York City,” The Paris News, July 12, 1937, accessed November 11, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6185278. 48

Smith, Jr. of Marshall, Texas, attended the jamboree as representatives of the college’s scout troop. Wilson attended as a leader for the delegation, which journeyed directly to the campsite without tours or baseball games. Despite the lack of pomp, the boys and their leaders enjoyed the same camping and travel experience as their white counterparts and benefited from the training that came with the special jamboree troop. Black newspapers across the country wrote about the departure of Muckelroy and Smith. Only a paragraph recorded the return of Wilson from the 1937 National Boy Scout Jamboree and his return to regular scout work.88

A fifth troop organized in Antlers, Oklahoma in November 1937 after a presentation from

Givens, Weiss, Wilson, and scouts of Troop 14. The Dunbar School sponsored this new troop with Jesse R. Lucas as scoutmaster. He was principal at the school and recruited eight boys of scout age to join Troop 99. This was not the first non-white troop in the Oklahoma counties of the Lone Star Area Council, as teachers of the Goodland Indian School organized a troop in

1931. This school near Hugo, Oklahoma opened in 1848 to educate the children of the Choctaw

Nation of American Indians that removed to Oklahoma in the 1830s. In the early twentieth century, Goodland Indian School, a boarding school and orphanage for American Indian children, sponsored a troop that maintained a membership between 20 and 30 scouts, and a second troop opened to accommodate more boys in the late 1930s. By 1937, three members of this troop earned their Eagle Scout Awards. In contrast, Troop 14 of Paris awarded no Eagle

Scout medals in its existence.89

88 “Texas Sends Sons To Jamboree,” The Indianapolis Recorder, July 3, 1937, accessed November 6, 2015, http://newspapers.library.ino. gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19370703-01.1.7; “Hugo Registers Negro Scouts,” The Paris News, July 13, 1937, accessed November 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6185650.

89 “Negro Scout Troop Makes Application,” The Paris News, November 21, 1937, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6301676; “Scout News,” The Paris News, May 10,1935, accessed November 1, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/8207846; “Scouting,” The Goodland Academy website, http://www.goodland.org/program/scouting/; “Indian Troop Re-organized,” The Paris News, March 30, 1936, accessed November 1, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6381077; The troop at Goodland Academy is still 49

The “negro high school” of Bonham organized Troop 54 in November 1937.

Scoutmaster L.E. Mitchell, a local businessman, and a troop committee of Professor W.J. Taylor,

E.C. Ervin, and B.K. Johnson, led the troop that boasted a membership of seventeen boys. The addition of this troop resulted in African American scouting in the Lone Star Area Council totaling 112 scouts and 26 leaders in six troops. By 1938, the loose association of troops remained small and unorganized as a district, but Givens and Wilson continued to visit churches and schools in the region to spread scouting.90

Givens and Wilson planned the Scout Week for black scouts in February 1938. The event included several special events for African American scouts and the community.

Activities for the scouts included the administration of Gibbons High School for a day; a family night; a KPLT radio broadcast; a Father-Son Banquet; a hike; and Scout Sunday at the Olive

Branch Baptist Church. Troop 14 registered sixty-two scouts for 1938 and was again the largest troop in the council. Troop 15 remained an overflow troop and participated in every event of

Scout Week. In comparison, white scouts also attended church services and participated in a

KPLT radio broadcast but not did operate Paris High School for a day. In contrast, white scouts served as city officials for the day including: mayor, city secretary, policemen, and the fire chief.

Parisians clearly defined civic power as a white endeavor while educational administration was the height of African American growth.91

in operation; the narrative of American Indians in the Boy Scouts of America is interesting but it is another paper in itself. 90 “Negro Boy Scout Troop Organized in Bonham,” The Paris News, November 23, 1937, accessed July 9, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6302826.

91 “Scout News,” The Paris News, January 20, 1938, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6602035; “Scout Week Program,” The Paris News, February 6, 1938, accessed November 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6608763; “Boy Scouts Govern City Wednesday,” The Paris News, February 9, 1938, accessed November 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6609759. 50

Troop 14 presented their scout skills and minstrel to potential sponsors in Hopkins and

Lamar counties in 1938. The troop first visited the Masonic Lodge in Roxton and succeeded in finding support for a black troop but not a sponsor. Instead, the southwest Lamar County city registered a troop at the “Negro High School” with Principal H.G. Smith as troop chairman and

E.P. Sanders as scoutmaster. In late October, the troop along with Givens and Wilson journeyed to Sulphur Springs to perform for the Douglas High School. While there, the group assisted in the formation and registration of another troop. Troop 66, under the leadership of scoutmaster

Lester Houston and the troop committee of Walter B. Jones, R.W. Pannell, and Clarence Cotton, originally had a youth membership of nine boys. Houston was a porter at a barber shop; Jones taught at Douglas High; and Cotton was a restaurant cook. The disparities between working and middle classes dissolved when confronted with the task of troop leadership.92

Troop 14 returned to the Prairie View College camporal for Region IX in the summer of

1938. Scoutmaster Wilson, assistant scoutmaster Sanford Wilson, and 14 boys joined 400 other

African American scouts and leaders for the five-day event; Fuller attended as camp staff. The troop won first place in four competitions against the other troops: the Health and Safety

Inspection, Arena Show, the Softball Tourney, and for having the “Most-Scout-Like campsite.”

The troop also received 3rd place on the Adventure Trail. The camp was a mixture of skill and competition for the boys but participation of scouts throughout the region allowed the camp director, Region IX assistant executive Minor Huffman, the opportunity to convey meaningful scouting lessons to the boys and leaders. The improvement of health and safety among all scouts

92 “Masons At Roxton Hold Open Meeting,” The Paris News, March 21, 1938, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6625784; “Scout News,” The Paris News, October 26, 1938, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7951061; “Scout News,” The Paris News, November 14, 1938, accessed October 15, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6169692; 1940 U. S. Census, Hopkins County, Texas, population schedule, Justice Precinct 1, Sulphur Springs, enumeration district (ED) 112-4, page 73 (stamped), sheet 8A, dwelling 185, W.B. Jones household; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org: accessed 1 November 2016). 51 was important, “15,000 scouts received some additional training in the administration of first aid to the injured” in 1938 across the region. Fitch sent four satin streamers to the council executive

Fuller who presented Troop 14 with their awards at the first chapel of the next Gibbons High school year.93

Troops 14 and 89 camped near Valliant, Oklahoma in the council’s first attempt to hold a summer camp for African American scouts. The experienced members and leaders of Troop 14 presented the camp for the rest of the Paris scouts and the troop from Hugo. Scoutmasters

Wilson and James Lyons led the “joint camp” on the Little River with scoutmasters from Hugo:

W.M. Marshall and E.R. Stewart. Scouts participated in campfire programs, a “Bring-em-back-

Alive” hike, and swimming. This trip to the river was likely the first time many of the boys swam and the council claimed it was the “first negro summer camp” in the area.94

In 1939, Troop 14 recruited and organized two new troops for African Americans at

Roxton and Sulphur Springs. For its efforts, the troop received two Walter H. Head Acorn awards for recruitment of new scouts. The BSA presented only four awards to troops in the

Lone Star Area Council. The presentation of these awards to Troop 14 explained two actualities about African American scouting: first, that black leaders and scouts were responsible for the expansion of scouting throughout the council, and second, that the leaders of Troop 14, Givens and Wilson, were passionate about the cause. Together, Givens and Wilson with members of

Troop 14 expanded African American scouting to every county in the current council.95

93 “Paris Negro Boy Scouts Return From Camp Trip,” The Paris News, August 18, 1938, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7926961; “Boy Scout News,” The Paris News, August 21, 1938, accessed September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7927710.

94 “First Negro Camp Held In July,” The Paris News, February 5, 1939, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6199161.

95 “Troop 14 Organizes Two Negro Troops In Council,” The Paris News, February 5, 1939, accessed May 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6199098. 52

The Norris High School of Commerce, Texas organized the next scout troop for black boys in 1939. Albert C. Williams taught at the school and was scoutmaster of the troop. He replaced C.M. Moseley as principal of Norris High in 1946. He routinely transferred the scoutmaster position to other men from year to year but remained firmly in positions as

Institutional Representative or Troop Committee Chairman. Williams volunteered for leadership positions at the district or division and then, at the council level.96

Stanley Harris, director of the IRS, visited Paris early in the year. Harris previously toured the council the year before, inspected Camp Clark and suggested improvements to the camp program. Harris spoke before the council executive board, which praised the “progress made in Paris and throughout the Lone Star Area council on Negro Scout work.” Later that day, the council invited all “Negro ministers and school teachers” to attend a special meeting with

Harris about the expansion of black scouting. The IRS Director understood the necessity of teachers and ministers to the success of African American scouting.97

Harris’ speeches likely resembled his remarks in an article included in The Journal of

Negro Education in the summer of 1940. He pleaded for the “much more aggressive interest on the part of Negro leaders, especially ministers and teachers. Scouting has been adopted by practically all the great Negro churches as their official program, but it needs a continued interest on the part of the local ministers to make its use effective. The National Parent-Teachers

Association enthusiastically endorsed the Scout Program, but it needs more aggressive interest on the part of the local organization in the school.” Harris knew churches and schools primarily served as sponsors and produced adult leadership for African American scouts. However, he

96 “Noted educator, civic leader deceased at 86,” The Commerce Journal, November 15, 2000.

97 “Harris Is Heard Here,” The Paris News, March 8, 1939, accessed October 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6211144; “To Visit Paris,” The Paris News, March 7, 1939, accessed October 8, 2015, www.newspapers.com/image/6210745. 53 further explained that the leadership training needed for the black community was included in the scouting program. He proclaimed, “There are great opportunities opening up in America for

Negro people, but they must have very wise and very capable leadership, a leadership not only of ability, but of character, for there are many rough places in the upper trail. Scouting is a scientific process of leadership education, emphasizing the idea that there is a germ of leadership born in all of us.” Harris understood the role played by African American scouters in the community as leaders and educators, and therefore, as the representative in these matters to the

BSA National Committee, he influenced the directives concerning African Americans in the organization.98

Harris identified seven areas of need in scouting for African Americans: the “aggressive interest” on adult leadership and participation, thus the reason for meeting with black ministers and teachers; training for leaders in the “fundamentals of scouting and in troop program building;” to expand “attractive activities” at the troop, district, council, and state levels, suggestions included “service projects, camporees, circuses, adequate camping opportunities;” the hiring of field executives “on the local council staff concentrating on Negro work;” then “an intelligent plan of organization and extension” in the council; “parents interested and intelligent about scouting;” and greater financing dedicated to black scouting, this was a rigorous enterprise for scouters to undertake. The Lone Star Area Council expected the funding of African

American troops to come from black sources; white sponsors were not willing to sponsor black scouts.99

98 Stanley Harris, “Negro Youth and Scouting, A Character Education Program,” The Journal of Negro Education 9, no. 3 (July 1940): 375-6.

99 Stanley Harris, “Negro Youth and Scouting, A Character Education Program,” The Journal of Negro Education 9, no. 3 (July 1940): 374. 54

The situation improved little immediately after Harris’s visit. However in May 1939, scoutmaster Beard, of Troop 39 in Clarksville, attended a district training for Red River County scout leaders. The training course organized the leaders into an example troop with patrols.

Beard was the only African American in the troop. The lack of segregation in this situation posed an interesting change of character for these southern scouters. As a kindred brother in the organization, white leaders trained with a black leader. Historian Mischa Honeck writes that the transformative nature of multinational jamborees led to the overall change in attitude concerning race in scouting. Harris claimed it was the Fourth Scout Law, “A Scout Is Friendly - He is a friend to all and a brother to every other scout.” 100

Funding black scouting in Paris changed slightly in 1939. Instead of the minstrel, Troop

14 formed a baseball team to perform exhibition games against other troops or high school teams and charged admission to fans. The first match versus the Gibbons High Gophers occurred at

Bolden Park in May. The scouts charged 10 cents for entrance to the game and “a section of the grand stand” was “reserved for whites.” The admissions fees assisted the troop with sending more boys to the camporal at Prairie View that summer.101

The first decade of African American scouting in Northeast Texas succeeded beyond measure in growth and scouting skills. However, in comparison to white scouting, where there operated multiple troops per city and county, black troops averaged one troop per county. In total, nine African American troops existed in the two Oklahoma counties and six Texas counties of the Lone Star Area council, while sixty-four white troops operated in the area. Except for

100 “26 Attend Scout Leaders Course Session,” The Paris News, May 17, 1939, accessed October 22, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7797797; Mischa Honeck, “An Empire of Youth: American Boy Scouts In The World, 1910-1960,” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 52 (Spring 2013): 106; Stanley Harris, “Negro Youth and Scouting, A Character Education Program,” The Journal of Negro Education 9, no. 3 (July 1940): 373.

101 “Negro Scouts to Play Gibbons,” The Paris News, May 25, 1939, accessed December 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/7801110. 55

Troop 14 which averaged fifty members annually, each troop never exceeded a membership greater than 20 members in the early years of operation. Black scouting in Paris excelled compared to black scouting in other states but in the Lone Star Area Council it remained a marginalized project of the council and a few interested citizens.102

Leadership for African American scouting was two-fold. First, the character training provided by the BSA’s programs and rank advancement required boys to serve as leaders. The troop operations dynamic elected Senior Patrol Leaders that led the entire troop and advised

Patrol Leaders, which in turn led smaller units, or patrols. Other positions of responsibility included Scribe, Quartermaster, Bugler, assistant Patrol Leaders, and Chaplain. The election of these positions placed the candidates into rivalry to convince voters to elect them through charismatic speeches. Second, the leadership training and experience provided to adult males in the African American community inspired the advancement of educated leadership among the black community but also included working class participants. Teachers, ministers, and farmers received further education in the operation of a scout troop, district, and council and connected with black scouters from other communities and white scouters within their own. Historian

Aldon Morris states that “the charismatic center” of the early civil rights movement was the

“institutional charisma” of the black church. This charisma in turn allowed Martin Luther King,

Jr. “to use his charisma as a mobilizing force” and “leaders of this type play a crucial role in the mobilization process and the building of an internal organization.” The organization Morris

102 “No, You’re Wrong! There Are 5,857 Square Miles In Area,” The Paris News, February 6, 1938, accessed December 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6608989.

56 referred to was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or SCLC, the president of which, was King.103

This argument, however, may be lent to the development of local level organizations, such as a school, church, or non-profit organization. A successful organization required a dynamic and educated leader to make decisions and convince others to follow. In Paris, Givens and Wilson provided leadership that helped to expand scouting to black youths throughout the council. The expansion led more young men to join an organization that the leadership believed improved the character of its membership and perhaps made them charismatic.

Within the first decade of African American scouting, the new organization depended highly on the segregated school systems for support. Of the nine troops, black schools sponsored six troops while two churches and a civic organization sponsored the other units. The Goodland

School also sponsored the troop for Choctaw boys. The tendency for segregated schools to serve as sponsors continued into the 1940s. In fact, as black scouting emerged in other towns and small communities, black scouters solicited schools for sponsorships. Schools provided meeting places, a pool to grow membership, and leadership from principals and teachers. Scouting developed for African American boys primarily due to the emphasis on black schools and education in the early twentieth century. Schools were the backbone of the African American scouting movement.

103 Aldon Morris, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change (New York: The Free Press, 1984), 91-3. 57

Chapter 3 “A WORTHWHILE THING”

Blacks and whites viewed the character building and the survival skills curriculum the

BSA provided as necessary to succeed in the workforce and the wartime service in the military.

The successes of the 1930s allowed the black scouters-teachers and ministers - to open its development to a greater community. Exponential growth occurred in the Lone Star Area

Council (LSAC) concerning black scouting due to the hiring of a field executive for the district, with black donations funding his salary. The addition of a camp in 1943 for black scout use provided a needed communal space for instruction in scout skills, camping, and swimming.

African American scouting moved toward a recognizable scouting program.

This decade ushered an aggressive militant challenge to Jim Crow laws through the organization of civil rights campaigns across the South. Nationally, organizations such as the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Congress of

Racial Equality (CORE), founded by James Leonard Farmer of Marshall in 1942, began campaigns to end Jim Crow. President Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948. In

Texas, African Americans made strides toward desegregation. In 1944, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided the Smith v. Allwright case, which ended the white primary in Texas and other southern states followed suit. Two years later, Attorney General Grover

Sellers from Sulphur Springs denied Herman Sweatt admission into the University of Texas Law

School, which in turn led to the Sweatt v. Painter decision of 1950. In 1954, the SCOTUS decided Oliver Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,Kansas, which ended segregation of 58 schools across the south. The advances of the emergent civil rights movement made incredible changes to American society.104

Three new counties joined the Lone Star Area Council in late 1939 and early 1940.

Titus, Morris, and Camp counties expanded the council to 11 counties and the city of Commerce.

McCurtain County in Oklahoma joined the council in early 1940. To expand into the new counties, Givens and Weiss hosted the first “Negro Scouter’s Conference” in March 1940.

Givens organized the conference with Fitch and Harris as speakers and invited teachers and ministers to the meeting. The conference began at St. Paul Baptist Church, when Harris spoke before a crowd of 1,000, concerning the use of scouting to churches. The Gibbons High Home

Economics class provided lunch to the accumulated delegates of the twelve LSAC counties.105

The delegation represented the educators and religious leaders of African American

Northeast Texas. Experienced scouters, such as Jones of Sulphur Springs, Pendleton of Honey

Grove, Beard of Clarksville, Sanders of Roxton, and Wilson, Hill, Wilson, and Givens of Paris, attended the speech. Representatives from towns with established troops were: Dorset Stewart and M.A. Shipley of Bonham; Henry Cooper and L.E. McIntyre of Honey Grove; L.R. Hill,

Johnnie Taylor, and Oscar Hickerson of Roxton; Leroy Conley, J.R. Caton, Lovette Becton, Jr.,

104 Michael Gillette, “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 14, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ven01; Gail K. Beil, “James Leonard Farmer, Jr.,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 14, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffa19; Harvard Sitkoff, “Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics,” The Journal of Southern History 37, no. 4 (November 1971): 612; Sanford, no. Greenberg, “White Primary,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 14, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wdw01; Robert A. Calvert and Arnoldo De Leon, “Civil Rights,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 14, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pkcfl; W. Page Keeton, “Sweatt v. Painter,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 14, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jrs01; Oliver Brown et al. v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483-96 U.S. [1954].

105 “Negro Scout Leaders To Meet Here,” The Paris News, March 31, 1940, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6733798; “Better Negro Scouts Aim Of Meet Here,” The Paris News, April 1, 1940, accessed December 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6734270. 59 and B.E. Cobb of Clarksville; Jack Hart and E.T. Blanton of Sulphur Springs; and John Bailey,

John H. Stewart, T.B. Curry, Edward E. Hilburn, Edgar Wilburn, J.W. Hill, and Joseph P. Ward of Paris. Delegates from the new counties included: T.F. Spigner and Wilburn Smith of Idabel;

R.M. Spigner and Allen S. Meachem of Broken Bow; Oscar H. Robinson and J.M. Hurdle of

Pittsburg; and T.C. Rutherford and G.P. Terry of Mt. Pleasant.106

After the meal, Troop 14 with scoutmaster Wilson demonstrated their scout skills and again, Harris addressed the congregated representatives. The director of the IRS “admonished the visitors to make the best use of their Scouting opportunities for the character building of the

Negro race.” Once the speeches concluded, the representatives divided into the “discussion groups” to examine “the various phases of Scouting for Negro boys.” The meeting developed many aspects: first, new troops organized in communities where no African American troops had previously existed. Second, it sparked the training necessary and inspired participants to join in scouting. Finally, the leadership devised new events for black scouts to attend.107

One such event was the field meet. Several troops attended the 1940 Field Meet hosted by Troop 14 at Wise Field in Paris. They travelled from the major communities of the Lone Star

Area Council, including new African American troops from Mt. Pleasant, the Garfield school,

Broken Bow, and Idabel. At the field meet, troops competed in scout skills and athletics. While competitive in nature, the field meet was an opportunity for experienced scouts to train new

106 “Better Negro Scouts Aim Of Meet Here,” The Paris News, April 1, 1940, accessed December 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6734270.

107 “Negro Scout Leaders To Meet Here,” The Paris News, March 31, 1940, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6733798; “Better Negro Scouts Aim Of Meet Here,” The Paris News, April 1, 1940, accessed December 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6734270. 60 scouts and troops the skills needed to camp, serve the community, and lead other scouts. Of course, Troop 14, as the most experienced troop, led in the teaching of the new scouts.108

The usage of Wise Field as a field day location suggested the nature of public space in segregated society. The Wise family donated the football field to the city of Paris in 1926 and

Paris High School shared the facility with the Paris Junior College team. The Gibbons High

School Gophers also played on the field. The school district abandoned the site in 1940 for a new stadium but it remained in use by Gibbons High and Paris Junior College. Wise Field represented shared space in the segregated society.109

As war in Europe began with the German invasion of Poland, the city of Paris, Texas, like so many other communities in the United States, participated in Red Cross fundraising drives. In June, Paris held a “Blitzkrieg of Mercy” to raise $4,000 for the Red Cross. To that fundraiser, Troop 14 raised $10 from contributions of one cent from housewives and others in the black community. African American scouts in Northeast Texas assumed the role of public servants and ambassadors between the black and white communities.110

In July, Troop 14 performed its minstrel “to help defray transportation expenses to [the]

Prairie View Camporal” later in the month. General admission cost 10 cents and “a special section of the Gibbons High School theater was “reserved for white friends.” The troop’s leadership understood the value of white participation in the program and maintained segregation for the comfort of their guests, even in their own public space. The black school of almost every

108 “Scout News,” The Paris News, May 19, 1940, accessed May 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6749109.

109 “Wise Field Has Football History,” The Paris News, October 21, 1955, accessed January 25, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/8643544.

110 “Blitzkrieg Of Mercy Over, But Money Still Comes In,” The Paris News, June 13, 1940, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6589244. 61 community of the council provided, like churches, space for meetings, performances, and banquets. Black schools provided space that whites had in the same locations but also in lodges, hotels, parks, restaurants, and other places African Americans avoided due to segregation.

Prairie View College was another public space available to black Texans and scouts while white scouts and scouters camped at Camp Clark for summer camp.111

Eleven scouts, with scoutmaster Wilson and assistant Sanford Wilson, travelled to the

Prairie View Camporal on July 22, 1940. Six hundred and thirteen scouts from Texas,

Oklahoma, and New Mexico attended the “jamboree style” camporal hosted by Region IX.

Huffman and Fitch organized the event to the smallest detail and planned for the camp to serve as an adult leader training, as well as, a summer camp. The small groups of boys from the various communities organized into 17 troops each with hometown patrols. The Troop 14 boys won twelve awards in knot tying, compass, wood chopping, string burning, water boiling, troop organization, nature study, first aid, neckerchief, scout quiz, and campfire stunts. The troop patrol earned first place in the “adventure trail.” The 1940 activities designed for black scouts resembled the traditional scouting activities practiced at white scout camps and differed greatly from the 1938 and 1939 camporal activities, which concerned sanitation and lessons on cleanliness.112

111 “Scout News,” The Paris News, July 10, 1940, accessed September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6594730.

112 Thirty-First Annual Report of the Boy Scouts of America, March 31, 1940, Serial Set Vol., no. 10578, Session Vol. No.1, 77th Congress, 1st Session, H.Doc. 17 accessed December 30, 2015, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.tamuc.edu/iw- search/we/Digital/?p_product=SERIAL&p_theme=sset2&p_nbid=M6AX58PLMTQ1MTQ5OTY3OS4yMjAzNzQ6 MToxMDo2OC4yMzIuMS44&p_action=doc&p_queryname=page3&f_qdnum=56&f_qrnum=147&f_qname=2&f_ qnext=v2%3A0FD2A62D41CEB699%40SERIAL- 12016470E4C289A8%40&f_qprev=v2%3A0FD2A62D41CEB699%40SERIAL- 120150C2B6A0A268%40&p_docref=v2:0FD2A62D41CEB699@SERIAL-12014CC7B903D340@- 62

Once the troops and leaders arrived, Huffman facilitated an election to choose an adult to serve as camp director and other scoutmasters to facilitate the different events of the camp. The elections selected Charles A. Rutledge of the Heart O’Texas Council headquartered in Waco as the facilitator of the “Adventure Trail,” the most popular attraction of the camporal. The scouts participated in seventeen events at the camporal, each under the direction of an elected African

American volunteer and the black camp director, whom Huffman and Fitch supervised. Wilson served as “Chairman of Activities” for the event and completed trainings in “Troop Program

Building and Troop camping.” Training for black leaders also advanced to traditional scouting activities rather than instruction in community development.113

Substantial growth of black scouting occurred in 1940. New troops organized in Idabel and Broken Bow, Oklahoma and at Mt. Pleasant and Pittsburg, Texas plus two troops in Idabel sponsored by the Slater-Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington schools. The Julius Rosenwald

Fund (JRF) created in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck and Company, financed the construction of the Slater-Rosenwald Training School and teacher dormitory in 1924 for five teachers and funded a single-room addition in 1925 for a sixth. The JRF supported the construction of hundreds of rural schools throughout the south; twenty-one Rosenwald schools existed in McCurtain County. The Booker T. Washington school of Idabel and the Dunbar school of Broken Bow were segregated institutions for black students in those communities. The

11E32B502A722A48@280; “Scout News,” The Paris News, July 29, 1940, accessed January 1, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6600940.

113 “Scout News,” The Paris News, July 29, 1940, accessed September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6594730. 63

Dunbar school sponsored a black troop in Broken Bow for the community’s African American boys; Garfield Johnson was scoutmaster.114

In 1940, 8,050 African Americans resided within the county with major communities in

Idabel, Broken Bow, Valiant, and Wright City. The lumber and cotton industry dominated the local economy during the early twentieth century. Therefore, a majority of the two troops’ scouts’ providers worked in forestry or cotton farming. However, the scoutmasters, assistant scoutmasters, and troop committeemen were educated teachers and ministers; the leadership tradition of educators and ministers as black scoutmasters continued to the new counties in the

LSAC.115

Schools in Mt. Pleasant and Pittsburg established scout troops for African Americans in

1939 and 1940. The Booker T. Washington High School of Mt. Pleasant organized Troop 209 in

Fall 1940; Grady P. Terry volunteered as scoutmaster. In Pittsburg, the Douglas High School sponsored a troop under Oscar H. Robinson’s leadership and in rural Garfield, Jesse R. Ferguson established a troop with a “group of citizens.” All three scoutmasters taught school. Despite the

114 Cynthia Savage, Historic Context for the Julius Rosenwald Fund in Oklahoma (Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office, 1997), 1.

115 Cynthia Savage, Historic Context for the Julius Rosenwald Fund in Oklahoma (Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office, 1997), 21, 41-62; 1940 U.S. Census, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, population schedule, Broken Bow, p.22B, family 528, Garfield Johnson, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed January 12, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; 1940 U.S. Census, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, population schedule, Broken Bow, p.22B, family 528, R.C. Williams and D.C. Williams, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed January 12, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; 1940 U.S. Census, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, population schedule, Idabel, p.14A, family 255, Authory L. Lawson, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed January 12, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; 1940 U.S. Census, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, population schedule, Idabel, p.20A, family 450, Fred Braggs and Earlie Braggs, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed January 12, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com.

64 significant expansion of black scouting into the new communities, the program faltered in

Sulphur Springs and Paris, where troops disbanded due to lack of membership.116

However, growth of black scouting continued into 1941. For example, two troops organized in Cooper at the “negro school” by principal Marshall V. Canada and in Camp County at the Center Point school. These additions displayed the further acceptance of African

American educators of scouting as a character building alternative to traditional curriculum. As a two-fold promotion of scouting’s virtues, Troop 14 of Paris attended again the Prairie View camporal. There the scouts competed in several scoutcraft events and earned honors in “Scout pace, compass, judging, rope making, and fire by friction” along with “three second places in obstacle race, water boiling, and duck on the rock.” These honors allowed scouters further evidence to present sponsors and potential scouts.117

The Japanese attacked the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

In response, President Roosevelt requested Congress to declare war on Japan and later, Germany and Italy. Thus, the United States entered World War II. In response to the Pearl Harbor attack,

Texans volunteered for military service, entered industrialized occupations, and rationed supplies in civilian life. Thousands of African Americans fought in the war.118

The BSA conducted wartime services much as it did during World War I. Scout troops organized aluminum, rubber, and paper drives, planted war gardens, and sold war bonds. In

116 “Troop Rosters,” The Paris News, February 9, 1941, accessed January 5, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6268544.

117 “Scout News,” The Paris News, March 12, 1941, accessed January 26, 2016, https://www.newspapers.com/image/6279132; “Lone Star Area Gains 13 Troops In Six Months,” The Paris News, July 23, 1941, accessed January 8, 2016, https://www.newspapers.com/image/6439283; “Negro Boy Scouts Win Honors at Camporal,” The Paris News, July 29, 1941, accessed September 16, 2015, https://www.newspapers.com/image/6441155.

118 Ralph Wooster, “East Texas In World War II,” East Texas Historical Journal 45, no. 2 (Spring 2007): 41-2. 65 early 1942, black scouts in Paris conducted a collection of “old newspapers and magazines in the

Negro section of Paris” and the school district excused them from classes “to perform this patriotic good turn.” Scouts of Paris conducted a “scrap cleanup” event, which included a parade with marching bands from Paris High, Gibbons High, and Paris Junior College along with a military exhibition of vehicles from Camp Maxey. The scouts collected 175 tons of scrap metal and received “75 per cent of the proceeds” from its sale. It was imperative for black scouts to participate in the war effort as a display of their competence and equality in ability. The African

American black leadership realized the necessity of a visual presence during the war. After the war, desegregation efforts began in earnest and the wartime performance of civilian and military

African Americans motivated of local and national leaders.119

Paris and Northeast Texas experienced a period of prosperity and industrialization during the war. The United States Army established Camp Maxey north of the city in July 1942 and in

1941, Jones Airfield near Bonham. The camp served as an Army training center and later, as a prisoner of war camp. The camp had a capacity of 44,000 soldiers and trained the 103rd Infantry

Division. In 1943, Camp Maxey became the largest German POW camp and housed over 7,000 prisoners. The government constructed a POW camp near Bonham, as well. Camp Maxey provided labor opportunities for African Americans in Lamar County and trained black units for combat service. A white commander, Jack Rhodes, led one such unit, the 459th Tank Destroyer

Battalion. Draftees from Chicago and Detroit composed the unit, many of whom faced southern segregation for the first time. Camp Maxey segregated its soldiers in many ways; they travelled in segregated buses, had no black chaplain, had no instruments of the unit band, and were led by

119 “History Repeats Itself; Scouts Relive 1917-18,” The Paris News, February 8, 1942, accessed January 11, 2016, https://www.newspapers.com/image/14559464; “Scrap Cleanup at Paris Brings Estimated 175 Tons,” Dallas Morning News, October 10, 1942, accessed May 13, 2015, http://proxy.tamuc.edu:8116/iw-search /we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahh. 66 white officers. The trials of segregation in the military ended in 1948 when President Harry S.

Truman formally desegregated the military.120

Several scouters volunteered to serve in the armed forces during World War II. Principal

Albert C. Williams of Commerce served with the Army in England and France as a First

Sergeant. Troop committeemen Oscar Hickerson and James Lyons of Paris and Robert W.

Pannell of Sulphur Springs also served in the Army. John Gordon of Paris served in the U.S.

Marine Corps during the war. The sacrifices of the adult volunteers paled compared to the dedication of their scouts.121

Former scouts also enlisted for military service. Army enlistments included: Willis C.

McPhaul of Bonham; Alfred Pendleton, Leroy Perkins, and James Perkins of Honey Grove;

James Rhodes of Mount Pleasant; James M. Bennett, Herbert Bailey, Vernon Dangerfield, Dell

Lane, Olin Morgan, and Clabon Steward of Paris; Robert Ross of Roxton; and Hazzie Searcy and Ray Shaw of Pittsburg. William Hendricks, a scout of Troop 14, served in the Medical

Administrative Corps stationed in Australia during the war and eventually earned the rank of captain. Several of these soldiers returned to scouting after the war and served as scoutmasters.

These scouts and scouters served their country honorably despite the segregation of the armed forces and their treatment as inferiors. Their service in the military exemplified the training

120 Ralph A. Wooster, Texas And Texans In World War II (Fort Worth: Eakin Press, 2005): 25-6; Gerald Astor, The Right To Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1998): 208-11.

121 U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Oscar Hickerson, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, James Lyons, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Robert W. Pannell, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com. 67 desired most by their scoutmasters, teachers, and ministers that the BSA provided: duty to God and Country.122

The war ended with the surrenders of Germany on May 8, 1945 and Japan on September

2, 1945 and the American troops steadily returned to Texas and Oklahoma throughout the following months. For those that remained in the service, President Harry S. Truman granted an opportunity at equality in 1948 when he desegregated the military. Truman’s decision to desegregate was highly politicized; he used this action to help win votes in 1946. For scouters, however, the desegregation of the military forces symbolized the future of the organization. The founders of the BSA patterned the organization after the military in dress and order, and included scoutcraft and games to attract the scouts. Lord Robert Baden-Powell expected scouts to graduate from their troops into the Royal Army or Navy. Scouting in the United States faced an opportunity to desegregate and open membership to all boys with Truman’s actions, however,

122 U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Willis C. McPhaul, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; “Paris Youth Gets Degree As Doctor,” The Paris News, July 5, 1951, accessed March 14, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6182519; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, James M. Bennett, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Alfred Pendleton, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Leroy Perkins, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, James Perkins, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, James Rhodes, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Herbert Bailey, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Vernon Dangerfield, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Dell Lane, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Olin Morgan, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938- 1946, Clabon Steward, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Robert Ross, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Hazzie Searcy, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com; U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Ray Shaw, digital image, ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed February 16, 2016, http://ancestryheritagequest.com. 68 the BSA retained its previous plan and continued separate units depending on local opinion.

Segregated scouts and other children waited for schools to begin desegregation.123

As African American scouts and scouters fought in Europe and the Pacific, scouters in the LSAC expanded the scouting program and extended the reach of scouting into black lives.

First, the annual conference for black scoutmasters initiated a campaign to raise monies to hire a field executive for African Americans. Second, Claude Musselman donated money to purchase a campsite near Camp Clark for black scouts. Both events extended the program to more black boys and advanced the opportunities to current members.

Weiss resigned as the Interracial Committee in March 1943 and served as Director of the

Office of Civilian Defense in Lamar County. Council President A.G. Mayse appointed Louis

Williams as his replacement for Interracial Committee Chairman in June. Born in Paris,

Williams attended Paris Junior College before he transferred to the University of Texas. He worked for the Austin Chamber of Commerce and managed the Navasota Chamber of

Commerce before he returned to Paris in May 1940. Williams assumed the manager position over the Paris Chamber of Commerce and joined the LSAC Executive Board soon afterward.

His appointment to the Interracial Committee was short, yet in the time that he served in that capacity, he hired the first black field executive and procured the donation of Camp Musselman.

Williams remained on the council executive board for many years and eventually served as council president.124

123 Sitkoff, 612.

124 “Louis Williams,” The Paris News, June 30, 1943, accessed March 4, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9460837; “Louis Williams New C-C Manager,” The Paris News, May 14, 1940, accessed February 16, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6747511; “Lamar Defense Is Moving Rapidly,” The Paris News, December 15, 1941, accessed March 5, 2016, https://www.newspapers.com/image/6702751. 69

In early 1943, the annual conference of African American scouters decided to expand their efforts to recruit more scouts and organized more troops. Givens and Weiss planned a series of meetings to fundraise a salary for a black field executive in the council. Chairman of the endeavor, Reverend C.C. Wilson, called several meetings throughout the year to garner donations. The committee presented a goal of $600 to a series of civic and occupational groups for a field executive’s salary. The first meeting occurred in March with the community leadership of ministers, educators, and businessmen. Another meeting occurred in April with

“all Negro workers in hotels, garages, bus stations and all janitors.” The intentions of the committee was, as Wilson stated, “No white citizen will be asked to contribute in this drive. We want our people to raise this money themselves.” Regional Field Executive George Bullock expressed the white perspective, “that white people would help them if they were convinced

Negroes were doing their full part.” The drive succeeded and the council hired A.V. Turner to the position but he resigned that summer. Former Troop 14 scoutmaster, Lonnie Wilson, on vacation in Paris, replaced Turner.125

Wilson took upon the role that the council previously divided among several volunteers.

His position recruited new scouts and organized troops, planned and operated events, and fundraised for those events and his own salary. The council paid Wilson a salary of $125 a month plus $60 for monthly travel expenses. He travelled in February 1944 to Mendham, New

Jersey for Scout Field Executive Training at the Schiff Scout Reservation. When Wilson returned to Paris, he received a draft notice in the mail from his “Uncle Sam” and completed his military physical in Dallas. After he informed Fuller of his impending enlistment, the scout executive contacted council president A.G. “Pat” Mayse for assistance. Mayse informed the

125 “Scouters Discuss Negro Field Leader,” The Paris News, March 21, 1943, accessed February 27, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9448006. 70

Lamar County Draft Board of Wilson’s value to the LSAC and commuted his commission to a

Class II. Thus, Wilson avoided wartime military service because of his scouting connections.

However, in late 1944, Wilson returned to Portland to work for the Union Pacific. He “made more in tips on the train in a week” than he did as a field executive. Mack Wilson replaced

Lonnie Wilson as field executive in September 1945.126

The first decade of African American scouting expected black troops to travel for outings. Only Troop 14 attended the annual summer camporals at Prairie View College. The lack of public space for black scouts restricted their advancement into higher ranks. Promotion required camping experience. Givens and Williams, aware of this apparent deficiency, solicited local businessmen for aid. Theater manager, Claude Musselman, answered with the generous gift of $3,500 for a camp. The council purchased 25 acres adjacent to Camp Clark and established Camp Musselman within the year.127

The Paris News lauded the donation in an editorial soon after stating, “Negro Boy Scouts, like those of the other races, will make better citizens when they become adults. That is the purpose of the Boy Scout organization, and realizing this, Claude Musselman was moved to provide facilities for the Negro youth, equal comparatively to those of the other Scouts.” The editorial continued that the donation will have its “full effect in future years when the youth of the Negro race, grown to manhood, will remember these things and training they received... and their lives and conduct will be influenced to a good end,” and that “the appreciation of this gift expressed by leaders of the Negro in this section, in religion and education, is genuine, for these

126 Michael Grice, “Interview with Lonnie Wilson,” African-American Railroad Porter Oral History Collection (OH 29), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon, http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/oh29/index.html. 127 “Musselman,” The Paris News, May 16, 1943, accessed March 3, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com; “Worthwhile Thing,” The Paris News, May 18, 1943, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9454929. 71 men realize the real benefit, now and hereafter, that a gift such as this will bring. Claude

Musselman has done a worthwhile thing for all of us, black and white.” The editorial author hoped to influence others in his praise of Musselman, however, the author identified black ministers and educators as admirers of the gift and expressed that the donation benefitted both races.128

The black community expressed high praise of Musselman’s donation. Givens stated,

“this is one of the happiest moments of my life…we shall prove ourselves worthy of this generous and abiding interest of our white people in our Negro boys.” The teacher reasoned the necessity of space to the development of scoutcraft and leadership among the boys. Other

African American leaders in the community praised the donation as a motivation for black contributors and volunteers. Reverend Wilson, in charge of the developing field executive campaign, exclaimed, “this inspires us to stronger efforts to do our full part for our boys. Thank

God for Mr. Musselman and for this great blessing.” The campsite meant much to the black scouting community.129

Before the donation of Camp Musselman, black scouts camped where they could in local pastures, thickets, and, on occasion, extended trips to river campsites. By comparison, since

1920, white scouts enjoyed Camp Clark, a twenty-five-acre camp donated by W.C. Clark. The camp originally served the fledgling Lamar County council. By the 1940s, other camps occurred near Lake Bonham in Fannin County and at Beaver’s Bend in McCurtain County. The council

128 “Musselman,” The Paris News, May 16, 1943, accessed March 3, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com; “Worthwhile Thing,” The Paris News, May 18, 1943, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9454929.

129 “Musselman,” The Paris News, May 16, 1943, accessed March 3, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com; “Camp Musselman Lake Excavation Under Construction,” The Paris News, August 5, 1943, accessed May 20, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13546246. 72 purchased another property of Lake Clayton in Pushmataha County in 1942 to accommodate the developing scouting populace. These camps were not available to African American scouts.130

Camp Musselman was a “heavily wooded and naturally beautiful 25-acre tract” with four campsites. The LSAC planned a 20,000 square foot lake for “teaching Negro Boy Scouts to swim.” Regional Field Executive Bullock claimed, “it will be the best and finest Negro Boy

Scout Camp in Region Nine.” Harris, IRS director, stated the lake and camp “was the first such camp in the Ninth Region.” In November 1943, Field Executive Wilson planned the first camporee for black scouts with M.C. Colvin, Joe Brooks, and Pete Griffith as leaders. At the camporee, several scouts completed the requirements for the rank of Tenderfoot. For black scouts, the addition of Camp Musselman provided the needed space for advancement.131

Texas councils in other major cities also established camps for their black scouts. The

East Texas Area Council, based in Tyler, Texas, received the donation of Camp Kennedy in

1947 from black businessman, Major Kennedy. John Murchison donated a camp to the Circle

Ten Council in Dallas near Wilmer in 1950. The Sam Houston Area council operated Camp

Karankawa. Camp Matigwa opened in the Trinity-Neches Area Council in the 1940s. However, as the 1950s began more Boy Scout councils closed their smaller camps in favor of a single large campground shared by all the boys. The Gulf Coast Council of Corpus Christi, Texas opened

130 “Scouters Inspect New Camp Site,” The Paris News, April 26, 1942, accessed February 16, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9454322; “Scouts To Have Choice Of Camps,” The Paris News, May 24, 1942, accessed February 25, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9457960.

131 “Musselman,” The Paris News, May 16, 1943, accessed March 3, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com; “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris News, November 29, 1943, accessed September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/17271830. 73

Camp Karankawa in 1947. The African American Scouts of the Gulf Coast Council received a week of the camp at the end of the summer.132

The war delayed the completion of the camp’s lake until “when labor and materials are available for the improvements.” Therefore, the LSAC postponed summer camp on the property until its completion. By 1946, the LSAC completed only the lake at the camp, along with a

“diving tower, markers for the swimming area, and a boat” yet $1,775 remained available from the Musselman donation. The council had many ideas for further development of the campsite which included: a lodge, bath house, water system and latrines, a kitchen, dining hall, fly-tents, wall tents, dining tables, field ranges, and refrigerators. Also, plans to construct “an ornamental entrance to the grounds will made and a council ring laid out.” The first official event, a “March to Camp,” occurred in April 1946. Troops 14, 15, 300, and 301 from Paris, Troop 10 from

Blossom, and Troop 312 of Reed’s Prairie hiked from downtown Paris to the campsite for an overnight trip. The sight of 53 uniformed African American boy scouts on the march must have shocked the white community and pleased the African American community.133

The departure of Field Executive Lonnie Wilson delayed the growth of the African

American scouting program, despite the addition of Camp Musselman. Before Wilson’s hire, twenty-four black troops existed with 339 scouts. The next year, after the addition of Wilson to the professional staff, he added thirteen more troops and 166 more scouts but then departed in

132 Package from Rick Obermeyer to Ms. Connie Adams, Boy Scouts of America, 27 November 1995, Black History (Black Camps) file, African American (Negro) Involvement with Scouting History Collection, National Scouting Museum Archives, Irving, Texas; “Negro Boy Scout Camp Session Opens Sunday,” Corpus Christi Times, 18 July 1947.

133 “Paris Pioneered in Forming Of Scout Executive Council,” The Paris News, August 8, 1943, accessed September 14, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13546414; “Camp Site Owned By Negro Scouts,” The Paris News, January 1, 1946, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6634592; “Negro Boy Scouts March to Camp,” The Paris News, April 14, 1946, accessed September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6205555. 74

December 1944 for opportunities in Oregon. Williams stepped down as Interracial Chairman in

1944 and Musselman replaced him. Williams remained a scouter and later, served as Council

President from 1955 through 1957. In February 1945, 589 black scouts existed in 42 troops with

102 leaders. Fuller hired Mack Wilson, a teacher from Butler College in Tyler, to be the new black field executive in September 1945. By the end of 1947, the new field executive recruited

25 more black troops to the council. The field executive was a motivating force behind the further expansion of scouting into the African American community, which grew proportionally with white scouting in the post-war era.134

Born in 1920, Mack Wilson lived and attended school in Henderson, Texas. He was a scout in East Texas Area Council, headquartered in Tyler, Texas, and achieved the rank of Star, the fourth rank of scouting which required higher leadership experience and more merit badges earned. In 1937, Wilson attended the National Jamboree in Washington D.C. After high school,

Wilson completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from Prairie View College in

1943. He taught vocational agriculture at Garrison High School and at Butler College in Tyler.

As part of his new position, Wilson trained at the National Training School, located at Schiff

Scout Reservation, in Mendham, New Jersey for the entire month of January 1946 with white field executive Wayne Wright. Upon his return, Wilson organized a series of camping trips to

Camp Musselman, “a council-wide meeting of all Negro Scouters in the Lone Star Area

Council,” and planned a summer camp at Camp Musselman that summer.135

134 “780 Negroes Boost Membership To Local Scout Organization,” The Paris News, February 8, 1946, accessed May 5, 1946, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6652790; “New Negro Scout Executive Named,” The Paris News, September 6, 1945, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6501636; “Three Receive Silver Beavers,” The Paris News, January 17, 1958, accessed March 11, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6323943.

135 “New Negro Scout Executive Named,” The Paris News, September 6, 1945; “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris News, February 5, 1946, accessed September 14, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6650734; “Negro Scouts 75

The first summer camp at Camp Musselman began under the solemn shadow of mourning. On the Fourth of July 1946, Thomas P. Council, a Paris scout, drowned in the camp’s

Lake Gibbons. There were no leaders present. His death was not the first loss to the scouting community, but it was the first death on the property. The LSAC acted quickly to prevent any further incidents; The Paris News printed warnings to scouts that they must be “accompanied by a responsible adult leader.” Also, James Barrett taught a swimming and lifesaving school at

Camp Clark; a course not offered to black scouts. African American scouts attended Council’s funeral at Mount Canaan Baptist Church “in uniform” as per the request of Field Executive

Wilson. The need for water safety training was apparent to the African American scouting community more than ever.136

On July 31, 1946 the first summer camp for black scouts in the LSAC began at Camp

Musselman. The camp, under the direction of Assistant Scout Executive Allan Wheeler and

Wilson, lasted for three days with scouts from Lamar and Red River counties. Wheeler, more experienced than Wilson at camp programing, represented the custom of white approval required for black scouting. Scouts received “a menu of three hot meals daily” and slept in tents

“furnished by the Council.” They practiced first aid, tracking, knife and hatchet skills, pitching tents, fire building, wood chopping, and camp sanitation. The boys also completed a water safety course and learned to swim and boat. To close out the camp, the troops attended a

“mammoth camp-fire” and the staff “dusted” new campers with the “dust of the previous years

Plan Activity in May,” The Paris News, May 1, 1946, accessed September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6213832.

136 “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris News, July 7, 1946, accessed September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6154786; “Funeral Set Tuesday,” The Paris News, July 8, 1946, accessed September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6155176; 76

[sic] campfire and declared campers in good standing.” The summer camp at Camp Musselman was a great success and inspired further long-term camps in the succeeding summers.137

The conference of black scouters continued throughout the 1940s. Training new leaders remained imperative for fledgling troops and old scouters required instruction of new troop operations. In December 1944, IRS director Harris asked the scouters “if the young man of today is safe from war, disease; if he lives in safe conditions; he is safe at school; and told how

Scout leaders have the advantage in teaching and making the youth of today safe.” Musselman encouraged, at the 1945 meeting, that “Scout leaders to give boys of the Negro race intelligent leadership.” In 1946, the Booker T. Washington High School of Mt. Pleasant hosted the event with superintendent B. C. Pierce as the speaker. These meetings served to train the leadership of

African American scout troops yet still several scouters attended extensive courses for black scoutmasters.138

Training African American scoutmasters was a primary function of the IRS. The IRS held courses at Prairie View College and Hampton College throughout the early years of black scouting. As the division of scouting grew, trainings required a closer proximity to the majority of leaders. Courses were specialized as well; there were scoutmaster classes and then there were commissioner schools, such as the course attended by Givens in August 1942 in Atlanta,

Georgia. Scouters Rev. C.C. Wilson, Newton Woods, Rev. E. Rhodes of Paris, and William

Marshall of Hugo attended a training session at Texas College in Tyler in 1945. Region IX held

137 “Negro Scout Had Jam-Packed Session at Camp in Summer,” The Paris News, February 7, 1947, accessed September 14, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6382209.

138 “Lone Star Area Negro Scouters Hear S.A. Harris,” The Paris News, December 4, 1944, accessed May 6, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/16635463; “Good Training Early in Life Important Negro Scouts Told,” The Paris News, October 10, 1945, accessed September 14, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6250570; “Eight Counties Represented At Negro Scout Leader Meet,” The Paris News, December 11, 1945, accessed September 14, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6625727; “District Scouter Conference Held,” The Paris News, February 7, 1947, accessed September 14, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6382209. 77 an Aquatics School at Camp Kennedy near Rusk in June 1947 at which scout leaders learned lifeguarding and instructional skills for the upcoming summer. Several LSAC black scouters attended in October 1947 the Region IX banquet honoring the retirement of IRS director Harris.

Givens, Jones, field executive Wilson, with Parisians John L Holford, Q.W. Wells, and Fred

Baird; Marshall of Hugo; Pendleton of Honey Grove; and Williams, Harry G. Champion, and

Warren Hatcher of Commerce attended the training course and celebration. The role of these newly trained scouters was to return to their hometowns and facilitate trainings for other leaders and boys to improve the program for African American scouts.139

Paris scouts participated in a traditional community holiday that was important to primarily African Americans during the 1940s. The event, the annual Juneteenth or

Emancipation Day celebration, occurred every year on June 19th and gave black scouters the opportunity to display their pride as black Texans. In Paris, the affair included a parade that featured black Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts marching in uniform through the African American business district and residential neighborhoods. The community continued the celebrations with barbeques and galas, scouts hiked to Camp Musselman for special activities for youths, such as a

“water carnival.” Juneteenth connected the scouts to their race, provided an opportunity for blacks to be the center of attention in the county and in scouting, and bonded the African

139 “Scouting Is For All Boys,” The Paris News, February 7, 1943, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13703079; “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris News, July 22, 1945, accessed March 8, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6487658; “Eight Counties Represented At Negro Scout Leader Meet,” The Paris News, December 11, 1945; “Negro Scout Heads Meet In Dallas,” The Paris News, February 6, 1948, accessed March 11, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9571806.

78

American scouts into a cohesive, special community separate by their own decision from white scouting.140

Politically the communities of Northeast Texas shifted to new municipal systems after the war. In 1948, George M. Guest served on the committee that petitioned for the transfer of municipal power from the previous mayor system to a “Council-Manager Form” of government.

The vote passed and the city of Paris established a city council, which African Americans served as councilmen in the 1970s. Guest supported black scouting from its inception until his death in

November 1948. Sulphur Springs also converted to the commission-manager style of municipality in 1947. African Americans made significant contributions to Northeast Texas politics in later years yet in the 1940s, Guest remained one of the few who participated regularly due to his notoriety and wealth.141

Field Executive Wilson organized fourteen new troops and cub scout packs in 1946. Cub

Scouting formed in the LSAC in 1920 but began fully in the 1930s. Some packs, the cub units, organized for African Americans in the 1930s in Paris but few retained the drive that scout troops attained. Three of the troops Wilson started, Sulphur Springs, Mt. Pleasant, and Honey

Grove, established during the previous decade but closed due to lack of interest. Actual new troops organized at the small farming communities of Petty, Bogata, Deport, Ladonia, Ben

Franklin, Boxelder, Kanawha, East Caney, and Boswell. The LSAC claimed to have a membership at the end of 1946 of 1,022 African Americans, which included cubs, scouts, and

140 “Emancipation Day Gala for Scouts,” The Paris News, February 7, 1947, accessed September 14, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6382209; ”Quiet ‘Juneteenth’ Planned for Paris,” The Paris News, June 18, 1947, September 10, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9614744.

141 “To Our Fellow Citizens,” The Paris News, February 6, 1948, accessed March 10, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9571645; Jennings, “Sulphur Springs, TX (Hopkins County,” Handbook of Texas Online; “Appeals Court Reverses Guest Will Verdict,” The Paris News, November 12, 1950, accessed March 16, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/14271184. 79 leaders. This data displays the will of the black community to participate in scouting as few of the troops were large, but units existed in many small communities across the region.142

As black scouting grew, the need for organizational leadership became apparent. The

LSAC divided its scout troops into multi-county districts each with a field executive that performed the administrative functions for the volunteer leadership. The LSAC employed five white field executives in 1947 with Fuller as council executive. A district committee operated each district with advancement, camping, and training committees for cubs, scouts, and later, explorers. The district committee made all major decisions concerning scouting in each county and functioned as a smaller council within the LSAC. The membership rise led to greater dependence on the district committees and the volunteer leadership. Before the 1940s, a single district under Givens as district committee chairman led black scouting as a sub-council under the authority of LSAC’s Interracial Committee. After the war, the growth of black scouting and the hire of a field executive required the reorganization of the sub-council into divisions (rather than districts). The divisions performed the same functions as a white scout district but were administered solely by field executive Wilson.143

However, white field executives along with Wilson planned and facilitated the annual summer camps for black scouts. In the summers of 1946 and 1947, assistant scout executive

Allan Wheeler served as camp director for the summer camps and supervised Wilson, black scoutmasters, and other white executives. The interest of these professional scouters in the advancement of African American scouts alters the preconceived notions about race relations in

142 “59 Negro Units Now In Lone Star Council,” The Paris News, February 7, 1947, accessed September 14, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6382209.

143 “150 Lone Star Area Scouts Ready For Week at Texhoma,” The Paris News, June 13, 1947, accessed March 11, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9614389; “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris News, July 12, 1946, accessed March 11, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6156950; “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris News, August 14, 1947, accessed September 10, 2015, http://newspapers.com/image/14287068; 80 the late 1940s and early 1950s. The actions of the professional scouters suggested an indifference to racial preconceptions but rather a focus on the betterment of the children. Despite their interest in the boys’ growth, the camp only lasted a week because of their obligations elsewhere in the council. Some field executives worked at the other camps at Camp Lake

Fannin, Camp Texhoma, or Camp Lake Clayton during the summer, while others remained in their districts. The large population of white scouts required more professionals to facilitate camps and garner memberships yet the black scouts needed more experience in camping.144

African American scouting experienced several staggering developments in program and membership growth throughout the 1940s. The community, white and black, supported the black scout troops financially and with encouragement. The black community, in and out of scouting, fundraised the salary for an African American field executive to alleviate the pressure of recruitment and planning usually done by volunteers. White scouters, through the donation from Claude Musselman, supplied more camping opportunities at the 25-acre Camp Musselman.

Also, white professional scouters planned and worked the annual summer camps for black scouts. While the entire black community of Northeast Texas displayed an interest in scouting’s character building, leadership training, and activities for black boys, only whites involved in scouting showed their support for the organization.145

The scouts and leaders participated in a variety of trainings, camps, and community events. Training included scoutmaster courses, camp schools, aquatic camps, and national

144 “Lone Star Negro Scouts Hold Camp,” The Paris News, February 6, 1948, accessed July 9, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9571861; Oliver Brown et al. v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483-96 U.S. [1954].

145 “Scouters Discuss Negro Field Leader,” The Paris News, March 21, 1943, accessed February 27, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9448006; “Musselman,” The Paris News, May 16, 1943, accessed March 3, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com; “Worthwhile Thing,” The Paris News, May 18, 1943, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9454929. 81 trainings. The scouts enjoyed field days, camporees, and summer camps. On a service level, scouts and scouters aided the country during World War II through aluminum or paper drives and bond sales. Several scouters and past scouts served in the armed forces in Europe or the

Pacific. Annually, scouts and scouters celebrated Emancipation Day or Juneteenth, celebrated exclusively by African Americans. Moreover, scouts and scouters benefited from an expanded program, mixed with African Americans and whites in twelve counties and two states, and attended events in their own public space. The expansion of black scouting in the LSAC emulated the public appearance presented by the African American middle class in the 1940s.

They desired admittance to civic duties and political participation, as well as equal representation in professional ranks and public space. Whites allowed reasonable alteration to the status quo under the pretenses of character building and racial subordination.

82

Chapter 4

“CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER”

Opportunity, advancement, and achievement are important objectives of the scouting movement from the scout’s point of view. Boys desire an opportunity for adventure and the circumstances to demonstrate their leadership skills. They want to advance in rank and leadership positions within the troop. Therefore, over time boys desired recognition of their achievements through patches, merit badges, and medals. In scouting, the highest achievement, rank, or honor is the Eagle Scout award.

In the LSAC, the first African American boy earned the Eagle Scout award in 1965.

Awards presented to adult leaders for service to scouting as a leader and a volunteer are the

Scoutmaster’s Key and the Silver Beaver. Givens, longtime district commissioner for African

Americans, received the Silver Beaver in 1952. In another achievement, Scoutmaster John H.

Gordon of Troop 300 completed the requirements for the Scoutmaster’s Key in 1962. The lack of opportunities for African Americans delayed achievement of advanced rank, however, the

Civil Rights movement encouraged scouts and scouters to achieve greater than the previous thirty years. Unfortunately, black scouting in the LSAC declined during this era as troops disbanded and professional leadership departed the program.146

Despite the successes of black scouting in the 1940s, achievement of high ranks and recognition of service for African American volunteers did not occur until the 1950s and 1960s.

For example, a white Paris scout, Robert Berry, earned the first Eagle Scout rank in 1920 and two black scouts in Dallas and one in Houston earned the rank in 1942 and 1943 respectively.

However, in the LSAC, Theodore Mathis, a black scout, earned the Eagle Scout in 1965. This

146 “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663; “Givens Receives Silver Beaver Award of Scouts,” The Paris News, May 30, 1952, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9073280. 83 chapter argues that three factors led to greater achievement for African American scouts during the 1950s and 1960s: the expanded leadership opportunities provided to black volunteers, the rising rank advancement rate of black scouts, and the greater opportunities created within scouting by the successes of the Civil Rights movement and desegregation of schools.147

A week of summer camp occurred annually at Camp Musselman from 1946 to 1953 and attendance remained between 100 and 150 scouts and leaders. However, there were enough black scouts in the council to justify another week of camp. In February 1946, the council registered 780 scouts and leaders in 46 troops. That March, 400 black scouts from Lamar,

Morris, Camp, Titus, Red River, Franklin, and Delta counties participated in a field meet in

Omaha. However, the 1946 summer camp at Camp Musselman only hosted 100 boys and leaders who received a superb program that allowed the scouts to advance and trained the leadership for the next year of scouting. These scouts needed camping experience to advance in rank and grow in the character building program.148

In February 1946, records indicate 32 scouts were in Paris Troop 14: seventeen

Tenderfoot scouts, eight Second Class scouts, six First Class scouts, and one Life scout. There were nineteen scouts in Paris Troop 15: ten Tenderfoot scouts, four Second Class, one First

Class, one Star Scout, and three Life Scouts. These scouts ranged from twelve to twenty years of age and all needed a summer camp experience to advance to higher ranks. Many graduated from

147 “Eagle Scouts Are Not Very Numerous,” The Paris News, November 27, 1920, accessed September 21, 2016, 2016https://www.newspapers.com/image/89401083; “Negroes Will Receive High Awards as Scouts,” Dallas Morning News, July 14, 1942, accessed May 13, 2015, https://proxy.tamuc.edu:2048/login?url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/?db=EANX&s_browseRef=decades/0F99DD B671832188/all.xml; “Eagle Award Friday Evening,” The Dallas Express, October 12, 1942, 15; “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663.

148 “780 Negroes Boost Membership To Local Scout Organization,” The Paris News, February 8, 1946, accessed March 16, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6652790; “106 Paris Negro Scouts At Field Meet In Omaha,” The Paris News, March 24, 1946, accessed March 16, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6194883. 84 high school, joined the armed forces, or went to work before summer camp in August of that year. In fact, Troop 15 listed three young men in a patrol designated as “In Service” with an address of the “Army”; they were Tenderfoot scouts. The challenge with older scouts was to serve them in a program suited for 12 to 15 year olds. The BSA answered this question in 1949 with the establishment of Explorer Posts.149

Since 1935, the BSA designated the Explorer patrols for boys over the age of 15. The patrols allowed older boys to participate in activities separate from the younger troop members and yet remain a part of the troop. In September 1949, the BSA established a separate program that encompassed all the previous senior scouting units, such as explorer patrols, sea scouting, and air scouting. The new units placed boys aged 14 years or older into explorer posts and allowed them to join the post and remain a member of their troop. Hence, explorer scouts earned the Eagle Scout Award. The new program allowed youths to continue with the scouting program and participate in “the Explorer program with all four of its phases - a vigorous physical and outdoor program, a vocational Exploration program, a balanced social program, and a service program.” The BSA sought to draw more older boys into the scouting program and keep those already active older scouts. African American scouters recognized that black scouts did not earn the Star, Life, and Eagle ranks and, therefore, pushed the explorer program for older boys due to its career-oriented nature.150

An Explorer patrol “composed of veterans of World War II” organized as part of the

Norris School scouting program of Commerce in 1947 with Scoutmaster Williams as leader.

The age limit for scouts in a troop was 18 but an explorer patrol or post allowed young men to

149 “Troop 14, 1946 Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 314 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Paris, Texas, accessed March 9, 2016; “Troop 15, 1946 Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 15 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Paris, Texas, accessed March 9, 2016. 150 Boy Scouts of America, Scouting 37 n7, September 1949, accessed April 7, 2016, http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth313156/; “Less Than One Per Cent Of Scout Leaders Receive Pay,” Ebony 9 n1 (November 1953): 58, MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost, accessed August 31, 2016. 85 remain in scouting until the age of 21. Through the explorer program veterans earned the Eagle

Scout rank after they returned from military service during the war, although they exceeded the age of transfer out of the Boy Scout troop. Williams with Field Executive Wilson established the explorer patrol to retain young leaders in scouting and develop their social and vocational skills.151

The expanded African American scouting programs required an organized volunteer leadership. Divisions formed in several clusters of counties and communities under the established interracial committee and the sub-council based in Paris. Field executive Mack

Wilson remained the professional scouter for African Americans and Musselman continued as chairman of the interracial committee, but Givens’s authority transferred to the divisional commissioner for Lamar County. The Lamar-Fannin Division formed for the counties of Lamar and Fannin and the Red River Division organized for Red River county. The Sulphur River

Division included the city of Commerce along with Franklin, Hopkins, and Delta counties.

Titus, Morris, and Camp county scouters established the Tri-County Division. The Oklahoma counties composed the Kiamichi Valley division. The divisions completed the duties of white scouting districts. Field Executive Wilson served all divisions of black scouting while white field executives each served one or two white districts.152

White scouts, in 1949 with the encouragement of adult leadership, organized a local lodge of the Order of the Arrow (OA), a national honor camper fraternity. The OA’s mission,

151 “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris, News, January 9, 1947, accessed November 30, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6078813.

152 “Colored Scouting District Meets at Norris School,” The Daily Journal, January 18, 1949, accessed April 4, 2016, http://dmc.tamuc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/afamhist/id/228/rec/3; “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris News, October 31, 1948, accessed April 6, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13471732; “Boy Scouts News,” The Paris News, April 10, 1951, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/17221822; “Lone Star Negroes in Five Scout Divisions,” The Paris News, February 6, 1952, accessed April 11, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/5965636. 86 while also to honor scouts, was to expand and develop the council camp through construction and maintenance projects. Troops elected its older scouts to membership in the Loquanne

Allangwh lodge and they attended special induction events where they worked on improvement projects for Camp Clark. Compared to explorer posts, however, the lodge did not open its membership to African Americans until the 1960s. The only evidence of black involvement in the lodge is the newspaper article that announced the awarding of the rank of Eagle Scout to

Theodore Mathis in 1965. There are no lodge rosters, newspaper articles, or other evidence that indicated an OA member’s race.153

In February 1951, The Paris News identified sixty-two troops, packs, and posts for

African-American boys in the Lone Star Area Council. Sixteen operated in Paris and Lamar

County alone, which signifies scouting’s popularity in this area for black youths. The list named many of the units, however, as “Patrols,” which were a division of the troop. In this sense, a patrol was an independent unit but only contained ten or less registered members, much as a troop patrol did. For the purpose of this research, a patrol is a considered an independent entity in rural areas with minority African-American populations. While very popular in the community, scouting remained small among black youths. Large towns like Paris, Sulphur

Springs, Mount Pleasant, and Pittsburg claimed a cub scout pack, boy scout troop, and explorer post. The smaller communities, such as Arthur City, Blossom, and Antlers, only operated patrol- sized troops.154

An incident in February 1951 displayed the effectiveness of scouting’s character building on the black community of Paris. An unnamed boy scout committed his “good turn” of the day

153 “Order of Arrow Has First Ordeal For Honor Campers,” The Paris News, August 10, 1950, accessed September 21, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9468160; “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663.

154 “Negro Boy Scout Troops, Leaders, Sponsors, Assistants Are Listed,” The Paris News, February 6, 1951, accessed August 2, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/17212305. 87 when he reported to a store clerk of “a Negro woman who was stealing two shirts.” The article argued that the scout reported the shoplifting because “he was a Scout.” This situation poses an issue: the boy, store, and woman were not named. This anonymity suggests two possible situations. First, that the event did not occur but was rather a sort of fable or parable for Paris youths that described the expectations for behavior. Most likely, however, is that the black community of Paris was small, therefore, it was likely that the article’s author withheld the names of the scout and thief to restrain the anger of the woman toward the scout. Furthermore, this anecdote reflects the commitment of African-American scouts to the tenets of the scout oath and law rather to that of the black community.155

Volunteer control of the black scouting organization became predominant in April 1951.

Divisional committees in Oklahoma and Texas actively met and planned activities for the troops in the council. Between 1950 and 1956, there existed in the council eight districts for white scouts and four divisions for black scouts: Silver Star (Lamar and Fannin Counties), Sulphur

Valley (Delta, Franklin, and Hopkins Counties and Commerce), Kiamichi Valley (Choctaw,

McCurtain, and Pushmataha Counties), Red River, and Big Cypress (Titus, Camp, and Morris

Counties). Again, the disparities of membership and population defined the white and black scouting districts rather than a lack of funding or discrimination.156

The divisions planned a series of camporees, or group camps, for their respective regions.

One event occurred in April 1951 for forty scouts from the Kiamichi Valley Division at Roebuck

Lake in Choctaw County. Another camporee happened near Annona at King’s Lake for another forty scouts and leaders in the Red River Division. These camporees served as opportunities for

155 “Scout News,” The Paris News, February 12, 1951, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/17213389.

156 “Lone Star Negroes in Five Scout Divisions,” The Paris News, February 6, 1952, accessed April 11, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/5965636. 88 black scouts to participate in scouting games and activities. Black men and boys gathered to celebrate their membership in the BSA and practice their scouting skills. Furthermore, while a normal event of the scouting organization, the camporee provided black males the opportunity to practice manhood. With no white males present, it was possible for African American scouts to perform manhood rituals, earn respect from youths, and gain self-respect outside Jim Crow laws.157

In May 1951, the LSAC held a “council wide field meet” at Douglas High School in

Sulphur Springs for the black troops. The field meet, organized by the leadership of the several

African American units, included a special movie at the Dixie Theatre and a lunch in the school cafeteria followed by scouting field meet activities. Troops completed an “‘adventure trail’ on the scout trail to citizenship,” which involved eight stations: “knot tying, tent pitching and ditching, firebuilding, axemanship, first aid, tracking and trailing, physical fitness, and scout quiz.” In total, 175 scouts and leaders attended the meet. After the field meet, the scouts and leaders returned to their respective communities: Omaha, Sulphur Springs, Paris, Sumner, Mt.

Vernon, and East Caney. All the scouts present hailed from four of the twelve counties in the

LSAC, Hopkins, Lamar, Franklin, and Morris counties. This meeting was not a true council- wide field meet, but more of a divisional meet with Lamar County scouts in attendance.

However, the attendees of this meet represented the most active troops at this time period. Only these troops contained the youths who were excited to participate in such an activity, did not have sports or other activities, and did not have work to occupy their schedules. Participation in

157 “Lone Star Negroes in Five Scout Divisions,” The Paris News, February 6, 1952, accessed April 11, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/5965636; “Boy Scout Activities,” The Paris News, April 29, 1951, accessed September 21, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/17224628. 89 scouting fluctuated among all races based upon the ages of the scouts involved. Black scouting was no different.158

The black scouting community of the LSAC suffered a terrible loss in December 1951 when the long-time white volunteer and financial supporter of African American boy scouts,

Musselman, died. His passing left a vacancy in black scouting’s chain of command. As the

Interracial Chair, Musselman served as liaison between the entirely white LSAC Executive

Board and the division chairmen of black scouting. The LSAC Executive Board did not replace his position. Scouts also lost the financial backing of Musselman’s wealth, which supported and developed the Paris campsite that bore his name. The council all but abandoned Camp

Musselman soon after the establishment of Camp Glover near Wright City, Oklahoma in 1954.

Local black scouts used the camp until the late 1960s.159

Financing and fundraising for black scout units was difficult since the majority of Lamar

County and Northeast Texas African Americans lived in poverty. According to research conducted by historians James P. Smith and Finis Welch, the 1940 census recorded 71 percent of blacks in poverty and reported only 31 percent of whites as poor. In 1950, the census reported

54 percent of blacks as poor and only 18 percent of whites in poverty. Fortunately, the

Community Chest allocated funding for black and white scout units. In February 1952, white scout units received $8,131.67 in donations from the Community Chest and black scout units acquired only $1,388.34. The funding is uneven, however, in 1953 white scout units totaled 136 troops, fifty-seven cub packs and seven explorer posts operated in the LSAC in contrast to sixty- seven black scout troops, eight cub packs, and two explorer posts. The financing appears to be

158 “Scout News,” The Paris News, May 13, 1951, accessed September 16, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/17226834. 159 “Deaths and Funerals: C.J. Musselman… as Rotary President,” The Paris News, December 11, 1951, accessed September 21, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6168211. 90 non-proportional to the number of units per organization yet is glaring evidence of the disparities in donations. In fact, the difference is roughly $40 per white unit to $18 per black unit. Of course, this accounting does not regard the basic fact that the donations are only for Paris or

Lamar County troops and that fewer black troops existed to receive the funding. Either way, black scouters and the Fuller sought more avenues for accumulating funding.160

The LSAC looked to the African American community for greater support for black scout units. The council previously solicited the community to raise the salary for a black professional scouter with a major response. In February 1953, however, the council desired greater participation from African Americans toward donations to the whole organization, The

Paris News quoted council officials: “The Negro Scout program is drawing more and more interest from Negro citizenry, including a willingness to given financial support.” This quote is as much a plea or propaganda as it is a statement of fact. Published in the annual Scout Week

Edition for the 1953 anniversary of the BSA, the article celebrated the successes of the black scouters and scouts, especially the fact that the LSAC was “one of only four of the 36 councils in

Region IX that provide a full-time Negro field executive.” However, the article also spoke of future plans for improvement. In particular, the visit of Harry S. Haysbert, an African American professional scouter sent to train the black volunteers to better serve all the scouts of the council.

The article highly celebrated this small part of the program yet recognized the necessity for improvement among black scouters.161

160 James P. Smith and Finis Welch, “Race and Poverty: A Forty-Year Record,” The American Economic Review 77, no. 2 (May 1987): 154; “Negro Scouting Drawing More Interest Annually,” The Paris News, February 8, 1953, accessed August 22, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6109112; “Eight New Chest Directors Named,” The Paris News, February 20, 1952, accessed August 22, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/5969224; “Troops, Leaders in 277 Units of Council Listed,” The Paris News, February 8, 1953, accessed August 22, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6109124.

161 “Negro Scouting Drawing More Interest Annually,” The Paris News, February 8, 1953, accessed August 22, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6109112. 91

African American and white scouters made a significant stride within the racially equal scouting brotherhood in 1952. Annually, the LSAC presented awards to volunteers for their service to scouting; the highest award is the Silver Beaver Award bestowed to only four volunteers in the council. In May 1952, the LSAC presented the Silver Beaver to longtime black scouter, Givens, the first African American in the council to be honored in that manner at the

Gibbons High School graduation. Principal Givens served black scouting from its inception in the LSAC, beginning in 1934 as the troop committee chairman, progressing to the commissioner for the district, and in the 1950s, the Lamar-Fannin Divisional Chairman. He was the fifth scouter from Paris to receive the award after A.G. Pat Mayse, William C. Clark, Dr. R.L. Lewis, and Dr. J.W. Haden. Givens was the fourth African American in Region IX, which included

Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, bestowed the award. The presentation of the Silver Beaver to Givens culminated a scouting career of twenty years and honored black scouters in the council.162

The receipt of the Silver Beaver Award by Givens represents another view into the scouting brotherhood. Honeck argues, “African Americans detected in Scouting a corridor leading to social recognition, others saw in the separate and segregated treatment of minority boys evidence that involvement would lead to the perpetuation of their second-class masculine and civic status.” The city of Paris respected Givens enough in 1952 to present an award that the council honored to only four white scouters and in Region IX, only three other black scouters.

Therefore, the scouting community did not consider Givens a second-class citizen as Honeck described, but rather approximate to an equal. However, other scouters nominate the recipients of the Silver Beaver Award for the honor. Therefore, Given’s African American peers likely

162 “Givens Receives Silver Beaver Award of Scouts,” The Paris News, May 30, 1952, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9073280. 92 nominated him rather than his white peers, the BSA did not ask about the recipients’ race and was unaware of the presentation to a black male. Despite, his nomination by peers, a selection committee of white scouting volunteers appointed by the LSAC Executive Board chose Givens for the honor. Perhaps, the Silver Beaver award presented to Givens foretold the impending equity within the organization.163

In the summer of 1953, twenty-three scouts under the leadership of Scoutmaster Tom

Bush of Wright City, Oklahoma and Assistant Scout Executive Carl Nicholas of Paris, attended the 3rd National Jamboree at the Irvine Ranch near Santa Ana, California. Along with twenty- three white scouts, two unnamed black scouts attended the jamboree. The jamboree necessitated the use of eighty-six special trains to the jamboree stations, however, scouts required further bussing to the actual campsite. Scouts on the special trains toured the sights of the western

United States before they arrived at the jamboree, such as the Grand Canyon National Park,

Carlsbad Caverns, Yellowstone National Park, and Glacier National Park. Scouts also visited many of the cities along the rail lines, including: Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Denver, Los

Angeles, and many others. Black scouts, however, boarded a special train two days later than the white scouts with other African Americans from Tyler and Dallas. Upon arrival, the unknown black scouts from the LSAC camped with the other 589 African American scouts in “only seven strictly Negro units encamped at Irvine Ranch, all from Southern States” as “56 per cent of

Negro scouts attending were assigned to mixed groups.”164

163 Honeck, 109.

164 “Scouts’ National Jamboree Is Expected to Draw 50,000,” The Paris News, May 14, 1953, accessed August 18, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6713267; “Area Boy Scouts Arriving Home From Jamboree,” The Paris News, July 29, 1953, accessed September 28, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6724776; “Negro Scouting Program Grows In This Area,” The Paris News, February 7, 1954, accessed August 18, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6650627; “Area Scouts To Embark For Outing,” Dallas Morning News, July 8, 1953, accessed May 8, 2015, 93

Professional scouter Fuller ended thirty-two years as the executive of the LSAC and retired in March 1954. No professional scouter in the council held a position for a tenure equal to Fuller’s experience as council scout executive. Furthermore, he held his position longer than many of his contemporaries at the council, regional, and national levels. Many of the founding scout executives who served at the national level, such as West and Harris, retired in the 1940s.

As scout executive, Fuller set policy for the LSAC and oversaw the council’s expansion to the twelve-county region. Under his management, thousands of scouts passed through the program and he supervised the training of hundreds of volunteer leaders. Fuller entered employment with the Texas branch of the National Automotive Association after his retirement. In February 1954, the council executive board replaced Fuller with August W. Benner, an assistant scout executive from the Circle Ten Council in Dallas, Texas. As he entered his new position, Benner faced the issues of declining membership and the replacement of three field executives whom retired that year, including the black field executive, Mack Wilson.165

In 1954, Troop 14 registered as Troop 314 with a new sponsor, Baldwin Elementary

School with Foster Stone as scoutmaster. Jones, as school principal, remained with the troop as committee chairman and sponsor liaison. The Paris school board established Baldwin

Elementary, named for board member, B.J. Baldwin, in the early 1900s for use by black student.

It served as a segregated school until its closure in the 1960s. Troop 15 reregistered in 1954 with its sponsor as the Bankhead School of Paris, however, the troop “dropped” in June 1954. Later, predominately white units registered as Troops 14 and 15 in other communities.166

https://proxy.tamuc.edu:2048/login?url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/?db=EANX&s_browseRef=decades/0F99DD B671832188/all.xml; “Boy Scout Jamboree,” Ebony 9 1 (November 1953): 53-4.

165 “Fuller Represents Auto Group,” The Paris News, March 14, 1954, accessed August 24, 2016.

166 Alexander W. Neville, “Backward Glances,” The Paris News, December 20, 1931. 94

Many factors occurred that led to the dropping of Troop 15 and several other troops in

1954. Firstly, the retirement of field executive Wilson led to a lack of training, recruitment, and fundraising necessary for many troops to exist. In general, the field executive developed units to justify their position. Therefore, a major drop in membership in an executive’s district led to the termination of the executive’s position. There is no evidence to suggest that the decline in black troops occurred before Wilson’s resignation, however, numerous troops dropped their charters after his departure from the LSAC.167

Secondly, in May 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided the segregation of schools in the United States. The Oliver L. Brown et al. v. Board of Education of

Topeka, Kansas, et al. case stated that segregated schools were “neither ‘equal’ nor cannot be made ‘equal.’” A supplemental decision after further arguments on the case in 1955, announced that school districts must desegregate with “all deliberate speed,” a decision that was widely left to interpretation and resulted in further desegregation lawsuits. For scouting, many troops may have dropped their charters in anticipation that equity would occur immediately and there would be no need for segregated troops. However, in Texas, school districts dragged their feet regarding desegregation through the 1960s until United States v. Texas in 1970. Therefore, scouting remained de facto segregated.168

The more significant effect of the Brown decision was the reaction of whites to the concept of allowing the desegregation of schools. White citizens of the southern states reacted with intense anger and lashed out against the attempts of black families to register their children

167 “Augustus (Gus) W. Benner: New Lone Star Executive, Vet Scouter, Native Texan,” The Paris News, February 7, 1954, accessed September 21, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6650394.

168 Arnoldo De León and Robert A. Calvert, "Civil Rights ," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 27, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pkcfl; Frank R. Kemerer, “United States v. Texas,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 27, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jru02. 95 in white schools. In Lamar County, the SCOTUS decision raised the racial tension between blacks and whites. In Blossom, a riot occurred between groups of white and black teenagers in

May 1954 when the African American boys attempted to buy ice cream at a local white cafe. A group of white boys confronted the black boys and an altercation occurred. The story continued as the black group returned to the black neighborhood of Blossom. Then, “two carloads of white boy then [sic] drove through the Negro section,” and, “were showered with rocks.” The riot carried on for three hours and included knives, rocks, and shotguns, however, only small injuries happened on both sides of the battle. The event was only a small, local example of the tensions between whites and blacks throughout the south.169

An editorial in an October 8, 1954, edition of The Paris News claimed in that, “Citizens

Make Their Classification Regardless of Law or Court Rulings,” and insisted that whites decided class on a social level not based on race. The article continued that, “the segregation in the South has been social rather than political, based on the fact that any man is free to choose his associates, and the South has made its choice.” This article suggested that the segregation that existed among northeast Texans was not de jure but de facto and was a matter of social separation. Evidence contrary to these statements exists among the scouting community as white and black scouts and scouters often mixed in a social situation. Scouting was not work, religious, nor government, however, scouts occasionally commingled for the benefit of the youths.170

The article, written by a Parisian, reflected the belief of the majority of southerners that the Brown decision did not, “make second-class citizens into first-class citizens.” The editorial,

169 “Lawmen Stop Youthful Race Riot in Blossom,” The Paris News, May 17, 1954, accessed September 5, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6230920.

170 “Citizens Make Their Classification Regardless of Law or Court Rulings,” The Paris News, October 8, 1954, accessed September 5, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6643570. 96 however, concluded that African-Americans, “deserved the status of citizens, but not because of any law or decision of a court, but because of their individual efforts, often aided by their white friends.” This comment opposed the ideals of the scouting movement, which required boys and men to advance through their own efforts. Despite the arguments provided, desegregation efforts began in 1954 and extended beyond the school to public transportation and public spaces.171

In nearby Sulphur Springs, another example of violent opposition to school desegregation occurred in August 1954, when Harry W. Ridge, the local NAACP President, submitted a desegregation petition to the Sulphur Springs Independent School District Board. In response, segregationists sprayed the Ridge home with “two shotgun charges and seven pistol bullets.”

Neither Ridge nor his wife, Eleanor, were home at the time of the attack, however, the couple faced intimidation from whites. Furthermore, local police claimed they could not provide the family “much protection.” In October, the couple fled to Cleveland, Ohio after their home exploded in another attack. Ridge abandoned a grocery business to save his life.172

In June 1953, the LSAC opened the Glover River Scout Camp in the timberland of the

Kiamichi Mountains in southeastern Oklahoma, donated by Frederick H. Dierks, a businessman of German-descent from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Dierks’ company, in partnership with his brothers, almost completely industrialized and developed southwest Arkansas and southeast

Oklahoma with railroads and factories for the production of lumber and paper from the late

171 “Citizens Make Their Classification Regardless of Law or Court Rulings,” The Paris News, October 8, 1954, accessed September 5, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6643570.

172 “Home of Texas NAACP Chairman Shot Up,” Jet, August 5, 1954, accessed September 26, 2016, http://https://books.google.com/books?id=o78DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=%22Sulphur+springs,+te xas%22+NAACP+Jet&source=bl&ots=u5UzyRShQi&sig=kBl9tDCpodIzUo5iMt8UVVhEbUc&hl=en&sa=X&ved =0ahUKEwjrpMK29a3PAhUp6oMKHX6sCZcQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=%22Sulphur%20springs%2C%20texa s%22%20NAACP%20Jet&f=false; “Home Destroyed, Texas NAACP Head Flees to Ohio,” Jet, October 28, 1954, accessed September 26, 2016, http://https://books.google.com/books?id=B78DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=%22Sulphur+springs,+texa s%22+NAACP+Jet&source=bl&ots=aVxrW2F98K&sig=hYof3B13s- XLac3JvNIkpvcWEfI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjrpMK29a3PAhUp6oMKHX6sCZcQ6AEIHTAB#v=onepage &q=%22Sulphur%20springs%2C%20texas%22%20NAACP%20Jet&f=false. 97 nineteenth century until the 1960s. The camp on the crook of the Glover River, which bore

Dierks’ name after his death in 1963, rested on a tract near which Troops 14 and 89 camped near during the summer of 1938. The LSAC initially restricted access to the camp from black scouts and insisted they continue to facilitate Camp Musselman in Paris for summer camps.173

A special opportunity presented itself in August 1953 as Mack Wilson, G.A. Jones, and

John Gordon attended the “National Camping School for Negro Leaders,” in preparation for summer camp. The National Camping School taught the fundamentals of camp safety, organization, and management. When they returned from the training, Wilson, Jones, and

Gordon served as activities directors for Camp Musselman.. However, the veteran field executive was not the camp director. Instead, a white field executive, Dick Carpenter, took on the role of managing the camp staff. Black scouters involved themselves with the activity of scouting over the management aspects of camp operations.174

The LSAC came to a crossroads in the summer of 1955. Council leaders realized that the council’s designation as the Lone Star Area Council no longer represented the scouting community in the region as it then encompassed three counties in Oklahoma along with the nine and a half counties in Texas. The executive board’s name selection committee, led by Dan

Latimer, submitted five names for review by the council’s board and volunteers. The names were Rio Roxo, Indian Lodge, Indian Chiefs, O’Tex, and NeTseo Trails. The council chose

NeTseO Trails (NeTseO) in November of 1955 because the moniker identified the region

173 “Summer Camps This Year Will Attract 1,100 Scouts,” The Paris News, February 8, 1953, accessed September 6, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6109033.

174 “Boy Scouts,” The Paris News, July 23, 1953, accessed September 21, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6722138. 98

Northeast Texas and Southeast Oklahoma plus the pioneer and American Indian trails that crisscrossed the area. This name is currently used by the council.175

Scout camp for African American scouts continued at Camp Musselman through the summer of 1955. In that year, an editorial in The Paris News stated that the camp and its neighbor, Camp Clark, needed “attention and improvements.” However, the year before The

Paris News described Camp Musselman with enthusiastic detail, such as the camp “affords ample facilities for carrying out the outdoor phases of the Scout program.” The article described,

“a lake with swimming, fishing facilities; a mess hall - capable of seating 200 campers; lights, running water, plenty of shades, 25 acres of troops sites, and ample tentage.” Apparently, quite a change occurred within the year. In June 1956, once African American scouts attended a single week at Camp Glover, the property fell into disuse.176

The 1956 school year began earnest desegregation attempts by black Texans. Some schools in West Texas, where a small population of blacks resided, easily ended school desegregation. In contrast, East Texas whites highly protested desegregation due to the denser population of African Americans in the region. Mansfield ISD, southeast of Fort Worth, desegregated in August by federal court order. The school board acquiesced but white citizen’s councils formed to protest the registration and admission of black students to the schools. The incident drew state and national attention as Texas Governor Allan Shivers dispatched Texas

Rangers to maintain segregation and President Dwight Eisenhower conspicuously failed to involve the government. The lack of action by the federal and state executives subsequently led

175 “Area Scout Committee Meets at Camp Glover,” The Paris News, June 26, 1955, accessed September 8, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/8234268; “Lone Star Area Scout Council Changes Name,” The Paris News, November 4, 1955, accessed September 8, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/8650436.

176 “Some Recreational Areas in Paris Need Improvement and Additions,” The Paris News, June 8, 1955, accessed September 6, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6653632; “Negro Scouting Program Grows In This Area,” The Paris News, February 7, 1954, accessed September 6, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6650627. 99 to a return to segregation. President Eisenhower did not enforce desegregation until the Little

Rock incident a year later.177

While the Mansfield incident demonstrated the white backlash directed at the Brown decision and desegregation, it also initiated state legislation that modified the Jim Crow agenda.

The Texas Legislature passed laws which allowed school districts to avoid or reverse integration via referendum and that restricted student transfers into new schools. Another bill, passed in reaction to the Little Rock incident, permitted the governor to close a school if violence was unavoidable without the National Guard, therefore preventing federal involvement. Other laws made the Texas Attorney General available to defend the State of Texas. Laws that required organizations to register before assisting desegregation cases in the state restricted the NAACP through the 1950s and 1960s. Due to legislative barriers, desegregation of Texas schools slowed incredibly with only ten districts integrating between 1957 and 1962.178

Despite the setbacks posed by anti-desegregation legislation and the white backlash directed toward black children, African American scouts advanced toward further equality within the council, especially toward camping. White scouts attended Camp Clark in Paris from 1920 through 1945. At the close of World War II, the council made an effort to provide a larger campsite for the developing scouting community. The LSAC held summer camps at Clayton

Lake near Hugo, Oklahoma, at a Fannin County site near Bonham, and also, shared a camp with the Sherman Area and Circle Ten Councils on Lake Texoma. After its donation to the council, in 1953, Camp Glover became the primary site for LSAC and later, NeTseO camps and

177 Raymond Holbrook, “Quiet Gains Made in 1956 By Texas Integrationists,” The Paris News, December 31, 1956, accessed September 7, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/8272451;George, no. Green, "Mansfield School Desegregation Incident," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 07, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jcm02.

178 Robyn Duff Ladino, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1996), 138-140. 100 activities. During, this thirty year period, the council sent black scouts to Camp Musselman for summer camp and the site was comparatively equal to its primitive contemporary campsites. By

1956, Camp Musselman was no equal to Camp Glover and African Americans attended a single week of camp apart from white scouts. In June 1964, NeTseO permitted black scouts to attend summer camp at Camp Glover during the same week with white scouts.179

Scouts in Troops 314 and 300 saw greater growth in rank achievement and a rise in membership once NeTseO permitted African Americans to attend summer camps at Camp

Glover (later Camp Dierks). The camp provided better facilities, equipment, staff, and hiking trails. In particular, the Kiamichi Trail, which opened in May 1960, was a 52-mile hiking trail through the Kiamichi Mountains to Camp Pioneer near Mena, Arkansas. The Kiamichi Trail allowed black scouts an opportunity to earn the 50-Miler Award, which most scouts and scouters received after they hiked at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico; an expensive trip for most black scouts. Most importantly, the camp gave black scouts the occasion to earn greater amounts and more diverse merit badges and therefore, advance higher in rank. Tables 2 and 3 show Troop 314 and 300’s slight though steady rise in membership once allowed to attend Camp

Glover.180

179 “Scouts To Have Choice Of Camps,” The Paris News, May 24, 1942, accessed February 25, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9457960; “NeTseO Scouts Tell Camp Glover Schedule,” The Paris News, May 10, 1956, accessed March 15, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6070242; “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663.

180 “Troop 314, Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 314 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Paris, Texas, accessed March 9, 2016; “Troop 300, Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 300 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Commerce, Texas, accessed September 11, 2016; “Scout Kiamichi Trail Developed,” The Paris News, May 3, 1960, accessed September 16, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6212732. 101

Figure 1

Troop 314 Membership Decline, 1932-1970181

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1936 1938 1946 1948 1956 1958 1966 1968 1932 1934 1940 1942 1944 1950 1952 1954 1960 1962 1964 1970 No Data No Data

Figure 2

Troop 300 Membership Decline, 1943-1970182

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 No Data 1943 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1951 1953 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1961 1963 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1944 1950 1952 1954 1960 1962 1964 1970

181 Troop 314 file, NeTseO Trails Collection, Northeast Texas Archives, James E. Gee Library, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas, United States.

182 Troop 300 file, NeTseO Trails Collection, Northeast Texas Archives, James E. Gee Library, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas, United States. 102

The Civil Rights Movement achieved momentum in the 1960s with the election of

President John F. Kennedy, who partially supported ending segregation. CORE and the

Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) commenced a direct action campaign, which, included the Freedom Rides into the southern states to test desegregation laws and received harsh treatment, arrest by police, and sometimes death from white backlash. Freedom Riders along with sit-ins performed by students also led to greater attention to the media and national audiences. It was the marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the backlash from whites in Montgomery, Alabama and in other cities that drew the most attention to the racial violence of the south. On August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in

Washington D.C., King gave the “I Have A Dream” speech. During the speech, King spoke of his children and stated his desire that they “will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” This statement expressed the sentiments of many African American parents.183

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 concluded a century of de jure segregation and the Voting

Rights Act of 1965 ended the use of voter disqualification devices and poll taxes in the south.

However, de facto segregation continued largely due to the social nature of segregation. Not all the effects of the legislation was positive, historian Manning Marable argued, “the adoption of the 1964 Civil Rights Act increased the institutional, political, and vigilante violence against blacks across the South.” Furthermore, historian James W. Button suggested, “the act of directly confronting whites… gave blacks more confidence to assert themselves politically.” Therefore, the Civil Rights movement in even its worst forms provided credence to African American’s

183 Martin Luther King, Jr, “I Have A Dream,” presented to The March for Jobs and Freedom, Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., August 28, 1963. 103 communal spirit. School segregation persisted in many areas and into the 1990s, the NAACP filed suit against many school districts to end education discrimination.184

In Paris, the school district disregarded reform until August 1964. That school year,

PISD permitted black high school students to choose between Gibbons High School and Paris

High School. However, as Gibbons High graduate and Eagle Scout, Theodore Mathis stated

“only a few students transferred to Paris from Gibbons.” Few transferred to Paris High as most students wished to remain in their community school at Gibbons High. The district closed

Gibbons Junior High and High School in 1966, which compelled black students to attend the other high school. White flight upheld segregation, however, as new school districts emerged during the 1970s and 1980s to reconcile the integration of Paris ISD. The school district did not completely desegregate until 1970 when it closed several elementary schools, which served solely black and white neighborhoods, and built new schools to accommodate the rising population of the student body. One school that Paris ISD closed was the seven-year old T.G.

Givens Elementary, named for long-time scouter and educator, Travis G. Givens. Givens died on December 21, 1975.185

In early 1962, scoutmaster John H. Gordon of Troop 300 earned the Scoutmaster’s Key, a high achievement for volunteer scouters. In Dallas, an African American first earned the

Scoutmaster’s Key in 1942, soon after the city’s first black Eagle Scout. Gordon served the

184 Manning Marable, Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction And Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006 (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 79-80; James W. Button, Blacks and Social Change: Impact of the Civil Rights Movement in Southern Communities (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 232-4.

185 Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout) in discussion with William C. Wilson, September 2016; “Paris Profile- T. G. Givens: His Life To Education,” The Paris News, October 25, 1959, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/8036821; Skipper Steely, “Desegregation Achieved AT PISD In 1970,” 2001; “Paris Ordered To Desegregate,” The Paris News, September 11, 1970, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13655825; “Retired Educator Givens Dies at 83,” The Paris News, January 1, 1975, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/14068336. 104 black youth of Paris for thirty years. During this time, he operated a farm outside of town where the troop camped and hiked. He also worked at the Campbell Soup Company in Paris. During

World War II, Gordon was a U.S. Marine and served in the Pacific Theater. He held membership in the Olive Branch Lodge AF&AM and attended the Olive Branch Baptist Church.

He was jovial and the boys loved him. Eagle Scout Mathis described him as, “the kind of man that everyone liked.” He made sure that the scouting community treated his scouts as though they were “no different than any other scouts.” Gordon was popular among the entire white and black community, which was beneficial to his troop.186

In September 1962, after eight years without representation, NeTseO hired Harold

Nelson of Sulphur Springs as the black field executive for their African American scouting. The council claimed to have 1,400 scouts in its interracial division and as council executive, Wayne

LaCrone, claimed “the financing of this special service to our Negro people is being done by our local Negro leaders, who have been working for some time under a planned divisional organization.” Therefore, again black scouters raised funding to support the salary of a district executive for African American scouting.187

Nelson attended training in November 1965 that introduced the patrol method of scouting to newer scout leaders. The “Pine Tree No. One” training was a prerequisite to attending the prestigious Wood Badge Training. Wood Badge descended from the original courses created by

Baden-Powell when he trained the early scoutmasters in British Scouting. In this training, a training scoutmaster divided the trainees into patrol units and “conducted as a Boy Scout Troop

186 “John H. Gordon,” The Paris News, January 28, 1990, accessed September 23, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6719305; Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout) in discussion with William C. Wilson, September 2016

187 “New Negro Executive,” The Paris News, February 8, 1963, accessed May 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/14501309; “NeTseo Council Employs Negro Scout Executive,” The Bonham Daily Favorite, September 6, 1962, accessed May 8, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/44120737. 105 with practical operation and the patrol system being emphasised [sic].” In 1965, three black scouters participated in the training: scoutmaster Leon Williams of Hugo, Oklahoma, scoutmaster Gordon, and field executive Nelson. The involvement of these scouters in the training displays a shift in black and white relations since the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights

Act. Before, white district leaders occasionally included black scouters in trainings but African

Americans usually led their own trainings and never attended Wood Badge. This opportunity only presented itself once de jure desegregation began.188

The ultimate achievement for black boy scouts and leaders was the presentation of the

Eagle Scout award. A scout that earned the Eagle Scout rank completed over twenty-five merit badges, held several leadership positions, and spent many hours in the outdoors camping and hiking. Nationally, the first African American to earn the award was Edgar Cunningham, a member of Troop 12, Waterloo, Iowa, of the Wapsipinicon Area Council. In Texas, however,

Court of Honors presented the the first Eagle Scout Awards to black scouts in the 1940s. In

Houston, Howard Reed earned the first award in early 1941. In 1942, two Dallas scouts, Herbert

L. Chambers in July and Roy L. Patton, Jr. in October. Theodore Mathis of Paris earned the

Eagle Scout award two decades later, in September 1965.189

Mathis joined Troop 300 in 1960, soon after his parents relocated their family to Paris.

Claude and Ellie A. Mathis moved from Prairie View, Texas with their five children to teach at

Gibbons High School. Born in Hempstead, Texas on January 14, 1948, Mathis was a cub scout

188 “Scout Leaders Take Training,” The Paris News, November 7, 1965, accessed September 26, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13244811; “The Founding of Wood Badge,” accessed September 26, 2016; http://www.woodbadge.org/history.html.

189 “Negroes Will Receive High Awards as Scouts,” Dallas Morning News, July 14, 1942, accessed May 13, 2015, https://proxy.tamuc.edu:2048/login?url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/?db=EANX&s_browseRef=decades/0F99DD B671832188/all.xml; “Eagle Award Friday Evening,” The Dallas Express, October 12, 1942, 15; “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663. 106 in Pack 141 of Prairie View Elementary before the family removed to Lamar County. In Paris, the family attended the Olive Branch Baptist Church, which sponsored Troop 300. Mathis entered eighth grade at Gibbons Junior High and he joined Troop 300 under the leadership of scoutmaster John H. Gordon. In December 1962, when he was 14 years old and a First Class scout, Mathis transferred membership to Explorer Post 300; Gordon remained the post advisor.190

The 1961 edition of the Boy Scout Handbook described Mathis’s progress from the First

Class rank. For the Star rank, he earned five merit badges including a required merit badge and for the Life Scout rank he earned a further five required merit badges. Finally, for the Eagle

Scout rank Mathis earned eleven more merit badges including the remaining required merit badges. Required merit badges were necessary for the achievement of the Eagle Scout rank.

The summer camp of 1964 at Camp Dierks gave Mathis the opportunity to earn required merit badges that previously were unavailable, such as swimming and life-saving. Mathis needed leadership experience, as well, to advance in rank. He was a patrol leader in Troop 300 and both president and secretary of Post 300. Mathis was the first black scout inducted into the Order of the Arrow.191

Mathis attended the first desegregated summer at Camp Dierks and experienced no animosity or racism from white scouts or leaders. He gave credit for the lack of discrimination directed at Post 300 scouts to his scoutmaster, John H. Gordon, whom Mathis praised as, “having a good relationship with the white community.” Gordon owned a pig farm and received donated food scraps from many restaurants, hotels, and other businesses throughout the city of Paris. The

190 “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663.

191 Boy Scout Handbook, New York: Boy Scouts of America, 1961; “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663. 107 scoutmaster had a reputation as a valued member of the community. While Mathis was at summer camp he learned to swim and earned the swimming merit badge. Later, he attended a special aquatics camp and earned the Lifesaving merit badge and the Mile Swim. Summer camp attendance was the catalyst that made Mathis into an Eagle Scout.192

As part of his earning the Eagle Scout Award, NeTseO invited Mathis and his parents to the Annual Scouter Banquet at East Texas State University in Commerce, Texas. At the banquet, the family and scoutmaster Gordon ate dinner with other scouters from across the council. NeTseO dedicated the twenty-three scout Eagle Class of 1965 to George W. Stone, who presented each scout with their Eagle Scout medal. This was Mathis’ first visit to a university campus and he recalled this banquet as his fondest scouting memory. “To go with my family,”

Mathis stated, “to the Scouter Banquet in 1965, to receive the Eagle Scout Badge, to be recognized by my peers. That was my greatest memory in all of scouting.”193

Mathis graduated in May 1966 from Gibbons High School. A football player, Mathis received a partial scholarship to Prairie View A&M College in Prairie View, Texas. He participated in scouting there with the Sam Houston Area Council. Mathis graduated from college in 1970 with a Bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training and began a career as a coach and teacher in the Houston area and then, in Lufkin, Texas. In Lufkin, he married his wife Betty, and they raised four children.194

African American scouts and scouters achieved higher distinctions in the last two decades of segregation than they ever had in the first twenty years of black scouting. The first African

192 “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663; Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout) in discussion with William C. Wilson, September 2016.

193 Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout) in discussion with William C. Wilson, September 2016; 1965 Scouters Banquet Program, Theodore Mathis Collection, Lufkin, Texas.

194 Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout) in discussion with William C. Wilson, September 2016. 108

American youth, Theodore Mathis, earned the prestigious Eagle Scout award in 1965. The

LSAC, in 1952, honored a Travis G. Givens with the Silver Beaver award and John Gordon earned the Scoutmaster’s Key in 1962; honors previously unavailable to black scouters.195

Scouts and leaders experienced continued hardships and Jim Crow segregation during the period despite legislation and litigation that commenced desegregation in other regions of the

South. School segregation, which the Brown decision began in 1954, did not occur in Northeast

Texas truly until 1965. However, the Civil Rights movement and its backlash violence gave black adults and youths across the South the confidence to prove themselves in the changing

American society.196

In scouting, desegregation began with adult leadership attendance at previously all-white trainings, such as Pine Tree Training. Scouts experienced desegregation at Camp Dierks when they attended camp for the first time with white scouts and received an equal opportunity to earn difficult rank advancements. Finally, in 1966, The Paris News terminated the use of the term

“negro scout,” though homogenous troops persisted due to sponsor or location, black scouts’ interactions with white scouts was no longer prevented. The divisions and districts combined for new districts and mixed camporees and camps occurred. Black boys and leaders were finally a part of the “scouting brotherhood.”197

195 “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663; Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout) in discussion with William C. Wilson, September 2016; “John H. Gordon,” The Paris News, January 28, 1990, accessed September 23, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6719305; “Givens Receives Silver Beaver Award of Scouts,” The Paris News, May 30, 1952, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9073280.

196 Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout) in discussion with William C. Wilson, September 2016; James W. Button, Blacks and Social Change: Impact of the Civil Rights Movement in Southern Communities (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 232-4.

197 “Scout Leaders Take Training,” The Paris News, November 7, 1965, accessed September 26, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13244811; “NeTseO Scouts Tell Camp Glover Schedule,” The Paris News, May 10, 1956, accessed March 15, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6070242; “Paris Is Hub for Boy Scout 109

Chapter 5

CONCLUSION

Membership in the BSA benefited black youths and adults of Paris from its inception in

1932. The organization transformed African American’s past subordination into equality within the community. The LSAC provided equal opportunities to black scouts in regards to camping and trainings. However, the standard of living for blacks denied many black boys the opportunity to experience high-adventure camps. Therefore, few attended National Jamborees and Philmont Scout Ranch during the period.198

Black boys rushed to enter segregated scout troops when the first troops organized in the early 1930s. Paris’ first troop quickly achieved a membership of sixty boys. Other, more rural communities had far smaller troop rosters but also smaller populations from which to draw their scouts. Members earned high ranks in scouting but lack of opportunity to swim, boat, and long- term camp denied scouts the ranks of Star, Life, and Eagle.199

African Americans benefited from the benevolence of white scouters as the program matured. A white executive board member donated acreage for a black campsite in Paris in

1943. This site provided a camping and hiking location for African Americans for over a decade. However, white adults planned and staffed the summer camps with some black leaders

Activities,” The Paris News, February 4, 1966, accessed September 26, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13292739; Honeck, 109. 198 Edward L. Rowan, To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America (Exeter, NH: PublishingWorks, Inc., 2005), 46-7.

199 “Negro Scout Troop Has 2nd Birthday,” The Paris News, February 11, 1934, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6009561; “Troop 14, Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 314 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Paris, Texas, accessed March 9, 2016.

110 present. Though not necessarily prejudiced, the lack of peer mentorship from older scouts, even white scouts, stifled black scout progression into the higher ranks.200

Middle and working class blacks generated the funds to support the salary of a black field executive in 1942. The position served and expanded scouting to black youths throughout the council until 1953, when membership commenced a steady decline. Three black men held the professional position of field executive, each with an increasingly higher level of education and training in scouting. The BSA trained all three with white professionals in the National Training

School.201

Segregation provided African American scouters the opportunities to participate in council and district leadership meetings and training courses. Adults also held council and district leadership positions, which black scouters did not hold outside of their civic, community and church activities. These same scouters, on occasion participated in mixed-race meetings and trainings given the expenses of segregation and the “scouting brotherhood” described by

Honeck.202

After Mathis earned the Eagle Scout Award in 1965, black scouting declined in NeTseO with troops steadily dropping their charters. Much of this was due to the changing nature of the civil rights movement and the closure of all-black schools. Troops lost their sponsorships if the local school or business closed. A majority of the middle class leadership also retired from education or passed away. There was less need for separate scouting once the Civil Rights Act

200 “Musselman,” The Paris News, May 16, 1943, accessed March 3, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com; “Worthwhile Thing,” The Paris News, May 18, 1943, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9454929.

201 “Scouters Discuss Negro Field Leader,” The Paris News, March 21, 1943, accessed February 27, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9448006.

202 Mischa Honeck, “An Empire of Youth: American Boy Scouts in the World, 1910-1960,” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, no. 52 (Spring 2013): 106-7.

111 of 1964 opened public facilities. Black youths also spurned the previous models of protest or civic participation for more aggressive stances, like, the Black Panther movement.203

The whole scouting community saw decline due to the massive shift in American society during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. Historian Barbara Arneil states that, “given the foundational commitments of the GSUSA and BSA (loyalty to the state; quasi-militarism as reflected in the uniforms, insignia, and badges; traditional gender roles; and racial segregation), it is not surprising that the civil rights generation- with its commitment to second wave feminism and racial equality and its skepticism toward the Vietnam War-would reject the norms governing both organizations.” Scouting no longer trended among African American youths.204

The departure of the middle class from civil rights protest left a vacancy in the movement’s leadership. Since the inception of the civil rights movement, middle class black were the primary motivators for ending Jim Crow and segregation yet once the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, middle class participation in the movement waned. The assassination of King in 1968 pushed the black middle class further from the movement. Disgruntled youths became more aggressively militant in their protest stances and followed a new doctrine of Black Power. Some joined the Black Panther party with more destructive ideals of achieving equality. Furthermore, distaste for the United States’ continued involvement in the Vietnam War shifted the thinking of American youth culture away from traditional values toward that of the hippie movement.205

203 Manning Marable, Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction And Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006 (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 106-108. 204 Barbara Arneil, “Gender, Diversity, and Organizational Change: The Boy Scouts vs. Girl Scouts of America,” Perspectives on Politics 8, no. 1 (March 2010): 57.

205 Barbara Arneil, “Gender, Diversity, and Organizational Change: The Boy Scouts vs. Girl Scouts of America,” Perspectives on Politics 8, no. 1 (March 2010): 57. 112

Therefore, the BSA introduced a new program in 1968 in order to combat against the membership decrease and a new edition of the handbook to draw new youths into the organization. The Boypower ‘76 program intended to recruit a third of American youths into scouting programs by 1976. To assist with this task, the BSA released the 8th edition of the Boy

Scout Handbook, which altered the fundamentals of scouting in a way that the organization became less outdoor-centered. Instead, the new program focused on urban scouting and omitted much of the traditional scouting skills long valued by participants, such as camping. The 8th edition was highly unpopular with scouts and scouters and led to a greater decline in membership. The national executive board issued a new 9th edition in 1979 to hinder further decline. Boypower ‘76 ended as scheduled with lower results than expected and several cases of fraud including false troops.206

In NeTseO, black scout leaders continued to be active although black troops shrank in size. In 1969, James Dupree of Honey Grove became the second African American to receive the Silver Beaver Award for volunteer leaders. In 1987, the council dedicated its Eagle Scout class in honor of Dupree. This was the first time an African American received this honor. He continued his service to the council on the executive board as chaplain and locally as a scoutmaster in Honey Grove until his death in 1990. Joe McCarthy joined Dupree on the executive board in the 1990s.207

As experienced, middle class leadership retired or died, such as Givens who passed in

1975, Williams retired in 1970s, and Pendleton passed in 1960s, the black troops declined and disbanded. When black troops disbanded, few black scouts joined white troops. The last

206 Barbara Arneil, “Gender, Diversity, and Organizational Change: The Boy Scouts vs. Girl Scouts of America,” Perspectives on Politics 8, no. 1 (March 2010): 58.

207 2003 Annual Recognition Dinner Special Awards Souvenir Program, NeTseO Trails Council, BSA, February 28, 2003, Awards Dinner File, William C. Wilson Boy Scout Collection, Royse City, Texas, United States.

113 completely black troop in the council, Troop 305 of Commerce closed in 1971, which effectively ended black scouting in the council.208

In November 1970, Chief Justice William Wayne Justice of the United States District

Court for the Eastern District of Texas decided in United States v. Texas that segregation still existed in Texas school districts; predominantly in the eastern half of the state. Justice ruled that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) must ensure the desegregation of all public schools in the state. The TEA performed a task the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) found difficult to complete. Annual reviews conducted by the TEA, determined whether Texas school districts complied with desegregation orders and threatened to remove accreditation from school districts that continued the practice of segregation.209

In Northeast Texas, several schools faced the dilemma of desegregating in a hurry.

Sulphur Springs desegregated by court order in 1970. Paris displayed “strong segregation patterns” even in 1978. Lamar County dealt with desegregation through “white flight.”

According to scoutmaster Leon Williams, the first African American to run for a Paris ISD school board seat, “whites moved out of Paris very quickly to avoid mixing with blacks.”

Indeed, whites fled Paris for newly consolidated districts throughout the county. North Lamar

ISD in Powderly consolidated in 1970 along with Prairieland ISD near Blossom once white migrants removed from the city. Smaller school districts faced less strife concerning desegregation, many had integrated in the 1960s. However, as the population of African

Americans in smaller communities remained low due to their migration toward urban areas for commercial and industrial jobs, the integration of rural school district was a token reaction to

208 Troop 305 Roster, November 30, 1970, Troop 305 file, NeTseO Trails Collection, Northeast Texas Archives, James E. Gee Library, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas, United States. 209 Frank R. Kemerer, “United States v. Texas,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 29, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/iru02.

114 litigation demands. Therefore, smaller communities bloomed as whites invaded their school districts seeking refuge.210

In March 1970, Leon Williams campaigned for a Paris ISD school board seat. All school board seats held at-large elections and Williams lost the seat. This event and other local elections led Reverend A.M. Seamon of the Olive Branch Baptist Church, Williams, and other notable black Parisians to file suit against the City Council of Paris. Judge Justice presided over the case in 1976, which argued the equality of a municipality which required four councilmen to live in their wards and three to be at-large councilmen. City-wide elections occurred for all seven spots, which meant the small African American population would not elect a representative to the city council. Judge Justice found the arrangement unequal and redistricted the municipal government of Paris, which allowed the election a black city councilman, Walter

F. Williams, in April 1976. Later, the city council appointed Leon Williams to the Paris Traffic

Safety Commission.211

By 1976, the decline of the predominantly black neighborhoods of Paris was apparent.

Judge Justice’s decision reported a black district which was “dilapidated, tumble-down housing” with “high grass, and debris on vacant lots,” and that “hog pens and cow lots exist throughout the area.” He included that the municipality of Paris, Texas provided black neighborhoods neither sewage facilities nor proper streets. Justice remarked that a decade before, dual facilities for whites and blacks existed in all government buildings except the courthouse, which provided no

210 Leon Williams (scoutmaster) in discussion with William C. Wilson, October 2016; “Prairieland Name for New School,” The Paris News, June 19, 1970, accessed October 10, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/14254430; Carla Coleman and Roxan DeRosier, History of North Lamar Independent School District, accessed October 10, 2016, http://www.northlamar.net/upload/page/0017/docs/nlisd_history_1.21.15copyweb.pdf. 211 “Findings Released in Paris Redistricting Case,” The Paris News, March 17, 1976, accessed October 10, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13919803; “City Council Introduces Annexation,” The Paris News, March 3, 1977, accessed October 10, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/14245094; “Redistricting attorney fees cost $16,000,” The Paris News, April 25, 1976, October 10, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13739555.

115 restroom for African Americans. In 1976, the city only employed eight blacks: three police officers, five maintenance men, and no firemen. Out of three hospitals in the city, only one facility, Lamar County Medical Hospital, admitted African Americans, though through the basement.212

In 1974, the BSA settled a suit brought to court by the NAACP. The lawsuit claimed that the BSA discriminated against African Americans on the account that a troop in Utah denied a black scout advancement based on his lack of membership in the Mormon Church. The BSA agreed to establish a non-discrimination policy to officially terminate segregation in the organization in order to settle the case. However, this only affected a few councils in

Mississippi; many councils, such as NeTseO and Circle 10 already desegregated naturally or by their own non-discrimination policies. In many communities, black scouting ceased to exist altogether.213

Progressive, middle class blacks who wished to raise their children and students into the upper echelon of the middle class organized black scouting in Paris beginning in 1932. Scouters formed troops in the several communities around Paris. Teachers and ministers started troops to foster character-building and a recuperated masculinity among the youths of the community by providing more manly activities for boys to pursue. White approval of black scouting stemmed from the desire to train respectful, second-class citizens. Scouters attended trainings and

212 “Findings Released in Paris Redistricting Case,” The Paris News, March 17, 1976, accessed October 10, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13919803; 213 “Bias Order Names Scouts,” Chicago Tribune, July 30, 1974, accessed October 12, 2016, http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1974/07/30/page/13/article/bias-order-names-scouts; David C. Scott, Where Character Is Caught: A Century of Stories on Service, Scouting, and Citizenship in Circle Ten Council (Dallas, Texas: PendlandScott Publishers, 2013), 232.

116 meetings composed of primarily African American males and participated in quasi-political elections, which before, Jim Crow law prohibited them from participation.214

African American scouts and scouters participated on the war front and at home and demonstrated that African Americans held value to the military and war effort. Blacks demonstrated their support of African American scouting by raising funds for the salary of a black field executive. The three men whom held the position over the next thirty years trained with white executives at the National Training School and catered to the needs of black scouts, including promoting, recruiting, and fundraising for their benefit.215

Black scouts received a public space in Camp Musselman, a donation from a benevolent white businessman in 1943. The camp provided black youths the opportunity to swim, camp, and scout in a primarily black supervised situation. For the first time, black scouts attended an official boy scout summer camp operated by scouters trained at the National Camping School.

However, the camp director was white rather than black and the lack of experience given the average scout and scout leader left scouts with rank advancement only slightly higher than previously achieved.216

Blacks began to test the Jim Crow laws which withheld their legal rights in the early

1950s, however, segregated scouting continued but a conspicuous decline in black scout troops

214 “Negro Scout Troop Has 2nd Birthday,” The Paris News, February 11, 1934, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6009561; “Troop 14, Application For Charter For New Troop,” Troop 314 File, NeTseO Trails Council Archives, Paris, Texas, accessed March 9, 2016.

215 “Scouters Discuss Negro Field Leader,” The Paris News, March 21, 1943, accessed February 27, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9448006; 780 Negroes Boost Membership To Local Scout Organization,” The Paris News, February 8, 1946, accessed May 5, 1946, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6652790; “New Negro Scout Executive Named,” The Paris News, September 6, 1945, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/6501636.

216 “Musselman,” The Paris News, May 16, 1943, accessed March 3, 2016, http://www.newspapers.com; “Worthwhile Thing,” The Paris News, May 18, 1943, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/9454929.

117 began to emerge as churches dropped their sponsorships expecting de facto segregation to end along with de jure. White backlash, however, slowed the progression of the civil rights movement in many communities throughout the south. Schools desegregated with “all deliberate speed” and the rest of the black community awaited federal enforcement of SCOTUS decisions.

Scouting continued as before the Brown decision with little change to the status of black boy scouts in the region. Black scouts troops of Paris first attended summer camp at Camp Glover in

1958. Though not integrated, the use of equal facilities began that summer.217

In the 1960s, scouting for blacks dwindled as civil rights movement achieved success yet the black scouting and scouters that remained had high achievements due to communal confidence earned from the civil rights experience. African American scouters received recognitions from their peers in the white and black scouting community due to their long-term participation in the organization. Black scouts acquired the opportunity to attend Camp Dierks and summer camp for the first time in a segregated week, then in a mixed camp with white camps. African American boys achieved higher ranks than before due to their attendance to summer camp with white staff members, specifically, white boys as camp counselors. A black scout earned the Eagle Scout Award, the highest rank a scout may achieve, for the first time in

1965. Nevertheless, interest among African Americans in scouting dwindled once desegregation of schools finally occurred and black youths participated in far more extra-curricular activities in the school system.218

By 1970, working class blacks led black scouting and few homogenous black troops remained. Of course, white troops continued even with the decline of the once ideal American

217 Arnoldo De León and Robert A. Calvert, "Civil Rights," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 27, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pkcfl. 218 “Paris Negro Gets Eagle Scout Award,” The Paris News, October 1, 1965, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.newspapers.com/image/13819663; Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout) in discussion with William C. Wilson, September 2016. 118 family and scouting as a whole. Segregation did not keep black scouts from success, however, few scouts achieved high ranks or worldly, outdoor experiences due to the effects of segregation, particularly poverty and unequal education. Scouting failed to desegregate. As African

American troops dissolved, few scouts transferred into primarily white troops. True integration occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, when a token amount of black boys entered scouting, earned an entry-level rank, and departed due to lack of interest, parental support, or both. As historian

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall argues, “True integration was and is an expansive and radical goal, not an ending or abolition of something that once was - the legal separation of bodies by race - but a process of transforming institutions and building an equitable, democratic, multiracial, and multiethnic society.” According to Troop 300 scout, Leroy Samuels, “we lost a lot of identity by integration but I think overall integration was good, it presented more opportunities for kids.”

Scouting, as an institution, transformed in the decades after the civil rights movement but none may claim it as equitable.219

Desegregation did cause a loss of African American identity. African American businesses, schools, and scout troops seemingly vanished within a decade of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Black scouts joined other troops, which offered more opportunities for travel and advancement. Most black scouts lost interest and abandoned the organization. Troops disbanded much as schools and businesses failed. African Americans received the rights do business, work, and learn at the business, companies, and schools that previously banned their entrance. Scouting was no different yet the BSA is a social organization, scouts joined because their friends and classmates joined. Once the organization no longer appealed to black youths,

219 Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” The Journal of American History 91, no. 4 (March 2005): 1252; Leroy Samuels, Jr (scout), oral interview with William C. Wilson, October 12, 2016.

119 only a token amount of African Americans were in scouting. By 1971, the last completely black troop disbanded and the African American scout ceased as a significant component of the scout council. Black scouting, as division, returned to the existence it maintained in the 1910s and

1920s: nothing.220

The memories remain, however, for the scouts. They recall with deep respect, the leadership of their scoutmasters: their knowledge, humor, and giving spirits. They remember summer camps at Camp Glover, learning to swim and hiking through the dense woods. They recollect with pride the night they entered membership into the Order of the Arrow. They recall with honorable self-respect the day they earned their Eagle Scout Awards. Many adventures are celebrated by the memories of these men. These impressions define the experiences they had in their scouting career, which they claim shaped them into their present selves. These men grew up to serve as teachers, soldiers, and community leaders. Scouting defined them and they guided the futures of their community into the post-Jim Crow era.221

In African American scouting, dual legacies evolved in conjunction though not in harmony. Scouting’s legacy of masculinity, moral character, and outdoorsmanship spread to thousands of young men whom before only experienced life as part of the subservient culture.

The civil rights movement from its inception left a legacy of civil disobedience in the face of unjust and unequal laws. Together each movement developed an African American man that upheld a moral code and served his community. The interdependent relationship between scouting and the civil rights movement aided in the continuing battle for equality well after the last completely black troop disbanded. Scouting’s influence on African American men in the

220 Troop 305 Roster, November 30, 1970, Troop 305 file, NeTseO Trails Collection, Northeast Texas Archives, James E. Gee Library, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas, United States. 221 Theodore Mathis (Eagle Scout), oral interview with William C. Wilson, September 3, 2016; Leroy Samuels, Jr (scout), oral interview with William C. Wilson, October 12, 2016.

120 city of Paris is evident through the acts of those past scouts and scoutmasters in the African

American community and the community as a whole. Their scouting experience differed little from the experiences of white boy scouts even though they camped apart.222

222 Troop 305 Roster, November 30, 1970, Troop 305 file, NeTseO Trails Collection, Northeast Texas Archives, James E. Gee Library, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas, United States.

121

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133

APPENDIX A

TROOP 14 AND 314 ROSTER DATA

134

TROOP 14 AND 314 ROSTER DATA

Assistant Committee Year Scouts Scoutmaster Committee Sponsor Scoutmaster Chair

Joel Thomas, 1932 8 M.W. Norman Lonnie Wilson St. Paul George M. Baptist Guest Church 1933 69 Joel Thomas Lonnie Wilson

None

J.H. Allen, Rev. Joseph Brown, Dr. C.B. Brown, 1934 69 Bennie Owens, Walter Wells, L. Jefferson, A.T. Patterson

Gibbons Travis G. 1935 67 Lonnie Wilson High Givens School

H.C. Ellison, 1936 Unk. H.C. Ellison E.S. Hill

1937 59 135

1938 55

1939 56 J.H. Allen, H.C. Ellison, E.S. Hill, James M. Edgar Wilborn Lyons, 1940 71 Sanford Wilson

Group 1941 60 of Citizens

J.M. Milligan, Monroe B. 1942 Unk. Miles, Lonnie Wilson

Frank Bates, T.L. 1943 66 Wedgeworth, Rev. C.C. Wilson Gibbons George A. Jones None High School Frank Bates, 1944 53 R.E. Anthony

Frank Bates, 1945 56 R.E. Anthony, Lonnie Wilson 136

1946 32

1947 42

1948 35

1949 31 Clabon Stewart, Elois Bills 1950 27

Clabon 1951 45 Stewart

1952 21 None

James Bolden, Rev. E.W. 1953 15 Foster Stone Anthony, Lonnie Wilson 137

James Bolden, 1954 14 J.L. Parks, Lonnie Wilson

1955 12 Willie B. Lewis, Foster Stone None Lorenzo Russey, James Bolden 1956 21 George A. Jones

Lorenzo Russey, Luther Dirks, James Bolden, 1957 36 Charles E. Dabbs Franklin Oats Foster Stone, Johnnie L. Bills

George A. James Baldwin 1958 17 Foster Stone Luther Dirks Jones, Victor Bolden School Thompson

1959 29 E.H. Burns

George A. Jones, Thurman J. Carl 1960 31 Foster Stone Reese, Early Ferguson McCuin, Early William Aldridge McGinnis

1961 21 138

1962 34

1963 18 George A. Jones, Foster Stone, Early McCuin, 1964 22 Early McGinnis, Ennis Hicks, Roosevelt Garland Newton J. 1965 20 None Woods

Ennis Hicks, Roosevelt Garland, Early 1966 24 Fred Mills Newton J. McGinnis Woods, George A. Jones Billy Townsend Early McGinnis, Ennis Hicks, 1967 33 George A. Jones, Curtis Harvey Embry Newton J. Ausbie, C.J. Woods Hubert Finch, Lane Lewis Wooten, Ennis Hicks, 1968 15 Early McCuin, Newton J. Woods

George A. Earl McGinnis, 1969 7 Harvey Ausbie C.J. Lane Jones Buster Pruitt 139

C.J. Lane, 1970 7 None Earl McGinnis, Buster Pruitt

Troop Disbanded 5/6/1970

140

APPENDIX B

TROOP 300 ROSTER DATA

141

TROOP 300 ROSTER DATA

Year Scouts Scoutmaster Assistant Committee Committee Sponsor Scoutmaster Chairman 1943 19 Buford Blake Earl Joe Harris O.T. Lyons; Olive

Hancock Roosevelt Branch

Garmony Baptist

Church

1944 20 Eddie O.T. Lyons;

Beauford Roosevelt

Garmony;

Earl

Hancock;

Willie

Richard

1945 21 None Earl Hancock W.W.

Richards;

O.T. Lyons;

Joe Harris 142

1946 17 O.T. Lyons Joe Harris;

W.W.

Richards

1947 9 Joe Harris;

W.W.

Richards;

Earl Hancock

1948 21 Foster Lee Joe H. Harris;

Stone Buford

Blake;

Earl Hancock

1949 * No Data * * * * 143

1950 11 L.S. John Gordon Joe Wilhite Sam King; Mt. Zion

Littlejohn Essex Reese; Methodist

L.M. Proctor Church

1951 19 Essex Reese Joe Wilhite;

Victor

Thompson

1952 37 John Gordon Eddie Joe Wilhite;

Herman Victor

Burns Thompson

1953 35 Eddie Joe Wilhite;

Herman Victor

Burns; Thompson;

Joe Wilhite Thomas

Burton 144

1954 21 Joe Wilhite;

Victor

Thompson;

Thomas

Burton;

Mack L.

Wilson

1955 10 Lawrence Joe Wilhite;

Ford; Victor

Joe Wilhite Thompson;

Thomas

Burton

1956 0 * * * * *

1957 0 * * * * * 145

1958 0 * * * * *

1959 36 John Gordon Johnnie L. Essex Reese Victor Olive

Turner Thompson; Branch

Joe Wilhite; Baptist

Rev. W.M Church

Gibson

1960 27 Victor

Thompson;

Joe Wilhite;

Rev. W.M

Gibson;

William

Maxey;

Rev. J.H.

Harris 146

1961 26 Victor

Thompson;

Joe Wilhite;

Rev. W.M

Gibson;

William

Maxey;

Rev. A.M.

Seamon

1962 26 None Victor

Thompson;

Joe Wilhite;

Rev. W.M

Gibson;

William

Maxey;

Willie

Wortham 147

1963 40 Johnnie Victor

Mitchell Thompson;

Joe Wilhite;

Rev. W.M

Gibson;

William

Maxey;

Willie

Wortham;

McKinley

Johnson

1964 28 Gus Gill Victor

Thompson;

Willie

Wortham;

Buford

Blake;

McKinley

Johnson;

Jimmy King;

William

Wallace;

Rev. A.M. 148

Seamon

1965 14 None Ambers S. Victor

Seamon Thompson;

McKinley

Johnson;

William

Wallace;

1966 9 Gus Gill Richard Victor

Jones; Thompson;

Frank Dean McKinley

Johnson;

Melvin C.

Perry;

Webb E.

Bradford;

Claude

Mathis 149

1967 15 Frank Dean Billy Flower Gus Gill Rev. A.M.

Seamon;

McKinley

Johnson;

Buford

Blake;

Victor

Thompson

1968 12 Bobby George Rev. A.M.

Savage Wilburn Seamon;

Victor

Thompson;

William

Wallace

1969 9 John Gordon None Rev. A.M.

Seamon;

John

Wilburn;

William 150

1970 17 Ambers S. Wallace;

Seamon Victor

Thompson;

John King;

John Gordon

Troop 300 Disbanded 1970

151

VITA

William C. Wilson graduated from Texas A&M University-Commerce in August 2009 and received a Bachelor of Arts in History. In January 2011, he enrolled in the Graduate School of Texas A&M University-Commerce. As an educator, he completed his 4-8 Generalist

Certification in 2012 and became a middle school teacher. In May 2016, he completed his

Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction at Texas A&M University-Commerce. As a student in the History Department, he focuses on twentieth century United States history and

Civil Rights history, and will graduate with a Masters of Arts in December 2016. He has been employed as a classroom teacher of Social Studies and Mathematics in Tyler, Athens, and

Mesquite, Texas. He has also written a Texas State Historical Marker for “George and Myra

Wilson” of Sulphur Springs, Texas. William lives in Royse City, Texas with his wife, Brittany, and daughter, Amelia.

William C. Wilson, M.Ed.

305 Autumn Trl,

Royse City, Texas, 75189 [email protected]