Sheriff-Elect Topples Another Historic Political Domino and Blazes Trail for Blacks and Women
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – President Barack Obama
Beaumont – Like an organization going into Spring Training – Sheriff-Elect Zena Stephens plans to bring a new vibe, spirit and much needed lift to her law enforcement team in the Jefferson County Sheriff Department. She is definitely going to write new chapters in Texas history books.
She not only is first Black woman to be elected Sheriff in Texas, but also the first since Jefferson County was formed in 1836 and organized in 1837, and became one of the original counties in the Republic of Texas.
Stephens comes to the job with enthusiasm, spirit and a set of goals and standards she intends to accomplish.
A graduate of Lamar University and South Park High School in Beaumont. She also served as Chief of Police for Prairie View A&M University and also as Deputy Chief of the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department.
Her playbook is one that seeks to ready all her players to “Get Back to Basics” and “Be Part of the Community”.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to wear the uniform,” Stephens said. “With situations going on in the country, law enforcement is getting a bad wrap. We are not all painted with the same brush.”
That level of commitment serves as her battle cry serves as she prepares to take the reigns as top cop in Jefferson County and carries the leadership torch for women and African-Americans in the county.
“I want to protect all the people in Jefferson County,” she added. “Using fairness and equality, it is my goal for us to be “One County-One Community… and work to continue moving Jefferson County forward.”
Her victory lap to the sheriffs department cannot be taken lightly as the history of electing Black officials and being included and being a factor in the political equation in Texas as been a struggle over the years for Blacks.
Black Election History in Texas
According to the Texas State Historical Association handbook online for Texas history, after the civil war, African Americans in Jefferson County’s held a few government offices and blacks and whites and were both politically active as voters during the federal election of 1888, eventually blacks were all but totally disfranchised in the federal election of 1892.
During the Reconstruction era, African-American Texans were presented with another challenge. Many had to rebuild their lives, locate lost family members, and begin to live their lives as self-sufficient, free men and women.
The establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau in the state aided this transition from slavery to freedom. But given the continuing racial animosity that separated blacks and whites after the war, this was not an easy task.
The state legislature and several Texas cities passed Black Codes to restrict the rights of African Americans, to prevent them from having free access to public facilities, and to force them back to the rural areas as agricultural laborers. The use of the political and legal system to regulate African-American behavior and life was accompanied by a literal reign of terror in the state.
In the 1950s and 1960s, African-American Texans challenged this paternalistic arrangement and overcame their exclusion from elective office.
In 1958 Houstonian Hattie Mae White became the first African American to win an elective office in the state since Reconstruction by winning a seat on the school board.
After Mrs. White’s election, African-American Texans did not win another elective office until 1966, when several African-American candidates throughout the state won political races.
Among the pioneers were Joseph Lockridge of Dallas and Curtis Graves of Houston, who won seats in the state House of Representatives, and Barbara Jordan of Houston, who won a seat in the Texas Senate.
In 1967 Emmett Conrad became the first African American elected to a local office in Dallas (school board) and in 1971 Judson Robinson Jr. became Houston’s first African-American city councilman since Reconstruction.
A year later, Houstonians elected Barbara Jordan to the United States House of Representatives. Thus, she was the first African American in Texas history to represent the state in Congress.
Despite the lingering effects of the old racist and segregationist legacy, African Americans continued to achieve in both the private and public spheres in the state. They won elective office on the city, county, and statewide levels.
In 1992, for example, Morris Overstreet of Amarillo became the first African American to win a statewide office when he was elected a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
In 1995, Ron Kirk became the first African-American mayor in Dallas and in 1998 Lee P. Brownbecame the first African American to serve as mayor in Houston.
In 1985, John Wiley Price became Dallas County’s first African-American county commissioner and El Franco Lee became the first African American to win a seat on the Harris County Commissioner’s Court.
In 2007, Attorney Craig Watkins became the state’s first African-American district attorney when he won the office in Dallas County.
The Jefferson County Challenge
According to 2014 U.S. Census information, there are about 252,235 people are living in Jefferson County.
Of those, about 42.9 percent were Anglo, 34.4 percent African American, and 18.5 percent Hispanic. Of residents twenty-five and older, 79 percent had graduated from high school and 16 percent had college degrees.
Jefferson County’s major cities are Beaumont (population, 118,180), Port Arthur (54,597), Groves (15,800), Nederland (17,483), and Port Neches (12,919).
In the early twenty-first century, petrochemical and other chemical plants, shipbuilding and port activities, a steel mill, and oil field supply operations were important elements of the local economy.
“This community nurtured me and I have a vested interest in what happens here,” she said. “I am from here, I live here and my family and friends are here. I want to give back with all the skills I have…I want to see community thrive.”
Playbook Peek
She will replace Mitch Woods who is retiring after 20 years – bringing a new law enforcement vision to the table.
Stephens believes that the county law enforcement needs to change in its priorities from an emphasis on technology and hardware to a more human focus.
According to the department website, the outgoing sheriff places a great deal of emphasis on focusing more on technology development – a fact reflected on the department website by this statement “… The technological growth within the Law Enforcement community in the area of computers/Internet is progressing fast, as we move closer to the 21st century. Our intent is to stay within the curve of technological growth by utilizing our web site in ways to assist us in our Law Enforcement activities and by informing the public of information…”
Stephens supports technology and development, but believes a more human approach is needed and would better serve improving relationships with the community.
“(I will) try to get department to buy into that,” she said. “It’s important for the community to buy into the sheriffs department and the sheriffs department to buy into the community.”
On Restoring Trust
Stephens is interested in restoring trust in policing by personally engaging the public and the community.
“Officer use of technology has caused the move away from personal contact with the community,”she said during her campaign.‘We must get out there and touch base with people and talk to people and let people know who we really are… its the only way to engage the community.”
She hopes to put officers in rural communities and neighborhoods again where they can establish stronger ties leading to better understanding and fewer confrontations and issues with citizens.
“You are less likely to get into situations with people you know,” she said. “I want to get back to that.”
She also seeks to build and strengthen relationships with the younger generation by encouraging positive opportunities for deputies to interact with youth.
“Kids speak a different language in this generation,” she notes. “It is important to understand their language and they understand ours.”
She recalled the value of the DARE Program on building relationships with youth and hopes to close that communications gap between youth and the police.
On Improving Communications
Stephens believes many problems occur between law enforcement and the community center on communication.
“Communication is a two way street of receiving and giving information,” she added. “…It is big and we got to do a better job.”
Stephens wants to make Jefferson County a law enforcement example for other counties across Texas to model.
Source : http://www.aframnews.com/zena-stephens-first-african-american-woman-sheriff-in-texas/
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