Page 6 THE BATTALION
The White Stallion, formerly called The Sugar by some of the residents of College Station’s
Shack, is a bar on Wellborn Road frequented black community.
Welcome to...
Lucille Young, who works at a recreational the dozens of black children that come to the
facility named Lincoln Center, helps entertain center every night.
by ANDY WILLIAMS
Battalion Staff
Albert Clark is playing pool in a bar half a mile
from Texas A&M University.
That’s not unusual — he says he plays there a
couple of times a week.
But tonight he’s playing with an Aggie. A
white Aggie.
That’s unusual.
Dora Washington runs the White Stallion,
formerly the Sugar Shack — the old name is still
on the front of the building. Before tonight, the
last white person in her bar was probably there
to inspect it.
Clark is a character. He is shooting mediocre
pool in a four-player game. Between shots, he
dances with his cue to the wailing of B.B. King,
which blares from the jukebox, and the whistles
of trains, which come from just across Wellborn
Road.
Someone sinks an eight-ball, losing the game
and leaving six or seven balls on the table.
Clark’s eyes shine. He sidles up to the Aggie.
“I don’t always shoot the best I can,” he con
fides, “ ‘cause if I did, wouldn’t nobody play me
again.”
Then he turns back to the table and sinks a
ball a shot until just the cue ball remains. Balls
leap off cushions as many as four times before
dropping into pockets. The con is over, and so is
the evening.
Clark’s no hustler. He says he doesn’t play for
money. Besides, he’s not always successful at
concealing his spectacular ability.
“Oops, I pooled that one anyway,” he says,
laughing after sinking a shot he meant to miss.
The bar Clark amuses himself in is part of a
black neighborhood south of the University.
The area is bounded, roughly, by Wellborn
Road on the west and Welch Boulevard on the
east.
No one seems to be sure how blacks came to
the neighborhood. But Lucille Young, who
works at a city-run recreation facility called Lin
coln Center, has a theory:
“A long time ago, when blacks used to be
pushed to the back, this was the back.”
The neighborhood doesn’t have an official
name. Young says local blacks call it the “Other
Side” because it’s across town from two other
black areas.
Texas A&M students live around the edges of
the Other Side, but rarely in it. The contrast in
cultures is clear. On some streets, new brick
duplexes sit next door to battered wood-frame
residences.
The blacks’ houses are generally small and in
poor condition.
Census figures from 1970 show that the aver
age house in College Station that was owned by
a black was worth only about a third as much as
the overall average — $6,900 for blacks, $18,500
for the general population.
College Station’s tax assessor’s office rates the
quality of houses on a 10-division scale. The
worst houses get a grade of 2, the next best 2 +,
the next best 3, and so on. The highest category
is 6 +.
Most of the houses in the Other Side are rated
3, 3 + , and 4.
Houses rated 3 have, for instance, minimum
insulation and floors of single or double pine on
wood joists.
Houses rated 4 differ in that they have adequ
ate insulation in their roofs and walls and have
sub-floors of pine or plywood that are finished
with hardwood or asphalt tile.
Most houses in the Other Side range from 700
to 900 square feet. Based on the city’s schedule,
the worth of a small house in the Other Side, not
counting its lot, is only about $11,000.
Lots are also assessed at low value, largely
because city officials figure the Other Side is an
undesirable place to live. The unit value per
front foot, a measure of the worth of a lot, is
lower for land in the Other Side than for any
other in the city.
Evelyn Henley, a secretary in the tax asses
sor s office, says this is a major reason for low
property values in the area. 1
A comparison of two sitrtilarfy'Sizbd sind aged
houses, one in the Other Side and one in white
Southwood Valley, shows that the house in the
black area is worth 70 percent as much as the
other, but that the land it sits on is worth only 20
percent as much.
Housing is only one area in which the Other
Side s poverty is apparent. Streets are also poor.
Street lights are rare.
But there is help.
Some of it comes from the federal department
of Housing and Urban Development. Its funds
have been used for improvements in street
pavement, housing, sewers, and so on.
Jane Kee, community development planner
for College Station, explains that standard met
ropolitan areas with populations of 50,000 or
more are entitled to a block grant each year from
HUD. College Station received $336,000 for
this fiscal year.
And some help comes from the city.
In 1978, for instance, the Parks and Recrea
tion Department bought what had once been
College Station’s black school and converted it
into Lincoln Center. This has a gym, a meeting
room, and a game room, and is the only such
facility in the city.
Now dozens of children, almost all of whom
are black, come to the center every night. And
their grandparents come at noon to be fed
through a senior citizen’s program.
Blacks in the Other Side still don’t lead an
easy life. But, as Lucille Young might say,
they re not as near the back as they used to be.
tl
... the ‘OtherSide'
Census figures from 1970 show that the average black-owned as the overall average — $6,900 for blacks, $18,500 for the
house in College Station was worth only about a third as much general population.
Photos by Dave Tollefson