Cosby Morton has lived a lot of what some think of as just history.
“I was raised on the East Side, two different places, in a segregated environment. At the time, we really didn’t pay attention to that for the simple reason that we didn’t know any better as a kid," Morton said. "But my community was pretty much a Black community.”
The local historian said the Black community, including the historically-Black neighborhoods of East Lubbock, has seen change through the years.
In the early 1900s, when Lubbock was still a new town, Morton said many African-Americans moved to the area to find work and escape racism in East Texas.
That’s why his mother moved to Lubbock from East Texas in the 1940s. Morton was born in 1953 in Germany. His father was in the military. But they moved back to Lubbock when Morton was a toddler. He’s been here ever since.
Morton said the neighborhood had good schools. Children were taught by teachers who lived nearby and went to the same churches as students and their families. Neighbors represented diverse professions. They were close-knit. There were resource disparities compared to other parts of town, but Morton said he grew up in a vibrant community.
A 1923 ordinance segregated Black residents from living west of what’s now Interstate 27 or north of 16th Street. Current residents say other city ordinances and zoning practices continue to impact the community. Almost a hundred years later, East Lubbock is still populated mostly by Black families, Census data shows.
Morton said the 1970 tornado was a defining moment for the side of town. “White flight” was already happening in nearby subdivisions, north of 19th Street. But the tornado erased some boundaries.
“The tornado sort of made it a totally different thing," Morton said. "Because we started moving in and started moving across. The imaginary boundary of East 19th Street was no longer there. We moved across into those areas.”
What many have called a “wall” has impacted west-to-east growth.
“One of the things that’s got to me and we worried about is the imaginary wall of the interstate," Morton said. "It’s like everything east to the interstate is just sitting.”
Gas stations, restaurants and other businesses are limited in East Lubbock. There are opportunities and plenty of room for growth, the historian said.
“We need people to look at East Lubbock as another place you can grow in. Not just ‘That’s East Lubbock.’”
Hear more from Morton in the audio story above.
