1973 · Fort Worth
by [Texas]. [African Americana]
Fort Worth, 1973. Very good.. [7],53,[2]pp. Quarto. Original red pebbled cloth, gilt titles on front cover. Minor edge wear and rubbing to boards. Contemporary ink ownership inscription on rear pastedown, some tick marks in margins of contents listing, otherwise clean internally. A scarce work celebrating prominent African American professionals in Texas in the early 1970s, issued by the never-realized National Black Heritage Museum which was proposed for construction in Fort Worth at the time. According to the Foreword, the present work was intended as the first of a series of such publications "documenting and rediscovering the black contribution to the American heritage and to increase the awareness and appreciation of the American Black's heritage." The work was also designed to raise funds for the National Black Heritage Museum, which sadly never came to fruition. Though planned to be "revised and reissued biennially" (every two years), the present work is the only volume ever issued. The work itself features information on the National Black Heritage Museum project, a detailed, two-page biographical account of legendary Fort Worth educator and chef Lucille Bishop Smith (here celebrated as "First Merit Mother of Texas"), a long section, arranged alphabetically, containing substantial biographical accounts of over 125 prominent African Americans across the Lone Star State, almost twenty pages listing a "Who's Who [of] Churches Businesses Clubs [and] Other Organizations," and concludes with a Table of Contents. The cover title for the work reads, "Who's Who of Black Men & Women in Texas Volume I 1973." OCLC records eleven copies, at the Albuquerque (NM) County Library, Knox County (TN) Library, with the remainder in Texas, at the Rosenberg Library, Baylor, Prairie View A&M, UTSA, and the public libraries in Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, and Midland. A wonderful celebration of Black men and women in Texas during a noble attempt to create an African-American museum in Fort Worth.
(Inventory #: 4894)