HARLINGEN — They’re doing it for African American identity.
That’s why Lonnie Davis and his wife Deloria are purchasing books about African American history for local students.
“My wife and I purchased the books for the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District,” said Davis, 77, a local businessman.
With February being Black History Month, the timing is perfect.
“When I went to school in Harlingen, there were no Black books in the library,” he said. “So I got to thinking about that and I decided I’m not going to let that happen on my watch.”
So Davis and his wife came up with this project to donate books about African American history — former slave and abolitionist Fredrick Douglass, scientist George Washington Carver, and sports great Jackie Robinson, just to name a few — to school libraries and individual students.
“We found out from the Harlingen school district how many African American children were in school, and they came back with 78,” he said. “And then we wanted to know what grade levels. So we purchased books for the grade levels from pre-K to 12th grade.”
And then a shocking phone call from Sandra Tovar, guidance counselor for the Harlingen school district, who said there were 78 students plus another 365.
“Why do you think there’s 365 plus 78?” he asked. “Well, I’m about to tell you.”
Davis explained that there are a lot of mixed-race students in the district. If they have Sanchez or Gonzalez as a last name, they may be considered or assumed to be Hispanic without making reference to their African American heritage.
But their African American heritage is still important to their identity.
“I told Sandra I’m going to provide books for every single kid,” he said. “If it’s 400, I’m going to have 400 books.”
William Sanusi, 15, came to the school district administration building and picked up the book “I Am Somebody – Why Jesse Jackson Matters.”
“I feel that the donation is really generous,” said William, a sophomore at Harlingen High School South.
“It’s important for young African American students to know their roots because many of them do not know where they came from or how they got there,” he said. “It’s really important for us to learn that to be able to push forward as a community.”
This seemed to echo Davis’s own sentiments. He recalled his own experience in the Harlingen school district decades ago when he was constantly shunned and jeered by both whites and Hispanics. In spite of it all, he persevered.
“I would not stop,” he said. “I was determined. I wanted to play football, I wanted to participate, and nothing they did could stop me from doing that because of me.”
Much of this determination came from strength of family.
“A lot of kids don’t have that,” he said. “They didn’t have the family that I had, and those are the kids I worry about. They’re going to lose their identity, they’re going to lose their sanity of who they really are.”
And that’s why he’s donating books about such notable figures as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, prominent individuals in the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. The books also reveal stories about such lesser known figures as Fannie Lou Hamer, who was an American voting and women’s rights activist, community organizer and leader of the civil rights movement.
There are stories about Madame C.J. Walker, an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is also listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first female self-made millionaire in the United States.
Davis also wants local students to know about the African American female mathematicians who were crucial in America’s winning the space race. And then there’s Booker T. Washington who founded Tuskegee Institute which eventually trained the Tuskegee airmen during World War II.
“I’m going to ask some people here in town to help me with the project, and it’s not going to be just for Black History Month,” he said. “This will be an ongoing project for all the year.”
