Image courtesy of the Shankleville Historical Society
Modern Times Lecture Series
The Power of Persistence:
A New Shankleville Story of Preserving, Documenting and Propagating a Freedom Colony Legacy on a Shoestring Budget
Lareatha Clay
Sunday, March 27, 2022 | 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM CST
**Doors at 2:00, Lecture at 2:30
In Person and Online!
Tickets
$10 General Admission
$5 Student
Free for NCHM Members
The Shankleville Historical Society was organized in 1988, and immediately began taking steps to formalize the community’s “origin story” into a vehicle for education and cultural programs that have broadened the story of Texas. During its thirty-four (34) year existence, the Society’s work has made Shankleville one of the better-known and documented freedom colonies in the state. There have been stories in various media, including The Dallas Morning News and Texas Highways, the establishment of the Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival 2014, the listing of a community property on the National Register and the restoration/rehabilitation of that property, a thirty-one-year-old scholarship program with awards of ~$2,300.00 annually, two oral history collections, and numerous educational programs and workshops, conference presentations, and interviews on radio and television.
This lecture will explore the tenacity and creativity at the root of these accomplishments, and share lessons that may be used to achieve comparable results in similarly under-resourced communities and preservation/history organizations.
About the Speaker
Lareatha H. Clay’s professional experience includes more than 12 years in management roles with AT&T, and 6 years as Managing Partner of Omni Business Enterprises, Inc. (an Orlando-based event merchandising firm). During her 20+ years as an independent Training and H.R. Consultant with PRM Consulting, she has worked with large corporations (e.g., The Dallas Morning News, Lucent Technologies), small businesses, government entities (e.g. Harris County, Houston I.S.D., the State of Texas), and several nonprofit organizations.
While residing in Orlando, Florida, Ms. Clay’s background included service as a member of the City of Orlando’s Historic Preservation Board, Trustee of the Orlando Public Library, board member of the Downtown Orlando Partnership, volunteer with the Zora! Festival in Eatonville, and founding member of the Shankleville (Texas) Historical Society, Inc. She also chaired the “Mayor’s Challenge Task Force for Minority Business Development,” which led to the founding of the Alliance for Minority Business Development, Inc. – a coalition of area businesses, governments and community leaders that supported small and minority businesses throughout the Orlando area from its founding in 1993 until 2009.
This Beaumont native currently lives in Dallas, where she continues her involvement with the Shankleville Community as the Business Manager of the Shankleville Historical Society. In that role Ms. Clay has successfully spearheaded an array of ambitious historic preservation and educational projects, including an annual scholarship fund and program for more than 30 years, the inclusion of the Addie J. and A. T. Odom Homestead on the National Register of Historic Places, the restoration/rehabilitation of the Odom Homestead to its 1945 appearance, an archaeology project (with an educational component for youth) that purports to have located the homesites of the Shankleville Community’s founding families, and the establishment of the Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival and Symposium.
Ms. Clay is involved in other local and statewide preservation activities, including her current service on the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Historical Society and the Advisory Board of Foodways Texas. Lareatha is also a former Commissioner with the Texas Historical Commission (2001 to 2007), where she founded a paid internship program that offers college students from under-represented ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds the opportunity to work at the THC during the summer. Lareatha continues to work with the Commission and this program in her role as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of the Texas Historical Commission, Inc.
In 2017, Ms. Clay and her siblings founded Clay History and Education Services, Inc. as a vehicle for offering expanded history and preservation educational opportunities in partnership with the Shankleville Historical Society, the Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival, and other organizations with similar missions. Through this partnership, the renamed Aya Symposium was established in 2019.
Lareatha is a past President (two terms) of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League Innovators and has served on the Boards of Directors of the Dallas Arboretum, the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) and the University of Texas Ex Students’ Association. Lareatha continues to work with several committees of the Texas Ex-Students’ Association and is a member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), DallasHR, the DFW OD Network, the Leadership Texas Class of 2001, and the Omicron Mu Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Ms. Clay earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from The University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Arts degree in Human Resource Development Leadership from the same institution and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
In February 2021, the Texas Historic Commission presented Lareatha with the 2020 Ruth E. Lester Lifetime Achievement Award for her “significant, long-term contribution to historic preservation in Texas.”
