Northeast Texas Community College Presidential Scholar, Jessica Velazquez, was recently published in the 2016 issue of a statewide academic journal.†Touchstone, the annual publication of the Texas State Historical Society, chose Velazquez?s essay†?Farm Life in Transition? as one of the collegiate articles featured this year.
Her essay surveys agriculture in five counties in Texas from 1930 to 1960: Brazoria, Denton, Hidalgo, Lubbock, and Titus.† Even with each county representing a different section of Texas agriculture, Velazquez found some important similarities. The years 1930 to 1960 marked a watershed for the development of mechanized agriculture in Texas, which, in turn, depopulated the land, and greatly reduced tenant farming.
?I believe this is one of the most significant works ever written here,? Dr. Andrew Yox, NTCC honors director, said. ?It not only shows that the South made substantial changes during a time of Jim Crow, but in my mind at least, the article helps explain the rise of the Civil Rights movement that followed.† The resulting of urbanization of African-Americans increased their ability to organize, and press for changes.?
Another notable part about Velazquez?s article with local interest was that Titus County experienced the most conspicuous transformation among the five counties. From 1930 to 1960, the number of tenant farmers in Titus County dropped from 1,522 to 113. In just fifteen years, †from 1945 to 1959, the number of tractors in Titus County increased by 320 percent.
Velazquez presented versions of this work at the meeting of the 2015 Great Plains Honors Council at Padre Island, and the 50th Anniversary meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council in Chicago last November. She is the seventh Presidential Scholar to have published work while a student at NTCC. Her most recent essay on anesthesia in the Civil War was also one of the two NTCC Boe Nominees for 2016. Velazquez will be presenting a paper on this work at the 2016 spring meeting of the Great Plains Honors Council in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
A committee of 22 professors in Texas make up the†Touchstone†Editorial Board, and most of this group weighs in to determine prospective articles.† Velazquez's article was one of eight selected from college, university, graduate-student, and professional submissions.† Also published in the same volume was an essay by Kelli Knepp, a former member of Honors Northeast, who is now attending the University of Texas at Tyler,† and a Webb Chapter report by NTCC scholars Melody Mott, and Laney Jordan.† Anyone desiring a copy of the volume should contact Dr. Yox at†ayox@ntcc.edu.
Jessica is the daughter of Laurencio and Maria Velazquez of Mount Vernon.
