Imperiled: The Historic J. Mason Brewer Home - Brief Article

African-American folklorist J. Mason Brewer (1896-1975) maintained, "If we do not respect our past, the future will not respect us." From the late 1920s to the 1960s, Brewer traveled throughout Texas and the South, collecting the folk wisdom of former slaves and the first generations born after Emancipation. Without his efforts, a valuable portion of their lives, beliefs and experiences would have been lost.

Like their ancestor, Brewer's descendents are striving to preserve a historical resource that is in danger of disappearing. Brewer's bungalow in Austin, Texas, which has been in the Brewer family since its construction in 1925, will be demolished by the city if it is not renovated. Led by his niece Minnie M. Miles, the family and other supporters are trying to raise money to restore Brewer's home.

They hope to turn the bungalow into a "housemuseum," where visitors would learn about the scholar's accomplishments and study historical documents collected by the family. On display in the restored home would be family archival materials and artifacts, including letters describing family and community life, newspaper clippings, photographs, and early volumes of Brewer's works. The house would also serve as a gathering place for artists and scholars and a site for lectures and symposiums on African-American families, folk art, folklore and music.

The house has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places for four years, not only because of its architecture, but also because of the family's prominence in the Austin community. All four of Brewer's grandparents were former slaves. His maternal grandmother, Lucy Lott Mitchell, who was literate, sent all eight of her children to college with money she earned washing clothes. His father, a Texas cowboy, became a successful businessman in Austin after moving there from Goliad, Texas, with his wife and children in 1903. Brewer and his five siblings received college degrees, and he and his sister Stella Brewer Brookes earned their doctorates. The family's connections to influential members of Austin's African-American community, such as Barbara Jordan and Tillotson College President Mary E. Branch, have facilitated relationships with many civic and community leaders over the years.

Brewer grew up in a household that stressed the importance of education and culture, and his pursuits reflected his upbringing. Lorenzo Thomas, professor of English at the University of Houston--Downtown, notes that Brewer was both "a competent young poet" and "an activist in terms of promoting the work of other African-American writers." In 1936 Brewer edited Heralding Dawn, a collection of works by African-American poets in Texas.

A former colleague, James W. Byrd, professor emeritus of literature and language at Texas A&M University--Commerce, considered Brewer a personal friend and admired his resilience, especially as the first active African-American member of the Texas Folklore Society. Byrd recalls that Brewer's membership in the society, particularly from the 1930s to the 1950s, crossed both professional and personal boundaries. Brewer gave lectures and published articles about African-American folklore in the society's publications, introducing aspects of Texas life with which many members were unfamiliar. At banquets, Brewer dined with white scholars at a time when many Texans considered such contact unacceptable.

"People felt very comfortable with him," Miles explains, describing Brewer as a person who could easily break down barriers to reach both the upper crust of society and those whose circumstances precluded their enjoying such privilege. For example, Brewer's passion for storytelling endeared him to the people he studied and interviewed. "Even though he was a cultured and educated person," recalls Miles, "he had no problem talking to grass-roots people. He loved people, and he loved his race and the history of his race, so he had no trouble getting the tales from them."

Miles adds that Brewer avoided the intrusion of a tape recorder or notepad, relying on his memory to record the narratives later. He published numerous volumes, including The Word on the Brazos: Negro Preacher Tales From the Brazos Bottoms of Texas (1953), Dog Ghosts and Other Texas Negro Folk Tales (1958), and Worser Days and Better Times: The Folklore of the North Carolina Negro (1965).

The significance of these collections transcends the domain of professional folklorists, who study everyday cultural artifacts to discover the values and psychology of a group of people. Brewer's efforts illuminate a part of the American story that is often neglected, preserving the voices of former slaves and their immediate descendents. According to Byrd, who continues to teach Brewer's work in black American and multiethnic literature classes at Texas A&M, Brewer's collections are essential to understanding an entire group of people.

It is this respect for Brewer's achievements that fuels Byrd's and Thomas' support for the restoration of his home. Thomas emphasizes that the time is right for such projects: "It might be, just now, that this is the first time that the African-American community nationwide has had the vision, opportunity and the economic potential to pursue such a program of restoration and preservation."

In addition, Brewer's family sees this project as part of the revitalization of the United States' neglected urban neighborhoods. The family realizes that without a regard for the past, any effort to instruct future generations will lack vitality. It is this fundamental belief that drives Miles in her quest to save the Brewer family home: "There is a definite need to preserve the past in order to look to the future. People of all ages, of all cultures and ethnic groups, need to understand American history and the contributions made by all of us. This renovation will be a service to humanity and to the Austin community, and that would please my grandparents very much, because they lived in service to other people."

To contact the Brewer Foundation or to make a contribution to the restoration of the Brewer home, write to Minnie M. Miles, Executive Director, Brewer Foundation, P.O. Box 6083, Austin, TX 78762-6083.

Jacqueline Bacon is a freelance writer in San Diego, Calif.

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