Lede scheduled as Diversity Forum speaker
Robbie
Byrd
News Editor
Dr.
Naomi Lede will be the featured speaker at the Diversity Forum meeting scheduled
for 6 p.m. today at the Samuel Walker Houston Museum and Cultural Center.
Lede said she will be focusing on her studies of education for African Americans
immediately following the Civil War.
“It’s a fascinating story full of human drama,” Lede said. “All of a sudden,
(freed slaves) are thrown out into a world that’s hostile without any way to
educate themselves.
“And on their own they decide that education was the avenue to true freedom,”
she said.
Lede also plans to speak about the Galilee Community and what it meant to the
advancement of African Americans in Walker County.
Sam Houston Industrial and Training School — the first educational institution
for blacks in Walker County — was started in Galilee Community, sparking a
steady increase in educational opportunties for African Americans.
“(It) was started in the Galilee Community by the son of Joshua Houston, who
himself was a slave of Sam Houston,” Lede said. “It showed that the black
community itself came together and decided that they wanted to educate
themselves and so they developed a school around a community of their own. And
it worked.”
Lede also plans to speak about Samuel Houston High School and her continuing
role with the Sam Houston High School and the Samuel Walker Houston Museum and
Cultural Center.
“It’s the greatest story I’ve ever heard,” she said.
Lede’s background is in transportation, earning her Ph.D. at the University of
Houston. She is a senior research scientest at the Texas Transportation
Institute, as well as a member of the American Planning Association, Texas
Public Transit Association and the World Future Society. She has also served on
the board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Lede said that her interests shifted after she began researching the roles of
freed slaves in Walker County after the Civil War.
“My field is transportation (but) I’ve always had such a fascination with this
story,” she said.
Following Lede’s speech, there will also be an open mic session where attendees
may share suggestions or ideas for increasing diversity and inclusiveness in
Walker County.
For more information, program co-chairs contact Scott Atnip at (936) 291-5950 or
Mac Woodard at (936) 294-1832.
Huntsville Item, 07.09.07
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