KKK in vidor (Houston, Beaumont: apartment complex, college, living)

[moddestmike]

I was born and raised in Beaumont and moved to Houston for college. I can tell you that the older Vidorians (if I may call them that) do have a sort of bad attitude. My dad was the supervising tech at the ATT/SBC office in Vidor and he's had bottles thrown at him by some kids in a pickup truck. I played basketball against them, their team members were more than cool and I hung out with some of them but overall I would stay away. Even the younger ones leave and never come back because its a really closed minded town. I know in the past the KKK had a headquarters there, not sure if it still exists. The people even protested a black guy moving into a local apartment complex there and If I recall correctly one black guy was killed over something similar.

[bamba_boy]

Originally Posted by rb4browns

I think you can sign up too at the local Kroeger's market.

Was that Germanic (Neo-Nazi?) spelling of Kroger a freudian slip?

[neotextist]

Vidor isn't in Houston. Thread moved to Texas forum.

[brattpowered]

Standard answer:

There aren't any more racists in Vidor than any other place in the US! I went on vacation in New York City and there were more racists there than any place in Texas. And on the same token, if you don't like racists, you are a bigoted racist! God bless Texas!

[doctorjef]

I don't think Vidor's reputation is just some gratuitous accident. I lived in Beaumont briefly in the 1980's and Vidor definitely had a reputation as a place with distinctly racist behaviour as well as attitudes. There also used to be one of those fundamentalist billboards as you passed through on the highway, of the "Jesus is Coming...believe it or burn" variety, with an illustration of glowing red, orange and yellow flames. Vidor is in a rather isolated bit of Texas. It would almost certainly have changed somewhat over the last 25 years, but my point is simply that I don't think its special reputation is unearned. Don't be naive -- some places are really more intolerant and bigotted than other places, and I say this having lived widely in the US and abroad. The Beaumont area is very deep Southern and I found it to be very different from other places I'd lived in the state, including Austin, Ft Worth and Lubbock (other cities too as a kid, but I won't include those). Roles were very racially defined even as recently as 25 years ago, with African-Americans occupying distinctly servile jobs and at the time I lived there the Beaumont city council was still declining to rename a street for Martin Luther King, Jr.

[An0nym0us88]

Vidor is one of the sundown cities in the nation. If I can remember, Vidor used to have a Ku Klux Klan Headquarter of the 60's. I'm not sure if it still is. I've been through there several times.

I'm not going to be naive believing people say on here but there are always good people there also. If I have to get a job there then I will live there as long it has a nice area.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by brattpowered

if you don't like racists, you are a bigoted racist! God bless Texas!

I guess I'm a bigoted racist!

[Pontificator]

I had the misfortune to live in Vidor for a year when I was a kid -- we were there for job reasons & cheap rent. This was the 70's, and my parents told me that this was the headquarters for the KKK. My parents took a little different approach to race relations -- one night we were watching the news, and they reported a cross burning was taking place. My Dad loaded us in the car and drove us by the location to witness these backward b*stards. His other approach to life in this town was to purchase a t-shirt for a black friend of his -- it read: Secret Member of the KKK. Since I was young, I do not know just where this friend lived (I assure you it was NOT Vidor), but he opted to hang the t-shirt on his dining room wall, rather than wear it.

[DanielWayne]

I grew up in Orange, so I frequently went through Vidor until I moved to Houston in 2000. Granted there is a larger percentage of folks in Vidor who won't exactly welcome black folks. But as far as anything like klan recruiting - you will not see that unless you really seek it. My point is that the racists are generally supressed by the newer generation Vidorians, the media, and the local authorities. I am a minority, and I often stopped in Vidor with black friends on the way to Beaumont. Went and visited people in Vidor. Took a college class from Lamar U. at Vidor High. Never experienced anything unusual. That's not to say that black folks would feel comfortable in Vidor, but the days of overt cross burnings are over.

[jflores]

Originally Posted by brattpowered

Standard answer:

There aren't any more racists in Vidor than any other place in the US! I went on vacation in New York City and there were more racists there than any place in Texas. And on the same token, if you don't like racists, you are a bigoted racist! God bless Texas!

LOL. Been to Vidor once, I will not say all white folks in Vidor are horrible human beings but some of those I ran into in the Waffle House were ugly.

Oh well thats life people.