Oral History Interview with David Allred, August 9, 1967 Page: 84
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Allred
84
So Joe would be seeking votes from a mixed community, and perhaps
from a predominantly white community. In addition, you have
something in Dallas that you don't have so much of in Houston and
that is an establishment that pretty well controls. I forget the
name of it, but there's supposed to be a committee of influential
citizens in Dallas who sort of run things.
And it was said Joe was selected to run for the legislature
with the idea that the committee wanted to work more Negroes into
public life. The feeling was that if you're going to have a Negro
candidate and ask white people, particularly white people who may
well be prejudiced, to vote for him, then you want to get a good
man. So Joe Lockridge, who was a young lawyer in Dallas was sort
of handpicked as a man who could win the respect of both whites
and Negroes. And I felt that Joe did a very good job. As someone
said: "Joe was like Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts. He
was trying to be a representative of all the people and not simply
one racial group."
Lockridge became the first Negro to get a bill passed through
the Texas House since Reconstruction. He and Representative W. S.
(Bill) Heatly from Paducah sponsored a bill dealing with the sale
of chicken by the piece. Texas law for some reason had held that
a chicken had to be sold by the pound. The bill that Lockridge and
Heatly passed jointly provided that chicken could be sold by the
piece. This was being done in many restaurants and drive-ins
already. A customer could order a box of chicken and get anynumber of pieces in it. This bill made it legal. This was the
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Marcello, Ronald E.; Kamp, H. W. & Allred, David. Oral History Interview with David Allred, August 9, 1967, book, November 20, 1968; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth223569/m1/85/?q=%22%22~1&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Oral History Program.