No Color Is My Kind: Eldrewey Stearns and the Desegregation of Houston

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part One. Leader at Last -- 1. Launching a Movement -- 2. Blackout in Houston -- 3. Railroads, Baseball, and the Color Line -- 4. "I Was Going Places" -- Part Two. A Boy from Galveston and San Augustine -- 5. Uphome -- 6. Rabbit Returns -- 7. Driving Mr. Gus -- Part Three. Wandering and Return -- 8. "They Got Me, But They Can t Forget Me": A Mad Odyssey -- 9. Drew and Me: Recovering Separate Selves -- Appendix: Interview Sources -- Notes -- References -- Index

In 1959, a Black man named Eldrewey Stearns was beaten by Houston police after being stopped for a traffic violation. He was not the first to suffer such brutality, but the incident sparked Stearns's conscience and six months later he was leading the first sit-in west of the Mississippi River. No Color Is My Kind, first published in 1997, introduced readers to Stearns, including his work as a civil rights leader and lawyer in Houston's desegregation movement between 1959 and 1963. This remarkable and important history, however, was nearly lost to bipolar affective disorder. Stearns was a fifty-two-year-old patient in a Galveston psychiatric hospital when Thomas Cole first met him in 1984. Over the course of a decade, Cole and Stearns slowly recovered the details of Stearns's life before his slide into mental illness, writing a story that is more relevant today than ever. In this new edition, Cole fills in the gaps between the late 1990s and now, providing an update on the progress of civil rights in Houston and Stearns himself. He also reflects on his tumultuous and often painful collaboration with Stearns, challenging readers to be part of his journey to understand the struggles of a Black man's complex life. At once poignant, tragic, and emotionally charged, No Color Is My Kind is essential reading as the current movement for racial reconciliation gathers momentum

"In 1984, Thomas Cole met Eldrewey Stearns in a Galveston psychiatric hospital. Stearns, a fifty-two-year-old Black man, complained that although he felt very important, no one understood him. Over the course of the next decade, Cole and Stearns, in a tumultuous and often painful collaboration, recovered Stearns's life before his slide into mental illness-as a young boy in Galveston and San Augustine and as a civil rights leader and lawyer who sparked Houston's desegregation movement between 1959 and 1963"--

"In 1984, Thomas Cole met Eldrewey Stearns in a Galveston psychiatric hospital. Stearns, a fifty-two-year-old Black man, complained that although he felt very important, no one understood him. Over the course of the next decade, Cole and Stearns, in a tumultuous and often painful collaboration, recovered Stearns's life before his slide into mental illness-as a young boy in Galveston and San Augustine and as a civil rights leader and lawyer who sparked Houston's desegregation movement between 1959 and 1963"--

Preface to the revised edition -- Part one. Leader at last. Launching a movement -- Blackout in Houston -- Railroads, baseball, and the color line -- "I was going places" -- Part two. A boy from Galveston and San Augustine. Uphome -- Rabbit returns -- Driving Mr. Gus -- Part three. Wandering and return. "They got me, but they can't forget me": a mad odyssey -- Drew and me: recovering separate selves