If you grew up in Texas anytime in the last 50 years, you'll know what a big deal this is.

[demmiblue]

Some 150-200 people at a BLM rally in Vidor, an East Texas town that’s infamously associated with racism and the Klan

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[StarryNite]

1. Wonderful!

And I sure love seeing those masks!

[Skittles]

2. I didn't grow up in Texas

but have lived in Texas long enough to know this is damned cool

[Ron Green]

3. Vidor really was a Klan town. This is major.

[Leghorn21]

4. That's how ya do it, Vidor, Texas!!!

[Luz]

5. I left the area 40 years ago because of people like Vidor.

I'm pleased to see that they can, indeed, change. Go Vidor!

[samsingh]

6. good

[Lonestarblue]

7. I'm a transplant to Texas, but East Texas is home to a lot of rabid Republican wing-nuts.

This great to see. It gives me hope that some people are finally coming around to seeing the need for change. I just hope they realize that it is the Republican Party that has been stoking racial hatred for decades and stifling any legislation to deal with police violence, along with promoting other policies that hurt black Americans and indeed poor Americans of all races.

[dem in texas]

8. OMG - it's a Miracle!

Vidor has the reputation of being the most racist town in Texas, in fact that whole region has the same reputation. This is where a black man was dragged to death tied to a pick-up driven by a white man and his racist friends.

The picture shows more whites than blacks by far. Let's wait and see if attitudes have truly changed down there.

[littlemissmartypants]

32. The murder of James Byrd Jr.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd_Jr.

Truly horrendous.

James Byrd Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was an African American man who was murdered by three white supremacists in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer and John King dragged Byrd for three miles behind a pickup truck along an asphalt road. Byrd, who remained conscious for much of his ordeal, was killed about halfway through the dragging when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. The murderers drove on for another ​1 1?2 miles (2.4 km) before dumping Byrd's torso in front of a black cemetery in Jasper.

Sixty miles from Vidor, so very close.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidor,_Texas

Vidor was known as a "sundown town," where African Americans are not allowed after sunset. It was long considered a haven for the Ku Klux Klan. In 1993, after the U.S. federal government attempted to bring African Americans into Vidor's public housing, the Klan from Cleveland, Texas held a march in the community.

[Hulk]

9. louie gohmert country?

I spent 1970 there in Ft. Hood, just outside of Killeen, Texas. An interesting experience, but then, I was in the Army, so that was a different experience I'm sure.

We used to refer to the red necks as "goat ropers" and red necks...which there were many. Being in Central Texas, not far from Austin, I don't think our experience would have been similar to East Texas. I can only imagine.

[Ron Green]

12. Louie Gohmert represents the 1st District, where I grew up -

the Piney Woods. Vidor is more down towards the Gulf Coast. It’s all pretty beady-eyed, sweaty-upper-lipped, though.

[PurgedVoter]

10. For those out of Texas, Vidor has a serious reputation.

These folk gathered are brave. This is amazing. I live a stones throw away from the Bush Library and in our area we consider Vidor extreme. That is how bad Vidor's rep is.

[renate]

11. They are incredibly brave

They’re absolutely inspiring.

[smirkymonkey]

13. K&R

[Paladin]

14. Genuinely amazing. Thanks for sharing this (NT)

[Ampulae]

15. yep yep

I'm a years long lurker here at DU and finally created an account today just for this thread.

In the early 80's I was on one of two buses loaded with black kids for a social outing from Texas to N.O. We stopped in Vidor for perhaps a Dairy Queen. There was a gang of white kids in the parking lot, and as we reloaded the bus they began shooting bottle rockets at us. We quickly boarded and got out of there.

It was after that that I learned of the town's, and indeed, the entire regions reputation. I was warned to always hustle on through east Texas, and hustle I did. Of course, not many years later James Byrd Jr. would be lynched not far away in Jasper Texas.

So, seeing this is really something.

[aggiesal]

19. Welcome to DU ...

Thanks for sharing your story.

[Ampulae]

22. Thank you

and you're welcome.

[DesertRat]

23. Hi Ampulae

Thank you for your story and welcome to DU!

[Ampulae]

26. Thank you kindly

[UpInArms]

31. Welcome to DU, Ampulae

Long may you post!

[Eliot Rosewater]

35. Accept my apology please for the actions of those horrible people, who I am sure grew up

to teach their kids to be equally horrible.

You might get a kick out of this

Even Dale Jr. is talking about it but he also supported Colin Kaepernick from the get go, so I am not surprised.

Bubba Wallace is an AA NASCAR driver, FYI...

[DemoTex]

16. Vidor is just down the road from Jasper, Texas ..

Jasper is where James Byrd Jr. was brutally killed 22 years ago tomorrow - June 7, 1998.

[hamsterjill]

17. Life long Texan

This gives me hope. And goodness do we need some hope!

[Dios Mio]

18. Been there and it is an amazing event.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. Wow... And you can see masks! Very few masks here in central TX - not

even the Post Office workers.

If I'm in the grocery store and I pass by someone without a mask, I look at them with terror and start walking really fast. Juvenile, but makes me feel better.

[bmbmd]

21. Can Gilmer

Be far behind?

[Horse with no Name]

27. I'm not sure about that

That’s a scary town with a scary history.

http://www.earthops.org/cult/gilmer-tx.html

[LiberalArkie]

24. Same with Cabot Arkansas

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10392895

[mountain grammy]

25. Yes I know Vidor

and tis is amazing.

[pecosbob]

28. My father in life was not always what you would call an honest man

At one point in the 1970s he was having financial difficulties. He had invested some money in a vacation cabin on a lake in Kountze, Texas which is not far from Beaumont. He invited the family of an African-American friend to go with us to the cabin for the weekend. The next week the cabin burned down. The local fire department didn't even show up. I still don't know for sure who set the fire but I have my suspicions.

The point is that he knew what would happen.

[Shaddox]

29. Again tonight, I wipe away a tear - all praise to courage of those people. Every damn one.

[Upthevibe]

30. I was born and raised in TX but left there in '88

and came to California when I was 31 y.o. I'm from Corpus Christi which is on the Gulf Coast. I've never even been to East Texas.

I had lived in California for 10 years when Jasper and James Byrd Jr. happened. After I saw this post, I re-read what happened to the horrific sadists who did that to him. Two were convicted of a hate crime and both have been executed. The other was given life. The two who were put to death were known to be white supremacists. They had tattoos with Ku Klux Klan symbols, swastikas, etc. all over their bodies.

Honestly, I've never heard of Vidor, Tx. but I'm glad to see some signs of hope......

[Nature Man]

33. The high quality meth in that region

literally "took away the teeth" of the racists in Vidor.

[Demovictory9]

34. kick

[sellitman]

36. Any shot we turn Texas Blue?

Does Biden stand a chance?

[dalton99a]

37. Texas's "most hate-filled town":

https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/vidor-in-black-and-white/
Vidor in Black And White
It wasn’t just the Klan that wrecked the effort to integrate East Texas’s notorious all-white city.
By Mimi Swartz
December 1993