City Of Fort Worth: Black History Month Spotlight: Lenora Rolla

Dallas TX

16 February, 2022

3:59 PM

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Press release from City of Fort Worth: February 16, 2022 Black History Month, celebrated in February, is a time to honor the contributions and legacy of African Americans across U.S. history and society, including activists, civil rights pioneers and leaders in industry, politics, science, culture and more. In the spirit of that mission, each Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the rest of the month, a local Black hero will be featured in hopes that their stories will inspire you all year long to explore other fascinating change agents. Lenora Butler Rolla was born on March 4, 1904, in Palestine, Texas. The granddaughter of slaves, Rolla grew up in a poor working-class household without indoor plumbing in Anderson County and faced the challenges of poverty, disfranchisement and racial segregation. Her father was a laborer, and when Rolla was 5, her mother moved to Fort Worth to find domestic work for a white family. Rolla subsequently spent summers with her mother in Fort Worth until she permanently moved here when she was a teenager and attended Fort Worth Colored High School (now I.M. Terrell High School), from which she graduated in 1921. She studied at Bishop College and then took correspondence courses at Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View A&M University) while working as a substitute teacher at her alma mater. She also took extension courses at Texas Christian University and Purdue University. Throughout her life, Rolla explored a variety of occupations. Just after World War I, she worked as a proofreader for the Black newspaper Fort Worth News. While in her 20s, she worked at Southern Christian Institute in Edwards, Mississippi, but most of her early career was spent working at her uncle's insurance business in Fort Worth, which offered opportunities for upward mobility for African American entrepreneurs. Rolla's interest in politics inspired her to move to Washington, D.C., in 1936 to work for Mary McLeod Bethune, who had just been appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt to run the "Negro Affairs" division of the National Youth Administration. When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Rolla stayed in D.C. to work for the U.S. Maritime Commission, for which she received a War Service Certificate. She also took classes at Howard University during this time. While visiting her home in Fort Worth, she fell in love with railroad worker Jacob Rolla. Although he initially followed her to Washington, D.C., the couple moved back to Fort Worth shortly after marrying on June 22, 1945. They remained together until he died in 1984. Though they had no children of their own, Rolla helped raise her husband's children from a previous marriage. As the newlyweds settled in Fort Worth, Rolla continued experimenting with different career paths. She taught high school for some time before becoming a funeral director in 1948 at the Hardee-Adams Funeral Home. In 1951, after she passed the federal civil service exam, she became Fort Worth's first Black female postal clerk. Rolla also excelled as a political journalist and editor covering the emerging civil rights movement. In 1952, she became managing editor for the African American newspaper the Dallas Express and reported on political events of national significance, including the 1952 Texas Republican Convention in Mineral Wells and the 1955 bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama. She served as managing editor of the Dallas Express until 1956. She became dean of women at Jarvis Christian College, a historically Black institution in Wood County, Texas, in 1955 and served until 1958. While in Chicago in 1963 for the Urban Training Center, Rolla heard about Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington and took a train to Washington, D.C., to participate. King's "I Have a Dream" speech inspired her to bring the fight for civil rights back to Fort Worth. Rolla had long been an active community leader in Fort Worth, especially in matters pertaining to the Stop Six neighborhood where she resided. Since the 1940s, she had been a member of the Tarrant County Precinct Workers Council, where she advocated employment opportunities, decent housing for African Americans and eliminating the poll tax. She also organized boycotts against Fort Worth businesses that refused to hire Blacks. In addition, Rolla worked hard to revitalize predominantly African American neighborhoods and construct historical markers for Black landmarks in the city. Rolla was also a respected religious leader in her community. A devout humanitarian, she operated the East Hattie Street Haven when it opened in 1968, which provided food and clothing to poor Fort Worth residents, especially children. Although she had no children of her own, Rolla gave shelter to and unofficially adopted more than 15 young drug addicts, refugees, abused children, orphans and drifters. Rolla received many honors and awards throughout her life. In 1971, she was presented with a congressional citation by U.S. Rep. Jim Wright and an honorary resolution from the Fort Worth City Council at a banquet to raise money for the East Hattie Street Haven. She was inducted into the Black Woman's Hall of Fame in 1986 and received the Carter G Woodson Memorial Award for positive leadership two years later. In 1996, the Stop Six community honored her at their annual Heritage Day observance, which marked the founding of the community 100 years prior. On her 95th birthday, on March 4, 1999, Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr and the City Council declared the day Lenora Butler Rolla Day. She died on June 29, 2001, at the age of 97 at her home in Fort Worth.   Source: Texas State Historical Association.      Photo: Lenora Rolla. Photo credit: Otis Smith, UNT Libraries Special Collections.       Get articles like this in your inbox. Subscribe to City News.   This press release was produced by City of Fort Worth. The views expressed here are the author's own.