Travis County Commissioners Court
September 6, 2005
Item 39
39. Consider and take appropriate action on dedication ceremony for the heman sweatt courthouse, plaque, signage and related issues.
>> the item before you, because of the planning time, we would like to -- we brought this item to you today and would like to get approval on the date and the signage for the heman marion sweatt dedication. We were asked to put together an informal group. One of the sponsors is the -- the black lawyers association of Travis County. And the ceremony for the dedication of the Travis County courthouse has been tentatively set for October the 21st. We have checked on all of your calendars to see if you were free that date. I believe that most of you were. I think there was one person out of town and then they said go ahead and -- go on with your -- with your planning. So the first item would be to set October the 21st as the date for the dedication. We hope to make it a community event. Again, the black lawyers association working with them, they hope to get a sponsorship for the event. We don't have a time certain. We felt it was important to get a date certain because of the invite. They have invited a speaker for the dedication, mr. Vernon jordan has accepted to be the speaker.
>> when.
>> Friday.
>> the 21st, it is a Friday, yes. He has accepted the invitation to speak. That date, for a Friday. We have started to put together a -- an agenda or an event calendar, but again don't have a time certain, we are waiting to hear the flights and have -- have confirmation.
>> mr. Jordan's fees will be taken care of.
>> yes, sir.
>> also, sent an invitation out to the united states representative john lewis, I don't think we have heard from him, but he may have an interest in this.
>> coming along to support the speech that mr. Jordan, we really appreciate him accepting the invitation to participate in this event. The plaque is on one part of the building, we don't really have that much [indiscernible] on the front steps of the courthouse.
>> yes, ma'am. We have discussed two possible locations, we looked at the mary pearl courtroom as one possible location. But then we discussed depending on really the number of people we may have to even move it across to woolridge park in order to make it a community event, given the stature of mr. Jordan, we may expect a lot of people. Given that wooldridge park may be a better place then having the unveiling, there are two items, also for the court to review. One is a historical marker that would stand in front of the courthouse. The other two versions of signage for the courthouse, so we would either have the unveiling of the historiccal marker or the actual signage on the courthouse. We understand that mr. Sweatt's daughter will also be present at the dedication ceremony. Right now we are perhaps looking at wooldridge park or like I said the mary parallel courtroom. That's -- mary pearl courtroom.
>> is there a backup plan for the weather. Doing this original in the old courthouse, we had far beyond the number of folks that wanted to go into that courtroom. I知 trying to think in terms of if we just optimize a backup plan, although hoping for good weather, it gets diceyier later.
>> it would either be the mary pearl courtroom or across the historical history center perhaps. So again it would be the approval of the date, we also have in your backup the historical marker, and you have the -- the historical marker would stand in front of the courthouse and jim barr has been working with the -- with the committee really, it's been myself and eric shepherd from the county attorney's office and sue spears out of Commissioner Davis' office very preliminary and you have a sketch of where the historical marker would be placed in front of the courthouse and then what it would say marking the spot and telling a little bit of the history of -- of heman marion sweatt, and the particular case which was sweatt versus painter. The other item, what jim passed out would be the marker that would be on the actual courthouse facade, we have two options. One, as you know there is the etching right now that is in the limestone that has Travis County courthouse. Underneath that would be he an marion sweatt in aluminum just like the windows are. Then option two would be an aluminum sign that would go over that. We have submitted both of these to the Texas state historical commission. And jim, do you want to --
>> to address that?
>> yes. Jim barr with the facilities management department. I had a long conversation with -- with ms. Sharon flemming at the Texas historical commission last week. And discussed with her what their preferences were regarding the location and nature of any signage that we might put on the courthouse. As a general philosophical rule, any signage we would want to avoid any significant damage of the existing phosphorus limestone on the portico. Either one of these signs could be installed with a minimal amount of damage. Meaning they could be taken down and changed at some point in the future, remade. However we want to do it? Both of these signs would be made of aluminum plate. My concept for that is a pretty thick piece of aluminum on the front. The letters would then be routed into. Then there would be a backup plate behind that, so the appearance of the -- of the aluminum signs would be that the -- that the letters were carved into a solid block of aluminum, kind of how I think this would look. Then the aluminum would be finished in kind of a -- of a dull gray color that would -- that would -- that would be a fairly good match for the window panels on the existing building, which I believe there's some kind of a zinc composite alloy. That's generally the thought. The first one would actually be installed within the existing limestone portico, the second one would cover the limestone panel that's above the portico. Exhibit 1 a, here, would be three and a half feet tall by seven feet wide. And would completely cover the existing Travis County courthouse. In size lettering. Exhibit 1, which is on the first page, would be suspended beneath that and would -- would be the gray panel. It would be 21 inches tall and 84 inches wide. So it would be the same width.
>> what's the width of option 2, the one that says heman marion sweatt Travis County courthouse.
>> seven feet wide.
>> seven feet wide. Okay. What's the width?
>> the height?
>> the height, whatever.
>> the height would be 3 and a half feet and the width would be seven feet.
>> that looks pretty good to me.
>> I知 sorry. Basically the only other comment that ms. Flemming had in regard to the historical commission was that they do want to see the words Travis County courthouse still on there to avoid confusion and probably for legal --
>> that's why I said that -- this option 2 seems to be the gist of the matter in my opinion more so than the other one. Because he still has the -- has the Travis County courthouse implications in it. However, over that you do have, since we were renaming it, heman marion sweatt Travis County courthouse, then all of the other, this perseverance and sack is for on to that, it appears to be the guest of -- of the spirit of what we were doing. And -- in my opinion. And then as far as the -- the historical markers are concerned, I think it does -- it does get the crux of what -- of what this is -- this was all about. And what actually transpired. And I guess as far as the date is concerned, on this, I would like to -- when would we know more precisely the time, I guess we -- we have looked at the 21st of October, which is a Friday? But the time element I think is -- is there any ballpark time that we may wrestle around with until we get a more definite handle on the exact time? On the 21st of October.
>> the next week so that we can get invitations printed and out within a week.
>> who would -- who wordsmithed the -- the plaque that has a little history?
>> eric shepherd and I and [indiscernible]
>> you all did an excellent job. [laughter]
>> I may have one or two -- I may have one or two suggestions, though. [laughter] at some point, though.
>> yes, sir.
>> when -- when are -- when do you expect to finalize it?
>> well as soon as --
>> right. [multiple voices]
>> eric, come on up front, man.
>> as soon as we get -- we get [multiple voices]
>> let the court know who is dealing with this black lawyers association.
>> we anticipate there would be corrections. One of the reason that's alicia had it on was we anticipated there would be some changes, so feel free.
>> in terms of timing, I think there's going to be a great deal of community interest in wanting to do this [multiple voices] just the idea that we do have courts running. If there's any way that this can be accommodated over the lunch break or an early lunch break or whatever to try to accommodate as many schedules as we can. I知 thinking also university of Texas law students, generally, they don't have classes during the lunch hour. It's usually morning, afternoons. I知 trying to think of as many ways as possible we can accommodate the community's schedules.
>> 12 noon.
>> we have looked at 12:00 or 12:30 as an opportune time if we can get there. It really depends on the schedule. But the idea was that we have a program that starts at or about that time, depending on the plane flight schedules so that we could get, just like you said, 12:30 would be better than 12 since people would be off at 12:00, be able to get there, put a 30 minute arrival period in there, wooldridge park being accessible to more people was one of the thoughts that the committee had.
>> any action?
>> yeah, judge --
>> requested today.
>> judge, I would like to go ahead and move that we move forward with this thing. If there needs to be some tweaking of course of the historical marker itself, I think we can do that as -- you know, as -- I guess as soon as we find out what that tweaking is. But as far as the signage is concerned, also the date, I would like to move that we move forward with the signage on option 2. Where it says eman marion sweatt -- heman marion sweatt courthouse signage. Along with the date, October 21st, along about 12:30 if that's accommodating that we move forward with those two things. You said that you had some suggestions as far as the -- I would like to -- I would like to hear what they are maybe and move forward. Because I bet they need some direction to move right along down the path.
>> I will second that because I like courthouse as one word.
>> thank you.
>> we can entertain whatever you are suggesting as far as in the -- in the historical, in the plaque itself, rather.
>> okay.
>> and incorporate that. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> what were you all about to say?
>> yes, sir. The cost will be about $4,000 for the plaque and the signage and I believe that we can accommodate that within the facilities management budget.
>> I thought we had donations covering that.
>> not that -- not that we have all the -- all the reception and the calls for mr. -- mr. Jordan's flight, but not the actual plaque and the signage.
>> okay.
>> will accommodate that within our budget.
>> the money, I mean, donations are probably still coming in, though. I guess they haven't -- they haven't stopped coming in.
>> no.
>> in other words, if -- if the donations continue to come in as they have been in the past, then what I知 trying to suggest that you -- that you may not have to use money out of your --
>> good, good.
>> that would be great.
>> that's where I知 going.
>> that would be fine.
>> judge, does any -- another motion made as far as the -- the plaque is concerned? Is that so the wording on the historical deal?
>> yeah.
>> I will leave it off until later. They haven't got anything etched in stone, it will be back in another week. We will come back in another week but --
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> just get us whatever word changes --
>> changes.
>> suggestions that you have, judge.
>> and look at it.
>> we hate to rush you, but it does take some time to get it back from the people who are actually making it.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, September 7, 2005 10:24 AM