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James Lee Dickey: An Analysis of One African-American's Leadership in Jim Crow Texas

Education

“We’ve got to break down this thing of ignorance, and that means we’ve got to go to school and have schools to go to. That has been our struggle all along, to prepare ourselves better for democracy and to persuade white people not to put stumbling blocks in our path,” Dr. Dickey explained to his white audience at the Chamber Banquet. Like Booker T. Washington, Dickey knew the only way to earn respect from white townspeople was to educate and employ black residents. If education had to be remedial, then repeat it until the subject is mastered. Dickey and Washington saw no shame in repeating, shame was only deserved if one stopped trying.

Dr. Dickey encouraged the city to invest in 7 acres of land east of the colored school for a playground and sports field in 1940. He believed that healthy exercise would keep the brain stimulated and positive endorphins active.
When a new brick school replaced the burned the old frame school, Dr. Dickey intervened with the City Council to purchase new desks and equipment for the new facility. He showed the council where significant white citizens, Dan Moody and Herman Melasky had tagged the desks 30 years previously.
He convinced the city to construct a footbridge over Bull Branch so students would not have to traverse a fallen log or a train trestle bridge to get to school. In 2017, the city improved the hike and bike trail, installed a park bench and plaque identifying the landmark as Dickey Bridge.
Between 1947 and 1957, Dickey persistently petitioned the city to construct additional facilities at the colored school, Blackshear/OL Price. In response, vocational, agriculture, business administration, physics, chemistry classrooms and a gymnasium were added to the school.

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