Leavin' a Testimony: Portraits from Rural Texas

Leavin' a Testimony: Portraits from Rural Texas

by Patsy Cravens

University of Texas Press, 302 pp., $34.95

"I wish you could actually hear their voices, so you could better appreciate ... the poetry and melody to be found there," writes Patsy Cravens in her introduction to Leavin' a Testimony, the newest contribution to the Focus on American History Series published by UT Press. She's talking about the voices collected for this oral history project conducted in Colorado County in South Central Texas, where her parents own a farm and where she has spent a great deal of time, basking in the natural and social landscape of the region. Colorado County is an area that escaped "the rapid urbanizing experience of Harris County and Houston ... retaining significant portions of its early character and traditions almost until the end of the 20th century," writes John B. Boles in the foreword. While some might call it "the sticks," to Cravens, it is a region buzzing with vitality.

She set out with tape recorder and camera to record the personal histories and images of elders and others in Colorado County, people she thought she knew until she undertook the project. What she learned fascinated, surprised, troubled, and finally delighted her. She presents each of the 89 "stories" as a messenger given the responsibility of delivering a precious object. Precious, indeed, because as interviewee Rosie Lee Hasty says of her family of 10 siblings, "[we're] all gone 'cept three of us. I'm about the last chicken in the yard." That many of the interviewees are now dead gives the book an even stronger potency. But these are not warm, Norman Rockwellesque tales of a simpler time. Hard work, Jim Crow racism, grinding poverty, and lynchings are told as honestly as tales of loving family life and raucous good times.

The precursor to Cravens' book was a video she produced in 1995 ("Coming Through Hard Times") featuring some of the individuals included in this volume. Perhaps her background as a filmmaker makes her determined for readers to not only see but also hear her subjects' voices. Her concern is misplaced. All she needed was to let them speak. The music of their voices, turns of phrase, and honest talk about life and death sings throughout. Though well-intentioned, Craven has chosen to insert herself in most of the narratives, presuming readers would not have discovered the obvious on their own. Fortunately, it takes little effort to sift through Cravens' words to get to her much more engaging subjects', and her marvelous black-and-white photos more than make up for the editorial choice. A plainspoken regality shines through most, showing a great respect and affection for her subjects, and what one suspects there was a reciprocal affection for Cravens. The environmental photos are particularly striking, revealing her love for the geography of Colorado County. These, of course, are in the minority, but one hopes a collection of these photographs with Cravens' personal narrative are in the works. As far as oral histories go, Leavin' a Testimony is useful, necessary, and welcome, especially when one considers that the alternative is silence.