Lenora Rolla facts for kids
Lenora Rolla (born March 4, 1904 – died June 29, 2001) was an important African-American leader. She was a businesswoman, teacher, and historian. Lenora grew up in poverty, as her grandparents had been slaves. She became a strong voice for civil rights and helped her community in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. In 1977, she started the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society. Today, its history museum is named after her.
Contents
Lenora Rolla's Life Story
Her Early Years and School
Lenora Rolla, whose maiden name was Butler, was born on March 4, 1904. This was near the towns of Palestine and Neches in East Texas. Her grandparents raised her in Neches until she was five. Her grandfather, William Hall, had been a slave in Mississippi. Her grandmother, also born into slavery, was given as a gift to a white couple who moved to Texas.
Lenora's father was a farmer. Her mother, Amanda Hall, worked as a maid in Fort Worth. She sent money home to her family. Lenora spent summers with her mother in Fort Worth. In 1909, she moved there for good. She lived in servants' quarters and helped her mother with chores.
Lenora went to the Cooper Street School in Trezevant Hill. This was a historic African-American community in Fort Worth. She was baptized at Southside Baptist Church in 1916. In 1921, she finished school at the famous I.M. Terrell High School. This was the first public school for Black students in Fort Worth.
She later worked as a substitute teacher there. Lenora also took classes by mail from historically Black Prairie View A&M College and Bishop College. She earned a math degree from Alcorn College in Mississippi. In the 1940s, she also studied at Howard University in Washington, D.C..
Her Work and Career
Lenora Rolla supported herself by sewing clothes. She also worked at her uncle's insurance business in the 1920s and 1930s. During the Great Depression, she was a proofreader for the Fort Worth Mind. This was a local African-American newspaper.
In the 1940s, she lived in Washington, D.C. She worked with the settlement house movement. This was a social effort to help people in poverty. Even then, things were still segregated by race. Lenora heard First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt speak at Howard University. She also worked with civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune. Mary had an office in the White House during President Roosevelt's time.
During World War II, Rolla was a supervisor at the United States Maritime Commission. She managed the office workers and typists. She received a War Service Certificate for her great leadership. By 1949, she had married and moved back to Fort Worth. She became a licensed funeral director. She worked at Baker and Hardee-Adams funeral homes, which served the Black community in segregated Fort Worth.
From 1952 to 1956, she was the managing editor of the Dallas Express. This was the oldest Black newspaper in Texas. From 1955 to 1958, she was the dean of women at Jarvis Christian College in East Texas. In the 1960s, she worked for Texas state senator Don Kennard. In the 1970s, she was a guide at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.
Her Activism and Leadership
Lenora Rolla strongly believed that civil rights groups needed support from churches. In 1946, she was a delegate to the National Christian Missionary Convention. In 1954, she became the president of this group. In 1953, Rolla spoke at the Disciples of Christ World Convention in Canada. She was also a delegate at the United Nations Seminars on World Order in 1950 and 1955.
She was the vice-president of the Christian Churches of Texas. She served on the board of the Fort Worth Area Council of Churches. She was also on the board of the United Christian Missionary Society. She was the first female elder at Fort Worth's Community Christian Church.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Rolla was part of the Tarrant County Precinct Workers Council. This group worked to get rid of the poll tax. In the 1950s, she started the Hattie Street Haven community center. It was in an old fire station in east Fort Worth. She organized boycotts against businesses that would not hire Black people. She also held "get out the vote" rallies in Chicago and Fort Worth.
In 1954, Rolla met Martin Luther King, Jr. She was traveling to Montgomery, Alabama to report on the Brown vs. Board of Education trial for the Dallas Express. She returned in 1955 to cover the Montgomery bus boycott. In 1963, she was chosen to be part of Lyndon B. Johnson's Conference on Community Leaders. This was sponsored by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She also took part in the famous March on Washington. This is where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Rolla called this the "high point" of her life. She said King "gave me motivation to keep on keeping on."
Through her civil rights work, Rolla met and was inspired by many important people. These included Stokely Carmichael, James Baldwin, Marian Anderson, Esther Rolle, Alex Haley, and Dick Gregory. She often brought these figures to Fort Worth. In the 1960s, she went to Chicago to meet Alfreda Duster, the daughter of civil rights leader Ida B. Wells. In 1980, she visited several African countries as a missionary. She went again in 1994 on a "homeland" tour. This trip was based on Alex Haley's book Roots.
In 1986, Rolla took part in the Hands Across America event. This benefit helped end homelessness. She stood along Lancaster Avenue with her friend and fellow activist, Opal Lee.
Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society
In 1974, Lenora Rolla was asked to join Fort Worth's Bicentennial planning committee. Her job was to collect the history of African Americans in early Fort Worth. This project, and the release of Alex Haley's book Roots, inspired Rolla. She decided to form the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society. It started in 1977 with 21 founding members, led by Rolla. Their first meeting was at Tarrant County Junior College.
The collection was first kept in the Rolla family's home in east Fort Worth. When it grew too big, it moved to the East Berry branch of the Fort Worth Public Library. Then it moved to a special building on East Rosedale. Later, it moved to a two-story house on Humbolt Street. This house was important because Reverend A.L. Boone had lived there. It was also across from the Baker Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a key place for the Black community in Fort Worth. Lenora Rolla designed the Society's logo: three interlocking keys.
Throughout the 1980s, Rolla took the Society's displays to local schools and churches. She wanted to correct wrong ideas about the role of African Americans in U.S. history. Rolla said, "There's no such thing as black history in the United States of America. We have only one history, American history."
In 1988, Lenora and the Society got a Texas Historical Marker for the James E. Guinn School in Fort Worth. They tried to save some old "shotgun houses" near Magnolia Avenue. These houses had been lived in by Black families. But sadly, they were torn down in 1996.
In 1997, the Society's papers were placed in the Fort Worth Public Library Archives. The Society's main building on Humbolt Street now shows artifacts and larger items. It has been named the Lenora Rolla Heritage Center Museum to honor her.
Her Personal Life
Lenora married Jacob "Jake" Rolla (1888-1984) on June 22, 1944. Jake was from Tyler, Texas. He moved to Fort Worth in 1917 and worked for the Texas and Pacific Railway for almost fifty years. He asked Lenora to marry him during one of her trips home from Washington, D.C. They were married there.
The Rollas built a house on Cottey Street. Later, they moved to a house on Ramey Street, where they lived for forty years. Lenora and Jake did not have their own children. However, they took in many people who needed help. These included "refugees, abused children, orphans, [...] and drifters." Everyone called her "mother."
Rolla was a longtime member of the Community Christian Church in Fort Worth. She was also a member of the Tarrant County Historical Commission. She belonged to the Colored Federated Women's Club, American Woodmen, and Heroines of Jericho. Rolla also helped start the Fort Worth Urban League.
People described Lenora Rolla as very smart, with a good sense of humor and the courage to speak her mind. She passed away on June 29, 2001. She was buried at Cedar Hill Memorial Park in Arlington, Texas.
Awards and Special Recognition
Lenora Rolla's hard work was recognized both locally and across the country:
- 1971 - March 19 was declared Lenora Rolla Day by the mayor of Fort Worth. Jim Wright presented a special resolution from Congress honoring her. A similar resolution was presented in the Texas Senate. 450 people attended a dinner to honor Rolla.
- 1983 - She received a First Century Distinguished Alumni Award from Fort Worth Independent School District.
- 1986 - She was added to the Texas Black Women's Hall of Fame.
- 1986 - A special exhibit, I Lenora: The Woman Who Triumphed Over All Odds, was shown at the University of Texas at Arlington.
- 1987 - She received an award from the National Conference for Community and Justice.
- 1987 - She was included in the They Showed the Way exhibit at the African American Museum in Dallas.
- 1988 - She received the National Endowment for the Arts Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award.
- 1989 - She was named the Outstanding Woman of Fort Worth.
- 1990 - She received the William E. Jary, Jr. Memorial Award from the Tarrant County Historical Commission.
- 1994 - She received the Pioneer Award from the National Women's History Month organization.
- 1994 - She was named a Forum Fellow by the Leadership Fort Worth organization.
- 1999 - She was inducted into the Pioneer Hall of Fame at Jarvis Christian College.
- 1999 - March 4 was declared Lenora Rolla Day in Fort Worth to celebrate her 95th birthday.
Images for kids
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Lenora Rolla and Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s
