Watchdog Dave Lieber shares a story of Southlake tolerance, only it happened 70 years ago.
By Dave Lieber
An eyewitness this week told my favorite Texas story. It’s about the Jones Cafe, remembered as the first integrated cafe in Texas. It was situated in what’s now Southlake. The cafe opened in 1949 when integration across America was quite uncommon.
William Jones was guest speaker at the Grapevine Historical Society. He is the son of the original cafe owners. This is how Jones, 82, a musical conductor and professor, told the story of his family’s cafe beside his family’s auction barn.
“When the cafe first opened, they just had it open on the first [auction] sale days. And all they did basically was just serve coffee, and they had some sandwiches. Then it became a full-time cafe where it was open six days a week, not open on Sundays. And it would open up usually at 7 a.m., and then it would be open until the last customers left in the evening, usually about 10 or 10:30 p.m.
“They sold breakfast, lunch and also dinner. When they first started out, basically it was the cowboys that came to the sale barn. Then it stayed open all during the days, not just sale days. [The cafe served] a lot of the traffic on Highway 114. There was nothing between Roanoke and Grapevine in those days. The cafe was right in the middle, about halfway.
“So a lot of the regular traffic on 114 would stop by for lunch, dinner, desserts. And a lot of truckers would come by. And in those days a lot of the overland truck drivers were Blacks, and they would come around to the back door to see if they could get something to eat. And my mom Elnora and Aunt Lula — they were sisters — they ran the cafe.
“But they would just tell them, ‘No, you go around to the front, and we’ll serve you.’
“They said, ‘Well, we can’t do that.’
“And they would say, ‘Yes, you can because we own the place.’
“Historically, people are saying, it’s the first integrated cafe in the state of Texas. And there was never any question about it. It didn’t matter. We never had a single incident that I’m aware of. Someone would come in and sit down by a cowboy at the counter or at a table. Everybody would eat and talk and go right on.
“In a way it was a more civil time then compared to what we’re experiencing now. I think now we find people become quite angry very quickly. And that was not necessarily the case right after World War II. I think we were all coming out of the Depression, coming out of a terrible war. People found a way to find the humanity in others.”
Trying to put this decades-old story into the context of modern Southlake is a difficult dilemma. Southlake’s national image is sullied by a series of events that some say paints the town as insensitive to the concerns of people of color.
For years, Carroll ISD students have complained that the mostly white, quite wealthy town has been uncaring and unresponsive to non-whites’ ongoing concerns.
The issue changed the course of the town and its well-regarded school district. Several rookie members of the Carroll school board are considered national experts now on how to take over school boards and block anti-racism initiatives.
The feds are investigating potential civil rights violations. And the district settled a lawsuit filed by a parent. The settlement blocks Carroll from imposing its cultural competency training and also disbands the district’s diversity council.
Capping it off, NBC News produced a multi-episode podcast on Southlake’s problems.
When you hear the story of the Jones Cafe as told by William Jones, as I did this week, it becomes obvious that Southlake has struggled to build on its tolerant past. Originally, the town was among the most tolerant.
The cafe closed in the early 1970s. Southlake later named its park and nature center after Jones’ grandfather, Bob Jones, a former slave who became a wealthy landowner and respected community leader.
Three months ago, at Bob Jones Park, the city unveiled a statue of Bob and his wife, Almeady.
The Watchdog tells this story in the hope that the city and its schools can heal. History should not be forgotten or covered up. I say, look to the past to fix the future.
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