A Juneteenth story: Born into slavery in 1838, a Tarrant County voter in 1939
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Celebrating Juneteenth in North Texas
With the U.S. now celebrating Juneteenth as a federal holiday, Black North Texas residents and leaders say it’s important to reflect on history, celebrate freedom and appreciate Black American culture in an authentic and constructive way.
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A Juneteenth story: Born into slavery in 1838, a Tarrant County voter in 1939
On June 19, 1865, enslaved Black people of Texas’ lives were changed when they were freed. In Texas, Juneteenth has been celebrated since 1866, and in Fort Worth, Juneteenth has great significance. But many stories of the ones freed have never been told.
Henderson “Pa” Perkins’ story may have seemed like it was lost to history, but this Juneteenth, his story comes back into the light.
Perkins was born on May 9, 1838, in Nashville, Tennessee, and was brought to Centerville, Texas, by slave owners not long after. Before the Civil War, Perkins was enslaved by Tom Garner, a relative of 32nd Vice President John Nance Garner.
Perkins was freed after the war ended.
“I likes my freedom,” Perkins told Federal Writers of the Slave Narrative Project. “When we’uns is free we’uns goes anywhere we wants to.”
With his freedom, Perkins worked on farms and eventually ended up in Fort Worth, Texas, at 610 Penn St., around the time that “horses and mules were pulling street cars around.”
In 1936, he attempted to meet Vice President Garner but wasn’t able to.In 1939, he was one of six black voters to cast a ballot in a Tarrant County election.
By the 1950s, Perkins had moved to the Lake Como area.
In 1953, Perkins died at the age of 114 in the Dorsey Hospital.
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 12:00 AM.