Brenda Sanders-Wise feels like she is completing a circle. When she was growing up in Tarrant County in the 1960s, her family told her stories about her great-grandfather, a man who was deeply passionate about education. In 1896, he donated land for a school for Black students, thereby creating a family legacy his great-granddaughter is still refining. Sanders-Wise is the first Black school board trustee of Birdville ISD, and for decades, she has been preserving and promoting Fort Worth’s Black history and culture. It hasn’t been an easy road.
In the late ’60s, segregation prevented her from continuing her education in the very same school district in which she is now a trustee. Despite those early barriers, she eventually became the first Black graduate of Haltom High School.
“My cousin and I were there at the same time, but my name starts with ‘B,’ so I technically graduated first,” she says with a smile.
Now, over 50 years later, Sanders-Wise is still making history. In addition to her role on the Birdville school board, she is currently the executive director of the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society (TCBHGS), which provides educational programming and genealogy workshops for adults and children. Plus, one of her longtime goals has been the opening of a museum dedicated to Fort Worth’s Black history and culture. When it finally does open (“it’s just a matter of when,” she says), there will be no shortage of stories to share.
To help celebrate International Women’s Month, here are some of Sanders-Wise’s fellow local history makers.
“These women — they persevere,” Sanders-Wise says. “They knew that if you blaze a trail, there will be someone you can pass the baton to.”
Marie Brooks (1921 – 2009)
“Marie Brooks believed in service,” Sanders-Wise says. Brooks, the mother of Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks, was the founder of the Fort Worth chapter of The Links: the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organization committed to enriching, sustaining, and ensuring the economic survival of people of African ancestry. Brooks was also a charter member of TCBHGS, and she and her husband were prominent members of the civil rights movement in Fort Worth. In an interview given a few years ago, Opal Lee (more on her in a little bit) credits Marie Brooks with helping attract 30,000 people to the Emancipation Day festivals at Sycamore Park.
Lenora Roll (1904 – 2001)
Lenora Roll’s passion for Black history and culture took many forms. Roll worked in the state Legislature, and after serving as a docent for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, she realized it was pivotal for her city’s Black residents to actively preserve their history. “She didn’t see our stories reflected in the museum,” Sanders-Wise says. “This crucial history wasn’t being archived.” That’s why she founded TCBHGS, whose work continues to this day. Roll also worked as the managing editor of the newspaper, the Dallas Express, and the Dean of Women at Jarvis Christian College, a historically Black institution in Wood County, Texas.
Opal Lee (Still making history)
Opal Lee is a nationally recognized icon who is perhaps best known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.” For decades, she led a fight to recognize Juneteenth (a date marking the full emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S.) as a national holiday. Ultimately, her fight was successful: President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law just last year, and Lee was in attendance for the signing. But she isn’t done making a difference. At the same time her fight to recognize Juneteenth was reaching its apex, she was running a food bank and community garden for those affected by COVID-19 and local food deserts. “Opal is determined, and she is passionate about what she believes in,” Sanders-Wise says. “When she sets her mind to do something, she does it.”
Judge Maryellen Hicks (Still making history)
Judge Hicks started dreaming of becoming an attorney when she was as young as 5. But she never dreamed she’d become a appellate court justice. In 1974, the revered local legend became the first Black woman to graduate from Texas Tech School of Law. Shortly afterward, she was appointed a municipal judge and then a chief municipal judge in 1978. She later became a family court judge, and in the 1990s, Gov. Ann Richards appointed Judge Hicks to Second Court of Appeals Fort Worth. When asked in a 2015 interview what advice she has for young lawyers, she said, “Do whatever you can to make our society even greater. When you look at the great lawyers of the past … those men and women have made a difference in this country.”
Mae Cora Peterson (Still making history)
Mae Cora Peterson was born in South Carolina but moved to Fort Worth during the Jim Crow era. She experienced firsthand the cruelty of segregation, and in turn, she developed a profound and lifelong passion for education. One of her first public leadership roles was her tenure as executive secretary of the segregated YWCA in 1934. Peterson later became dean of girls and vice principal at Fort Worth’s Dunbar High School, where she worked for 27 years. Now 105, Peterson continues to be a fierce proponent, educator, and supporter of the arts.
Tom Elizabeth Allen Andrews (1913 – 2004)
Brenda Sanders-Wise remembers hearing terrific things about the school founded by “Aunt Tommie” Andrews. “I had younger cousins who went there, and it was this perfect preschool atmosphere,” she says. Known as “Lil Tommy Tucker,” the preschool was built for Black children in Fort Worth in 1959. Andrews’ goal was to provide early literacy education while introducing children to the arts. The school attained accreditation from Fort Worth ISD, and in the early 1960s, Andrews added first grade, third grade and a comprehensive curriculum that spanned reading, writing, math, and theater. “Even though the school is closed,” Sanders-Wise says, “her legacy lives on through all the children whose lives she helped shape.”
Lillie M. Biggins (Still making history)
A health care veteran with nearly 50 years of experience, Lillie M. Biggins was the first Black woman president of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. She was also the chair of the Board of Directors of DFW International Airport. Sanders-Wise has sat on committees with Biggins, and she has seen her leadership skills firsthand. “She is a woman who speaks her mind but does it in a very intelligent way,” Sanders-Wise says. “She never loses composure.” That admirable leadership acumen — and her commitment to her community — has helped Biggins earn many accolades, including the President’s Volunteer Call to Service Award, the nation’s highest honor for volunteer service.
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Lucille B. Smith (1892 – 1985)
Smith is often called Texas’ first Black businesswoman. “I would call her a servant leader, too,” adds Sanders-Wise. After all, in the 1960s, Smith baked fruit cakes for the family of every Fort Worth man who was serving in Vietnam. Smith also founded a family-owned corporation, Lucille B. Smith’s Fine Foods, Inc. In the 1940s, she developed Lucille’s All Purpose Hot Roll Mix as a fundraiser for her church, St. Andrews United Methodist Church of Fort Worth. But the mix soon took on a life far beyond Cowtown: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, President Lyndon Johnson, and heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis all became Smith’s customers and friends. Today, her legacy lives on through her great-grandson, who runs his own restaurant in Houston. The eatery is called Lucille’s.
Norma Roby (Still making history)
As Sanders-Wise puts it, “You can’t talk about trailblazers without talking about Norma Roby.” Roby, a longtime member of the Board of Trustees for Texas Wesleyan University, is considered a business pioneer in North Texas. She opened her own concession stand in DFW airport, and she served as a charter member of the Airport Minority Advisory Council. Today, she still contributes to a wide array of organizations, including the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce Advisory Council, Medical Center of Fort Worth, and the Fort Worth Promotion and Development Fund.
Brenda Sanders-Wise (Still making history)
And then there’s Sanders-Wise herself. Like all the women on this list, she blazed trails despite the enormous obstacles standing in her way. And even though she feels like she is completing the circle started by her great-grandfather, Sanders-Wise believes there is still so much work to do. “It’s an honor to be on a list like this, because I feel like I haven’t done enough,” she says. “There’s still so much I want to accomplish.” Chief among her goals is the aforementioned museum: a place that children, their parents, and anyone in Fort Worth and across Texas can visit to learn about the area’s rich heritage of Black trailblazers. “Opal Lee’s dream came true,” Sanders-Wise says of Juneteenth. “I want my dream to come true, too.”
