Updated 8 months ago
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” ― William Faulkner
A MODEST PROPOSAL
Do not read if you get triggered by the libs
A plea from a moderate, former resident: Conroe, Texas today is a wonderful town with harmonious race relations, at least since integration, but it doesn’t take some shrill leftist to see River Plantation as some bullshit Confederate nostalgia in an area with a shameful history of actual family-friendly picnic lynchings, and the wrongful imprisonment of Clarence Brandley.
Yes, BLM has become a scam. But what’s right is right.
The Prehistory of the Conroe area
Montgomery County in East Texas has a history that goes back to before the Pyramids, but one would be hard-pressed to find anyone in Conroe that could name the matriarchal people who lived here for 12,000 years (the Akokisa) that lived on the banks of the San Jacinto river before the White Man came, with his slaves, and wiped them all out with disease, horses, and gunpowder.
(I think it’s great the White Man made America, by the way. History has shown us America has done much good in the world. Fighting Nazis and communism. It had to be done.)
But that is the backdrop. If the whole story of humans in Conroe could be visualized as lasting one month, then the White Man has been here only for a day. But let’s toss that all aside, for now.
Postwar Period
The Civil War came and went, the Confederacy lost, yet during Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws were enacted to keep the African Americans in line. All sorts of terrible things happened (see below). Statues were hastily built. Streets were named. Neighborhoods were built.
Race in Conroe Today
I remember growing up in Conroe in the early 70s. I remember a few of the black kids as deranged troublemakers. Even in kindergarten at Sam Houston, some black kid named Gene Golden was throwing rocks at other kids like some monster. Probably abused or mentally disabled. But some, Kevin Barefield, wherever you are, I bonded with. Race was just another data point for me and everyone I knew. Even then I didn’t judge. I took every individual as their own data set.
Conroe was more progressive than Crockett, where we had also lived. In Crockett, newly integrated black kids tried to say the tire swing was “for colored people only” and I witnessed a fight between a white and black on the bus”
River Plantation
River Plantation, AKA “RP” was one of the newly built neighborhoods, established in 1967 for allt he rich white people, right when busing and segregation were still hot-button issues. Most of its main roads were named after Civil War generals:
Robert E. Lee Dr – Virginia
Stonewall Jackson Dr – Virginia
Beauregard Dr – Louisiana
Braxton Bragg Ln – North Carolina
Jubal Early Ln – Virginia
And these are just the main roads. As you can immediately see by zooming in the map, there are many more side streets that also conjure nostalgia for the Confederacy:
Today, River Plantation is a perpetual symbol of white supremacy.
And if you laugh at this statement, you’re probably white. I’m white. I hate all these woke social justice warriors trying to make me feel guilty for crap that was a century and a half ago. It’s not my fault, and it’s divisive. They are picking at scabs.
Which is exactly what I am doing here.
But it needs to be acknowledged, at least once, somewhere, on an obscure blog, and not swept under the rug.
That said, especially considering Conroe’s history of lynching, even the word “Plantation” is a slap in the face to all black citizens of Conroe. There is also a Plantation Drive near the new police department.
I had many great friends who grew up in Conroe. They are mostly not racist. Hell, none of my friends were for that matter. Even as kids, no one said the N word.
But if you lived there, and it never once dawned on you wrong it all was, you are part of the problem. I am not asking it to rename itself, and its streets. But this is still the racist backdrop, the canvas, the foundation for attitudes we see even today. The devil is in the details.
Here is some Conroe Critical Race Theory for you:
Black men used to be hanged on the reg downtown and the white folks would bring their families to picnic and watch.
As the Gulf Coast Synod Lutheran Bishop Michael Rinehart has detailed, Conroe was the site of multiple lynchings back in the day (if you care about any of this at all, check out the link – it’s mind-blowing) and was where the innocent man Clarence Brandley was railroaded to death row for decades while a white murderer walked free in East County.
Incidentally, Conroe is also where the famous German director Werner Herzog filmed the award-winning “Into the Abyss,” which was not about blacks, but still an interesting look into the Texas judicial system. You can view the entire documentary on Youtube.
This culture of violence has been intertwined with the culture of racial subjugation. Hopefully, we can move past that period once and for all, but these hateful symbols persist as a sore that never heals.
Check out this Yelp review of the River Plantation Country Club.
Imagine this actually happened, IN A PLACE CALLED RIVER PLANTATION, surrounded by STREETS NAMED FOR CONFEDERATE HEROES, in the 21ST CENTURY.
“Really enjoyed the course itself for 2 months but as far as the employees I have chosen to never play this course again. I was a member and played 2-3 times a week with no issues until I brought my friend who is black. The pro shop employee, older man with glasses, all of the sudden couldn’t find my membership and told me he would “let it slide this one time”. I felt very embarrassed and ashamed that I took my friend to an establishment that would show such blatant racism. He actually asked my friend “what kind of name is Dejean”. He was asked 3 times if he was a member while warming up at the driving range by another employee while me and 5 others hit balls right next to him and were never questioned. I really enjoyed playing there but I can’t condone nor contribute to a golf course with this mentality, lack of professionalism, and lack of human decency.”
A Path Foward
Rename it River Park. Hell, take out “River” completely to forever erase any thought of “A good part of our Southern white neighborhood lies on a Flood Plain.” Locals will get this joke:
Take out all the Confederate leaders’ names and replace them with Texan heroes that were not involved in the slave trade. As Texas was mostly cattle, and not cotton country, it only marginally had economic stakes in the Confederacy. This makes glorifying the Old South all the more questionable.
Yes, there is another street in North Conroe named “Plantation Drive,” changing would be mildly expensive, and yes, you will piss off a lot of old white people. And yes, it would be mildly inconvenient to change all the mailing addresses, But that is chump change, let’s be honest.
Like a lot of things old white people don’t like, it’s the right thing to do.
If Germany can move on from its dark past, and pave over Hitler’s house and ban swastikas, so can Conroe.
I’m not holding my breath, but an old quote spoken a few years before the neighborhood was built comes to mind:
