34-baker-bdayPROCLAMATION NO. 2002-34
WHEREAS Wendell Baker was born on November 13, 1922 in Walker County. He graduated from Samuel Walker Houston High School in 1939 and entered Sam Houston College in Austin, Texas in
January 1940. He was then drafted into the US Army in April 1945. He married Augusta Lee Jones in July 1945; and
WHEREAS Wendell returned from service in Japan in 1947 and reentered the newly established “Texas State University for Negroes” which is now Texas Southern University, graduating with
a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry in May 1949. Wendell came back to Huntsville where he taught general science, biology, chemistry and physics at Samuel Walker Houston High School for
the next twelve years; and
WHEREAS In 1962 Wendell was employed by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in their newly-built synthetic rubber plant in Beaumont, Texas. He worked six years as a chemist and the remaining
18 years as a chemical engineer, retiring after 24 years of service; and
WHEREAS during this period of his life Wendell became an activist: organizing his community, registering voters, organizing the Ha-You Movement in Huntsville, and leading a series of
activities designed to change the political and social atmosphere of Huntsville; and
WHEREAS Wendell has served as the president of the Walker County Voters League formed in 1962, the Vice President of the Texas Council of Voters, and as the co-chairman of the “Texas
Liberal Democrats”; and
WHEREAS Wendell is active with the NAACP, the Walker County Voters League, the Bahai Faith, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and other civic activities. He is Chairman of the Political
Action Committee and the Membership Committee of the Walker-Trinity Counties Branch of the NAACP and is member of the Legal Redress Committee; and
WHEREAS through the involvement of Wendell Baker, Huntsville and Walker County have seen positive change;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED, by the power vested in me as Mayor
of the City of Huntsville, Texas that:
November 30, 2002
be declared:
WENDELL BAKER DAY
in Huntsville and Walker County.
PROCLAIMED AND SIGNED on this the 26th day of November 2002.
THE CITY OF HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS
_________________________
WILLIAM B. GREEN, MAYOR