Italy

TexasEscapes.com has written a simple history of Italy, Texas, with photos courtesy of Stephen Michaels. The link to that article is here: In an article written by Ashley Ford for the Waxahachie Daily Light, Feb 2019, longtime resident and Councilwoman Elmerine Allen Bell was interviewed in regards to the historic Italy Colored City Hall. A longtime Italy resident has taken steps to restore the “Colored City Hall” building that shuttered in 1965. Elmerine Allen Bell was most recently granted a historical marker from the Texas Historical Commission through the Untold Stories program. Bell sat at a small wooden table at the S.M. Dunlap Library in Italy with “Daily Light” newspaper clippings and a distressed “Ebony” magazine as she detailed the history of the Colored City Hall and the reason behind the establishment of the Italy Colored Council. She began with a photo captured by Dallas photographer R.C. Hickman who was present at the dedication of the Italy “Colored City Hall” in 1953. Hickman, who worked for “The Star-Post” Dallas newspaper, described the assignment he received via telegram and wrote, “This colored city hall was out in a field in the Black community. No paved streets, just in a field,” according to the history of Jim Crow website. That lack of infrastructure was, coincidentally, the reason behind the establishment of the Italy Colored Council. After the Black Italy leaders gathered to discuss the lack of infrastructure with the white city council members, the Colored City Hall was established in 1953 on Poplar Street. — Between 1868 and 1900, 41 Black people served in the state legislature, and helped to move the state toward democracy. — In the 1890s, for example, more than 100,000 Black individuals voted in Texas elections. But after the imposition of a poll tax in 1902 and the beginning of white primaries in 1903, fewer than 5,000 Black people voted in 1906. — Black Texans did not win another elective office until 1966, when several Black candidates throughout the state won political races. — Barbara Jordan was elected to the United State House of Representatives and was the first Black person in Texas history to represent the state in Congress. — In 1985, John Price became Dallas County’s first Black county commissioner. — In 2007, attorney Craig Watkins became the state’s first Black district attorney when he won the office in Dallas County. “A group of African American gentlemen, some who could trace their families ties and names to Ellis County plantations of the 1850s and 1860s, met in a small building on Poplar Street to strategize how to present their requests to Italy city leaders,” Bell said. The Black community of Italy consisted of Hardeman, Williams and Harris Streets and the southern half of Poplar and Clark Streets. Bell said this area had been dubbed, “The Hill.” Residents in this area did not have running water, a sewage system, nor available street lighting. “We didn’t get plumbing until 1961 until they built the school,” Bell elaborated. “I went and used an outhouse until I was 16 years old.” Elections for both city councils were held at the same time, and all residents could vote on both ballots. In the first election for a colored city council, the people elected John Henry Farrow as mayor, Nelton Tarrant as secretary, and James “Jim” Hardeman, Matthew Sweatt, Walter Smith, Edd Lee Lewis and William Costonia Jennings as aldermen. “Ebony,” a monthly magazine marketed toward the Black market has printed since 1945 and reported 1,000 white people and 400 Black people comprised the City of Italy in 1951. A cutline under the building where black city council meetings were held read, “Negro council meeting are held in this small 8 feet by 12 feet building in the center of the colored section of Italy. Of Italy’s colored population of 400, some 95 percent are homeowners and 60 percent pay poll taxes so that they can vote.” The Black mayor, John Farrow, along with six councilme