By: Dr. Andrew Yox, NTCC Honors Director
On Tuesday 25 February, from 12:15 to 1:15 PM in the Community Room of the Mount Pleasant Library, 601 North Madison, three members of Honors Northeast will present original essays on regional themes. An anonymous donor will provide pizza, salad, and drinks, especially to those who email Dr. Andrew Yox ahead of time, at <ayox@ntcc.edu>--during the presentations. The event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Andrew Yox, Director of the NTCC honors program, will begin the session with “Northeast Texas as Portrayed in Film.” Through the years, Honors Northeast and the NTCC Webb Society have created eight feature-length films, all dealing with some aspect of Northeast Texas history. Their efforts have yielded three Caldwell Awards, and three Webb Chapter awards on the state level, prizes that go to a college or university group that has completed the most notable yearly project in Texas history. Yox will feature select scenes, discuss the group’s overall depiction of Northeast Texas compared to Hollywood depictions, and ask the audience for suggestions for future films.
Gem Elmore from Winnsboro will follow Yox’s talk on the “Integration of Churches in Northeast Texas.” In 1968, Martin Luther King envisioned a color-blind America. Is the adage that “the most segregated hour in America is during church”—going to stand much longer? Billy Graham embraced integration in the 1950s. Dallas churches, led by Tony Evans, and T.D. Jakes have become notably integrated. But what about Northeast Texas? Elmore has based her historical perspective of local church life on interviews with local pastors, and parishioners.
Finally, Jaidyn Thompson of Daingerfield will present “Populist Attorney: the Story of Harold Nix.” Have you ever wondered how it is that a single attorney owns the “good Morris County Courthouse,” while the rest of the county makes do with a more prosaic structure? Thompson, who has interviewed Nix, as well as other local attorneys, and residents, will explain the place of Nix in Northeast Texas culture and tradition.
Both Elmore and Thompson will be presenting their works later this spring at the meetings of the Walter Webb Society in Austin, and at the meeting of the Great Plains Honors Council in Wichita, Kansas.
The members of Honors Northeast are presenting their most recent film on the making of the Alamo as a patriotic supersite, 21 February at the Whatley Center for the Performing Arts at 7PM. The event is free and open to the public. High school seniors interested in pursuing scholarly accolades like Elmore and Thompson may apply to Honors Northeast. The application is free and the deadline for 2020-21 is 1 March. Address questions to Yox at ayox@ntcc.edu.
