[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 16, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1418-E1419]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    CELEBRATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF EL PASO BRANCH OF THE NAACP

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                           HON. BETO O'ROURKE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 16, 2014

  Mr. O'ROURKE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, along with Congresswoman 
Barbara Lee of California, to honor and celebrate the 100th anniversary 
of the El Paso Branch of the NAACP.
  Founded in 1914 by civil rights activist Dr. Lawrence Aaron Nixon, 
the El Paso Branch was the first branch of the NAACP established in the 
state of Texas. The El Paso Branch's long history is rich with examples 
of El Pasoans taking the lead to end discrimination in Texas.
  In 1923, the Texas legislature passed a law which prohibited African-
Americans from voting in Democratic primaries. On July 26, 1924, with 
the sponsorship of the NAACP, Dr. Nixon took his poll-tax receipt to a 
Democratic primary polling place and was refused a ballot. Thus began a 
twenty-year struggle in which Dr. Nixon and his El Paso attorney, Fred 
C. Knollenberg, twice carried their case to the United States Supreme 
Court. It was not until the landmark decision in Smith v. Allwright 
ended the white primary that the way was cleared, and on July 22, 1944, 
Dr. and Mrs. Nixon walked into the same El Paso voting place and voted 
in a Democratic primary.
  In 1955, the El Paso Branch sought to challenge the segregation 
clause contained within the state constitution. The NAACP asked Thelma 
White, valedictorian of segregated Douglass High School in El Paso, to 
challenge the law. With the assistance of the NAACP, she submitted her 
application to Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El 
Paso). Texas Western returned Ms. White's application along with her 
unopened transcripts.
  Ms. White's attorneys, including Thurgood Marshall, filed suit in 
federal district court in March 1955, claiming White's rights of equal 
access to an education had been violated. That summer, in anticipation 
of an adverse ruling from the court, the University of Texas (UT) Board 
of Regents voted to allow Texas Western to admit African-American 
students, while promising to investigate desegregating the main 
university in Austin at a later date. Ms. White's attorneys refused to 
abandon her suit, and on July 18th, Federal District Judge Robert E. 
Thomason issued a declaratory judgment on her behalf, permanently 
enjoining the UT system from denying her or any other African-American 
student the right to study at Texas Western. He further ordered all 
Texas universities to immediately desegregate. That fall, both Texas 
Western College and the main university in Austin admitted their first 
black students. In El Paso, twelve students gained admission to the 
school.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to rise with me to 
honor the El Paso Branch of the NAACP and the extraordinary work they 
have done to make our community, the State of Texas and our country a 
more just world.

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