Opal "Dolly" Hayes, Why Observe Black History Month? | Roswell Daily Record Friday, February 2, 1996
3. Francis Boyer and Daniel Keyes, founders of the Townsite of Blackdom in southeast Chaves County, 18 miles south of Roswell and eight miles west of Dexter in 1897.
4. Mrs. Hazel (Taylor) Parker, Roswell, Jan. 8, 1996, states she was born to Caleb and Mary Taylor on Nov. 20, 1921, in Blackdom, N.M. Her parents moved to Blackdom from Austin, Texas, to improve her father's health in 1913. They moved to Roswell when the schools were closed in Blackdom in 1926. She was five years old and began school in Roswell, in an integrated school. Later, the schools were segregated and the blacks attended Carver School on East Hendricks Street at the present site of the Head Start Center. In 1948, the last class graduated from Carver. Hazel Parker is the seventh of nine children born to her parents. A sister, Johnnie Moseley also lives in Roswell. Five other siblings live elsewhere and three are deceased along with her parents. Ms. Parker is a retired cosmetologist, secretary of the Roswell Branch of the NAACP and a faithful member of her church, Emmanuel Church of God in Christ.
5. Mrs. Christine (Wagoner) Bowe, Jan. 11, 1996, states she was born in Roswell, to Loney K. and Sarah Wagoner. Her father is deceased. Her mother still lives here. She also says: "I attended Carver High School until I went to Roswell High my last year of school in 1953. Schools were segregated then. I was the first black to finish that year. I married Edward Bowe in 1958 and traveled as an Air Force wife until I moved back (to Roswell) in 1968. (I) became involved with the Head Start program when I enrolled my daughter, Michelle Bowe. I worked as a volunteer, an aide and became a teacher. I received an associate degree in child development while at Head Start. I retired in May 1995 after working 25 years. (The Roswell Daily Record ran an article on Christine Bowe on Monday, Feb. 6, 1989, on page 1, Vol. 101, No. 32. Christine (Wagoner) Bowe's parents were also early settlers in Blackdom. History is on-going. This article is now history. People who have no sense of their history do not know their true identity. In order to know where you are going, you must know where you are and from where you have come. This is especially crucial for those of us who receive skewed versions of our ancestry. (This is not limited to black Americans).
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