Quentin R. Mease died on Tuesday in his sleep at Memorial Herman Hospital at the age of 100.
His leadership, through meetings with businesses and civic establishments, was a much-needed piece of the civil rights protests in the late 1960s.
While elsewhere in the nation violent eruptions, staged sit-ins and protests occurred, Mease took a different route. It worked.
In the end, Houston’s Jim Crow laws were voluntarily brought to a close and the city became more integrated.
Mease was born in Buxton, Iowa, on Oct. 25, 1908. After the death of his father in 1920, Mease and his family moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1920, where he became involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
After earning his master’s degree in social work administration from George Williams College in Chicago, Ill., and serving as an Air Force officer in World War II, Mease came to a segregated Houston in 1948 to work for YMCA.
Upon accepting the position of executive director of the Bagby Street YMCA, he launched a campaign for a new facility. The facility, which opened in 1955, became the Third Ward’s South Central YMCA.
Mease also founded the Houston Area Urban League, the Eliza Johnson Home for Aged Negroes and the Houston Council on Human Relations, all of which contributed to the peaceful desegregation of Houston’s public facilities.
For 19 years Mease was a founder and chairman of the Harris County Hospital District and chaired the Harris County Hospital Foundation. The community hospital for rehabilitation is named in his honor.
Houstonians and Americans alike should take note of Mease’s achievements.
Although living in the segregated towns of Des Moines and Houston, he never lost his composure or sight of the goal. He stayed focus and brought about real change, which the city is now richer for.
Any organization seeking to revolutionize and alter the status quo has the ability to do so if they remain poised and self-controlled.
Mease’s character was never questioned, and for this reason, he shook things up, made people question the norm and peacefully transformed a community.
Earlier this month, the NAACP honored Mease as a civil rights pioneer. The association was celebrating its 100th anniversary, making it as old as Mease.
In Mease’s lifetime, he worked for and achieved huge strides for civil rights in Houston and the U.S., though more work remains to be done.
Leaders such as Mease have paved the way for peaceful and resolute change and we can all learn from their example.
Mease’s wake and funeral will be held at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church at 500 Clay Ave. His wake is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday and the funeral is set for 11 a.m.’ March 5.
Mease is survived by his daughter, Barbara Ransom, of Oakland, Calif.
Matthew Keever is a communication junior and may be reached at [email protected].
