An often-forgotten name in Texas history
It didn't take long after the original Juneteenth for Richard A. Allen to break barriers.
Just four years after Allen had been freed from slavery in 1865, he would become the first Black state legislator from Houston and the first Black man to ever chair a committee in the Texas House. As a skilled bridge builder, he was made chairman of the Roads and Bridges Committee in the House.
Yet, like all of the other 14 Black men first elected to the 1870 Texas Legislature during the period of Reconstruction following the Civil War, you'd be hard-pressed to find much mention of him by name at the Texas Capitol building. There is a Texas African American History Memorial that was installed on the Capitol Grounds in 2016 that references Black men being part of the Legislature in the 1870s but doesn't mention any of them by name.
Much of what we know of any of them comes from historians like Merline Pitre, who wrote about their backgrounds in her book "Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: Black Leadership in Texas 1868-1898."
Allen only served one term in the Texas Legislature, but it was eventful. He helped support the creation of a state police force for the then-governor to help protect Black residents from racial violence following emancipation and helped push the Free School Bill of 1870 to assure both Black and white children were entitled to four months of schooling a year.
Although Allen won re-election in 1873, his election was disputed and his white Democratic opponent was seated instead.
Still, he remained active in politics and public life, becoming a trustee for a school for Black students in Houston and, according to a monument to him in Houston's Emancipation Park, was often the "grand president and orator at Juneteenth celebrations" until his death in 1909.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's up, who's down
Up: Undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a program that could grant lawful permanent residency to an estimated 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens. Biden's move comes weeks after the administration adopted a crackdown on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border that angered immigration advocacy groups.
Down: Donald Trump.
The gag order remains. New York's top court on Tuesday declined to hear Donald Trump's gag order appeal in his hush money case, leaving the restrictions in place following his felony conviction last month.
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