Marble Falls church, museum celebrate Black History Month

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE STAFF

MARBLE FALLS — Bessie Jackson still recalls as a young woman in the late 1950s not being allowed to try on a dress in a store while other women could.

The reason: Jackson’s black.

“Kids today, they don’t understand what it was like,” Jackson said. “They say, ‘Oh, I would have called the police’ or ‘I would have tried it on anyways.’ It wasn’t like that. You couldn’t just do it because it was against the law.”

Jackson wants young people of all races to understand what being black meant at one time in this country: a life of segregation, a life of lower-class stature, a life of little opportunity.

“If you were black, there were just things you couldn’t do or be,” she said. That continued even through the 1960s and ’70s. When her own daughter faced being excluded from the high school dance squad in the early 1970s because of her race, Jackson took it upon herself to right that wrong. Her daughter, a good student, needed teacher recommendations to participate in the squad’s shows. But when Jackson saw seven teachers gave “nos” to her daughter’s recommendation, the mother — and future school board and city council member — knew something was wrong.

“My daughter was only taking four classes at the time and working the other half of the day, so how could she have seven teachers not give her a recommendation,” Jackson said. “Come on.”

After pressing the issue, Jackson’s daughter earned a spot on the team and was one of the members who helped lead it to national acclaim.

“I just think people should know what it was like,” Jackson said. “It was real.”

That’s why she puts a lot of effort into Black History Month, which is February. This year, she’s helping the Falls on the Colorado Museum by providing materials for the museum’s program and display later this month.

Darlene Oostermeyer, the museum’s board chairwoman, shares a vision like Jackson’s when it comes to local black history.

“This community was built by blacks and whites both,” Oostermeyer said. “The stories are intertwined, and we need to share them. And like Bessie, I want to educate the kids and youth about our history. Right now, there seems like such a disconnect between kids and their history.”

The museum and St. Frederick Baptist Church, of which Jackson is a member, are holding events to highlight black history.

The museum, 2001 Broadway in Marble Falls, is holding a program and exhibit Feb. 21, which includes a performance by the St. Frederick youth choir at 2 p.m.

On Feb. 28, St. Frederick, located at 301 Ave. N in Marble Falls, is holding a black history event that will feature live music as well as programs on black culture, heritage and spirituality. It’s an opportunity for the public to learn about black Americans who they may have never heard about but who made a mark on the nation.

Each Sunday, during St. Frederick’s services (9:45-10:45 a.m. for Sunday school followed by an 11 a.m. church service), many of the congregation’s women will be donned in traditional African attire. And a church member will share a moment in history highlighting a black person’s contribution to the community, nation or world.

And while there are still struggles today, Jackson said things have definitely improved for blacks.

“People can do whatever they want,” she said. “I tell the kids that it’s up to them, how hard they are willing to work, which decides how far they go.”

For other people, Jackson said she hopes they come to learn the value of all people, no matter their race or ethnicity.

“I hope they learn that we’re not just servants and that we have minds and we have contributed to America in so many ways,” she said.

Go to www.stfrederick.com for more information on the church and www.fallsmuseum.org for more information on the Falls on the Colorado Museum.

daniel@thepicayune.com