The mission of the Special Collections Department of the Fred Parks Law Library is to acquire, to preserve, to provide access, and to promote the use of rare and archival materials related to law. Materials collected include the archival records of the college, rare and valuable law books, and manuscript collections relating to the school or to the legal heritage of Houston, Texas, and the United States.

The Special Collections Department of the Fred Parks Law Library is pleased to announce these recent manuscript acquisitions, which solidify its standing as an important repository of Texas law and legal history:

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The Phillip B. Baldwin Papers

- 30 linear feet* of materials documenting the life of Phillip B. Baldwin (1924-2002), an alumnus of South Texas College of Law, and former Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 1968-1991. Judge Baldwin held the highest judicial post of any alumnus of South Texas College of Law.

Judge Baldwin was admitted to the Texas bar in 1952 and practiced law in Marshall, Texas and served as Assistant District Attorney for Marshall, Harrison County, Texas, 1953-1954, and Criminal District Attorney for Harrison County, Texas, 1954-1958. He then practiced law in Marshall, Texas from 1958-1968.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Judge Baldwin an Associate Judge on the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. This court was later merged with the U.S. Court of Claims, and renamed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Baldwin retired from the court in 1991. He then served for a while as a judicial mediator of legal disputes, concentrating in his areas of expertise, intellectual property, anti-trust, and government contract litigation.

The collection consists of drafts and final versions of Judge Baldwin’s opinions, his writings and speeches, plaques, photographs and some memorabilia. The collection was donated by Judge Baldwin’s family.

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The Frank Andrews Papers

- 3 linear feet consisting of personal correspondence, 1913-1936, a small amount of legal and business materials, some speeches and one photograph.

Frank Andrews (1864-1936) was a prominent railroad attorney in Houston, a State Assistant Attorney General under Texas Governor Charles Culberson, and the founder of the prominent Houston law firm of Andrews & Kurth. Andrews was a friend and political confidant of both Congressman Tom Ball, whom he started his law firm with, and Colonel Edward Mandell House, who served as President Woodrow Wilson’s personal advisor. Andrews was also involved in the prohibition movement in Texas in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

The Frank Andrews Papers were donated by the Andrews Family, with the assistance of Mr. Clinton Morse of the Andrews & Kurth law firm of Houston.

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Addition to the Sam Streetman Papers

- 5 linear inches of materials consisting of speeches and lecture notes.

Sam Streetman (1870-1933) was a Judge on the Texas Third Court of Appeals, a prominent Houston attorney, one of the founders of South Texas College of Law as well as its second Dean, and a law partner of Frank Andrews in the firm of Andrews, Ball and Streetman of Houston, later to become Andrews & Kurth.

This new accession will be added to the papers of Sam Streetman already donated by the Andrews & Kurth law firm in the 1980s. The original collection of 7 ½ linear inches consists of a small amount of correspondence, numerous speeches, some South Texas College of Law lecture notes, and a small amount of legal and business materials.

The addition to the Sam Streetman Papers was also donated by the Houston law firm of Andrews & Kurth, facilitated by Mr. Clinton Morse of the firm.

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The J. C. Hutcheson, Jr. Photograph Collection

- 22 linear inches of materials, consisting of 15 photographs of J. C. Hutcheson, Jr., J. C. Hutcheson, III, and the judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr. (1879-1973) was Mayor of Houston, 1917-1918, Federal District Judge of the Southern District of Texas, 1918-1931, and Judge and Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1931-1964. Judge Hutcheson was also one of the founders of South Texas College of Law, a member of the school’s Board of Trustees, its first Dean, and a member of the faculty. J. C. Hutcheson, III was for a short time also an Instructor at South Texas College of Law.

The photographs were donated by Judge Hutcheson’s granddaughter, Mrs. Joanne Seale Wilson of Houston.

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Addition to the Fred Parks Papers

- 8 linear feet of materials obtained from Mr. Parks’ home in Houston, including some business materials, books, plaques and dozens of photographs of Mr. Parks, his wife Mabel Roberson Parks, and their family, including the large portrait of Mr. Parks now displayed at the 2nd floor entrance to the Fred Parks Law Library. The materials were donated by the Fred Parks family.

Fred Parks (1906-2001) was a prominent civil attorney in Houston, and a generous benefactor to his alma mater, South Texas College of Law (class of 1937), as well as numerous other institutions in the Houston area, including Rice University and the University of Houston.

The items will be added to the 35 linear feet of Fred Parks Papers already donated by Fred Parks and his family, consisting of legal case files, a small amount of business files, correspondence, writings and research, scrapbooks, plaques, framed certificates, memorabilia and photographs.

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The Houston Mutiny and Riot Records of 1917-1918

- 16 rolls of 35-mm. microfilm from the National Archives. This collection consists of records concerning one of the largest race riots in American history, the mutiny and riot of soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 24th U.S. Infantry that occurred on August 23rd, 1917 at Camp Logan (now Memorial Park), Houston, Texas, which resulted in the largest murder trial in American history. The mutiny and riot were sparked by the racism directed towards the African-American soldiers by the police and citizens of Houston. The rioting of the soldiers caused several deaths.

The mutiny and riot resulted in three general courts-martial held at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, in late 1917 and early 1918, at which 118 soldiers were tried, 110 soldiers were convicted, 19 were executed, and 91 were sentenced to various terms of confinement at the U.S. Penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The records consist of a microfilmed file from the War Department's Inspector General's Office, a microfilmed file from the records of the Headquarters, Southern Department of the U.S. Army Continental Command, as well as numerous microfilmed files from the War Department's Office of the Judge Advocate General.

The file from the Inspector General's Office consists of 573 pages of testimony taken by the Citizen's Committee of Houston, Texas, one week after the riot. From the records of the Southern Department of the U.S. Army Continental Command is the 14 page Report of Colonel G. O. Cress, completed three weeks after the incident, which summarized an investigation into the riot. From the Judge Advocate General's Office are the transcripts of three courts-martial: U.S. vs. Sergeant William C. Nesbit, et al., at which 63 of the soldiers were tried (2354 pages); U.S. vs. Corporal Robert Tillman, et al., at which 40 of the soldiers were tried (3290 pages); and U.S. vs. Corporal John Washington, et al., at which 15 of the soldiers were tried (540 pages). Also included are Correspondence Files from the Office of the Judge Advocate General, including files on each of the soldiers involved in the incident.

The original records are found in Record Groups 153 and 393, Modern Military Records Branch, Textual Archives Services Division, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. The microfilmed records were obtained by purchase.

* The measurement of linear feet or inches is used by librarians and archivists to refer to the amount of shelf space taken up by a manuscript collection while in storage. It is by no means a scientific measurement, but is a good ballpark indicator of the size of a manuscript collection, which can consist of many items of various materials and dimensions, such as legal case files, correspondence, writings and speeches, framed and unframed photographs, paintings, plaques and framed certificates, and memorabilia like paperweights, gavels, etc.

For more information on any of these collections or the other holdings of the Special Collections Department, please contact Mark Lambert, Special Collections & Government Documents Librarian, The Fred Parks Law Library, South Texas College of Law, at 713.646.1720, or mlambert@stcl.edu.