Former ‘Colored School’ receives designation

By SANDRA TUMBERLINSON
San Benito Historical Society

The State of Texas has awarded the Callandret Black History Museum an official Texas Historical Commission Marker for the “Joe Callandret Colored School 1921” at 305 Doherty St.

According to officials with the San Benito Historical Society (SBHS), the San Benito Economic Development Corporation (SBEDC) was instrumental in providing funds for the San Benito Historical Society to make the marker a reality.

The marker dedication and unveiling ceremony begins the 2024 Black History Month celebration with a tour of the original black school museum at 9 a.m., Feb. 17, 2024 followed by a performance of the Buffalo Soldiers from San Antonio, and ends with the unveiling of the marker at 10 a.m.

The guest speaker at the ceremony is former student of the Callandret Colored School, and San Benito native son, Willie Earl Smith from Austin. “The Man with a Patch,” as Willie Earl is called, gained national attention when he was invited to the second inauguration of President Barak Obama, with whom he is pictured prominently in the Museum.

When then Senator Obama was campaigning for President of the United States in Austin, they met while the Senator stayed at the Hyatt Regency Hotel where Willie Earl was head of security.

Smith operated the elevator that Senator Obama used at the hotel. Smith gave Senator Obama his U.S. Army Airborne Ranger patch he wore on his uniform during the Vietnam War, and asked him to keep the patch because it had given him good luck for 40 years. Smith said that he wanted to share his good fortune with the Senator.

After President Obama was elected for a second term, he recalled his encounter with Smith and extended an invitation to the inauguration and to a private meeting with him in the Oval Office. Smith, who was raised in the El Jardin neighborhood and attended this all-black, segregated school, was the guest of the President.

After the dedication of the Historical Marker in San Benito, the public is invited to the Harlingen Convention Center at 11:30 a.m. where the Buffalo Soldiers will perform again before the luncheon and speaker conclude the 2024 Black History Month event.

What was meant to be a small gathering of friends exchanging memories several years ago has become a yearly conference focusing on Cameron County’s Black History — mainly San Benito and Harlingen — where Lonnie Davis was born and now lives. “The house where I was born is still standing on Winchell Street in the El Jardin neighborhood of San Benito. That’s Freddy Fender’s old barrio, and I remember him well. We all played together outside, but when it came to school, we separated.”

Sandra Tumberlinson of the San Benito Historical Society reports, “The colored children gathered in small neighborhood rooms and even in the ice house for instruction before a wooden building by the railroad tracks was constructed in 1921 by the San Benito school district. Until it blew away in the 1933 hurricane, it was the only school for San Benito’s black children.”

Davis and his friends recall teacher Myrtle Faye Jackson’s strict classroom management and credit her for his early education. “I knew I was going to get a whipping every time Mrs. Jackson came to dinner because my grandmother always asked her about my behavior at school,” Davis recalls. Those good memories, and the support of his lifelong friends, inspire Davis to organize yearly events to observe Black History Month.

The day’s events end in Harlingen with keynote speaker and Harlingen native, Mary R. Benton, Director of Communications for Houston Mayor John Whitmire. Benton ensures all citywide communications align with the administration’s goals and objectives and oversees all functions of the mayor’s communications office, including public and media relations, ceremonial documents, social media strategy, and compliance with the Texas Public Information Act. She is a Harlingen High School graduate, Class of 1983.
Davis says he will continue to plan Black History Month events as well as serve on the Callandret Black

History Museum Board because, “We’ve been here a long time, more than 100 years — we’re here now, our roots are established, our presence is valued, and our future is growing.”