Tag Archives: Galveston

California’s black town

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The traditional Juneteenth celebration, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, is kicking off this weekend in a small California town with serious roots in black history.

You’d think that the day that slavery formally came to an end in the United States would be a day of celebration for black Americans — and traditionally, it is. But it’s not the day that “mainstream” America might think it is. And it has nothing to do with the Emancipation Proclamation.

It falls every June 19, marking the day in 1865 when the Union Army took control of the last bastion of Confederate slavery, in Galveston, TX.

Ever since, the day has been known among black folks in this country as “Juneteenth,” and it is celebrated to the present day, across the United States and even beyond.

NOTE
Since June 19 falls on a weekday this year — Tuesday, to be exact — many locales will be hosting Juneteenth celebrations this weekend, June 9-10. Check your local schedules.

Galveston may be the ideal place to mark Juneteenth. The city always puts on a series of events for the occasion, and with 32 miles of beaches on an island in the Gulf of Mexico, Galveston doesn’t need historical reasons to throw a party.

Of course, not everyone can get down to Galveston, but Juneteenth is celebrated almost anywhere you can find black Americans. One of those places is in California’s Central Valley.

Allensworth, CA.

ARMY CHAPLAIN, ORIGINAL “GANGSTA”
When Lt.Col. Allen Allensworth established it back in 1908, it was the only town in California founded, financed and governed by black Americans.

allen allensworth

allen allensworth

Born into slavery, Allensworth was the original black “gangsta.” When he wasn’t being punished for trying to escape, he was being punished for trying to learn how to read and write.

In the eyes of the slaveowners, that latter “crime” made him extremely dangerous — and if you look at it from their point of view, they were absolutely right.

During the Civil War, he finally made good his escape and joined the Union Army, eventually becoming a chaplain.

The decades that followed the end of the war may have brought emancipation for the slaves, but they also brought legalized discrimination, harassment, lynching, right into the 20th century.

With little hope that things would be better anytime soon in the old Dirty South, Allensworth turned his eyes west. He wanted to create a town where black families could own their own homes, their own land, run their own farms and control their own destinies, beyond the reach of Jim Crow.

No oppression. No artificial barriers. No excuses. No fear. Their motto:

“Never abandon the high ground of right for the low lands and swamps of expediency. No man was ever lost in a straight road.”

The spot he chose wasn’t exactly a lush, bucolic, picture postcard setting. It was hot, dry, dusty and table-flat — just as it is today. But the land was cheap and water was readily available.

SUCCESS THAT DRIED UP
And for the first few years, it worked, beautifully.

It not only was a successful farming community but a railroad stop, where cattle ranchers and farmers from surrounding areas could send their products to market. Allensworth had visions of seeing a college built there, eventually turning the town into “the Tuskegee of the West.”

The dream didn’t last, however. When the water table dropped as big farms farther up the valley siphoned off its water supply, farming in the town became imposible. Allensworth’s original inhabitants eventually pulled out.

But the memory of that pioneering effort and Lt. Col. Allensworth’s vision, as is a portion of the town itself, is preserved at the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.

And while landlocked Allensworth has no beaches with which to match Galveston, Juneteenth will be celebrated there, too. There will be food and drink, a guided tour of its nine historic buildings, and some terrific speakers.

One of those speakers is a friend of mine named Shay Olivarria. Her motto — “the world is bigger than your block” — was one of the original inspirations for this blog, and still is.

With or without the Juneteenth celebration, Allensworth is a piece of black American history worth remembering, because its founder’s vision still has currency today.

Allensworth can be reached from Los Angeles or San Francisco by car. From Los Angeles, take Interstate 5 and state Highway 99 north to Delano, then head west on Graces Highway to the Central Valley Highway, aka state Highway 43. Turn north again to Allensworth.

From Northern California, take I-5 south to the Paso Robles Highway, aka state Highway 46. Head east to the Central Valley Highway, and there turn north to Allensworth.

DID YOU KNOW?
Although Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of black Americans from bondage, slavery, in a narrow sense, is still technically legal in the United States.

It’s spelled out in Section 1 of the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — the same amendment that your history teachers told you granted freedom to the slaves:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

ALSO CHECK OUT:
Juneteenth
CELEBRATING FREEDOM

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

Slave fort, the former James Island, Gambia River |©Greg Gross

TRAVEL LIKE AN ADDICT
I’ve never met Heather Rudd, but after taking a peek at her blog, I already know she’s my kind of traveler.

By that, I mean she’s one of those travelers who like to savor the journey itself, as opposed to a tourist just hell-bent on rushing about to a strict, canned itinerary, trying to cram in as much as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Check out her “5 lessons of a travel addict” and you’ll understand what I mean. They definitely are words to live — and travel — by.

JUNETEENTH
On this day 146 years ago, a Union Army general publicly read out a proclamation in Galveston TX that put en end to the last vestige of slavery in the United States.

Ever since, black Americans across the country and beyond have marked june 19 — or “Juneteenth,” as it came to be called — as the day when their ancestors in American got their freedom once and for all. And ther are celebrations, large and small, taking place all over the country.

Want to learn more about Juneteenth? IBIT’s got you covered. Just click here.

AIRBORNE AGGRAVATION
There are certain kinds of air passenger behavior that make an already dreary experience much worse — and the longer the flight, the more irritating it can be.

Here now for your amusement — or your introspection — are two lists of people who make those around them apoplectic. One comes from Friendly Planet Travel, the other from my friend, Pauline Frommer (yes, that Frommer!) courtesy of the Toronto Star.

How times have you run into passengers like these? For that matter, how many times have you been a passenger like these?!



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

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AIR
from the Independent Traveler
Ten ways to survive long-haul flights. It starts long before you board.

from Budget Travel
When it comes to travel annoyances, is there anything worse than dealing with the TSA? Apparently, the answer is yes — and that’s just scary.

LAND
from Frommer’s
The 4-1-1 on vacation rentals — where to do it, why to do it and how to do it right.

from Spy Travelogue
From Tijuana to Timbuktu, you run into touts, those annoying street hustlers trying to talk you into this shop, that stall. Instead of just shooing them off, why not put them to work for you?

from Frommer’s
How to pack light in ten easy steps. You back and your wallet will thank you.

from Airfare Watchdog via Yahoo! News
Games rental car companies play. They’re almost as bad now as the airlines.

from Discovery News
Can a laser beam save the lives of urban cyclists?

SEA
from USA Today
Three major cruise lines set to ban smoking in the cabins of their cruise ships at the end of this year and the start of 2012. That’s me in the corner, doing the IBIT Happy Dance.

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AFRICA
from DigiDrift.com
His name is Jason, and he poses a question I find myself asking a lot of people lately: Why haven’t you been to Africa yet?

from Got Saga
Good reasons to visit Zambia — and there are more than you’d think.

from allAfrica.com
World Bank: Africa is ready for the serious investor. Note that he said “investor,” not “exploiter.” And yes, there is a difference.

from The Mirror (London UK)
The Seychelles is a long way to go to get to paradise. See what makes it worth the trip. See what made it a honeymoon destination for Prince William and Kate Middleton.

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from The Root
Ready to start learning the black history they didn’t teach you in school? Then you’re ready for the first of several road trips.

from CheapoAir
Street food — you know you love it. Where o find the best street eats in the United States. Let the tasting — and the arguments — begin!

from TakePart.com
And speaking of food, a city famous for its cuisine — New Orleans — is getting into urban farming and eating local post-Katrina.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from Lonely Planet via BBC Travel
Beijingis more than the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and the jumping off point to see the Great Wall of China. It’s also got a rocking music scene.

EUROPE
from Visit Portugal
Wedged into Spain, stuck below Britain and France and overflown on the way to Italy, this may be the most under-appreciated travel destination in Western Europe. But why? All the history, culture, food and drink — and cheaper, too. Portugal deserves a look — and maybe a trip.

from The Guardian (London UK)
Would you believe: A railroad tunnel in Belgium that uses solar power to run high-speed passenger trains? Not fantasy, and not in the future. Now.

from the BBC
Dover Castle may be one of those innumberable stone monuments to ancient Europe, but i has more modern history hidden underneath. The evacuation that saved the British army at Dunkirk, a critical moment early in World War 2, was improvised and stage-managed from the tunnels below the castle walls. And now, you an see where and how it was done.

TEXAS: I’ve been railroaded

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© Nico Smit | Dreamstime.com

I was certain I’d never want to visit the state for fun — until I found out about the Museum of the American Railroad.

When it comes to our preferences, we can be pretty extremist. We like what we like, we loathe what we loathe and that’s that. The older I get, though, the more of a flip-flopper I’m becoming.

As a kid, I sternly rejected an invitation by friends in San Francisco who wanted to introduce me to this Mexican food called tacos. It would be almost a decade before I relented.

That was many years — and many tacos — ago.

I was just as absolutist about music. On my transistor radio (ask your grandfather what a transistor was), it was R&B, rock ‘n roll and jazz. In that order. Period.

Classical? Not really. Folk? Not so much.

Country? Oh, HELL no!

Then I heard the guitar of Andres Segovia. The protests inspired by the Vietnam war introduced me to folk music. And I eventually learned that some of my favorite R&B songs by artists like Ray Charles drew their inspiration from country tunes, and vice versa.

That’s when I realized that if you listen to any musical form long enough, you’ll hear something you like.

PLACES YOU LOVE — OR NOT
What’s this got to do with travel? Simply this: Absolutes apply just as much to places.

There are places we fall in love with. I mean that helpless, hopeless, head-over-heels variety of love. And if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you already know some of mine. San Francisco, London, Paris, Vancouver, Amsterdam.

It works the same way in reverse. There are places where we would sooner spend a night curled up in a cactus Snuggie before we’d spend a day of vacation there.

At the top of my list: Texas.

Too big. Too flat. Too hot and too dry — unless, of course, it’s too humid.

Above all, too Texan.

Texas is where I annually lost my mind as a kid during my family’s summer drives across the state — and back.

How bored was I? When you start memorizing AAA road maps while lying on an ice chest behind the front seat of a 1958 Buick, you have reached the ultimate in desperate circumstances.

Unlike the Beatles song, Texas to me was a long road that didn’t wind.

TARBALLS AND BROKEN BONES
Texas is where my cousins in Houston taught me to look forward to summer downpours — so we could go play in the flooded streets.

Texas is where I played in the surf at Galveston, and came out with shorts stained by tarballs from offshore oil wells.

Texas is where a wasp crawled up my shirt sleeve and stung me in the armpit, where I broke my thumb in a car crash — and I wasn’t even driving.

For a long time, I wondered why California got earthquakes and Texas got barbecue, when it clearly should’ve been the other way around.

After the crash, I was about ready to rename Texas the Leave Me Alone Star State. And I fully expected it to stay that way for the rest of my life.

In hindsight, I should’ve known better.

It started with an item that turned up on my Facebook from TrainWeb. An announcement:

“Museum of the American Railroad ready to break ground and move to Frisco.”

I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. One of my favorite things in the world — trains — was coing to one of my favorite places in the world — San Francisco — in the form of a major museum?

FRISCO, NOT “FRISCO”
Mentally, I was already making air reservations to SFO, planning my BART ride into The City and trying to decide whether I wanted to stay in a hotel on Nob Hill, in the South of Market or in Fisherman’s Wharf.

I was so happy, I was even willing to overlook TrainWeb’s reference to San Francisco as “Frisco,” which for more than a few San Franciscans, marks you as a tourist and a legitimate target for disdain.

Then I clicked on the link and read the Dallas Morning News story. the museum was indeed moving to Frisco.

Frisco, TX. A suburb of Dallas.

A moment earlier, I’d been dying with excitement. Now, I was just dying. The crash of my disappointment probably tripped seismographs in a dozen western states.

Grudgingly, I checked out the museum’s Web site.

Wow, these guys are serious! Steam locomotives, electric and diesel-electric locomotives of the old streamlined types that my generation grew up seeing.

Cabooses. Every kid I went to school with — the boys, anyway — at some point in their adolescence fantasized about riding in one of these.

Pullman sleeper cars of the type one of my great-uncles worked on from the age of 15 as a Pullman porter out of New Orleans.

(That part of American railroad history resides in Chicago at the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum. If you’re interested in the history of the Civil Rights movement as well as American railroading, you owe it to yourself to check it out).

It all harkens back to the days when trains were not only the best way, but the only way to move around the country efficiently and in any degree of comfort.

If nothing else, it’ll give you an idea of just how goos our rail system used to be — before freeways, airlines, Congress and Amtrak, among others, nearly killed it.

Even better, the new museum is being built in the style of one of America’s grand old railroad stations, the North Station in Boston.

Oh yeah, I can get into this.

So here I sit, facing the harsh realization that I may have to rethink my perpetual dismissal of Texas. People who like trains this much much can’t be all bad.

You think they have decent barbecue in Frisco?

MÉXICO: Dos golpazos más al turismo

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La imágen y más aún, la economía mexicana han recibido dos golpes nuevos esta semana en el sector turístico. Esta vez, el otro lado está impactado también.

Desde sus oficinas en Atlanta, GA, el Centro para el Control y la Prevención de las Enfermedades, (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) ha emitido un boletín respecto a la presencia de la “Enfermedad del Legionario“, o Legionnaire’s disease en la isla de Cozumel.

El CDC ha confirmado la existencia de este mal en dos centros turísticos de la ciudad, el Regency Club Vacation Resort y el Wyndham Cozumel Resort & Spa, con una cifra de nueve víctimas entre 2008 y 2010. No habían muertos entre ellos.

Lea el boletín del CDC aquí.

Hay que mencionar que esta enfermedad se encuentra solamente en los dos centros mencionados. No se ha detectado en la ciudad o la isla entera.

La Enfermedad del Legionario es una infección provocada por una bacteria que causa la pulmonía. Esta provocó un pánico temporal en los EE.UU. cuando fué detectada por primera vez en 1976.

En ese año, varios hombres que asistieron a una reunión del grupo fraternal American Legion en un hotel en Philadelphia murieron días o semanas después.

Eventualmente, los médicos descubrieron que aunque el mal fue trasmitido entre sus víctimas por el aire, no fue nada extraordinario, sino fue provocado por una bacteria más o menos típica y podía ser erradicada con antibióticos.

El problema en Cozumel es que hasta el momento, el foco de la infección sigue siendo desconocido. Por eso, el CDC avisa que es muy importante que los viajeros que han visitado recientemente los dos centros turísticos mencionados consulten con sus médicos familiares inmediatamente.

LA NARCO-INFECCIÓN
Mientras tanto, la infección de la narco-violencia ha impactado el puerto de Los Angeles, CA. Según el diario Los Angeles Times, dos barcos cruceros van a abandonar California en el año en curso.

El barco Mariner of the Seas, propiedad de Royal Caribbean, será operado desde Galveston, TX. El crucero Norwegian Sun, propiedad de Norwegian Cruise Lines, esta destinado para Tampa, FL.

Las dos corporaciones rivales están abandonando Los Ángeles por la misma razón, que es la falta de pasajeros para sus vacaciones a la “Riviera Mexicana.” La causa principal es que se cree que “en el otro lado” la percepción que se tiene de México es de un lugar tan peligroso como Irak o Afganistán.

Las noticias de narco violencia en los centros turísticos como Acapulco y Cancún crean una imagen de peligro y temor entre los turistas norteamericanos, no obstante el hecho de que la violencia casi nunca impacta a los turistas de manera directa.

Lea el artículo del diario Los Angeles Times aquí.

La decisión de las dos compañías representa un golpazo económico a las tres Californias y la costa del pacífico mexicano, pues en cualquier puerto donde se encuentren, los barcos cruceros sirven como motores económicos — motores que generan millones de dólares en ventas y mucho empleo. Asimismo, disminuyen las opciones de los viajeros norteamericanos en el oeste del país.

Todo esto es el resultado de un temor poderoso y a veces casi histérico, “en el otro lado“.

Una vez más, la percepción norteamericana triunfa sobre la realidad mexicana, y traerá consecuencias negativas para los dos.

MEXICO: The hits just keep on coming

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An outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease hits resorts on Mexico’s Gulf coast, while in low bookings prompt cruise lines to abandon the Mexican Riviera. In the travel industry, this is what’s known as a bad day.

You have to wonder how many more beatings Mexico’s battered tourism image can take.

The first salvo comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issued a bulletin this week about an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease in two resorts on the Mexican island of Cozumel, a popular tourist destination and cruise ship port on the Gulf of Mexico.

The two resorts affected are the Regency Club Vacation Resort and the Wyndham Cozumel Resort & Spa (formerly Reef Club Cozumel).

Legionnaire’s disease is a bacterial infection that triggers pneumonia. It first popped up on our collective radar back in 1976, when men coming back from an American Legion convention at a Philadelphia hotel started coming down with it, and dying.

Not knowing the cause at first, people all over the country were freaking out, fearing that some sort of murderous, invincible superbug had got loose among us.

The panic died down after medical investigators tracked down the culprit, a new and potent but still relatively ordinary strain of bacteria that can be taken down with antibiotics.

Today, Legionnaire’s disease is known as a random annoyance that hits individuals now and then, but rarely causes general outbreaks.

Two things to note here. First, CDC says the outbreak affects only these two resorts on Cozumel, not the island as a whole. So if you’re booked on a cruise that docks at Cozumel later this year, don’t freak. It’s perfectly safe to get off the ship, wander about and enjoy the place.

Secondly, it’s not as if guests at these two resorts have been dropping like moscas. A grand total of nine people from the two resorts have come down with Legionnaire’s disease in the last two years. Not exactly plague numbers.

Still, there’s concern for those two resorts because scientists have yet to track down the source of the bacteria, which spreads from person to person through the air. If you’ve been to either of those resorts in the last two years, talk your doctor.

Immediately.

You can read the entire CDC bulletin here.

Meanwhile, an infection of a different sort, Mexico’s horrific, blood-soaked struggle against that country’s drug cartels, has triggered symptoms in the cruise industry.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines each is pulling one of its ships out of the Port of Los Angeles and sending them elsewhere because markedly fewer people are taking cruises to the Mexican Riviera.

Royal Caribbean is moving its Mariner of the Seas to Galveston, TX, while NCL is transferring the Norwegian Star to Tampa, FL.

Aside from giving West Coast cruise vacationers fewer options, this puts a real dent in the livelihoods of a lot of people, from LA and Long Beach to Los Cabos, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco.

You can read the entire LA Times piece here.

This became more or less inevitable as soon as the cartels started taking their bloody turf battles to places like Acapulco and Cancun, even though they seldom come anywhere near tourist zones. When it comes to Mexico in the eyes of tourists, perception often trumps reality.

Seeing the mayor of Cancun arrested on drug trafficking charges last year probably didn’t help.

To us, still clawing our way out of a recession, this is a pain in the neck. To Mexico, it’s closer to a kick in the nads.

Depending on whom you ask, tourism is the third or fourth largest source of revenue for the country, which also happens to be the 13th largest economy in the world.

For a lot of our neighbors to the south, who have done nothing wrong, an already difficult life is about to get harder.

Juneteenth

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Sunrise at Galveston Bay, Texas. This is where the sun set on American slavery.
© Paul Wolf via Dreamstime.com

Is this America’s most misunderstood holiday?

Aunt Lillie is a special person in my life, even though we never met. June 19 also is a special day — and both for the same reason.

It has to do with one of the lesser-known American holidays.

Aunt Lillie (she actually pronounced it la-LEÉ) lived most of her days in Bay St. Louis, MS. She was the last member of my family to be a slave.

At the height of the Civil War in 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, abolishing slavery. But this only had force in those parts of the South the Union army controlled — which in 1862, wasn’t much.

Three years later, with the Confederacy crushed, a Union general named Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX and promptly laid down the law, which he read from a balcony to the local populace:

“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

Until that moment, to people like my Aunt Lillie, the Emancipation Proclamation had been little more than words on a page. Now, Lincoln’s promise to America of “a new birth of freedom” had been made real. This order would be heard throughout the South, but Galveston heard it first.

The date was June 19, 1865.

Someone eventually compressed that into Juneteenth, and former slaves everywhere — including Bay St. Louis — came to accept it as the date that marked their liberation. Many would treat it as a second birthday.

For decades thereafter, ex-slaves and their free-born kin would trek to Galveston in a pilgrimage not unlike that of Muslims to Mecca. The celebrations could last a week.

They sang. They danced. They went to church. They staged rodeos and paid homage to legendary black cowboys like Bill Pickett. They traced their ancestral roots. And they cooked. Barbecues became a Juneteenth staple.

Another staple was red soda. Sounds bizarre, I know, but they had their reasons.

Back in the day, strawberry-flavored soda drinks were new, exotic, pricey — and off-limits to slaves. Then came Juneteenth — and BANG! Instant tradition. Now, on your day, you drank the red soda. Strawberry-flavored, cream soda-flavored, whatever flavor. It just had to be red.

Their descendants were still doing it a century later, as R&B singer Joe Tex noted in one of his songs, “Men Are Getting Scarce:”

“She reminds me of them folks
up in Navisoda, Texas,
eatin’ barbecue and drinkin’ red sody water
on the 19th of June!”

(These days, there’s a Texas soft drink called Big Red that sells a lot on Juneteenth. Some love it. Others have likened its taste to ice-cold Robitussin. Either way, it’s sold in 44 of the 50 U.S. states…and Tahiti. Don’t ask.)

With the black migration from the rural South to the industrial North and expanding West, Juneteenth fell into decline, but the Civil Rights movement revived it. And in 1980, Texas recognized it as an official state holiday.

Today, across the country and even internationally, black Americans mark Juneteenth in a variety of ways — some public, some private, some communal, some personal.

And it’s a big to-do in Galveston.

As for my Aunt Lillie, she lived to be 104. She died a few years before I was born. She saw whole generations live and die in bondage. But her own life, begun in slavery, ended as one long drink of freedom.

I try to imagine how her spirit must have soared every year around this time. I try to fathom the joy, the gratitude she must have felt. And I try to comprehend the glow in her soul at the moment she realized that maybe, just maybe, all things really were possible.

That is why, every year on Juneteenth, I feel a gaze that I never saw, feel a voice that I never heardhellip;and I rejoice.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Lillie.

Galveston today is a city of about 60,000 people, less than an hour’s drive south of Houston. It sits at one end of a barrier island of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico.

That island has about 32 miles of uninterrupted beach and shoreline.

The city itself sports a Schlitterbahn waterpark, several historic ships and is one of the major cruise ship ports on the Gulf. It also offers activities ranging from jazz festivals to surf and skate camps.

Some of the best barbecue I’ve ever had in my life — and definitely the hottest — was in Galveston.

Galveston is one of the few places on Earth, if not the only one, that has a museum based on an offshore oil rig.

Among the items on exhibit there is a blowout preventer that you can see for yourself, up close. Given this year’s BP oil spill, which eventually may threaten Galveston’s economic existence, the irony of that particular display is breathtaking.

If you’d like to join in this year’s Juneteenth festivities — or just enjoy Galveston before the oil tide gets there — you can find more detailed visitor information on this site.