African-American Experience in Southern New Mexico

Terry Moody and Clarence Fielder

The African-American Experience

African-Americans have been significant to the history of southern New Mexico since the 1860s. The earliest African-Americans to spend more than a short period of time in the New Mexico Territory were troops of black soldiers—the famous “Buffalo Soldiers”—sent by the government near the end of the Civil War.[1]  After a series of Indian raids against white settlers, the government sent four black regiments and their white commanders to protect the settlers, defeat the Indians, and then gather them onto reservations. Fort Selden, approximately 20 miles north of Las Cruces, was the station for many black infantry regiments from 1867 to 1891, when the fort was decommissioned.[2] None of these soldiers settled in Las Cruces, but a number of soldiers stayed on and worked as cowboys on area ranches.[3] Many soldiers, upon returning to homes in the South shared their experiences of life in the New Mexico Territory with family and friends. These stories possibly influenced some black individuals and families to migrate to the New Mexico Territory in the late 1800s. The black migration to New Mexico Territory is reflected in the population records of the United States Census. These records indicate that in 1850 only 22 blacks were living in the New Mexico Territory. These numbers grew gradually to 85 blacks in 1860, and 172 in 1870. By 1880 the number expanded dramatically to 1,015, reaching 1,956 in 1890.[4]

A number of forces caused the migration of black families to the Southwest.[5] In 1876, federal troops were withdrawn from the South, leaving freedman to cope with the “Black Codes” enforced by many southern states. Freedman had little opportunity to make a living as laborers and tenant farmers, as wages were low and rent for housing and land high.[6] Future crops often became collateral to pay for immediate subsistence needs. Between 1875 and 1880, many African-Americans migrated to Kansas, as part of a movement called the “Exodusters.” Other smaller groups left the South to live in Missouri, Colorado, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakota Territory, and Mexico. African-Americans continued to leave the South to escape Jim Crow statutes and extreme racial prejudice through the 1920s, moving to areas in the North, Midwest and the Southwest, where they sought employment opportunities and the chance for a brighter future. Nonetheless, in 1900, the black population in New Mexico declined by approximately 350 individuals, with 1,610 individuals listed; this number increased slightly to 1,628 in 1910. Between 1910 and 1920, however, there was a dramatic increase in blacks migrating into New Mexico. The population more than tripled to 5,733 by the 1920 census. However, by 1930 there is a dramatic decline in the New Mexico black population to 2,850, a loss of approximately 3,000 individuals.[7]

After the Atchison-Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was built in the 1890s, public service jobs opened up for many African-Americans in New Mexico. When the railroad extended to El Paso, African-Americans who earned their income from the rail service moved to Las Cruces, some taking positions in local hotels as chefs, waiters, and maids. Moreover, a number of African-Americans migrated with white farmers and their families as their servants. Reconstruction of the early migration of African-Americans to Las Cruces has been gleaned from early census records dating from 1900-1920, city directories, and a few church documents. Some migration stories have been passed down to family members, and have been recorded in oral histories or shared during interviews with Las Cruces historians.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a number of African-Americans and their families migrated to Las Cruces. Many African-Americans made their home in Las Cruces as servants of migrating white families. A few black families came to farm land for white landowners or became tenant farmers. A handful established businesses.

Emory Douglas Williams is typical of this early migration pattern. In 1896, Mr. Williams, who had tuberculosis, moved from St. Louis, Missouri to Las Cruces, bringing his wife, Annie.[8] Annie nursed E.D. back to health in a tent she erected on the banks of the Rio Grande.[9] After regaining his strength, E.D. opened the Star Barbershop behind the Murillo house at 818 North Mesquite. Williams also invested in property, including a farm on Idaho Street, north of Wyatt Drive, and Annie farmed their 640 acres of highway frontage.[10]

Between 1900 and 1912, African-Americans continued to move into Las Cruces, where they began new lives in a variety of livelihoods. A Mr. Batties, for example, established a trash collection and janitorial service that proved to be a prosperous venture that employed many young local boys.[11] With his team of horses, he also cleared the land along Alameda Boulevard where present day Alameda Junior High School is located. Daniel Hibler moved from Texas to Las Cruces to work as the chef for the Don Bernardo Hotel, on North Main Street, owned by the Freudenthal family.[12]  His wife, Ollie, also worked as a maid for the Don Bernardo Hotel[13]. In 1909, Ollie gave birth to a baby girl, Gertrude, the first black child born in Las Cruces.[14]

The 1910 census lists 54 blacks living in Las Cruces, many of them newcomers.[15] Doña Aña County is recorded as having a population of 65 blacks and 12,817 white.[16] A number of blacks had migrated from Texas, and other newcomers came from eastern and southern states. Many came to work as waiters, cooks, truck drivers, laborers, porters, and ranch hands. Typical of these newcomers were George and Louise Anderson, originally from South Carolina, moved to Las Cruces, where George worked as manager of a farm. W. D. Slater, his wife Stella, and their son came from Louisiana, to rent their own farm. Mr. A. (name not known) and Noele Toney, and their nephew, Brian, arrived from Florida. Mr. Toney worked as manager of the Park Hotel. J.B. Levy, age 74, originally from Tennessee owned Levy Barbershop. John Hughs, age 35, originally from England, came with his wife Ellen from Louisiana. Mr. Hughs owned Hughs Barbershop.[17] In 1940, Ellen worked as a cook for Dr. McBride.[18]

The Las Cruces African-American community continued to grow, with many families moving from Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. The 1920 census reports that 78 blacks, (43 males, and 35 females) were living in Doña Ana County.[19] Many of the adults served as laborers and domestic workers, as well as ranch-hands. In 1912, Pleasant H. Billingsly moved his family from Marion, Oklahoma, to escape the boll weevil infestation,[20] and found work as a custodian at the Post Office and the Masonic Temple.[21] Jerry Smith worked as a horse wrangler for a cattleman in New Mexico, and transported his chuck wagon around the state at roundup time.[22]

Other families listed in the 1920 Census include Amos. J. Brooks, who owned a grocery store and ice cream parlor on North Church Street. His wife, Georgia, was a teacher for black children at the East Mesa School. For a while, W. T. (Bill) Anthony was the only blacksmith in Las Cruces, and he owned the Valley Welding Service, on the corner of Hadley and Church Street.[23] William de Groff owned a tailoring business and lived with his housekeeper, Mrs. Mary Edmond, on Water Street.[24]

In the 1920s, the Homestead Act also brought a number of African-American to the Las Cruces area, where they established homesteads approximately six to ten miles north of Highway U.S. 70, east of Las Cruces. Homesteaders included John Henry Sweet, George Holsome, Edward Strait, Robert Anderson Pettes, Jasper Williams, E. Daily, L.E. Hibler, Marshall Edwards, and the Coleman, Hester, Hughs, Owens, Joner, Steward, and Welch families.[25] Jasper Williams filed for 640 acres near Las Cruces. His wife, Clarabelle, was hired to teach African-American children at Phillips Chapel and Booker T. Washington School when Las Cruces schools became segregated.[26] The Williams raised three sons who became physicians.[27] When Robert and Ella Pettes moved to Las Cruces they worked as sharecroppers for a farm on El Paseo Road—now El Paseo Street—where Las Cruces High School is now located.[28] Later, the Pettes family homesteaded 640 acres that proved to be a valuable source of water.[29] The Pettes also played an important role in establishing the Community Cemetery for African-Americans in the 1940s.

Between 1920 and 1930 the black population in Doña Ana County increased nine-fold, from 78 to 649 individuals.[30] This figure held fairly steady through 1970, when 700 African-Americans lived in Las Cruces.[31] In 1980 there was a modest increase to 810, with additional 400 arriving in 1990 with a total of 1,211 African-Americans listed.[32]

Phillips Chapel CME Church

Since its construction by African-Americans and Hispanics in 1911 the chapel has been a focal point for the African-American community as a gathering place for community events.[33] Named after the Right Reverend Charles H. Phillips, the first presiding bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, Phillips Chapel CME Church is the oldest African-American church in Las Cruces.[34]

In the early 1900s, African-Americans settlers were making Las Cruces their home. Early settlers, members of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, first worshipped in the home of Daniel and Ollie Hibler. Later, LuElla and Cortez Hibler, James Dykes, A.J. Brooks, and Priscilla and John Hibler rented a small frame building at the corner of Campo Street and East Court Avenue, where the African- American community worshipped. Services were held there until the present chapel was built.[35] The church’s first minister, Rev. T.C. Cook, came from Denton, Texas.[36]  As the African-American population of Las Cruces continued to grow, a permanent place of worship was needed. Daniel Hibler purchased the land on which Phillips Chapel CME Church was built for $45.00 and had it deeded to the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America on May 1, 1911.[37]

Brief profiles of the founders (A. J. Brooks, Daniel and Ollie Hibler, LuElla and Cortez Hibler) of Phillips Chapel have been included above under the historical context of the African-American community.[38] LuEllen and Cortez were homesteaders. The family of Daniel and Ollie Hibler had the most consistent history with Phillips Chapel.[39] Ollie and Daniel were active in the CME Church and often hosted the CME District Conferences at their home.[40]

Phillips Chapel served the Las Cruces African-American community as a civic and social center throughout its history. The church held Easter programs, provided Christmas treats, and sponsored Children’s Day.[41] Clarence Fielder remembers attending various social activities held at Phillips Chapel when he was a child, and speaks fondly of “youth groups, ice cream socials, and hobo parties where we’d go house to house dressed as hobos and come back to have picnics with the food and goods we collected”(46).[42] Many African-American couples were married in the chapel, and their children “sprinkled” (christened) there.[43] Other activities, such as plays, dramas and Song Fests were held. In recent years, Phillips Chapel has hosted the annual Martin Luther King service in January, sponsored by the Southwest Ministerial Alliance and a Black History Month service in February.[44]

A School for Black Children

In the 1920s, as the result of a political climate influenced by newly arrived, landholders from states where “Jim Crow” laws had been the norm, some small communities of the Southwest established segregation laws and removed African-American children from the public schools.[45] Clarence Fielder, historian for the Las Cruces African-American community and grandson of Ollie and Daniel Hibler, have pointed out that not all school districts in New Mexico became segregated. Only schools in the southern part of the state, east of Deming, became segregated during the 1920s, including those in Las Cruces, Hobbs, and Alamogordo.[46] In 1925, the state of New Mexico passed legislation regarding segregation of schooling.[47] Section 1201 of the legislation states:

That where, in the opinion of the County School Board or Municipal School Board and on the approval of said opinion by the State Board of Education, it is for the best advantage and interest of the school that separate rooms be provided for the teaching of pupils of African descent, and said rooms are so provided, such pupils may not be admitted to school rooms occupied by pupils of Caucasian or other descent. Provided further, that such rooms set aside for the teaching of such pupils of African descent shall be as good and as well kept as those used by pupils of Caucasian or other descent, and teaching therein shall be as efficient. Provided further, that pupils of Caucasian or other descent may not be admitted to the school rooms so provided for those of African descent.” [Emphasis in original.]

Las Cruces School District proceeded to segregate in 1924, when thirty to thirty-five children were removed from the Central Elementary School to receive educational instruction in Phillips Chapel CME Church(52).[48] Gertrude Hibler Fielder, daughter of Ollie and Daniel Hibler, recalled being moved from Central Elementary School to attend “classes with other black children at the little Methodist church her father had built”.[49] The only former notation that Phillips Chapel was serving as a school for “colored children” is found in school board minutes of August 24, 1924. In reference to the hiring of janitors, the minutes state that “no arrangements [have been] made for care of the colored church.” The next reference made in regards to a separate school for African-American children is found in the school board minutes dated June 1, 1925. The board “moved that Mrs. Williams at a salary of nine hundred dollars be elected to fill position as negro teacher.”

After Phillips Chapel began serving double-duty as a school and church, two small rooms—mere “tar paper shacks”—were moved to the intersection of N. Tornillo Street (two blocks to the north) and Pinon Avenue.[50] Minutes of a special board meeting held on August 21, 1925, discuss “locating a site for the colored school.” In the September 7, 1925, regular board meeting minutes discussion was held concerning the economic feasibility of moving two buildings from Southward School to the new site for colored schools, stating that the proposed cost might exceed the bid. The board agreed to move the buildings “at the least possible expense”.[51] The small structures at N. Tornillo Street and Pinon Avenue represent the first construction of Booker T. Washington School and are no longer in existence.[52]

Phillips Chapel CME Church, under the title of Lincoln High School, continued to serve in the education of young African-American adults until 1934.[53] Board minutes of May 10, 1926, list the hiring of teachers and salaries. It may be inferred that Mrs. Gertrude Terrell (col) [sic] to be paid $990 and Mrs. C. B. Williams (col) [sic], at $945, served as instructors at the newly moved colored schools and the chapel school. Gertrude Hibler Fielder recalled Mrs. Terrell as one of her teachers when she was a student at Phillips Chapel.[54] Thirty students graduated from Lincoln High School (Phillips Chapel), and their teachers were Ms. Treveland, Ms. Gertrude Terrell, and Ms. Willie Moses.[55]

In 1934, the new Booker T. Washington School was built on Solano Street. The new school consisting of four adobe rooms served both the elementary and secondary educational needs for African-American children until integration occurred in 1954 following the Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.[56] Phillips Chapel continued to serve as a place where baccalaureate services were held when African-American students graduated from the segregated Booker T. Washington School.[57] The original structure of Booker T. Washington has since been replaced by a modern structure.[58] Phillips Chapel CME Church is therefore the only extant building associated with the history of segregation of African-American school children in Las Cruces.

While the Las Cruces Public Schools were once segregated, the African-American population was not forced to live in segregated neighborhoods.[59] The African-American community always lived in a mixed African-American and Hispanic neighborhood close to downtown Las Cruces throughout the historic period. Some members of the community farmed homestead acreage in the East Mesa area.

Membership at Phillips Chapel stands less than ten now, most elderly.[60] Their attendance at weekly services expresses the strong bond they feel with the church and one another. Mary Bishop, age 81, came to Las Cruces when her father accepted the position of the minister for Phillips Chapel in 1952. She continues to worship there and reminisces about the Sundays when every seat in the church was filled. In the 1950s, the Sunday School Record Book listed twenty families as members of Phillips Chapel, plus visitors.[61] The congregation has dwindled over the years; many of the early parishioners have died, and others have moved away.[62] Other African American churches in Las Cruces serve the community now, as well. In 1913, the Bethel Second Baptist Church was built at 405 E. Hadley Avenue; the original building was replaced in the 1970s. In the 1970s,[63] Mount Carmel Baptist Church was formed at 955 S. Bellamah Loop. The Philathia Seventh-Day Adventist, 1351 N. Tornillo Street, the Church of Christ, and the Greater St. John Church of God in Christ, 1615 N. Mesquite Street, also serve the Las Cruces African-American community.[64] Phillips Chapel CME Church is the oldest serving needs of the African-American Community.

Phillips Chapel CME Church has served its African-American community in diverse ways over its history, and for many has represented a safe haven in which to escape a sometimes hostile and alienated daily existence, and still functions as a place of community, where friends discuss their families and their lives, and meet in worship.

 

African American Experience in Southern New Mexico

 

(c) Terry Moody and Clarence Fielder. All rights Reserved.