The history of Del Rio includes the stories of the majority Hispanic and the minority Anglo populations. Though generally ignored in published histories, a smaller minority group of African-American Texans have lived in Del Rio from its earliest days, appearing in the first census of the community.
This exhibit of African-American Del Rio residents from the 1870's through the next century covers neighborhoods, schools, employment and families.
The original Del Rio townsite in the 1870’s consisted of a few city blocks near and south of what is now South Main Street and Canal Street. To the east of the San Felipe Creek was the ethnically segregated San Felipe neighborhood populated by people of Mexican ancestry. African Americans made up a small portion of the community’s population, but the segregation of that era situated Del Rio’s black population into three segregated neighborhoods.
LOSOYA NEIGHBORHOOD
The oldest of the three neighborhoods, where most Black Del Rioans lived was on the north east side of town. This neighborhood is described as Block 4, Range 3, North Del Rio (what is now Sacred Heart Catholic Church). The entire west side of the block, Block 4A, was owned and occupied by Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The east side of the block, Block 4B, was subdivided into 20 small separate lots. Most city blocks of that size were dived into only 12 lots. The unusual manner in which the lot was divided may have been to maintain a segregated neighborhood. By the 1940’s the neighborhood was effectively eliminated. The lots were consolidated and then sold. Today the entire Block 4 is owned by Sacred Heart Church.
Photo courtesy of DelRioData.com
DIGNOWITY NEIGHBORHOOD
The second black neighborhood is embedded within a larger Mexican neighborhood known as Chihuahua, named for the Mexican home state of many of the residents. This neighborhood was less compact and restrictive, only because a black neighborhood embedded in a Mexican neighborhood was of little concern to Anglo city planners. The Dignowity neighborhood centered on property owned by Hal Patton, an African American who came to Del Rio in the 1880’s. In 1910, according to the Census, only a handful of “Negro” residents were established on the 300 and 400 blocks of Dignowity. By 1930, there were 97 African Americans living in the Dignowity neighborhood compared to 53 living in the Losoya neighborhood. This neighborhood still exists today and is bounded to the north by warehouses facing the railroad tracks, and south by public school land and a public housing project.
Photo courtesy of DelRioData.com
DE LA ROSA NEIGHBORHOOD
The third black neighborhood was embedded with another large Mexican neighborhood know as San Felipe. The De La Rosa neighborhood emerged in the 1930’s with only a handful of black Del Rioans living in the San Felipe area. By the 1950’s there were 10 black households and a segregated colored school. There were no concrete binderies to this neighborhood as the period of lawful segregation was ending.
Photo courtesy of DelRioData.com
During the early twentieth century, the education of African Americans in Del Rio was of such little concern to the Angelo community that it was barely acknowledged in historical writings. A 102-page history written during the 1930’s spent only a few sentences on the subject. Regardless of the community apathy, the African American community in Del Rio organized to educate their youth.
BRACKENRIDGE SCHOOL
In 1901, “trustees for the colored people of Del Rio” purchased a lot on the corner of Pulliam and Greenwood streets to be used as a school and community hall. In 1904 the school was leased to Del Rio Independent School District and operated under its authority. One teacher ran the school, as teacher and janitor. The school was very small, inadequate and unsanitary. It was clear that the Del Rio School Board did not support the colored school when they refused to even pay for a new outhouse. It wasn’t until 1929 that sanitary toilets were installed. The school later closed in 1930 due to non-payment of taxes to the City of Del Rio. The property was then sold, the building razed and replaced with residential property.
Photo from Whitehead Memorial Museum Archives
TARVER SCHOOL
In 1930, the Del Rio Independent School District Board proposed a bond to finance new facilities, including a new segregated schoolhouse. The bond was passed and a new one room schoolhouse was built, but it and its students were never a school district priority. Even in the 1940’s, the school had very few books or other equipment. There was no library and textbooks in user were out-of-date. The faculty equaled two in 1940 and jumped to four during the 1950’s. In 1951, the school then known as Brackenridge was changed to Tarver School when long time teacher/principal W.H. Tarver passed away. The school closed in 1954 after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Brown v. Board of Education. Del Rio Independent School Districts integration process was orderly and non-violent, but took many years become completely desegregated.
Photo from Val Verde County Historical Commission
LANGSTON SCHOOL
The San Felipe Independent School District, the prominently Hispanic school district, also segregated black students. In 1934 property was purchased to build a two room schoolhouse. The school, named for Langston Hughes, an African American writer, was located on De La Rosa Street between Plaza and Waters Streets. With only one classroom, the school employed only one teacher at any time. The school had no principal. The teacher taught students from grades one through eight. Students wanting to continue beyond the eighth grade were force to attend high school elsewhere, such as the Del Rio I.S.D.'s Tarver School or go out of town. . The school closed in 1954 after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Brown v. Board of Education. The San Felipe School District also integrated gradually and the students seem to have been accepted into classes, clubs, and extracurricular activities.
Photo from Whitehead Memorial Museum Archives
The variety of occupations for African Americans in Del Rio was limited. In the early 1900’s, most employment was grunt work such as rail road laborer, stock herder and hack driver. By 1910, there was a variety of employment such as cooks, laundresses, nurse, carpenter, teacher, tailor and waiter.
HAL PATTON
Hal Patton came to Del Rio in the 1880’s as a teenager driving cattle for Benjamin Borrum, an early Del Rio rancher. In the 1890’s, Patton purchased farmland between Greenwood Street and San Felipe Creek, on the south side of the original black neighborhood. In 1917 he subdivided and sold that land to a number of white Del Rioans who began building homes there. Patton then opened the Patton Labor Agency. The agency found jobs, often as ranch hands and cooks, for Del Rio’s black and Mexican population.
Photo from Whitehead Memorial Museum Archives
BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES
There were few black owned businesses in Del Rio. Most provided food, liquor, and entertainment.
Everybody’s Café – Long standing restaurant and beer joint originally owned by Hal Patton and run by a variety of African American entrepreneurs over the decades, finally closing in the early 1960’s.
Ed Bass’ Place – a tamale store in the 1940’s owned and operated by Ed Bass. He started with only a rolling push cart in the 1930’s. During WWII, Bass sold tamales to the soldiers on troop trains that stopped in the railroad yard. Porters on the train would tell soldiers that the best food could be bought from the black guy for twenty five cents for a dozen.
Nunley Dance Hall – a restaurant and dance hall owned by Luther and Stella Nunley during WWII. After the war, it became Teentown, a kids’ dancehall with cards and Games.
Garrett’s Chicken Shack – a restaurant owned by Norman and Stella Garrett located in the San Felipe neighborhood. The restaurant was open from the 1940’s to the 1990’s. Musical acts such as BB King are said to have played at the Chicken Shack.
Photo from Whitehead Memorial Museum Archives
LEAVING DEL RIO
Most members of the town’s African American community were not business owners, but rather employees. During the 1950’s there were few jobs for the youth and they either left to larger cities such as San Antonio or joined the military. One Del Rio resident who left was Sid Blanks. Blanks became the first black football player in the Lone Star Conference and the first at an integrated college in Texas when he played at Texas A&I in 1960. Blanks played professionally for the Houston Oilers, Boston Patriots, and Washington Red Skins. Lance Blanks, son of Sid Blanks, born in Del Rio, played professional basketball for the Detroit Pistons and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Larvell Blanks, Sid’s brother, went to the big leagues from Del Rio too. Larvell played short stop and second base for the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers.
Photo from Whitehead Memorial Museum Archives
Del Rio was organized as an agricultural community with most of the property owners engaged in farming. A handful of Anglo landowners were farmers, while most other community members were labors of some sort.
EARLY FAMILIES
In 1870 the Census counts exactly four black persons living in Del Rio. They were Julia Uroan age 16, Jane Pafford age 17, Luz Pafford age 16 and Alfred Roach age 30. All four were from Tennessee. The Southern Pacific Railroad’s construction crews’ arrival in 1881 increased Del Rio’s population ten-fold. The Rail Road did employ a large percentage of Del Rio’s black community.
Photo from Whitehead Memorial Museum Archives
BLACK SEMINOLE INDIAN SCOUTS
Other African Americans came to Del Rio from Fort Clark in Brackettville. Fort Clark was the home to the Black Seminole Indian Scouts from 1872 until 1914. The 1900 Census lists a handful of Del Rioans as born in Indian Territory with Mexico or Florida family members. These are most likely Black Seminole families. Because of their Spanish language skills and their families in Mexico, Scouts were comfortable in the Spanish speaking San Felipe neighborhood. The 1930 City Directory specifically lists retired Scouts Thomas Daniels and John Jefferson as “U.S. Pensioned.” Other Scouts and their descendants – Paynes, Fays and Julys for example – were scattered through the community.
Photo from Whitehead Memorial Museum Archives
THE MILITARY
Another group of African American soldiers lived in Del Rio for a short time during the 1910’s. Soldiers with Company C of the Twenty-Fourth Infantry were stationed in Del Rio to protect the citizens from raids. Another group of temporary residents was from Laughlin Army Air Field. During WWII, about 123 African American soldiers with the 332nd Aviation Squadron were stationed at Laughlin AFB.
Photo from Whitehead Memorial Museum Archives
This exhibit is an adaption of "African-American Del Rio" by Doug Braudaway in the Journal of Big Bend Studies and produced by the Whitehead Memorial Museum.