African-American News&Issues

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JULY 17 - 23, 2017 | FREE

AframNews

WWW.AFRAMNEWS.COM

African-American News and Issues Newspaper

VOL. 22 ISSUE 26

AframNews

Did you know?

MONROE ALPHEUS MAJORS, (1864–1960)

The First Black Doctor in Texas

Greater Houston Area

Voting Voting Power Power & & Rights Rights On On the the Line Line

Photograph shows Dr. Monroe A. Majors, first African-American physician in Texas, with his wife and young daughter.

Dr. Monroe A. Majors is the first African-American physician in Texas, and the second African-American physician in Dallas. He also holds the distinction of being the first Black physician to practice medicine west of the Rocky Mountains. Background Majors not only served as a Black physician, but also was a civil rights leader, and writer. He was born to Andrew Jackson and Jane (Barringer) Majors on October 12, 1864, in Waco, Texas. At the age of ten he worked as a page in the Texas legislature. He attended Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson College) and normal school in Austin from 1878 to 1883; he also worked for the post office. After graduating from Central Tennessee College, Nashville, with a bachelor of science degree, in 1883 he enrolled at Meharry Medical College at Nashville, from which he graduated as salutatorian of his class in 1886. In college he worked as a reporter for several local newspapers. In 1886 Majors began practicing medicine in Brenham, Texas. During that year he became the principal guiding spirit and one of the fourteen founders of the Lone Star State Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association. Faced Stiff Racism in Texas

SEE PAGE 4

Gerrymandering Gerrymandering –– Fighting Fighting The The Hidden Hidden Weapon Weapon of of Disenfranchisement Disenfranchisement

Shortly afterward his name appeared on a list, prepared by a group of racists, of influential Blacks who were to be uprooted from their positions of importance in the community. Dr. Majors received advance warning about this threat and left his practice in Brenham for Calvert and then Dallas. He ended up teaching in a small country school for a year (1887–88). TO CONT. READING SEE PAGE 11


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