no worries. thank you. i really appreciate it. thanks at home for joining us this hour. happy to have you here. i will tell you in advance we are having slight technical difficulties in terms of the technical aspects of getting stuff on the show, so in case anything looks hinchey are unlike it usually does, don t worry. nothing is wrong. at least nothing wrong you need to worry about. plenty is wrong, trust me. we start tonight in marshall, texas in east texas. really, really east texas. it is close to the louisiana state line, not far from shreveport, louisiana. and she was born there in 1926 in marshall, texas, four east texas. after being born in marshall, texas in the 20s, when she was 12 in june 1939, she and her family moved 200 miles west all the way to ft. worth. it was her and her two siblings
but after being born in marshall, texas in the twenties, when she was 12 in june 1939 she and her family moved 200 miles was all the way to fourth worth. it was her and her two siblings and her mom and dad. they move all the way from the they paid $165 for their house on east any street and new york avenue. it s a neighborhood today that is hemmed in on three sides by a zillion lanes of interstate and major highways it has the effect of cutting it off from the rest of forth worth. back in the late 1930s, that was before all the interstates and all of that. the most important thing to know about that neighborhood when it comes to young 12 year old opal and her family was that they were a black family, that was moving in from way out east by louisiana lake. that neighborhood the removing
was ever arrested apparently. according to but kennedy nothing further was ever published about the incident or any investigation. and like i said, she was 12 years old when it happened. one of the three children of otis and mattie flake who were burned out of that home in june 1939. there s an interview about it later and she told jackson this quote, people gathered, the police couldn t control them. my dad came home with a gun, and the police told him if he busted a cap, they d lead that mob have him. she says quote, if they had given us an opportunity to stay there and be their neighbors, they would ve found out, we didn t want any more than what they had. a decent place to stay, jobs that paid, to be able to go to school in the neighborhood even if it was a segregated school. we would ve made good neighbors, she says, but they didn t give us an opportunity. and i felt like everybody needs an opportunity. again, that attack that burned
together the way it evolved. police might have said they were investigating the quote mobbing, police told the local press at the time that in fact the mob destroyed the family s furniture, broke windows to the house, damaged the building, hit a plan at the scene with a baseball bat. the next day, quote, youths came into the house and turned on the gas jets and then fled so the building would burn, too. even though that s what happened and the police were supposedly on it and they had been on it for four straight nights by the time the family was finally burned out, nobody was ever arrested apparently. according to bud kennedy, quote, nothing further was ever published about the incident or any investigation. and like i said, she was 12 years old when it happened. one the three children of otis and maddie flake burned out of that home in june 1939. she was interviewed about it later by a reporter an gelique
difficulties in terms of the technical aspects of getting things on the show so if anything looks unlike it usually does, don t worry, nothing is wrong, at least nothing wrong that you need to worry about. plenty is wrong. trust me. all right, we start tonight in marshall, texas, in east texas, really, really east texas, it is close to the louisiana state line, not far from shreveport, louisiana. and she was born there. in 1926. in marshall, texas. far east texas. but after being born in marshall, texas, in the 20s, when she was 12, in june, 1939, she and her family moved 200 miles west all the way to ft. worth. it was her and her two siblings and her mom and dad, from sleeve port louisiana, to ft. worth, and paid $165 for their house on east any street and new york