Had to share these video clips of my dad, Ron Underwood, at the Black Lives Matter rally in Gainesville, Texas action to remove the Confederate Monument and address Systemic and institutional Racism in Cooke County.  so you can see where I get it from. This the guy who took me and Tyrone to see New Jack City in 1991, when I was 13 years old.. the same guy that broke my Snoop Dogg "Doggystyle" CD into a thousand pieces and confiscated my weapons so I couldn't take them to school.  The same guy where I got my first copy of the Autobiography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr's "Letters from Birmingham Jail". In the video below on July 26th, you can see he is debating with a counter protestor over whether or not the Confederate Statue is a symbol of White Supremacy and should or should not be removed from the Cooke County Courthouse.

In the next video below the following week on August 2nd.. an agitator tries to tell the Protestors to "Go home" that they are not welcome in Gainesville.. lo and behold papa Ron jumps in there and says "they are his guests" and he is a bonafide Gainesville resident since 1982.

Videos by Jessica Luther Rummel be sure to follow PRO Gainesville for updates.

Confederate Inscription

That monument stands as an insult to the American patriots—including our Medal of Honors—who shed blood in the cause of this ideal:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

Trump’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Miley, the highest ranking officer in the country, has written that confederate soldiers became TRAITORS when they picked up arms against the Stars and Stripes.  They are in no way “veterans” of the US military service. They were called themselves “rebels” because they participated in a rebellion against the USA. The inscription proves the intent of the monument was to glorify white supremacy. The monument demeans All in our county—white black brown—because it identifies our public courthouse—the courthouse for everyone—with a heritage of racism that stands in opposition to everything American ideals stand for. If they are those that want to honor that then let them do it on private ground and not on property owned by all the citizens of Cooke County.

- Ron Underwood


 

Letter to Editor copy-cropped
Father Son Lindsay

This picture with Pops was in Lindsay, Texas right before he got put on list for lung transplant. For anyone who wanna know if we real country. We been in Gainesville since 1982 and through my mother and maternal grandmother's ancestors we been in Gainesville since the 1850's, my grandmother was born in Gainesville, my great grandmother was born in Gainesville, my great great grandmother was born in Gainesville, and my great great great grandmother Susan Dorsett was a founding member of Gainesville, and she was born in Mexican "Tejas" in 1829 near Nacodoches (before the Seccession and establishment of the Republic of Texas). Real Texas.

My 4th great grandfather Thomas Howeth gave the plot of land that is Fairview cemetery. A Master Masons, his sons, my great grandfather x 3 Harvey Howeth and his brother (my great uncle) William Howeth was instrumental in having the statue errected. Kangaroo Court. You not being real about the 'Ville- the nerve of these people in the video above to tell PRO Gainesville "if you're not from Gainesville then leave!" Your not from the 'ville and you don't know our story or style.