Black history on film
Conroe resident’s documentary examines community through interviews with teachers, students, pastors and others
When Carl White went to the local library looking for history on the Black community years ago, he didn’t find much. And that stuck with him.
White, a lifelong Con roe resident and former Con roe City Council candidate, was prompted to act regarding the lack of history on Conroe’s Black community.
There tired Entergy employee also had a video production company, and, around 2006, he began interviewing people from Conroe’s Black community.
“I didn’t have a plan,” he said. “I was just going out putting my camera in front of people and letting them tell their story.”
He worked on recording interviews for about three years and paused. Around 2014, he began working on it again, and this time he had a list of questions for the subjects. He finally completed a 90minute documentary, “Colored Folks — Conroe Style,” in 2017. It’s been shown a few times at historyrelated events.
He interviewed pastors, business owners, and teachers, principals and former students at Booker T. Washington High School.
He learned more about his father Spencer White Jr., who became the first Black deputy constable in Montgomery County. Hewas also instrumental in creating the reserve officers organization.
Along the way, he mentored many others such as Mary Tolbert, who became the first Black female officer to work for Precinct 2 and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
White said growing up in Con roe was fun. As a child, he recalled spending the day exploring the woods and building playhouses. He never thought much about discrimination, but did notice the “colored” water fountain at the courthouse and restricted seating for Blacks in the balcony at the Crighton Theatre.
White and his friend weree curious about what the “white” water fountain tasted like. Once they tried it and found no difference between it and the “colored” fountain.
In the documentary, White also spent a lot of time talking about schooling the Black community and the effect of integration in Conroe. He was able to interview teachers such as Lucille Bradley and Algeno McPherson before their deaths at 100 and 106, respectively.
When Conroe schools were integrated in 1967, some in the documentary felt it harmed the education of Black students. They believed the Black teachers were tough but were more connected to the students and their families.
Hartwell Brown began at Booker T. Washington High School in 1963. When integration came, he moved over to Conroe High School.
“They discovered that kids are kids, and education went on,” Brown said in the documentary.
Parts of integration were welcome for longtime teacher Tommie West. When she was teaching at a Black school, all the teachers had to buy their own supplies. With integration, that was no longer the case. She also said she developed many friendships she still keeps today.
White was surprised about the variety of Black-owned businesses in early Conroe, such as a dentist’s office, ice cream parlor and hotel. He questions what happened to these businesses.
“Therewas a time when the feeling was that our history was not important, and that was a feeling nationwide” White said. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others have worked hard to remedy that. There’s still a long way to go. But I know now our history in the city of Conroe is documented and that will last forever.”
White said he may continue to fine-tune the documentary but that he’s happy to have it complete.