From Behind the Screen

How a Brash Young Man from Jim Crow New Orleans Became a Civil Rights Leader in Texas

Curtis M Graves

• Publisher: Bartleby Press
• Year: 2024
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9780884004028
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

The native creole culture of New Orleans and Louisiana is unique. Developing over several hundred years, it is a "gumbo" of former slaves, free people of color, American Indians and Europeans – all in just about any combination you can imagine. In New Orleans, regardless of the mixture, they were considered "colored." Even in the Catholic churches that allowed both races to pray, parishioners expected that they would sit in separate pews. Then there was the "screen," New Orleans' name for the gamut of "Colored Only" signs that were ubiquitous in the city. Curtis' family hid from him the most obvious signs of restrictions placed on their lives. As he became older Curtis was allowed to come to his own understanding. First attending college close to home, Curtis transferred to Texas Southern University in Houston, a large historically black college. It was a time when even more attention was being paid to the burgeoning civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had emerged as its leader,. The young students at Texas Southern took notice. Curtis and others decided to protest in their own way – demanding equal access to public places. The first target was the lunch count ,

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• One: THE EARLY YEARS
• Two: THE PEOPLE I CAME FROM
• Three: CIVIL RIGHTS AT THE HOUSTON LUNCH COUNTERS
• Four: THE RIGHT TO VOTE
• Five: NOW TO THE WORLD OF WORK
• Six: STANDARD SAVINGS AND LOAN: MORE THAN A JOB
• Seven: WHY I RAN FOR OFFICE
• Eight: MY TRIP TO THE EXECUTIVE MANSION
• Nine: MY FIRST SESSION
• Ten: THE FIRST REAL TRIP
• Eleven: MAKING IT WORK
• Twelve: THE LOSS OF A WAVING FRIEND
• Thirteen: THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
• Fourteen: UNDER SURVEILLANCE
• Fifteen: THE SECOND SESSION
• Sixteen: THE RACE FOR MAYOR OF HOUSTON
• Seventeen: THE SANDRA SMITH STORY
• Eighteen: THE HOT SPECIAL SESSION
• Nineteen: MY LAST SESSION
• Twenty: A CONGRESSIONAL RACE
• Twenty-One: THE GEORGE McGOVERN CAMPAIGN
• Twenty-Two: AFTER POLITICS