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Q. February is Black History Month. I’d like to know more about prominent African Americans from Texas.

Last week’s column highlighted A. two African American Texans of note. This week we meet two more prominent African American women from Texas.

Azie Taylor Morton was the first and only African American to serve as United States Treasurer. Born in Dale on Feb. 1, 1936, Taylor never knew her father. Her mother was deaf and she was primarily raised by her grandparents. Because there was no African American high school in Dale, she went to a charity-sponsored school for black children in Austin, the Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School. After graduating at age 16, Morton attended Huston-Tillotson College in Austin, graduating cum laude in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree in commercial education. She applied to graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin but was denied admission because she allegedly needed more undergraduate courses. When she applied to enroll in the undergraduate classes, she was refused admission because the university did not enroll African Americans. (TSHA)

Morton spent a short time teaching at a school for delinquent girls after she graduated from college in 1956. After this, she returned to Huston-Tillotson to serve as assistant to the president of the college for a short time. In 1957, she applied and was hired as a staff member for the new Texas AFLCIO, a major labor union. She later moved to Washington to serve on President John F. Kennedy's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, beginning 20 years of service in the public sector that culminated with her appointment in 1977 by Jimmy Carter as Treasurer of the United States, a position she held until 1981.

Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft, civil rights activist, was born on Feb. 9, 1902. Her grandparents were slaves. Her father was a high school principal, and her mother was a teacher and seamstress. After attending Prairie View College and Samuel Houston College in Austin, she taught kindergarten and worked as a drugstore clerk in Galveston, from 1922 to 1925. She moved to Dallas in March 1925 where she lived for the rest of her life.

Despite her college degree, her first job in Dallas was as a bell maid at the Adolphus Hotel from 1925-1934. Fifty-two years later, she would return to the Adolphus to announce her candidacy for re-election as city council representative place 6. (U.S. Department of the Interior)

In 1935, Craft joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) before becoming the Dallas membership chair in 1942 and the Texas field organizer in 1946. Over 11 years, Craft organized 182 branches of the NAACP. In 1944, she became the first African American woman to vote in Dallas County in a public election! In 1954, Craft began assisting in the organization of protests and pickets over segregation.

In 1955, she organized a protest of the State Fair of Texas against its policy of admitting blacks only on “Negro Achievement Day.” Following the Brown v. Board decision, Craft worked to integrate the University of Texas Law School and the Dallas Independent School District. She later fought and won to help enroll the first black student at North Texas State College, now the University of North Texas. (U.S. Department of the Interior) Between 1975 and 1979, she served on the Dallas City Council for two terms. The Juanita Craft Foundation was established in 1985 to further her ideals. She died on Aug. 6, 1985 and was buried in Austin. The Craft Foundation donated her home to the Dallas Park and Recreation Department. She had no children but claimed to have “adopted the world.” (TSHA)

For more information on noted Black Texans, visit the San Marcos Public Library. Some suggested books are:

• “Bricks Without Straw: A Comprehensive History of African Americans in Texas,” edited by David A. Williams

• “Black Texas Women: 150 years of trial and triumph” by Ruthe Winegarten

• “The Slave Narratives of Texas,” edited by Ron Tyler, Lawrence R. Murphy.

For information on the internet, I recommend these websites:

• Texas Black History Calendar: pvamu.edu/ tiphc/texas-black-history-calendar/

• Black Past: blackpast. org/

• Texas State Historical Association. (n.d.). TSHA. Retrieved Jan. 31tshaonline.org/handbook/entries

• Azie Taylor Morton Biography. Austin, American, Treasurer, and Texas - JRank Articles. (n.d.). Retrieved Jan. 31, from biography.jrank. org/pages/2423/Morton-Azie-Taylor.html

• U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Juanita J. Craft (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. Retrieved Feb. 1, 2022, from nps.gov/people/jjcraft.htm

Suzanne Sanders is the new columnist for the library. She is the Community Services Manager for the San Marcos Public Library and came from the Austin Public Library in 2015 after having served there as a librarian for over 20 years. She gratefully accepts your questions for this column.