Senator Matthew Gaines

To compliment my photo of Lawrence Sullivan Ross yesterday, I decided to make a trip to campus with the primary objective of taking a photo of the Matthew Gaines statue. The sky had beautiful clouds despite the 100 °F temperatures in the middle of the day. Yesterday was also one of the few days remaining without tons of people everywhere for the shots I wanted. Traffic in town is picking up and restaurants are getting full. My trip yesterday will likely be the subject of my next two weeks (or so) of photos. I hope you enjoy this sequence of photos as they were earned with much sweat!

First, a quick diversion. The trip ended up being a bit of a reminder of my retirement as Saturday was the first day in 10 years that I did not have a valid parking permit (saving me $650/year!). Retirement is beginning to feel real as the semester is ramping up with the Corps FOW  (Freshman Orientation Week) starting this same Saturday afternoon.

As A&M worked through the Sul Ross controversy, a decision was made to erect a statue honoring one of the first black senators of Texas following the Civil War. Senator Matthew Gaines was a key supporter of creating Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M. If you can't read the inscription in the photo, I have copied it here (hopefully without mistakes).

*****************
Senator Matthew Gaines

Just four years after Juneteenth, Gaines won election to the Texas State Senate by a two-to-one margin over his closest contender; becoming one of two Black senators and twelve Black representatives seated in the 12th Texas Legislature in 1870.

The next year, he advocated for the passage of a school bill promoting public education for all races in Senate Bill No. 276.

Senate Bill No. 276 allowed Texas to take advantage of the 1862 Land Grant College Act, making the Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas, now Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University, possible.
*****************

It is clear that Matthew Gaines deserves equal recognition to LSR and I'm glad to see the addition to the campus. As depicted in the statue, he climbed many stairs while holding out his hand helping others. The push for his recognition started before the LSW protests but those events certainly encouraged the completion of the statue. The statue was dedicated on November 19, 2021 and is located between the MSC (Memorial Student Center) and the new Student Services Building.

I enjoyed seeing the number 12 show up in this story decades before the 12th Man Tradition!

I couldn't decide which photo I liked more so I have included my two favorites.

Comments

Post a Comment

Please include your name in your comment so I know the author! Thanks.

Popular posts from this blog

Completed Wood Project

Image
Yes, I made another cutting board and do not ask me what I will do with it. I have no idea.....sit on a table I guess. I really had not planned on making any more cutting boards until I saw this piece of parota wood. It was a new species for me and it had a beautiful end grain pattern. The sap wood provided a nice color contrast that could be blended into the final product. I had seen a photo a month or so before of a similar board and liked its looks. Picking up the piece of parota told me to make, yet again, another end grain cutting board. The two slabs  (earlier photos/e-mail) were essentially identical to each other but I intentionally made the two pieces of parota to be offset from the center (gives the stairstep look). Each 12-1/2" wide slab was cut into 1-7/8" pieces - a total of 11 pieces from each slab - 22 pieces total. I then alternated the pieces from the two slabs while keeping the order of cut. The final board measures 12" x 17-1/2" x 1-7/8". Whe
Read more

Springtime

Image
It's been a while since I messed with your mailbox so Howdy and I hope each of you are doing well. A few of you have sent notes and updates and they are always appreciated. This is too long but summarizes our life the past few months. We have been busy this spring with some major cleanup of the woods/brush around our house. The area in front of our house was cleaned up in the original construction. By cleaned up, I mean you could safely walk (mostly erect) through the area without fear of death by 1000 thorns. The other areas were left much less accessible with survival maintenance only but still no clear access. Though I have always wanted to see the garage-side area to look more like our front, we never made it happen in the 11+ years we have lived here. We had three obstacles that are more like excuses but they were very real. The first issue is our fundamental frugality. We could not bring ourselves to pay the several thousand dollars to have someone come in and do the work. Th
Read more

Burst Bubble

Image
About a month ago, I picked up an old Craftsman 18" scroll saw for a whopping $15. It satisfied a couple of points: 1) cheap test of whether I would like scroll saw stuff, and 2) small and light enough to stow it out of the way in my shop when not in use. This tool is in good shape but is a beater with vibration. Fortunately, I can clamp it down to my  very heavy assembly table. I have no idea how anyone could use this thing without something very substantial to clamp it to. I played around with it on some 1/4" plywood to get the feel and then put it away for a bit. I then saw a piece I liked on a Facebook group and the person shared his template. It called for cutting 1" thick stock slightly smaller than a sheet of paper. I looked around my shop and picked up a piece of cherry and began work. In hindsight, I'm not sure such a hard wood was a good choice for my first project with that thickness. The piece needed a very small blade (#5) and had some challenging turns/
Read more