"Henry Boyd Hall"(1899-1974)

dentist community leader,and civil rights activist was born in Palestine Texas,he attended Paletine's Lincoln High School,and later Tennessee State University and Meharry Medical College where he graduated as a Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1923,after graduation,Henry moved to Seguin Texas where he practiced dentistry for 12 years.He joined the Second Baptist Church and in 1933 and married Olivia Williams, a teacher.Henry began his civil rights activity in Seguin when he helped start a chapter of the NAACP in that city.He and his family moved to Corpus Christi in 1937 and he began advertising his dental practice in his home.He also continued his activism.Shortly after his move,he noticed the absence of black postal carriers and found that none had received employment for 30 years.He immediately launched a campaign to help blacks become re-employment.Later,when he entered the local IRS office to pay his taxes,he found segregated lines.Henry phoned the first Corpus Christi branch of the NAACP in 1941 and served as its first president for three years.He also served as Vice President of the State NAACP and later as its state President.In 1951,Henry began the effort to desegregate Del Mar Junior College and his strategic process worked.He and other black community leaders,in early 1952,called Dr.Edward L.Harvin,the president of the college.Henry asked  President Harvin to enroll blacks or "they would march on campus."The president and the board of Regents concurred and in the fall of 1952,two years prior to the Brown decision,Del Mar allowed the first black students to be enrolled.He then helped desegregate the Corpus Christi Independent School District and nearby Texas A&I University (currenty Texas A&M University Kingsville),by 1956.Concerned with finding additional housing for Corpus Christi African-Americans,Henry worked with developers and financiers to build the Greenwood Park Subdivision .He also persuaded the City Council to add 200 units to the Leathers Housing project for lower income residents.During the 1960s,Henry worked with other activists to integrate swimming pools,the local hospitals,hotels,bowling alleys,and restaurants.His efforts often produced threats on his life.Olivia remarked,"there were times i was afraid for him to go out and crank his car."Henry later produly remarked that he accomplished most of his  civil rights goals"...without the shedding of one drop of blood,without the filing of one lawsuit within 200 miles of Corpus Christi [and] without the formenting of ill feelings between the white and black."He received numerous awards during his life time,including Foremost Black Civil Rights Leader awarded by the American GI Forum.He died in Corpus Christi,Texas.