The Community Bulletin

About the Collection

In the late 1960s during a time of racial disparity and heightened tensions, this community bulletin gently insists upon justice. The authors alternately seek to encourage and to unite people of color in Abilene by providing encouraging stories and histories of well-known people of color. A regular feature highlights famous African Americans in history and includes excerpts of African American poetry. The bulletin is a unique document of the time that describes crushing economic contrasts, the inequity of segregation and desegregation and demonstrates the alternate feelings of hope and despair about a society that undermines the efforts of its most promising black citizens.

Howard and Clara Caver started the Community Bulletin: Another Voice is Heard in 1967 as a service to the community of black churches in Abilene, Texas. They produced a 5 or 6-page bulletin each week doing the reporting, editing and publishing themselves. They reported about the various church and community events, political races, educational changes and the job market for the black citizens. Each week they tried to also uplift and encourage using stories and short histories of famous black people in history.

Several weeks are missing in the collection, May 11, June 15, July 13, through August 30, 1968, and September 7. The bulletin falls silent during the week of April 4, 1968, the week of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. as the black community mourned the loss of the civil rights activist.