SAN BENITO — A local museum is going to make a TV appearance this month that’ll share a piece of the area’s cultural history with others from around the country.
The Texas Country Reporter, a weekly television program, is going to feature San Benito’s Callandret Black History Museum in a soon-to-be aired segment.
Through the episode, viewers will be able to learn about a piece of San Benito’s history that represents a past that some lived through and others didn’t even know existed.
The segment is going to be aired on Saturday, Feb. 12, at 5 p.m. on CBS and on NBC at 1:30 a.m. on the following day.
It will also air nationally on Feb. 18 and 19 at 10:30 a.m. on RFD-TV.
This year, the Texas Country Reporter is celebrating its 50th anniversary of broadcasting in various Texas locations.
Texas Country Reporter co-hosts Bob and Kelli Phillips made San Benito part of their historic year with coverage of the Callandret Black History Museum.
According to San Benito Historical Society secretary and treasurer Sandra Tumberlinson, about 24 Black families lived in San Benito in the 1920s.
Segregation kept these families’ children from attending school with white or Hispanic children.
The Callandret Black History Museum had its grand opening in February 2020 in honor of Joe and Fannie Callandret.
After her husband’s passing, Fannie donated land that housed a brick school that was completed in 1952 by the San Benito school district and educated the area’s Black children.
Phillips filmed interviews with Historical Society members Lonnie Davis, Tootie Madden and Tumberlinson that tell the story behind the only Black history museum south of San Antonio.
Davis told stories about teaching his grandmother how to sign her name, the excellent teachers who instilled pride in their students and the discipline in that wooden schoolhouse.
Madden and Tumberlinson told Joe and Fannie’s story and talked about the Historical Society’s involvement.
The Callandret Black History Museum is located at 305 Doherty Street. It has a gift shop and is divided into four sections.
One section of the museum revolves around slavery in Texas and the United States.
Another section focuses on black families’ presence in San Benito, how the school was created and its continuance through 1960.
The third section of the museum is a replica of the classroom that used to be in the school. The replica is complete with antique desks and items that were in the classroom when it was a school.
The last section of the museum has family trees of the black families who lived in San Benito.
For more information about the museum, visit www.callandretmuseum.com.
