Indeed, “Rotary has heart,” and the Rotary Club of Beaumont has a BIG heart, giving time and resources in Service Above Self year round.  

 

How appropriate that we designate a date close to Valentine’s Day as our Club Service Day, providing hands-on service to multiple projects and collectively having a BIG impact! 

 

Our speaker today was Christina Wilbur, Professor of History at Lamar University and Lamar Port Arthur State College. Professor Wilbur was introduced by Past President Robert J. Robertson who aptly described the local community and the club during the 60s era.
 
Professor Wilbur has several works published and more underway.  In "Sound Historian" (Vol.12, 2009), her article "Lawless Leaders and a County Out of Control: Jefferson County and the James Commission, 1960" surely hits close to home.
 
In her presentation "Corruption and The James Commission in Beaumont", Professor Wilbur spoke about the wide-spread corruption (gambling, booze, brothels, and prostitution). She also spoke of the general acceptance of these activities by the local communities, as well as the general acceptance and participation of many of our local law enforcement during the early 60's.  The exchange of racing forms, the operation of brothels, and all forms of vice and corruption operated out in the open in Port Arthur and Beaumont, to which local law enforcement "turned a blind eye."
 
Early attempts by the State to address this corruption were deliberately foiled. Law enforcement was described as "resistant, defiant, and hostile." Under the James Commission, the Texas Rangers came into our region "under cover." 
 
Senator James, a young state legislator, "blew into town and spearheaded an intensive investigation into the rampant vice and governmental corruption that supported it. He tangled with a flamboyant sheriff and locked horns with some of the area’s most powerful leaders. And, at a time when such things were virtually unheard of, he and his committee played it out on live television.

 

When the dust finally cleared, the local governments of Jefferson County were turned inside out; but it would take a persistent citizenry months of legal warfare before law and order were finally restored."  ... taken from "Betting, Booze, and Brothels" by Landrey & O'Toole.
 
Some say that the State Senator's investigation came about as the result of genuine concern from Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Austin. Others theorize that the investigation came about from intense pressure from the national energy industry which needed a certain Sheriff "out of the way" so that they could contain the cost of energy labor. 
 
Professor Wilbur stated clearly that "Jefferson County was never directly connected to the existing corruption and vice."