Educated in the "Texas state of mind" she never questioned that she'd spend her life telling the stories about the state and the people who make its past, present, and future.

Meet Texas History and Houston History Author Lora-Marie Bernard at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 4, 2024, when Mister McKinney of Mister McKinney's Historic Houston opens the fall season with enchanting stories about Texas. View the show on Facebook or Instagram on his free, online program that also highlights history happenings at The Heritage Society.

About the Author

Lora-Marie Bernard writes nonfiction books about Texas. She has been called one of the state's best storytellers by Texana Reads. 

She was the 2018 recipient of the Dan Parkinson Literary Award for her efforts to preserve Texas culture through literature. She is the 2020 recipient of the Catherine Munson Foster Memorial Award for Literature in recognition of her efforts to increase the public’s understanding of Texas and its people.

During her time as a Texas-based journalist and communicator, she won numerous Associated Press awards and national press honors for her public affairs and investigative reporting. Early in her career, she earned the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.

As a Washington D.C. field correspondent, she served as an international radio commentator, journalist and photographer for the 2017 Trump presidential campaign, the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate Race, the Washington D.C. Women's March, and Hurricane Harvey.

She earned her master’s degree in liberal arts extension studies from Harvard University in 2018. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas. She is the Vice President of the Southeast Texas Museum. She also serves as an international Corporate Board member for the Alumnae-i Network for Harvard Women. 

JUNETEENTH SPEAKER SERIES PROGRAM

Saturday, June 17, 2023    11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Join us for our second annual Juneteenth educational program experience “From Plantation to Emancipation”. This year, our program is free to the public thanks to our sponsors at Constellation Energy.

Special Guests: Georgia Nolan, Past Texas State President, Chairperson NACW and Past President of Houston; Trinity United Methodist Church; Rae Bryant of the Houston Suffragists Project; Descendants of the Reverend Jack Yates and Members of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church

SPEAKERS

Opening by vocalist Sheryl Brady, Member of NACW

• Brady researched music that was sung by the NACW members in the early part of the 20th century

Dr. Donald Williams recites the Emancipation Proclamation, General Order No. 3

• Union General Gordon Granger and his troops traveled to Galveston, Texas to announce General Order No. 3 on June 19th, 1865.  Williams is a Texas historian, veteran, and THS board member who performs poetry for organizations

Welcome and Juneteenth Introduction by Martha Whiting-Goddard, great granddaughter of Jack Yates

• Whiting-Goddard is a THS board member who helped relocate the 1870 Jack Yates House to Sam Houston Park, wrote our Black History Tour Program and headed our UNESCO historic house designation project

175th Anniversary of Trinity UMC Church by Anita Lee-Punch, TUMC Historian

• Lee-Punch will be sharing how Trinity was formed in 1848 by enslaved men. It has been located at Live Oak and Holman streets in Third Ward since 1951.

B.H. Grimes of the Ancient Order of Pilgrims by Dr. Kevin J. Williams, descendant of Buchanan H. Grimes

• The Ancient Order of Pilgrims was established in Houston in 1882 to address economic issues faced by the city's African-American population during the difficult years following the period of Reconstruction.

The Pilgrim Temple Memorabilia Collection by Cheryle Cavitt, daughter of Roscoe A. Cavitt, the former Executive Secretary of National Negro Chamber of Commerce

• In 1926 the fraternal organization of The Ancient Order of Pilgrims erected a headquarters building called the Pilgrim Temple. The structure is long-gone from the corner across from THS, but an historic marker for the organization has been placed in Sam Houston Park.

The Reverend Jack Yates House by Devaron Yates, descendant of Jack Yates

• Yates, a preservationist, will share an architectural review of the 1870 Jack Yates House that was originally located at 1318 Andrews Street in Freedmen's Town and now in Sam Houston Park.  Reader’s Digest has named the house the most famous house in Texas for two years in a row.

The UNESCO Slave Route Project and Slavery Migration Studies by Summer Perritt of Rice University

• Perritt will share segments of her dissertation on the migration of Black Americans to the U.S. South in the post-civil rights era and her primary research interests include Black southern identity, Black culture, slavery, and memory.

Video about Willie Blount, first graduate of a Texas law school

• Very little was known about this female trailblazer until now.