Home of John & Mary Woods at Mesa & Mills
You are at Historias: El Paso's Black History, Site #2: Home of John & Mary Woods at Mesa & Mills.
John and Mary Woods were El Paso’s first Black entrepreneurs, building a network of prosperous businesses in the wake of the Civil War. Born in 1830 to slavery in Richmond, Virginia, John Woods came to El Paso sometime during the Civil War and was freed from slavery in 1865 when the war ended. The same year, Mr. Woods opened a blacksmith shop in El Paso and established his first successful business, including casting the bell that is still in use at Saint Clement’s Episcopal Church today. As his blacksmithing business grew, Mr. Woods began purchasing other land, eventually opening a bar on East Overland Street, boarding house, and grocery store on El Paso Street and operating a stagecoach line that ran from El Paso to Chihuahua City, Mexico. In addition to his own enterprises, Mr. Woods also worked as a constable at various times. During the 1870s, he met and married Mary Velar, a freed slave from Missouri, and in 1894, the two purchased an adobe home on 200 St. Louis St. and Utah St. (now known as Mesa Street and Mills Avenue, where the Park Tavern stands today). Just a few years later, in 1898, Mr. Woods told his wife that he was going to take care of some business in town and a few hours later was declared dead by the recently established El Paso Police Department. According to the police, Mr. Woods was heavily armed and threatened the policeman who shot him. However, neighbors stated that the policeman had shot Mr. Woods in the back and that he was neither armed nor drunk. Mrs. Woods lived in their Mesa and Mills home until her death in 1914. At the time of her death, Mrs. Woods was the wealthiest Black person in El Paso, and the property where Woods’ home was located—originally purchased for $3,500—was valued at $150,000. The couple did not have any children, and Mrs. Woods’ nephew, Allen Woods, served as the executor of the estate.
Sources: “John Woods” from Concordia Cemetery; “Mary Woods, Richest El Paso Negro, Dies” from the El Paso Times (Weekend Edition January 31 – February 1, 1914)
Support for this project is provided by Art Bridges as part of DelArt’s Black Survival Guide, or How to Live Through a Police Riot exhibit on display at the El Paso Museum of History through July 22, 2022. The Museum of History is located at 510 N Santa Fe Street, is free admission, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM.
Commissioned from conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, Black Survival Guide is an innovative, participatory exhibition that draws attention to the "holes" in narrative history through the melding of words and pictures. To complement this exhibit, the El Paso Museum of History has installed six QR codes throughout downtown and central El Paso to recognize sites of local Black history.
Image Description: This photo shows a newspaper print from the weekend of January 31st- February 1st, 1914. The biggest headline of the newspaper says “Mary Woods, Richest El Paso Negro, Dies.” The subheading of the article reads Woman Who Was Born a Slave Leaves an Estate Worth $160,000”. The story is about Mary Woods and her life accomplishments in El Paso. The El Paso Herald also has various other stories in this photo, such as “Foreign Butter Makes Price Drop”.
Area:
Central / Downtown
Source:
El Paso Times
Uploaded by:
El Paso Museum of History
Mary Woods Place of Residence - 200 St. Louis St. and Utah St. (now Mills and Mesa)
You are at Historias: El Paso's Black History, Site #2: Home of John & Mary Woods at Mesa & Mills.
John and Mary Woods were El Paso’s first Black entrepreneurs, building a network of prosperous businesses in the wake of the Civil War. Born in 1830 to slavery in Richmond, Virginia, John Woods came to El Paso sometime during the Civil War and was freed from slavery in 1865 when the war ended. The same year, Mr. Woods opened a blacksmith shop in El Paso and established his first successful business, including casting the bell that is still in use at Saint Clement’s Episcopal Church today. As his blacksmithing business grew, Mr. Woods began purchasing other land, eventually opening a bar on East Overland Street, boarding house, and grocery store on El Paso Street and operating a stagecoach line that ran from El Paso to Chihuahua City, Mexico. In addition to his own enterprises, Mr. Woods also worked as a constable at various times. During the 1870s, he met and married Mary Velar, a freed slave from Missouri, and in 1894, the two purchased an adobe home on 200 St. Louis St. and Utah St. (now known as Mesa Street and Mills Avenue, where the Park Tavern stands today). Just a few years later, in 1898, Mr. Woods told his wife that he was going to take care of some business in town and a few hours later was declared dead by the recently established El Paso Police Department. According to the police, Mr. Woods was heavily armed and threatened the policeman who shot him. However, neighbors stated that the policeman had shot Mr. Woods in the back and that he was neither armed nor drunk. Mrs. Woods lived in their Mesa and Mills home until her death in 1914. At the time of her death, Mrs. Woods was the wealthiest Black person in El Paso, and the property where Woods’ home was located—originally purchased for $3,500—was valued at $150,000. The couple did not have any children, and Mrs. Woods’ nephew, Allen Woods, served as the executor of the estate.
Sources: “John Woods” from Concordia Cemetery; “Mary Woods, Richest El Paso Negro, Dies” from the El Paso Times (Weekend Edition January 31 – February 1, 1914)
Support for this project is provided by Art Bridges as part of DelArt’s Black Survival Guide, or How to Live Through a Police Riot exhibit on display at the El Paso Museum of History through July 22, 2022. The Museum of History is located at 510 N Santa Fe Street, is free admission, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM.
Commissioned from conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, Black Survival Guide is an innovative, participatory exhibition that draws attention to the "holes" in narrative history through the melding of words and pictures. To complement this exhibit, the El Paso Museum of History has installed six QR codes throughout downtown and central El Paso to recognize sites of local Black history.
Image Description: This photo shows a page from the 1905 El Paso City Directory, which has people’s names and their addresses. Here you can see Mary Woods and her nephew, Allen Woods, names and address highlighted in yellow. Their house located at 200 St. Louis Street. The ad from the directory is organized in alphabetical order with different ads for services mixed in between the names.
Area:
Central / Downtown
Source:
El Paso Museum of History
Uploaded by:
El Paso Museum of History
San Jacinto Plaza looking across St. Louis (Mills)
This view from San Jacinto Plaza shows both the domed City Hall Building and the first of the County Courthouses located in the City of El Paso. The Hotel Orndorff can be seen on the far left of the image (was later replaced by the Cortez building).
Administrator Note: Across the street from the Hotel Orndorff, John and Mary Wood adobe residence is in view, located at 200 St. Louis St. and Utah St (now Mills Ave. and Mesa St., located where park and tavern is today).
John and Mary Woods were El Paso’s first Black entrepreneurs, building a network of prosperous businesses in the wake of the Civil War. Born in 1830 to slavery in Richmond, Virginia, John Woods came to El Paso sometime during the Civil War and was freed from slavery in 1865 when the war ended. The same year, Mr. Woods opened a blacksmith shop in El Paso and established his first successful business, including casting the bell that is still in use at Saint Clement’s Episcopal Church today. As his blacksmithing business grew, Mr. Woods began purchasing other land, eventually opening a bar on East Overland Street, boarding house, and grocery store on El Paso Street and operating a stagecoach line that ran from El Paso to Chihuahua City, Mexico. In addition to his own enterprises, Mr. Woods also worked as a constable at various times. During the 1870s, he met and married Mary Velar, a freed slave from Missouri, and in 1894, the two purchased an adobe home on 200 St. Louis St. and Utah St. (now known as Mesa Street and Mills Avenue, where the Park Tavern stands today). Just a few years later, in 1898, Mr. Woods told his wife that he was going to take care of some business in town and a few hours later was declared dead by the recently established El Paso Police Department. According to the police, Mr. Woods was heavily armed and threatened the policeman who shot him. However, neighbors stated that the policeman had shot Mr. Woods in the back and that he was neither armed nor drunk. Mrs. Woods lived in their Mesa and Mills home until her death in 1914. At the time of her death, Mrs. Woods was the wealthiest Black person in El Paso, and the property where Woods’ home was located—originally purchased for $3,500—was valued at $150,000. The couple did not have any children, and Mrs. Woods’ nephew, Allen Woods, served as the executor of the estate.
Sources: “John Woods” from Concordia Cemetery; “Mary Woods, Richest El Paso Negro, Dies” from the El Paso Times (Weekend Edition January 31 – February 1, 1914)
Image Description: This photo shows the view above San Jacinto Plaza looking southeast. There are many different ads for businesses shown in the picture on buildings, and there are multiple people sitting in the plaza as well as some on horse and carriage in the street.
Area:
Central / Downtown
Source:
El Paso County Historical Society
Reference ID:
021-1984-002.
Uploaded by:
El Paso Museum of History
Gravestone of John and Mary Woods at Concordia Cemetary
You are at Historias: El Paso's Black History, Site #2: Home of John & Mary Woods at Mesa & Mills.
John and Mary Woods were El Paso’s first Black entrepreneurs, building a network of prosperous businesses in the wake of the Civil War. Born in 1830 to slavery in Richmond, Virginia, John Woods came to El Paso sometime during the Civil War and was freed from slavery in 1865 when the war ended. The same year, Mr. Woods opened a blacksmith shop in El Paso and established his first successful business, including casting the bell that is still in use at Saint Clement’s Episcopal Church today. As his blacksmithing business grew, Mr. Woods began purchasing other land, eventually opening a bar on East Overland Street, boarding house, and grocery store on El Paso Street and operating a stagecoach line that ran from El Paso to Chihuahua City, Mexico. In addition to his own enterprises, Mr. Woods also worked as a constable at various times. During the 1870s, he met and married Mary Velar, a freed slave from Missouri, and in 1894, the two purchased an adobe home on 200 St. Louis St. and Utah St. (now known as Mesa Street and Mills Avenue, where the Park Tavern stands today). Just a few years later, in 1898, Mr. Woods told his wife that he was going to take care of some business in town and a few hours later was declared dead by the recently established El Paso Police Department. According to the police, Mr. Woods was heavily armed and threatened the policeman who shot him. However, neighbors stated that the policeman had shot Mr. Woods in the back and that he was neither armed nor drunk. Mrs. Woods lived in their Mesa and Mills home until her death in 1914. At the time of her death, Mrs. Woods was the wealthiest Black person in El Paso, and the property where Woods’ home was located—originally purchased for $3,500—was valued at $150,000. The couple did not have any children, and Mrs. Woods’ nephew, Allen Woods, served as the executor of the estate.
Sources: “John Woods” from Concordia Cemetery; “Mary Woods, Richest El Paso Negro, Dies” from the El Paso Times (Weekend Edition January 31 – February 1, 1914)
Support for this project is provided by Art Bridges as part of DelArt’s Black Survival Guide, or How to Live Through a Police Riot exhibit on display at the El Paso Museum of History through July 22, 2022. The Museum of History is located at 510 N Santa Fe Street, is free admission, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM.
Commissioned from conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, Black Survival Guide is an innovative, participatory exhibition that draws attention to the "holes" in narrative history through the melding of words and pictures. To complement this exhibit, the El Paso Museum of History has installed six QR codes throughout downtown and central El Paso to recognize sites of local Black history.
Image Descriptions:In this photo, the gravesite and headstone of Mary and John Woods is shown, located at Concordia Cemetery. The headstone is made of three different sizes of stone: two small stones on top of a triangle shaped stone with leaves and vines cut into it, which rests on top of a large square stone, which is on top of a small rectangle. The giant square stone in the middle has John and Mary’s names as well as their birth and death dates.
Area:
Central / South Central
Source:
El Paso Museum of History
Uploaded by:
El Paso Museum of History
1965–66 Texas Western Miners basketball team
The image shows the 1965–66 Texas Western Miners basketball team. Front row (from left to right): Bobby Joe Hill, Willie Worsley. Second row (from left to right): Dick Myers, Louis Baudoin, David Lattin, Nevil Shed, Harry Flournoy, Jerry Armstrong, Willie Cager, Togo Railey, David Palacio, Orsten Artis.
The 1965–66 Texas Western Miners basketball team made history by winning the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. Coach Don Haskins lined up an all-black team, which defeated the favored Kentucky Wildcats (a team that was all-white) 72-65 in the historic championship game, played at Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland on March 19, 1966. No major-college team had ever started five black players in an NCAA championship game, which is why this game is considered one of the most important ones in the history of college basketball.
The civil rights movement to end discrimination against blacks was in full swing. Although institutional racial segregation was outlawed since 1954, it was still common to find all-white college sports teams, particularly in the South.
Texas Western University (now UTEP) was little known outside the Southwest and additionally, in 1966, American cultural and sporting mythology insisted at least one white starter was necessary for success. Although never having watched the Miners play, some sportswriters supported those racist prejudices. The legendary coach of Kentucky, Adolph Rupp, had even vowed five blacks would never beat his team.
Consequently, the team faced many issues because of their color: Not only the Kentucky team was all-white, but also the crowd was white, so were the NCAA officials, the referees, the coaches, the cheerleaders and almost all the sportswriters on press row. After their win, no one brought out a ladder for them to cut down the net. Nevil Shed had to hoist up Willie Worsley so he could do the honors.
The win soon grew into a symbol for blacks' breakthrough into college sports. After the 1966 championship, college teams throughout the South began aggressively recruiting black athletes. All-white leagues like the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southwestern Conference and Southeastern Conference became integrated within the next two years.
Adolph Rupp, a very successful coach, never got over the defeat. He blamed it on different things, and even accused the Texas Western team of cheating.
Don Haskins (1930-2008) coached the Miners from 1961 to 1999 when he retired. Nicknamed “The Bear”, he led the Miners to 719 wins, as well as a national title (1966), 14 NCAA Tournament appearances and seven Western Athletic Conference championships. He has tutored numerous players who have gone on to play in the NBA (e.g. Antonio Davis, Tim Hardaway, Jim Barnes). Haskins always said that color of skin was never an issue but he wanted to start his best players. While blacks couldn't play at most Southern and Southwestern schools in the mid-1960s, Haskins welcomed them at Texas Western, recruiting them from New York City, Detroit and Gary, Ind. The head coach was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997, and the Jim Thorpe Association Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.
The championship team of 1966 was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and inspired the book and film Glory Road. It consisted of seven black players, four whites and one Hispanic.
Image Description: In this black and white photo, the Texas Western Basketball Team are standing shoulder to shoulder and smiling at the camera for a team photo. There are 2 players are kneeling in the front of the photo while 10 other players pose standing. They are all wearing tank tops with "Texas Western" embroidered along with their respective player number, shorts, long white socks and white sneakers.
Area:
Central / University
Source:
C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections, University of Texas at El Paso Library. Collection Name: MS001. Photo ID: MS001-66basketball-folder2-04.
Uploaded by:
UTEP Library Special Collections
Henry O. Flipper, 1856 - 1940
Henry Ossian Flipper, engineer, the first black graduate of West Point, the eldest of five sons of Festus and Isabella Flipper, was born a slave at Thomasville, Georgia, on March 21, 1856. He attended school at the American Missionary Association, and in 1873, as a freshman at Atlanta University, he was appointed to the United States Military Academy. Although Flipper was the fifth black accepted to West Point, he was the first to graduate. At West Point he was often ostracized and had little social interaction with white cadets beyond official activities. He graduated fiftieth in a class of seventy - six on June 14, 1877, and accepted a commission as a second lieutenant.
In 1881, while serving as commissary, Flipper discovered post funds missing from his quarters and attempted to conceal the loss until he could find or replace the money. The missing funds were part of what Flipper suspected “a systematic plan of persecution,” a plot by white officers to force him from the army. The following year, when Col. William Rufus Shafter learned of the discrepancy, Flipper was court martialed. Although Flipper was acquitted of embezzlement, he was found guilty of "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" and was dismissed from the service on June 30, 1882. Until his death, Flipper maintained his innocence and waged a lifelong battle for reinstatement in the army. However, President Chester A. Arthur made a final confirmation of the verdict on June 24, 1882 which was rescinded in 1976 by the Department of the Army.
Despite a rocky start, Flipper went on to have an illustrious career. Flipper went to El Paso after his army dismissal and remained there until 1883; returning once again in 1912. He opened a civil and mining engineering office in Nogales, Arizona, published translations of U.S. and Mexican mining and tax laws. By 1893, Flipper became pivotal witness for the US in the Nogales de Elias Land Grant case, which saved the property of hundreds of land owners and also served as a special agent for the United States Court of Private Land Claims. Thereafter, Flipper worked as an engineer and legal assistant in Northern Mexico, and eventually became an assistant to the Secretary of the Interior as a translator and interpreter in 1921. His final years (1931-1940), after working in Venezuela as an engineer, were spent in retirement in Atlanta, Georgia. Flipper died May 3, 1940 from a heart attack. Later, in 1976, a bust of Flipper was unveiled at West Point and he was posthumously granted an honorable discharge, dated June 30, 1882. Presently, an annual West Point award in honor of Flipper is presented to the graduate who best exemplifies "the highest qualities of leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties while a cadet."
Image Description:In this black and white photo, the main subject of the photograph is positioned in the center for a portrait. He is a young African American man, his hair parted down the middle, and stares into the camera with a stern expression. He is wearing a light colored military jacket with button clasps all throughout the chest and torso. He is in a relaxed position and is leaning his left arm, bent at the elbow on the edge of a loveseat or couch.
Area:
Central / Downtown
Source:
Library of Congress
Uploaded by:
El Paso Museum of History
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