Note: Parallel Development is a column by contributing writer Brandon Cooper about Lewisville’s rich (yet often untold) history and how it relates to the issues we’re facing today. This entry is the final part of a four part series. The first part is here. The second part is here. The third part is here.
Quote:
[...]rather we should be content if we can furnish accounts that are inferior to none in likelihood, remembering that both I who speak and you who judge are but human creatures, so that it becomes us to accept the likely account of these matters and forbear to search beyond it.
-Plato, Timaeus
After Lewisville schools integrated in 1964, history got better for the black community in Lewisville, even if historians did not. Writers in Denton County, as they did elsewhere in the south during this period, frequently examined historical events from a defensive perspective, one that passive-aggressively attempted to "reclaim" history. In his otherwise well-researched History of Denton, Texas From Its Beginning to 1960 written in 1978, C.A. Bridges frequently refers to the Civil War as the "War for Southern Independence".
As mentioned in the last entry in this series, black residents were not counted as part of Lewisville in the 1940 census. This remained true for the 1950 census, and the 1960 edition only counted 74. The 1970 census included 504, and in 1973, Lewisville elected its first black councilmember, a clergyman named Lenard Levosha Woods. Today, L.L. Woods Park is named for Woods. Bobbie Mitchell, the first black mayor of Lewisville, was elected in 1993.
But since this series has focused on "forgotten" history, it is perhaps appropriate to point out a lesser-known tale in Lewisville’s past.
In short, Roland G. Fryer’s story, as told by publications like The New York Times, is mind-blowing. Raised in Lewisville in the 1990s, Fryer spent much of his youth doing what many people do in high school: wasting time. At the University of Texas at Arlington, however, and then at Penn State University, he excelled academically, and today is one of the youngest tenured professors in the history of Harvard University. Fryer has researched various issues related to the black community from a pragmatic perspective, and his work often weaves through various fields, including economics, sociology, and psychology.
Though modern writers would eventually eliminate the kinds of dog whistle phrases that pervaded earlier local histories, they still maintain the historical focus that their predecessors established, if only subconsciously. For this reason, it is absolutely essential that we not confuse "revisionist history" with the revision of historical truth. If this series has shown anything, it is that the written history of a community can often mirror the community itself. To those who doubt the importance of a such a story, I would argue that if a few people can function as a microcosm of a community, surely the town itself can function as a microcosm of the country as a whole.
Re: Forgotten History of the Black Community in Lewisvill...
That NYT article is a great one. Long read, but worth it. For every kid like Fryer who escaped what he did, many more languish. The achievement gap is real, and it hits home here in Lewisville in our schools. But it's comforting to know that many good people are working on it, including Fryer. Maybe some of his research will be the key to turning the page on that gap some day.
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Anonymous
Posted: 2012/5/16 0:46 Updated: 2012/5/16 0:49
Re: Forgotten History of the Black Community in Lewisvill...
This has been a great read for me. I grew up in Lewisville and have enjoyed this 4 part series. Great job.
Re: Forgotten History of the Black Community in Lewisvill...
Outstanding work, thank you very much Brandon. I've lived here more than 25 years but had no idea such a history existed. It really makes me think, I mean just a few weeks ago I was on the KLB team cleaning up around the black cemetery.
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Re: Forgotten History of the Black Community in Lewisvill...
