The Herald

Issue date: 8/31/07 Section: Feature

Media Credit: Arthur Monroe "One of the policemen hit my roommate with the butt of a rifle and another policeman hit me in the chin with the butt of a rifle and I was bitten by three police dogs. I saw three other students in the dorm bitten by police dogs and about twenty others hit with rifle butts or clubs. Some of the students had cuts on their scalps and faces and four were seriously hurt." -William Glaze, Sophomore Class President (12/1/1967)

Girl looks through window of Lanier East Dormitory. Bullet holes made by police who charged the building in the 35-minute rampage. (Orginally printed by the Houston Post)

Hallway after HPD's maniac raid of Lanier Dormitory. (Originally printed by the Houston Post)

Police entered the dormitory forcibly using bolts from their shotguns and sharp edges from their axes to destroy student's rooms. (Originally printed by the Houston Post)

Police entered the dormitory forcibly using bolts from their shotguns and sharp edges from their axes to destroy student's rooms. (Originally printed by the Houston Post)

Students are forced to lay prostrate while rampant police officers storm the dorms in search of riot participants. (Originally printed by the Houston Post)

By Yolanda Braxton
Contributing Writer

Texas Southern University (TSU) has a deeply rooted history in the struggle for equality. March 4, 1960 students from TSU organized and led the City's first sit-in protest at a Weingarten Grocery Store lunch counter. This protest introduced a new aspect in the struggle for equal rights in Houston.

By the end of March, TSU students organized the Progressive Youth Association (PYA) with the main purpose of providing direction and strategies for protests.

These students led sit-in demonstrations not only in their community, but in major stores located in Downtown Houston that included Foleys, Grants, Kress, Walgreens, and Woolworths. On September 1, 1960 a part of the battle was won for the Black community when nine major businesses desegregated their lunch counters.

Wheeler Street, one of the main arteries of Black Houston was constantly filled with heavy traffic which flowed straight through the campus of TSU. As white drivers would drive through, they would yell out racial slurs, threats, and throw objects at the Black students. There were also a number of students that were hit by cars because of the massive flow of traffic. Racial injustices continually increased and on May 16, 1967 TSU students stood up and demonstrated to the City of Houston that "enough was enough".

It was then that Wheeler Street was filled with over three hundred people singing and chanting for change. This demonstration turned out to be the largest single African American protest in the history of the city.




Racial tensions accelerated as over 30 police vehicles, canine squads, helmeted police officers with riot guns and teargas, and paddy wagons were displayed to the demonstrators. A shot was fired and the riot began with over hundreds of police officers rushing the campus retaliating with gunfire. Believing that the gunshot came from Lanier Hall, the male dormitory, the police gave no opportunities to the students that were not apart of the riot to vacate. Instead, the police chose to surround the dorm and fire shot after shot indiscriminately. A number of police bullets pummeled through the windows and walls of Lanier Hall. A rookie police officer, Louis Kuba was shot between the eyes and when the word reached the other officers the gunfire increased.

As the police entered the dormitory, they forcibly used bolts from their shotguns and sharp edges of their axes to destroy students' rooms.

In an article by the Houston Post (12/1/67), William Glaze, President of the Sophomore Class said "One of the policemen hit my roommate with the butt of a rifle and another policeman hit me in the chin with the butt of a rifle and I was bitten by three police dogs. I saw three other students in the dorm bitten by police dogs and about twenty others hit with rifle butts or clubs. Some of the students had cuts on their scalps and faces and four were seriously hurt."

Walter Fontenot, President of the Student Honor Society also said, "Two policemen barged into the room and dragged me out of my room, my head hit against a bed post and my roommate was treated in the same fashion. They told us not to do anything or we would get our heads blown off. There were police on each level of the stairway who hit students with clubs and gun butts as they went down the stairs. I saw five or six students hit and I was hit as well." It was also reported that the policemen trampled upon Mrs. Harbert, the Lanier Hall Dormitory Matron and ransacked her room and personal possessions. Another student told the Houston Post, "Until now, I didn't know what police brutality was. They hit us with billy clubs, pistol butts, rifles-whatever they had in their hands, they hit us with it."

Students were dragged naked and half naked out into the street and forced to lie face down on the cold wet ground with guns pointed at their backs. Female students were forced to lie face down in the dirt and submit to being searched by white male police officers before they were transported to jail. Four Hundred Eighty Nine students were arrested and five leaders known as the "TSU Five", Trazawell Franklin Jr., Douglas Wayne Waller, John Parker, Floyd H. Nichols, and Charles Freeman were charged with the murder of Police Officer Kuba. Cleve McDowell, a law student and President of the Student Bar Association told the Houston Post (11/30/67), "The Houston Police Department was unnecessarily brutal to the point of being vindictive while falsely arresting hundreds of students without placing charges against them."

Charles Freeman was the only one out of the five to stand trial which was held in Victoria, Texas due to all of the intense publicity in Houston, Texas. His trial ended in a mistrial and in November of 1970, a judge dismissed all charges against all five students because the bullet that killed Officer Kuba was one from his very own colleagues.

Charles Freeman, one of the TSU Five, went from being accused of murder to a lawyer who is dedicated to representing accused criminals of felonies and misdemeanors in Harris County Courts.

As a result of this demonstration Wheeler Street was then transformed into the "Tiger Walk", a historic and symbolic landmark that serves as the symbol for struggle and the core of school spirit at Texas Southern University.

So the very next time that you walk, sit, or converse on the Tiger Walk, take a moment to appreciate those students that laid their lives on the line for a struggle that you are reaping the benefits from. TSU students have always taken a stand and created ways to make their voices heard, it is now your turn to continue the legacy. The baton has been passed, you must embrace the struggle and continue to lead and organize for equal rights.

This is TSYOU history…deeply rooted in the struggle for equality.



Yolanda Braxton is a two-time alumnist of Texas Southern University and a contributing writer to THE HERALD.

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