Claude William Black Jr. was one of the most important advocates for civil rights and social justice in San Antonio, Texas. He was born on November 28, 1916, in San Antonio, Texas, to Claude William Black Sr., the Vice President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Cora Lee Word Black, a homemaker from Midway, Texas. Claude had a younger brother, Herbert L. Black, and a sister, Marietta Black Deas.
Black’s noticeable educational journey was at the segregated Frederick Douglass School in San Antonio, where he graduated at the age of 17 in 1933. He continued his academic pursuits at Saint Philip’s College in San Antonio and later at Sam Huston College in Austin, now known as Huston-Tillotson University, where he was initiated into Sigma Phi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. in 1935. He transferred to Morehouse College, a prestigious all-male HBCU in Atlanta, Georgia, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1937. He furthered his studies at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts, earning a Master of Divinity degree in 1943.
Black’s personal and professional life intertwined when he married ZerNona Stewart, the director of the YMCA’s Sycamore Street USO from Muskogee, Oklahoma, on February 10, 1946. Their daughter, Joyce Black Matthews, was born in 1952 but he also had a stepson, James Stewart Thomas. In 1946 Black began his pastoral service at Saint Matthew Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, a role he held until 1949. After leaving Corpus Christi in 1949, he began his tenure as pastor of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church in San Antonio.
In 1960, Black led San Antonio African Americans in a boycott of Joske’s Department Store, then the largest store in the city, to support lunch counter sit-ins taking place there. The following year, in 1961, he gave a controversial sermon where he publicly called out Texas Governor Price Daniel for his segregationist policies. Black argued that the African American church was one of the most powerful institutions in the community and that it must be involved in the campaign against racial segregation and discrimination. In 1966, Black attended the White House Conference on Civil Rights led by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Black continued post-graduate studies on scholarship in Urban studies at Trinity University in San Antonio from 1971 to 1972. While studying and preaching, he won a seat in the City Council in 1972, thus becoming the first African American elected to the position. He served until 1978. Four years later, in 1982, Huston-Tillotson University bestowed him an honorary Doctor in Divinity degree. It was followed by a Golden Anniversary honor certificate from the Alumni Association of Morehouse College, honoring his undergraduate graduation. During this period, he attended the White House Conference on Aging with President Bill Clinton in 1995 and served as pastor of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church in San Antonio until 1998.
Pastor Emeritus Claude William Black Jr., who allowed the use of the church for meetings of the San Antonio Committee to Free Angela Davis, SNCC, and Black Panther Party meetings, and an associate of Martin Luther King, A. Phillip Randolph, Thurgood Marshall, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr., died on March 13, 2009.
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“Funeral Program for Claude William Black, Jr., March 21, 2009,” https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth225693/; “Graduate List from Douglass High School Class of 1933,” https://history.coateslibrary.com/exhibits/show/exhibit/item/92; “Timeline of Claude and ZerNona Black,” https://history.coateslibrary.com/exhibits/show/exhibit/family.
