My Texas Family: An Uncommon Journey to Prosperity (Voices of America: Texas) Hardcover - 2000

From the publisher

As we begin a new millennium, we tend to look back to the opening pages of the twentieth century. How did we preserve our memories of those days and times? Rick Hyman's family, who first traveled by covered wagon from Virginia to southern Texas after being freed from slavery, preserved family history as many of us do -- by taking photographs of social occasions and filling drawers with memorabilia ranging from dried corsages to jewelry. It was in the dresser drawer of a Texas relative that Hyman discovered three hundred black and white photographs (1912-1927) depicting the life of his Texas family who, after being freed from slavery for only one generation, prospered on their Texas oil land. Those two thousand acres in Fayette County fed cattle and provided the Henderson Martin family with horses and carriages, a stage coach, four cars, plenty of silver, and fancy clothes. The images captured on film illustrate the success of an African-American family in rural Texas and show women wearing impressive jewelry that is now part of the Hyman Collection. Hyman is eager to share this rare glimpse of African-American life in the 1920s -- life beyond the glitz of the Harlem Renaissance that so often depicts the culture during that period of American history. Rick and his wife, Ronda, have carefully cataloged the well-preserved black and white vintage photographs and presented them in this new book along with color prints of his artistic interpretations of the images. Hyman's unique art form captures the ironies of the time in strikingly vibrant colors: the formal dresses and Model-T Ford against a rural backdrop; the financial success of a family with their feet barely out of slavery; andthe proud look that was forty years ahead of the black pride movement in America.