Rufus Cornelius Hickman - Mineola, TX
N 32° 39.529 W 095° 29.579
15S E 266192 N 3616210
A 2017 Texas Historical Marker at the corner of Padgett and Padgett Streets in Mineola, TX provides some background on the work done by one of its native sons, R.C. Hickman, during the Civil Rights Movement.
Waymark Code: WM11DW7
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/04/2019
Views: 1
While the marker may be dated "2017", it was not unveiled until 2019, with at least one of Mr. Hickman's relatives attending and participating in the ceremony. While it is as legitimate as any Texas Historical Marker, it is one of the Texas Historical Commission's "undertold markers", covering a subject that one probably won't study in school, but worthy of a look nonetheless. That the marker is on the site of Mr. Hickman's mother's "Bar 20" club for the kids makes this one even more special, and yes, the intersection is of two streets named "Padgett." The marker reads:
African American photographer Rufus Cornelius Hickman (1918-2007), recorded African American life in Dallas in the Jim Crow and Civil Rights Movement eras. His mother, Cora Hickman, ran a popular African American social spot called Bar 20 at this site in the 20th century. Born in 1918 in Mineola, R.C. Hickman attended Tillotson College, later Huston-Tillotson University, and then enlisted in the army in 1942.
While stationed in Saipan, Japan, Hickman learned photography and became an army photographer. After World War II, Hickman enrolled in the Southwest School of Photography and Mortuary Science under the G.I. Bill.
After graduating, Hickman began his professional career as a photographer with the Dallas Star-Post. He worked for several newspapers, including the Dallas Express and the Kansas City Call. He photographed African Americans' everyday life and significant moments in the Civil Rights Movement in the Dallas-Fort Worth area between 1945 and 1970. He photographed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council's protest of the Texas State Fair in 1955.
After Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared segregated schools unconstitutional, the NAACP enlisted Hickman to document the inequalities between white and black schools in Texas. In 1956, Hickman captured the failed desegregation of the Mansfield schools. While white Texans attempted to harm Hickman, he managed to photograph the mock-lynching of effigies of African American students in Mansfield. Through his work, Hickman captured several decades of African Americans' struggles, successes and everyday life, highlighting their humanity and documenting their history.