On Saturday, January 26th, the Jackson Purchase Historical Society hosted a lecture about Murray native Theodore Roosevelt Mason (T.R.M) Howard at the Wrather Museum Auditorium on the campus of Murray State University. The event was the Society’s celebration of the 175th anniversary of the city of Murray’s incorporation. The lecture was a joint presentation, given by David T. Beito, a professor of history at the University of Alabama, and Linda Royster Beito, a professor of social sciences at Stillman College. Linda Beito began the lecture by documenting Howard’s early life, including his influencers and the relationships he developed in Murray. Beito particularly noted the impact that Will Mason, a local doctor, had on Howard. Mason mentored Howard and eventually sponsored his college education. In gratitude, Howard adopted Mason as a middle name. Beito discussed Howard’s early medical career working as a physician at an all African-American hospital in the rural Mississippi Delta.
David Beito continued the lecture, focusing on Howard’s Civil Rights activism by explaining the campaigns, business ventures, and the speeches he organized throughout the region. Howard founded the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), which focused on improving the well-being of African Americans in the Mississippi Delta. Beito also discussed one of RCNL’s most successful campaigns, the “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use the Restroom” campaign, which provided supporters thousands of bumper stickers featuring the slogan. Beito also discussed how Howard opened his home to the family of Emmett Till’s and national civil rights groups during the Emmett Till murder trial. After the trial, Howard went on a national speaking tour where he gave lectures on injustices toward African Americans and the Till trial. On November 27th, 1955, at an event in Montgomery, Alabama, Howard spoke to a crowd that included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Four days later, on December 1st, Parks refused to give her seat to a white passenger, later proclaiming to the press that she was thinking of Emmett Till.
During the presentation, Beito made the point that Parks’ decision to not give up her seat could have been because she was thinking of Emmett Till’s murder, thus strongly suggesting that she was heavily influenced by Howard’s speech earlier that week. As a harbinger for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Howard was instrumental in passing the torch to the next generation of leaders such as King and Parks. After his national speaking tour, Beito discussed the reasons Howard moved from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago where he ran for Congress and built the first all African American owned hospital in the country. Howard died in 1976, leaving a legacy focused on the betterment of the African American community throughout the United States.
The Beito’s presentation was well illustrated with documenting Howard’s life not only in Murray but throughout the course of his noteworthy career. After the presentation, there was a lively question and discussion period during which audience members asked questions and several shared stories about Will and Ora Mason and T.R.M. Howard.
The Jackson Purchase Historical Society is grateful to the sponsors of this presentation: Dr. Earnest & Lola Berry, Dr. Dan Miller, Dr. Robert G. Fitch, Dr. Steve Trevathan, Dr. John R. Bright, and Dr. William H. Mulligan, Jr. , in memory of his parents, William H. and Aileen K. Mulligan.
The Jackson Purchase Historical Society is beginning a project to erect a Kentucky Historical Marker for Dr. Howard as a civil rights leader and a Murray native who made a mark nationally. A formal announcement will appear shortly. For information about the marker campaign or to make a donation contact the Jackson Purchase Historical Society P.O. Box 531 Murray, KY 42071-0531. For information on the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, e-mail iacksonpurchasehistory.org.
