00:00:03.720 - 00:00:22.170

Yeah and if you could mute when you're not speaking, that'd be good. Okay, well welcome everyone to our Friday "Doc Talks." I'm Dr. Caleb McDaniel,

00:00:22.170 - 00:00:32.380

the chair of the History Department here at Rice University and also one of the co-chairs with my colleague, Dr. Alex Byrd of the task force on "Slavery Segregation and Racial Injustice."

00:00:32.380 - 00:00:42.700

And we're so glad that you've decided to spend your lunch hour today talking with us about the history of Rice University and some of the work that the task force is doing.

00:00:42.700 - 00:00:56.830

This is I think our sixth, is that right? We've reached half a dozen of these shows. We meet every Friday at noon at the same Zoom link and invite you to come back and join the discussion with us

00:00:56.930 - 00:01:08.250

about the work that the task force is undertaking. We also have some exciting other events coming up. Dr. Byrd, do you wanna tell us about some of those? I will,

00:01:08.250 - 00:01:23.550

though I was all prepared to just drop things into the chat. But I can shift gears. I'm really excited about the second part of our webinars on "Black at Rice."

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A little more than a week ago we did one that featured the task force, organized one featuring alumni at the university, and that was phenomenal.

00:01:33.260 - 00:01:46.750

And it's now available online if you missed it and I'll drop that in the chat a little later, but coming up this week on October 22nd, starting at six o'clock,

00:01:46.750 - 00:01:56.150

we're doing the second part of "Black at Rice" that focuses on current students. I love the alumni, I love 'em. But current students?

00:01:56.150 - 00:02:13.990

Yeah, that's even better. How can that not be better? So, here's the link and we hope to see you there. We've got a great bunch of students, eight lined up

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to speak about their current experiences here at Rice but also their hopes for the Rice that they'll leave for other students. It's gonna be moderated by Dr. Eden King,

00:02:28.940 - 00:02:41.980

who's a member of the task force. And there'll also be remarks by Catherine Clack who is associate dean of undergraduates at the university and also the longtime director of Multicultural Affairs.

00:02:44.050 - 00:02:56.140

Great, so please make your plans to join us and check out the website for other upcoming events. We're also recording these "Doc Talks," and very soon hope to be debuting a podcast

00:02:56.140 - 00:03:06.150

where you can download episodes of past "Doc Talks" and catch up if you haven't been able to be at some of the earlier ones. Today, we're very excited to have joining us

00:03:06.150 - 00:03:15.340

some special guests for this "Doc Talk" from the Racial Geography Project which is a research collective that's being led by Dr. Fabiola López-Durán,

00:03:15.340 - 00:03:26.230

of the Art History Department and the magister of Hanszen College along with Adrienne Rooney in the Art History Department. And this is just an exciting group

00:03:26.230 - 00:03:37.220

of undergraduates and graduate students. I think a couple of dozen, if I have the numbers right, that have been working since this summer to do research on the racial geography of campus.

00:03:37.220 - 00:03:46.960

And what that means is thinking about the built landscape of the campus and also the connections between Rice and various places outside of Houston as well

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and what they aluminate about race and racial injustice here at the university. And so we're very grateful for the work that they're doing. Dr. Byrd that's become a highlight of my Sundays

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is getting to tune into the meetings of the Racial Geography Project and hear about what they're uncovering. Which is just another example of the point

00:04:08.860 - 00:04:21.930

I was trying to make earlier. The best things about Rice are always the students. Well, tell us about who we have today. So here today, we're gonna be hearing from Morgan Seay,

00:04:23.010 - 00:04:34.850

Sumin Hwang and Anthony Nguyen. And they are three. I think they're, you know, actually in a working group together on the Racial Geography Project

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and we're gonna do our normal thing but before we do our normal thing, because they are our guests today we also wanna hear just a little bit about them.

00:04:46.960 - 00:05:04.760

So we'll start with Morgan if you could introduce yourself and how you got involved with this work with the Racial Geography Project. So hello, like Dr. Byrd said, my name is Morgan Seay

00:05:04.760 - 00:05:17.370

and I'm a junior here at Rice. So I got involved with the Racial Geography Project because Fabiola is actually my magister from Hanson college. And I think over the course of my sophomore year

00:05:17.370 - 00:05:27.300

so last year we began to have a lot of conversations I think at Hanszen regarding race and then Rice's history as it relates to race. And so over the summer,

00:05:27.300 - 00:05:35.300

in the midst of all the things that were going on, Fabiola reached out to me and she told me about this project. And I think I specifically was very interested in this

00:05:35.300 - 00:05:45.850

as a black student and not really understanding or not really knowing the history of Rice as it relates to race. And so I was really interested in that.

00:05:45.850 - 00:05:56.960

And then, yeah, I just decided to hop on. Thank you so much, Sumin. Hi, my name is Sumin Hwang. I am a junior studying our history in Visual Art.

00:05:57.970 - 00:06:10.980

I got involved with the project over the summer when Dr. Fabiola Lopez Duran and Professor Adrienne Rooney in the class that they're co-teaching this semester. Hart three 15 in activism.

00:06:10.980 - 00:06:18.690

And the work of this collaborative, this initiative it is heavily intertwined with the work of that class. And so people who were enrolled

00:06:18.690 - 00:06:26.380

in the class were invited to come work on the initiative throughout the year. And so that's how I got involved with the project. Thank you, Anthony.

00:06:27.510 - 00:06:35.310

Hi everyone. I'm Anthony, I'm a junior at Hampton studying Art History and Statistics. I got involved with the Racial Geography Project

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much for the same reason assuming Morgan did. I'm again, a junior at Hanszen. And so Fabiola reached out to not just student leaders at Hanszen, but also

00:06:45.710 - 00:07:00.970

like Sumin said, people within the Art and Activism Class. And so I thought it was a really great idea to again learn more about the history of our campus and really uncover maybe the not so savory aspects of it.

00:07:04.520 - 00:07:11.750

Great, well, thank you so much. I'm so glad that all of you have gotten involved in doing this work and we're looking forward to learning from you about some of the documents

00:07:11.750 - 00:07:25.340

that you've uncovered in your research. Why don't we start Sumin with the document that you brought because I think it connects them to our conversation at last week's "Doc Talk," when we were discussing a parade

00:07:25.340 - 00:07:37.120

and a reunion that happened here in Houston almost exactly 100 years ago bringing 1,000s of Confederate Veterans and their supporters to Houston for a huge reunion here.

00:07:38.510 - 00:07:50.990

And the document that you have talks about the involvement of some Rice students in events surrounding that parade. So would you like me to pull up the article about that in particular?

00:07:50.990 - 00:08:01.680

I know you sent a couple of different pages. Oh yeah, that page is perfect. Great, okay. So I'm gonna pull up the newspaper page

00:08:01.680 - 00:08:13.100

and sort of continuing the theme from last week. What we have here. It looks to be a page from a newspaper from the Houston Post from October 7th, 1920.

00:08:14.460 - 00:08:23.600

So I think that would have been the Friday of our, sorry, it's the Thursday morning. It says there at the top, of this week of reunion events

00:08:23.600 - 00:08:30.960

in Houston surrounding the Confederacy. And so what I'm seeing when I pull this page right away is some references, some articles

00:08:30.960 - 00:08:42.920

to a lot of the events that were happening that week. There's an article that talks about inmates of the Jefferson Davis Home, which was sort of a veterans retirement organization

00:08:42.920 - 00:08:53.200

that were there in Houston. There's also a description of 10,000 people who crowded into the City Auditorium to hear a show called, "Memories of Dixie."

00:08:53.200 - 00:09:05.640

And then as you scroll down on the page in a smaller item right underneath that description about "Memories of Dixie," there's an article headlined Rice Institute Students

00:09:05.640 - 00:09:18.250

to parade Friday night. And so, Sumin, what drew you to this document or interested you about it when you first came across it? Yeah, so this parade

00:09:18.250 - 00:09:30.560

and also the United Confederate Veterans Memorial Weekend more broadly was definitely a point of interest for our group from the beginning, mostly because our group is also heavily looking into this,

00:09:30.560 - 00:09:41.420

something that Anthony will talk about later but the influence of the Klan, the KU Klux Klan both at Rice and at the greater Houston Area. And as Dr. McDaniel and Dr. Byrd talked about last week.

00:09:42.290 - 00:09:52.200

The parade is also largely known as the event in which the Houston Chapter of the Klan made its first public appearance. And so the parade that happened

00:09:52.200 - 00:10:06.830

that Friday evening has been a large point of research interest for us since the beginning. And this article is the first indication that I found at least that I've found that discloses explicitly

00:10:06.830 - 00:10:16.870

that Rice students were present and participating in the actual parade which was the largest event of the weekend. And so there, which is something that wasn't covered

00:10:16.870 - 00:10:26.260

in the thresher interestingly enough because the thresher had, as we know from last week's document covered other events that were related to Rice's kind of involvement

00:10:26.260 - 00:10:37.180

with the weekend and also Confederate Memorabilia more in general, but this like rather small article in the Houston Post proves that there was student involvement in student groups

00:10:37.180 - 00:10:46.260

or student groups involved in the parade, which contributes to questions about student attitudes towards incidents or histories of racial violence,

00:10:46.260 - 00:10:53.260

which is also something that we've been looking into as a group. Just kind of thinking about different acts of historic racial violence

00:10:53.260 - 00:11:02.980

on the campus and thinking about wider student attitudes. I think it's interesting to see that the Rice Routers Club which was a rather large athletic club at Rice during the time that was present

00:11:02.980 - 00:11:13.580

had a lot of Rice's athletic events and football games it's kind of like the student cheering section was the group that was chosen or it's unclear whether or not they were chosen by a larger administration

00:11:13.580 - 00:11:22.070

or whether or not they actively signed up themselves. But I did think that it was interesting that it was this group in particular that was present at the parade.

00:11:22.070 - 00:11:31.740

And yeah, and I think it's also interesting because it does name a specific group but at the same time, like, there's that specificity but there's also a vagueness

00:11:31.740 - 00:11:41.670

and that there's no specific explanation as to what this group's relationship is with the Confederate Legacy or with the parade in general how they got into this program.

00:11:41.670 - 00:11:50.280

And yeah. Very interesting. So, the article, just for the benefit of maybe those who aren't able to pull it up on the screen,

00:11:50.280 - 00:12:01.080

discusses students from this Rice Routers Club who it says we'll feature on the Confederate Reunion Final Program Friday night which is also the Eve of the opening

00:12:01.080 - 00:12:10.920

of the football season of the Rice ALS that particular year. And it mentions that on Saturday they were going to be facing Baylor on the Institute Football Field

00:12:10.920 - 00:12:23.050

which last week we talked about the fact that the front page of the thresher featured an article about the Baylor Football Game next to an article about veterans from the Confederate Reunion coming

00:12:23.050 - 00:12:34.210

to the Institute Campus and touring some of the buildings. So this article kind of connects those two events in a way and suggests to me maybe an answer to one of the questions we had last week

00:12:34.210 - 00:12:41.880

about who Shorty was? I think that was his name. The well known Shorty? The well-known Shorty who was going

00:12:41.880 - 00:12:51.700

to be leading some cheers or leading some yells on the campus when veterans came. And so that helps me what you were saying Sumin and a little bit about the Rice Routers Club

00:12:51.700 - 00:13:05.800

and their role as a cheering squad to imagine maybe what this group was doing as they paraded. It's interesting, you know, you do have any sense of why the Football Cheering Club might have been included

00:13:05.800 - 00:13:14.820

in this Confederate Reunion Event? Is there anything you missed in this article the first time you saw it that you kind of keep coming back to and wondering about?

00:13:16.530 - 00:13:26.670

I don't know if there's anything in this article in particular, but that kind of line of thinking has definitely opened up a different like line of inquiry in the work that we've been doing

00:13:26.670 - 00:13:36.640

since we've kind of found that this relationship between like Rice Routers Club in particular and also the parade. I've been looking more into like legacies of racism

00:13:36.640 - 00:13:49.840

and legacies of racial violence within Rice Athletics. And that was something that we had kind of found early on too, but we had kind of observed it more surface levelly just

00:13:49.840 - 00:14:01.070

because like, in some instances it's very clear like for example, the athletics, I don't know if stadium is the correct word, but at one point was referred to very regularly as Klan Hall

00:14:01.070 - 00:14:08.850

like Klan with the K, Hall in multiple instances of thresher. And so we had kind of noticed that there were undertones of Racial Violence

00:14:08.850 - 00:14:18.070

and the ways that athletics were discussed and presented within student media but kind of looking further into that yes, field house. That's a very good term

00:14:18.070 - 00:14:26.400

but also there are also multiple accounts, for example like racist entertainment used during halftime shows like Klan Dramas or Blackfriars performers.

00:14:26.400 - 00:14:38.020

And then later in like the mid 20th century or so athletic games and the presence specifically of the Confederate Flag athletic games becomes a great point of controversy

00:14:38.020 - 00:14:45.720

within the student body and that becomes a great point of discussion about Confederate legacies particularly at student athletic events.

00:14:45.720 - 00:14:58.710

So there does seem to be this like lengthy history of racism as involved with Rice athletics and also specifically related to the Confederacy. So that's what we've kind of been looking into

00:14:58.710 - 00:15:08.860

using this article in this relationship as basis. That's very interesting. Thank you for sharing that. You know, I noticed as I'm looking at this article too

00:15:08.860 - 00:15:22.670

it describes the name of one of the officers, I guess in the Houston Rice Boosters which was probably a organization I'm imagining outside of the university that would boost the football team.

00:15:22.670 - 00:15:32.300

And it's named him as the district manager of the Southland Life Insurance Company. So immediately I'm wondering a little bit about the Southland Insurance Company

00:15:32.300 - 00:15:44.400

and why that name was prominent maybe in their marketing. That could be interesting to look into but I know there was also another sort of Klan affiliated Houstonian

00:15:44.400 - 00:15:54.540

who published the Klan Newspaper in Houston Colonel Mayfield's weekly, who I believe was also a booster of sorts of the Rice Football Team.

00:15:54.540 - 00:16:09.400

And so it could be some interesting lines to explore there about support for the football team as you're suggesting, and these connections with Confederate memorialization or the activities of the Klan in the 1920s.

00:16:09.400 - 00:16:21.610

Are there other questions that you want to answer as you're moving forward with this research? Yeah, for sure. I was also just thinking about like these names

00:16:21.610 - 00:16:28.640

and these organizations that are brought up at the latter half of the article. 'Cause that was something that I had initially missed upon reading it,

00:16:28.640 - 00:16:35.770

is that like, there's this active letters of the actual name of an individual brought up. And I think that the relationship between these organizations

00:16:35.770 - 00:16:43.440

and also these individuals is something that I wanna look into. Also kind of going back to what I said at the very beginning was

00:16:43.440 - 00:16:53.540

who initiated this participation in the parade, whether or not it was students within like the undergraduate population taking an initiative and reaching out

00:16:53.540 - 00:17:06.490

to the organizers of the parade, or if it was more of like an administration relationship that facilitated this participation or this visibility. And also in the first sentence,

00:17:06.490 - 00:17:16.090

they write that there were students of Rice Institute and also the Houston Race Routers. So I'm just curious if there were other students beyond people who identified themselves as part

00:17:16.090 - 00:17:28.750

of the Rice Routers Club that participated in the parade. And if any of these individuals were also affiliated with organizations that would promote racial violence and racist campus such as the KU Klux later on

00:17:28.750 - 00:17:38.270

in the same year and also in the following year. So kind of thinking about not only what groups were present but what individuals were present and whether or not their participation

00:17:38.270 - 00:17:49.440

in promoting this racist legacy extends beyond this singular parade of this singular incident. And within the context of racist history is something that I'm interested in looking further into.

00:17:51.180 - 00:18:02.260

Fascinating. I think this isn't a question but it's just something that occurs to me from the second paragraph is just the opportunity

00:18:02.260 - 00:18:24.610

to trace out this route that the students take. So I don't know where the Bender Hotel was, but since there, I imagine it's on or near main street. And so I'm just trying to figure in my head, is this a...

00:18:24.610 - 00:18:37.470

So from here to the Rice Hotel is a fairly significant, it's more than a notion in terms of walking. So just trying to get a sense of what this route looks like

00:18:37.470 - 00:19:01.010

and how students actually made this journey is something that I'm drawn to in the description. I'm also kind of drawn to the specificity of the route and why it would be there in such detail previous

00:19:03.930 - 00:19:13.720

in this larger paper previous to it happening. And also the timing of it, I think is interesting. I had sort of missed that. It says this particular parade

00:19:13.720 - 00:19:24.690

is going to be happening Friday night, which I think that the big parade, the one we talked about last week happened in the morning with the first appearance, as you mentioned

00:19:24.690 - 00:19:34.430

of the Houston Klan, and then the afternoon reception at Rice Institute where we're Shorty, the well-known Shorty appeared would have been in the afternoon.

00:19:34.430 - 00:19:46.460

So it kind of sounds like this is almost a separate parading after that reception and Friday night. And yet it's being kind of linked here as part of the Confederate Reunion final program.

00:19:46.460 - 00:19:55.970

So interesting to sort of tease out the exact timing of events on that day. If our attendees have questions about this document feel free to click

00:19:55.970 - 00:20:04.930

on the Q and A bubbles at the bottom, and you can drop a question. We're gonna save some time at the end to address those or as many of them as we can, but why don't we move

00:20:04.930 - 00:20:15.260

on now to talking about the next document, Morgan do you wanna tell us a little bit about the document that you've brought to discuss? Yes, of course.

00:20:15.260 - 00:20:27.000

So the document that I brought to discuss it's two pages from the 1921 edition of the Campanile, which is the Rice yearbook. And so these pages discuss the May Fete,

00:20:27.000 - 00:20:41.760

which was an Annual Spring Event that occurred on campus. It actually occurred for 20 years from 1921 to 1941 ending with the beginning of World War II which is why the event came to an end.

00:20:41.760 - 00:20:56.290

And so these pages are highlighting the first May Fete which is really interesting for a number of reasons. And so the idea of the May Fete Celebration was it really focused on several things.

00:20:56.290 - 00:21:06.580

So the first being the crowning of the May King and Queen so it had this very pageant like aspect to it. And then in addition to that for the first May Fete in particular

00:21:06.580 - 00:21:22.890

there was a dramatic play that was a rendition of the poem and owed or Texas and owed to Texas a Democratic Owed, excuse me. And so this document basically outlines the first May Fete

00:21:22.890 - 00:21:37.350

and all that it entailed specifically highlighting the four episode dramatic reenactment of the poem. Well, so for those who might not be able to see the yearbook.

00:21:37.350 - 00:21:50.150

What we're looking at here is on the first page there's a picture of the first May Queen. And she sort of looking back over her shoulder and dressed in a costume that would be familiar to anyone

00:21:50.150 - 00:21:59.850

who's looked at pictures from the 1920s. Her hair is definitely done in a certain style and it looks like she's got a prop with her. It almost looks like a feather boa there.

00:21:59.850 - 00:22:09.880

And in the background that she's holding up her a big fan. And so you get a sense, I think of the pageant aspect of this. This May fete eventually became Rhonda Lee

00:22:09.880 - 00:22:20.830

if I'm not mistaken. So had sort of the spring social event of the Rice Institute in this period. And then on the second page, it talks a little bit

00:22:20.830 - 00:22:32.360

about this democratic ode presentation. So what drew you Morgan to that particular dramatic presentation? Yeah, I think there were several things.

00:22:32.360 - 00:22:40.840

So the first just being the May Fete in general I was really drawn to because of its consistency and occurring over 20 years I thought it was really interesting.

00:22:40.840 - 00:22:53.060

A lot of my earlier research as far as colonial nostalgia and events at Rice, it would be like an event that had a colonial theme to it. And so it would be occurring

00:22:53.060 - 00:23:00.630

the years weren't necessarily consistent, but with the May Fete this was something that occurred consistently for 20 years. That was well attended anywhere from 3,500

00:23:00.630 - 00:23:11.430

to up to 10,000 people in attendance at any given time. So I thought that that was really interesting. But this events specifically, the first May Fete I found really intriguing was this four episode reenactment

00:23:11.430 - 00:23:21.010

of the poem, Texas Democratic Ode. I thought this was specifically interesting because the poem was actually first read at the inaugural address at Rice

00:23:21.010 - 00:23:30.750

when the university first opened it was written by Henry Vandyke. And so when I was going through this poem and reading I thought that a lot of the word choice

00:23:30.750 - 00:23:41.420

was really interesting specifically the way that it referred to the civil war as a schism between brothers and it talked about welcoming the lovely daughters

00:23:41.420 - 00:23:51.320

of the South into the Confederation. And then while the pages don't specifically, or while the pages don't detail every aspect of the poem because it is a 12 page poem.

00:23:51.320 - 00:24:01.430

There were a lot of the language and verbiage and the poem was really interesting and specifically how it references the schism between brothers, but I think it specifically

00:24:01.430 - 00:24:07.980

mentions the word slavery one time and it doesn't acknowledge like enslaved people, enslaved black people. So all of those things I thought

00:24:07.980 - 00:24:14.940

was really, really interesting. Hm, mm, hmm. Yeah and if you look at these four scenes that are portrayed here

00:24:14.940 - 00:24:25.190

the first one it says, and I'm reading here from the page that in the gathering desk the audience sat facing a forest picture, the dim light revealing a group of Indians seated

00:24:25.190 - 00:24:34.320

around a campfire at one side, a TP gleamed white beneath the trees and from somewhere came the sound of a horse as he stamped his feet restlessly

00:24:34.320 - 00:24:45.050

at his tether back in the forest. And so this first scene is of, you know a sort of Native American Village. And then as the episodes proceed, they are displaced.

00:24:45.050 - 00:24:59.950

I guess we could say in the drama by white settlers who come and it mentions David Crockett, Bowie Ward, Fan and Houston, and the other heroes of Texas. And then the next scene, as you mentioned

00:24:59.950 - 00:25:06.240

is about this struggle between brothers, the schism of the nation. One question raises for me is, you know how was that dramatized

00:25:07.300 - 00:25:19.210

if we know that this very same year, the very same academic year there had been this Confederate Reunion. Did people dress up, you know, in Confederate Garb?

00:25:19.210 - 00:25:28.990

It doesn't say, but I think that's an interesting question. And then finally, the fourth episode is Mr. Rice, William Marsh Rice stands forth

00:25:28.990 - 00:25:42.340

as a man of generous dreams, a dream for the youth of Texas in the world, and talks about how everyone came to this inauguration to welcome "The Young Heir of the Old South,

00:25:42.340 - 00:25:54.250

the Rice Institute." And so there is a sort of imagining of the Rice Institute as the sort of final point in this series of scenes that included Native Americans, White Settlers,

00:25:54.250 - 00:26:04.970

the civil war, and then the Rice Institute. Is there anything that when you first looked at it you sort of missed that you keep kind of returning to or thinking about as you deal with this document?

00:26:06.260 - 00:26:16.360

I think overall, when I first read the document I didn't have the poem to refer to. And so looking back on the poem I think a lot of my interest has been peaked, especially

00:26:16.360 - 00:26:29.540

like I said before around like the verbiage and the language that is used because after reading the 12 page poem, it almost I think it really detailed a lot of these acts

00:26:29.540 - 00:26:38.260

as kind of like liberating Texas which I thought was really, really interesting and the way that it was framed and specifically even when talking about Native Americans

00:26:38.260 - 00:26:47.250

and how the Anglo Saxons came about, and they took over the land but in the poem, it refers to them as, you know bringing prosperity to the land

00:26:47.250 - 00:26:58.120

and allowing you know, bountiful, fruits and bountiful like food and nourishment to come from the land. And so I thought that that language was really interesting but I think another thing looking back

00:26:58.120 - 00:27:12.900

on this piece or after looking over these pages a second time is just kind of understanding the, I guess, the motive and creating this event. So I had found that the May Fete,

00:27:12.900 - 00:27:23.330

the first, well, the first May Fete at Rice occurred in 1921 there were actually two that occurred in Houston that I'm aware of prior to this. And so the May Fetes that were held in Houston are really

00:27:23.330 - 00:27:31.860

what inspired Rice's May Fete. And so I'm really interested to see how the Houston May Fetes were held and how they were conducted, because in addition to that

00:27:31.860 - 00:27:42.720

and just understanding the history of the May Fete in general, it has a very long history and that history isn't necessarily tied to colonial nostalgia.

00:27:42.720 - 00:27:56.930

When I was doing my initial research, I found that the May Fete was something that typically occurred in different European Nations and European Cultures. And it was kind of this, it was this...

00:27:56.930 - 00:28:04.500

What is the word I'm looking for? It was a pageant that was in celebration for spring and fertility. And it had kind of been molded

00:28:04.500 - 00:28:14.690

into, various cultures had picked it up and kind of twisted it in whatever way that they wanted to. And so I just kind of want to see, you know how it came to become this colonial event

00:28:14.690 - 00:28:31.690

when it didn't necessarily begin as such. Morgan you've indicated that African Americans are conspicuous mostly in their absence in the Epic Poem,

00:28:32.470 - 00:28:46.800

but we've also raised the issue of how this poem is dramatized, which for me opens up the potential for some of this dramatization

00:28:48.230 - 00:29:07.930

either pointing toward or speaking to the involvement of African Americans as people peopling people in Texas, as you've looked at other May Fetes or celebrations that the university held,

00:29:07.930 - 00:29:23.410

do you see Black Folks figuring in, or not black people themselves, but that Rice students gesturing toward black folks and blackness in their celebrations?

00:29:24.340 - 00:29:36.050

Actually, as far as I've come in my research, there seems to be an absence of like black people or any reference to them. In the 1930 May Fete or I believe it was 1930 or 1931.

00:29:36.050 - 00:29:45.450

I can't remember the specific date, but in this May Fete in particular. It was quite interesting in that there was a colonial, like mansion built as a stage.

00:29:45.450 - 00:29:55.440

And so that was a more direct, like colonial reference. I would say, you know do that directly, like, I guess, related to slavery. But other than that, there's actually, there's an absence

00:29:55.440 - 00:30:10.080

of like mentioning black folk black people which I also thought was really interesting. Do you see any instances of red face or a black face or yellow face in these celebrations?

00:30:12.160 - 00:30:18.990

As far as I've seen their husband? No, the husband no black race. Yeah, exactly. And not in the May Fete.

00:30:18.990 - 00:30:31.040

There have been in other Rice celebrations or other Rice events, but not specifically in the May Fete. Thanks. Great, well, thank you so much, Morgan, for presenting this.

00:30:31.040 - 00:30:44.010

You know, another thing I'm noticing as I read this is about JW Slaughter who directed this particular drama because on our second "Doc Talk," we had joined in as another undergraduate student

00:30:44.010 - 00:30:54.500

who's been doing research on Professor Slaughter and his connection to Eugenics and ideas about race in the Eugenics Movement. So it's kind of interesting to think about

00:30:54.500 - 00:31:07.530

that particular professor directing this pageant and maybe communicating this message about civilizational progress. And I'm excited to see how your research develops

00:31:07.530 - 00:31:16.550

and maybe what things will turn up as you continue to look at some of these other May Fetes makes me think too about the Houston Post article,

00:31:16.550 - 00:31:26.890

that the show that was done in the Confederate Reunion Event memories of Dixie because that was the article right above the article about the Rice Routers Club.

00:31:26.890 - 00:31:38.020

And it describes a similar kind of drama where they're sort of these set scenes and it does include a plantation scene. And so it's kind of interesting maybe to compare other shows that were done

00:31:38.020 - 00:31:48.160

around the same time in Houston with these dramatizations that were done at the Rice Institute. Thank you so much for sharing this document with us

00:31:48.160 - 00:32:02.470

and for the sake of time and making sure we save some time for Q and A, why don't we move along to the third presentation we have about a photograph. So we've been talking about some texts, but Anthony

00:32:02.470 - 00:32:11.980

do you wanna tell us a little bit about the document that you've brought to discuss today? Sure. So I guess this document or photograph

00:32:11.980 - 00:32:26.160

if you could call it that gained a lot of notoriety about a year or so ago, just as students were sort of looking back at old company alleys. And so this is from the 1922 company alleys, it depicts

00:32:26.160 - 00:32:41.140

for those of you who can't see right now, it depicts a group of what I'm assuming to be students dressed in typical Ku Klux Klan gear. And so I guess the reason I chose this photo

00:32:41.140 - 00:32:51.510

in the first place is not just because of me thinking about where this photo is located, who was involved but also because it was sort of a launching point for me to look more into

00:32:51.510 - 00:33:06.050

to the involvement of the Klan at Rice and beyond. Great, so I guess we should describe for people who can't see there's a group of how many figures would you say here there's maybe about--

00:33:07.080 - 00:33:13.000

Two dozen or so? Two dozen I would say. People in robes who say their arms are crossed in front of them.

00:33:13.000 - 00:33:24.590

They're wearing these conical head dresses, the mask, they're standing in front of a door with a brick archway above it that is kind of in the same sort of style

00:33:24.590 - 00:33:37.470

that you would imagine seeing in a lot of buildings at the Rice Institute sort of ornate brick work and then at the bottom underneath this photo or I guess we should say in the lower right hand corner

00:33:37.470 - 00:33:47.960

there's a handwritten credit. It says a photo by a dot clicker. And then there's a caption under the photo that says the KU Klux Klan

00:33:47.960 - 00:34:00.500

of Rice Institute with a sub caption in quotation marks, "The Year the Owls Were So Bad." So Anthony you've told us a little bit about what grabbed your interest

00:34:00.500 - 00:34:10.930

about this particular photo. Was there anything that when you first saw you missed that you kind of keep coming back to and are interested in learning more about?

00:34:12.370 - 00:34:18.910

I think primarily one thing that I missed the first time I looked at this photo was I didn't even think about where it was taken in the first place.

00:34:18.910 - 00:34:29.130

And that's something that I'm sure you all have been copied on the emails of Fabiola and you guys finding where it really was. So I think assuming you mentioned it before

00:34:29.130 - 00:34:39.900

but the event Fabiola actually traced it down to the Rice Field House which was a former building on campus that was next to what is currently the track

00:34:39.900 - 00:34:53.640

and field I think? Located in a corner of campus, right where to BRC would be right now. It was a structure again, meant for sporting events.

00:34:53.640 - 00:35:12.300

And in later additions of the dresser it was also called Klan Hall and actually coincided with if I can remember correctly, the basically the collapse of the Houston Chapter of the Klan in 1925.

00:35:12.300 - 00:35:22.900

And so I found it really interesting to me that at the same time that that was happening, that big court case that the Drescher started mentioning Rice Field House

00:35:22.900 - 00:35:35.930

not as Rice Field House, but as Klan Hall. Interesting. So it suggests that maybe there was a a longer association beyond this photo with this group

00:35:35.930 - 00:35:44.530

and this particular building, you know, what that association was it sounds like is a question that's still, this group is working on.

00:35:45.700 - 00:35:59.490

So this building doesn't stand anymore but we're confident from other photos that this was the Field House where this picture was taken. So what other questions does this photograph raise for you

00:35:59.490 - 00:36:14.570

that your group is hoping to answer? So I guess primarily I really look more in towards who is involved in the Klan at Rice and what ties they might've had

00:36:14.570 - 00:36:33.090

to the Houston Chapter in general? This photo is actually used if y'all don't know and I think a handout or a handbill, that's the right word for a Klan Rally in 1923 or so I think,

00:36:35.320 - 00:36:47.560

at a rally that happened on September 19th, 1923. And this was basically this photo is used to advertise that event. And in that rally several hundred people were initiated

00:36:47.560 - 00:36:59.720

in that event. And so it's interesting to me because, I mean obviously I wasn't really aware that the KU Klux Klan at Rice might've been so intertwined

00:36:59.720 - 00:37:09.620

with the happenings of the Klan in Houston. And so any sort of relation between those two things that I feel like are really interesting to look more into.

00:37:11.810 - 00:37:21.590

So rather than just seeing it as a photo just in the Rice Yearbook, you're suggesting maybe it opens up onto the wider history of the Klan in Houston, in Texas, in these years

00:37:21.590 - 00:37:34.280

which I think we mentioned last week was a moment of growth for the Klan nationally in the early 1920s was sort of the birth or the rebirth. Some historians would say of the second Klan.

00:37:34.280 - 00:37:43.780

And I've actually just been reading a book by a historian Linda Gordon about this second period of Klan history. And one of the points she makes that I'm thinking

00:37:43.780 - 00:37:57.880

about as we look at this photo is that the national Klan in a lot of ways, it was a money making enterprise because members of the clan had to pay membership dues. And there were recruiters at the local level

00:37:57.880 - 00:38:07.100

who would keep a portion of those dues for themselves. And then the rest of it would be passed up the chain to the national organization. So it almost started imagining

00:38:07.100 - 00:38:14.490

like an amway organization or a pyramid scheme there was a way to make money. And another way they made money was by selling these Regalia.

00:38:15.700 - 00:38:27.250

The Regalia that you had to wear was very specifically manufactured. And we can see that in the photo here that each one has a circle on the left breast of the robe

00:38:28.840 - 00:38:41.320

that has a kind of cross type shape in it. And the kind of mass produced nature of them makes me wonder if we could kind of compare those robes to the ones that were produced nationally

00:38:41.320 - 00:38:55.490

that would suggest these robes were actually purchased, you know, from the Klan directly. And that might account for why they all look so similar they're not sort of just handmade costumes, perhaps.

00:38:55.490 - 00:39:08.430

So I think that again, connects to the connections that you're suggesting might exist between this photo and the history of the second Klan more generally. I was really stunned when I think a member

00:39:08.430 - 00:39:21.260

of your group discovered this caption the year the owls were so bad in a newspaper article about the Klan. Do you have any information about that or not to put you on the spot?

00:39:22.250 - 00:39:31.130

I honestly, to be honest with you I don't remember what article appears-- That may have just been me that the story and is sticking out in my mind

00:39:31.130 - 00:39:43.090

because, you know, it's a little hard to understand what that caption means, the year the owls were so bad. It almost sounds like a joke, maybe about the football team or something like that.

00:39:43.090 - 00:39:54.860

But in fact, this article found that there was a play coming back to the theme of the Mayfair earlier that was put on by the Klan at various events in Texas.

00:39:54.860 - 00:40:05.900

And one of the lines from this performance was the year the owls were so bad. And so there's some suggestion that that line was repeated as kind of a catchphrase

00:40:05.900 - 00:40:17.580

or a code word at some of these other Klan events. And so that to me was a really interesting find as was this handwritten credit in the lower right-hand corner

00:40:17.580 - 00:40:29.160

of the photo by a clucker because we discovered some other photos of Klan rallies in the Houston area that had that same photo credit written in that same handwriting.

00:40:29.160 - 00:40:43.450

So a question that comes up for me is who took this photo? Not just who was in the photo, but who took it and how was the photo used outside of the camp in LA. So thank you for presenting this photo

00:40:43.450 - 00:40:51.830

to us and and sharing some of the questions that it's helping you to answer and that it's raising. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much.

00:40:51.830 - 00:41:07.920

Oh, just, I think the photo is marvelous from a historical perspective, right? And I think it repays also some just paying a close attention

00:41:07.920 - 00:41:19.850

to the individuals, right? They've gathered as a group. And so their intention I imagine is to be seen as a whole, but I can't help

00:41:22.520 - 00:41:36.360

but look at them one at a time. And one of the things that happens when I do that is I end up on the back row and see a person who should probably be

00:41:36.360 - 00:41:56.510

on the front row given their height but it's somehow been placed on the back row. And his head is straining backward to be seen. I find that interesting and I wonder how and why

00:41:56.510 - 00:42:12.310

that person got there. They also posed quite intentionally, right? And so I guess if we had our kinesiologists, so some of our psychologists around,

00:42:13.180 - 00:42:31.930

I know I would benefit from knowing or hearing them speculate on what that close and that closed in move that crossing of the arms or of the wrist is meant to convey in primates.

00:42:34.000 - 00:42:48.010

What's the body language in other words? Yeah, what's the body language there. Also just, well I'll stop 'cause I go on a little too far, but the way the holes drape differently

00:42:50.100 - 00:43:01.790

over different members of this chapter I think is also interesting. Well, thanks to each of you for coming in and talking with us about these documents

00:43:01.790 - 00:43:11.580

and for the ongoing research that you're doing we do want to make some time for questions. If there's members of the audience that have a question you can click on the bubbles at the bottom

00:43:11.580 - 00:43:22.820

of your Zoom screen and drop a question there. One of the questions that's come up is about the number of students here relative to the size of the student body as a whole.

00:43:22.820 - 00:43:34.400

Do you have a sense of how large the student body was when this picture was taken and what percentage of the student body might be represented here? If in fact, all of these are students.

00:43:36.360 - 00:43:45.210

I honestly had not even thought about that. That's something that, again, y'all brought up really great points and where I really wanna take this further,

00:43:45.210 - 00:43:57.100

but yeah there's only about 20 or so students in this photo that might not be representative of the entire student body, but at the same time there I feel like there also might've been members

00:43:57.100 - 00:44:07.480

or people who sympathized with perhaps organization and didn't wanna be photographed or in some other ways were involved with the organization in the first place.

00:44:09.030 - 00:44:20.200

It might be another way to answer that question. It might be to compare the size of this group with the size of other social clubs on campus at that particular time. You know, I think that's one thing that the history

00:44:20.200 - 00:44:32.220

of the second Klan makes clear is that it marketed itself in some ways as another sort of fraternal organization or a social club that elite and aspiring white men could join

00:44:32.220 - 00:44:47.460

if you had the money to pay the dues and by the regalia. And so, you know, it would, I guess, have been open in that sense only to a certain class of student but it'd be interesting to compare the size of the club

00:44:47.460 - 00:44:58.720

to other clubs at this particular moment in time. I know there was also a history of controversy about social clubs that were forming at the Rice Institute in these years precisely

00:44:58.720 - 00:45:12.390

because the administration saw them as exclusive and eventually they were sort of shut down but it'd be interesting to know from the research whether this particular club had anything to do

00:45:12.390 - 00:45:23.630

with those discussions or whether it was separate and apart from this photograph. I do believe so, actually. I've been talking with Dr. Melissa Keene about this as well.

00:45:23.630 - 00:45:39.230

And he mentioned that, well, obviously the Ku Klux Klan of Rice disappeared actually sort of after this photo was taken the academic year afterwards or re basically remained no sight of the KU Klux Klan

00:45:39.760 - 00:45:49.910

and the Drescher didn't mention it besides Klan Hall afterwards. And so I do think it's part of how student organizations were facing struggles

00:45:49.910 - 00:46:00.320

with administration, with how there might've been internal conflicts between, that reminds me actually of another part in the camp in LA, where it states

00:46:00.320 - 00:46:18.200

that there were two people who were victims of the Kooklucks being spelled K-O-O-O-K-L-U-C-K-S, where this is, I'm like jumping back and forth here but there was a dresser article published earlier of that

00:46:18.200 - 00:46:33.450

like November of the academic year, where basically describing almost some sort of hazing or some sort of prank done on students and tracing back to the names that were mentioned there.

00:46:33.450 - 00:46:44.460

One of them was actually a member of I think it was the Eilers who were which were a pretty high standing social group on campus at the time.

00:46:44.460 - 00:46:58.480

And so I think digging more into the relationship between either the KU Klux Klan, the KU Klux and perhaps some other social organizations on campus. And perhaps if there's any conflict between them

00:46:58.480 - 00:47:13.280

or how that might've led to the, I guess the abolition of such organizations on campus. I thought I was gonna start saying one thing and then Anthony pushed me in another direction

00:47:13.280 - 00:47:24.540

but I'm gonna refrain from going in that direction. No, I'm not gonna refrain. So one of the things we'll see is that there is the debate on the Rice Campus

00:47:24.540 - 00:47:40.310

about, over the Klan even when there's not necessarily a debate over the normality of White Supremacy. I just wanna jump in with a numbers fact

00:47:40.310 - 00:47:56.420

because I know sometimes you always have people in the audience it's good to have some good solid numbers. And while you were talking, I ran to our trustee box folder and can tell everyone that from 1920 to about 1923

00:47:56.560 - 00:48:10.420

the population student body of the Institute ranged from about 730 students to a little more than 1,000. Yeah. And it would be interesting speaking of numbers,

00:48:10.420 - 00:48:21.610

to know relative to Houston as a whole, not just how this particular chapter compared to social clubs are at the Rice Institute but did it compare to the Sam Houston Chapter

00:48:21.610 - 00:48:31.180

that made its debut in the parade that we were talking about earlier? You know, the disappearance of the KU Klux from the camp in LA also invites us to ask

00:48:31.180 - 00:48:41.750

about the fate of the Klan, the second Klan as a whole in the 1920s because I believe that by 1925, the Klan had more or less disappeared from Houston

00:48:41.750 - 00:48:56.300

and it's visible sort of form as a political entity. And so it may have to do with changes the administration was making here at the Institute but it also could be related to the fate

00:48:56.300 - 00:49:07.830

of the second Klan in Houston and Texas as a whole at that time. Another question that's come up from the attendees are a suggestion, I guess, is

00:49:07.830 - 00:49:19.480

about how these traditions like parades and fats are similar to traditions like in New Orleans Mardi Gras which were meant to demonstrate a kind of tie to European Royalty,

00:49:19.480 - 00:49:33.230

the continuation of an elite white class. So, any thoughts about that from any of our panelists? I definitely think that that's a really interesting avenue to go down.

00:49:33.230 - 00:49:45.090

I actually just wrote a paper on New Orleans Mardi Gras and its connection to like Black Culture and like Creole Culture. So yeah, I didn't necessarily think about it

00:49:45.090 - 00:49:55.600

and that way beforehand, but I think that that's a really interesting avenue to go down especially this idea of like this Royal White Elite Class. I think that that's a really interesting,

00:49:55.600 - 00:50:02.420

that's all I can really say on that. I think that's a really interesting avenue. I know there was a festival too in Houston that was kind of meant to be modeled

00:50:02.420 - 00:50:17.780

on the Mardi Gras in the early 20th century. The probably mispronounced it, the NoTsuOh festival which was Houston spelled backwards. And this was a similar kind of festival, I think

00:50:17.780 - 00:50:29.730

in the spring where there was a King and a Queen crowned. And there were parade floats and, you know anybody who was anybody in the Houston Social Scene participated in this.

00:50:29.730 - 00:50:39.870

And I think there were members of the Rice Institute, if I'm not mistaken. Captain James Baker and possibly President Lovette who at various times were part of the Royal Court

00:50:39.870 - 00:50:53.820

of that festival and the King if I remember correctly was Crown King Nottoc which is cotton spelled backwards. And so it was also kind of a celebration

00:50:53.820 - 00:51:05.630

of Houston Commercial Enterprise and spotlighted the significance of cotton and the cotton industry in Houston even into the early 20th century.

00:51:05.630 - 00:51:17.280

So that could be interesting to look at whether these May Fetes, in addition to being comparable to the May Fetes in Houston had any connections with that NoTsuOh festival that happened

00:51:17.280 - 00:51:27.470

in the early 20th century. Another question we have maybe this will be our last one as we're coming up on the top of the hour in the 1920s and 1930s.

00:51:27.680 - 00:51:35.840

Do you know of any student organizations on the left side of things at Rice where there any student organizations kind of on the other end of the spectrum

00:51:35.840 - 00:51:47.770

from a group like the KU Klux on campus I have been looking into camp in LA only for any evidence of that. And I honestly haven't been able to find any sort

00:51:47.770 - 00:51:57.800

of clinical or organization on campus at least by name from any side of the spectrum, really besides obviously the KU Klux. Yeah.

00:51:58.750 - 00:52:07.810

Interesting you know, I know there was an article in the Rice Magazine this month that maybe the attendee would wanna check out about Elizabeth called, who was one

00:52:07.810 - 00:52:21.810

of the first women to graduate from Rice who became a member of the National Women's Party which was one of the most radical suffrage organizations in the teens, in the country.

00:52:21.810 - 00:52:30.780

In fact, she was arrested, I believe for picketing outside Woodrow Wilson's White House arguing for the right to vote. This would have been of course

00:52:30.780 - 00:52:41.300

before the passage of the 19th amendment. So maybe one place to look in answer to that question could be some of the, Oh, I see Lynn's here very handy.

00:52:41.300 - 00:52:52.080

Thank you Lynn for sharing that article. So it could be interesting to look at some of the the literary societies and women's groups on campus to see what they were up to.

00:52:52.080 - 00:53:06.490

Although I think there, you'd also find evidence of some of the sort of ideas about race and civilization that we're seeing in the May Fete and these other activities as well.

00:53:08.650 - 00:53:17.790

Definitely. And I do believe that there was some sort of political activism happening on campus. Perhaps not true name, but I'm gonna take a guess here

00:53:18.010 - 00:53:27.790

and say that it might've been true to literary societies, like you mentioned or other student organizations within their ranks perhaps just not a specific organization that had

00:53:27.790 - 00:53:35.880

in its name, what party allegiance it had. Right, right. (indistinct) Yeah. Well, as is usual with these "Doc Talks"

00:53:35.880 - 00:53:45.450

we're ending with questions as much as answers. And I think these are great ideas to spur us to further research. Thank you so much to each of you

00:53:45.450 - 00:53:55.680

for the work that you're doing and for the work of the Racial Geography Project as a whole it's really exciting to see what you're doing and how much you've accomplished in this research

00:53:55.680 - 00:54:09.850

in a short amount of time. So thank you again for taking the time to speak with us. Thank you for having us. Do we have more student researchers next week?

00:54:11.370 - 00:54:22.140

I don't think we have them lined up for next week yet. Whose organizing these things? Why don't we have students next week as well? We could talk to whoever's in charge.

00:54:22.140 - 00:54:30.110

'Cause I think the ones with the students are clearly better than anything that we put together by herself. So that's a good point.

00:54:30.110 - 00:54:39.870

I'll talk to the organizer and see if we can change that around. Let's take care of this. And speaking of students in the meantime

00:54:39.870 - 00:54:50.960

let us remind everyone in the audience again about the webinar that's coming up this Thursday "Black at Rice, Living the Black Student Experience" and you can find information

00:54:50.960 - 00:55:02.200

about that webinar on our website, taskforce.rice.edu. So we hope you'll make plans to attend. And we'll see you next week on the next edition of these "Doc Talks."

00:55:02.200 - 00:55:10.260

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Thank you all so much. Phenomenal work. Thank you guys, have a great weekend.

00:55:10.260 - 00:55:11.210

See yeah.