A brief history of racism in #Southlake @Carrollisd ? #flashbackfriday #texashistory #HB3979 “By the 1860s, there were lots of things around here for settlers to fight- illness, insects, hardship, Comanche Indians, and starting in 1861, the Yankees.” (Images of America: Southlake by Connie Cooley and the Southlake Historical Society) Early Southlake settler…
Why I Can’t Support Justin Chon’s Film “Blue Bayou”
As someone who has advocated strongly for Asian American representation in media as well as passage of the Adoptee Citizenship Act, I wanted to support Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou film. Although skeptical about a non-adoptee leading this project, I hoped they had done the proper legwork and community outreach to tell this critical story…
J.L. Chow Was Here
J.In 1874, J.L. Chow opened Chow Chow Laundry at 904 Elm Street. He was the first person of Asian descent to be listed in the city directories. By 1891, 41/49 laundries in Dallas were Chinese-owned. Fueled by decades of bigotry, a propaganda campaign was initiated against Chinese laundries by White competitors. The…
Carroll ISD, Do The Right Thing.
I was racing against the clock at Wednesday night’s Carroll ISD school board meeting. Here is the full text of what I originally prepared: My name is Stephanie Drenka, and I graduated from Southlake Carroll Senior High School in 2004. Some of your children may have been lucky enough to have my…
Where is Jue Lee Hong?
Earlier this month, I went on an expedition to find the burial site of Jue Lee Hong, a Chinese laundry proprietor, whose tombstone was the last remaining Chinese grave marker in Greenwood cemetery. The story of Chinese laundrymen in Dallas was a huge part of my @DallasTRHT research, and I wanted to pay respect…
Bob Jones & His Family Deserved Better
John Dolford “Bob” Jones was the son of a White man named Leazer Alvis Jones and Elizabeth, a Black woman enslaved by Leazer. When he was a child, he helped freedom seekers escape slavery by hiding them in a cave. Following the Civil War, Bob was granted freedom by his father and…