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RUTHCELIA ISABEL LANE

People of African descent are some of the oldest residents of Texas. Beginning with the arrival of Estevanico in 1528, African Texans have had a long heritage in the state and have worked alongside Americans of Mexican, European, and indigenous descent to make the state what it is today. The African-American history of Texas has also been paradoxical. On the one hand, blacks have worked with others to build the state's unique cultural heritage. But on the other hand, African Americans have been subjected to slavery, racial prejudice, and exclusion from the mainstream of state institutions. Their contributions to the state's development and growth in spite of these obstacles have been truly remarkable.

And, perhaps, one of the most remarkable periods in Black Texan’s history was when African warriors came marching home from World War I with great expectations for a better future. After all, they had bravely and with dignity fought, bled and died to prove that they, indeed, deserved the same abundant life, liberty and pursuit of happiness that the Constitution ideally guarantees all who pledges alliance to the same “Star Spangled Banner,” that yet waves “Under God,” over the land of the free. Unfortunately, after an Armistice was signed ending the First World War (on Nov. 11, 1918), Black soldiers, (comprised about 25% of the U. S. Armed Forces), was greatly disappointed. Especially disappointed were: Rodney D. Hardeway, Lowell B. Hodges, Jerome L. Hubert, Frank A. Lane, Toliver Thompson and Carter W. Wesley.

They had made history by becoming the first Black Texans to serve as officers in the U. S. military, only to return to the same institutionalized racism alive and well in the nation that they loved. However, those brave men had a new vision and weren’t about to allow entrenched discrimination and institutionalized racism rob them of “The American Dream,” without a struggle. Thus, those heroes teamed with H. L. Mims, C. F. Richardson, Sr., and John Hopkins to organize the first Houston Branch of the NAACP and elected H. L. Mims the civil rights organization its first president. Richardson, who later would co-Publisher the Houston Informer and Texas Freeman Newspaper with Wesley, became the NAACP’s first secretary.
In that historical backdrop, Frank Leslie and Cecelia Scott Lane were welcoming the older of their two daughters into an unstable, racially troubled Houston, Texas on February 2, 1919. They named her Ruthcelia Isabel and would say, many years later, “When we looked at her, something in our hearts told us that she would do great works for her people.” She certainly did. Hence, that salient fact was validated when her long and productive life was celebrated at Mount Vernon UMC, 1501 Jensen Drive, with Dr. Lewis L. Jackson, Sr., the officiating pastor. Ironically, her favorite song, “Blessed Assurance,” opened the order of her homegoing services. For sure, African Americans born in 1919 America definitely needed the blessed assurance of God, even if Houston had made great strides.

The city by the Bayou began to expand, during the Reconstruction period, when many African Americans moved from the state's rural areas to cities such as Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. On the outskirts of these cities they established "freedmen towns," which became the distinct black neighbor- hoods that still exist today. Black labor also contributed substantially to the economic development of these cities and helped the state to begin the transition from its near-total dependence on agriculture to industrialization. But the role that Ruthcelia was to play, was much more important than building a city. She was destined to become an educator and build minds. Her education to become an educator started in Houston’s public schools. When she graduated from Booker T. Washington, she entered The Houston College for Negroes.
Later she would fulfill a dream of completing her education at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, with a Bachelor of Arts in English. For the next several years, she studied in New York and was awarded the Master of Arts degree by Columbia University and the Certificate in Custom Design from The Pratt Institute. Ruthcelia was a Master Teacher who served for several years as an Instructor in the Home Economic Department at Prairie View A&M College; after that stint, she was a teacher of Home Economics in the Public Schools of St. Louis, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan and Ecorse, Michigan. After her retirement from the Ecorse Schools where she played an active role in the affairs of American Federation of Teachers, she returned to Houston.
During her retirement years, she continued her interest in leisure reading, in playing bridge and the affairs .of the Booker T. Washington Alumni Association. For more than ten years, she served as a Docent at the Houston Museum Fine Arts. Ruthcelia, who was preceded in death by her parents .

She was called home to glory on June 6, 2004. As requested she had a very brief and simple ceremony. Her life had, indeed, already preached her funeral. And she had the Blessed Assurance that God would say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Active pallbearers were: Roy C. Evans, Fred C. Guess, Sr., John H. Guess, J., Walter F. Johnson, Louis G. Robey and Mark E. Robey. Her sister, Franceta Mae Lane, a cousin, Calvin Ross Scott and other relatives and friends survive her.