Volume 32, Number 8
August 2020
24 Pages
Lubbock, Texas 79401
Inside & in August 1st Virtual 2nd Chance Run ............... Page 11 21st Virtual Dîner en Blanc ..............Page 6 Supporting the Food Bank .............Page 2 The Caviel Museum mural .................... Page 10 High Noon Concerts ............. Page 22 Images of Valor.. Page 24
Senior Citizens Day National Senior Citizens Day is held annually on Aug. 21, a day of special recognition for all seniors. Let your favorite senior know just how special he or she is to you.
See page 24
The Caviel Museum of African American History, 1719 Ave. A, seeks to enrich life by promoting a better understanding to people of color through the arts. Pictured in the mural on the south side of the
museum are Alfred and Billie Caviel, Theodore Phea, Eric Strong, George Woods, Mae D. Simmons, E.C. Struggs, T.J. Patterson. Each person in the mural has a building named after them. (See story, Page 10.)
The Roots Historical Arts Council broke ground on the Mickey Leland Plaza on June 19. The plaza is part of the East Lubbock Gateway project which is helping develop East Lubbock. Leland was a congressman and social activist born in Lubbock. He died in 1989 in a plane crash while on a humanitarian trip to Ethiopia. Roots Board Member and treasurer Cosby Morton said the monument will highlight Leland’s fight against pov-
Last year Roots helped install a plaque in Booker T. Washington Park memorializing Lubbock as Leland’s birthplace. The Memorial Plaza is just one piece of an overall project which will cover nearly five acres of land on the north and south side of 19th Street near Avenue A. George Thomas “Mickey” Leland was an anti-poverty activist who later became a congressman from the Texas 18th District in the U.S. House of Representatives and chair of the Congressio-
Council breaks ground on Mickey Leland Plaza erty and inequality while simultaneously kickstarting the revitalization of East Lubbock. “There were stores. There were beauticians. There was a hotel on the corner. You had a dentist. You had a bootmaker. Everything was inclusive,” Morton said. “We want to not only bring it back and revitalize it, but we want to introduce people to the history. A lot of people don’t understand the black history in Lubbock, but also the history of the contributions of blacks citizens.”
nal Black Caucus. He was a Democrat. He and Barbara Jordan were among the first Texasborn African-Americans to serve in the United States House of Representatives. Leland earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas Southern University. He was born Nov. 27, 1944 in Lubbock, and died Aug. 7 1989 at 44 years old in an airplane crash in Ethiopia. Shirley Green is the ex(See Mickey Leland Plaza, Page 10)