The home of African American educator Clara Belle Williams at 722 N. Mesquite in Las Cruces was converted into a historic property thanks to the efforts of the current homeowners, the Chavez family. (Miranda Cyr / Las Cruces Sun-News via Tribune News Service)
LAS CRUCES – Few parishioners know the role of Clara Belle Williams in the formation of Las Cruces, but one family made it their business to get Williams and her legacy to be recognized by the state.
Alice Chavez Villa grew up in 722 N. Mesquite St., the house that Williams, her husband Jasper Williams, and their three sons lived in and owned for 41 years – from 1933 to 1974.
Chavez Villa, 50, said she grew up vaguely knowing that Williams owned the house but didn’t know much about her legacy.
“Every now and then I saw something that came out about Clara Belle,” Chavez told Villa.
She said that a few years ago she began to find out that Williams, as a woman of color, had a significant impact on education.
Chavez Villa has now spent months collecting data on Williams and her history.
A shiny new plaque declares Clara Belle Williams’ home a historic site.
Williams was born in 1885 and is best known as the first African American woman to graduate from the New Mexico College of Agriculture of Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University) with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1937. Back then, racial segregation was still widespread and Williams had to sit outside in the hallway to attend lectures. She couldn’t even attend her own graduation ceremony. In 2005, February 13th was recognized by NMSU as Clara Belle Williams Day and the English building was renamed Clara Belle Williams Hall.
Williams was an educator in Texas and Vado, New Mexico before coming to Las Cruces.
She was a fixture in the community, co-founding Booker T. Washington School with Jasper in 1934, teaching for 16 years before retiring from a 40-year career in education.
“I started out in the NMSU archives and got all I could about Mrs. Williams,” Chavez told Villa. “It was very personal and fascinating to uncover the hardships that she had to endure.”
The more Chavez Villa learned about Williams, the more parallels she discovered between the late teacher and her.
Chavez Villa graduated from NMSU and was the first member of her family to graduate, much like Williams. Chavez Villa attended Booker T. Washington as a child, through kindergarten through sixth grade, and later returned as a teacher in 2000.
After leaving Booker T. Washington, Chavez Villa started a tutoring program called “One Room Schoolhouse” in 2002. She found that Williams had been raised as a young girl in a one-room schoolhouse more than 100 years earlier. Chavez Villa now works for the National Education Association of New Mexico.
When Chavez Villa had their first daughter on January 21, 1995, she brought her to 722 N. Mesquite. Their daughter is African American, like Williams.
Chavez Villa’s parents, Arturo and Marceline, had three children – Alice, Arturo Jr., and Lisa Hernandez, much like the Williams family, who had three sons.
“I couldn’t help but tie together all of the overlapping things in our families that are intertwined in different ways,” said Chavez Villa. “There are so many other little details like this, this piece put together.
“It feels like home in every way: professionally, personally, historically.”
Create a name
In August, Chavez Villa presented her findings about Williams and her own family to the New Mexico Cultural Properties Board. With the help of the NMSU and a letter of support from the city of Las Cruces, she put her case forward.
The board of directors unanimously voted on Aug. 13 to register 722 N. Mesquite as part of the New Mexico Historic Properties Register and to register the house on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties.
The house now has a shiny new plaque declaring the house a Historic Site and recognizing it as the home of Clara Belle Williams.
A plaque in honor of Clara Belle Williams hangs in the Las Cruces Public Schools administrative complex. A pioneer in education, Williams was recognized for founding the Booker T. Washington Elementary School. (Miranda Cyr / Las Cruces Sun-News via Tribune News Service)
Chavez Villa said she hopes this recognition draws the attention of Las Cruces Public Schools and the rest of the community to Williams and her work.
“You just have this wow feeling, you had an amazing pioneer, a groundbreaking woman who lived here,” Chavez told Villa. “Then, as I said, (the certificate) was passed on to our family. It became much more than a piece of paper. This warranty document means a lot and I plan to keep it in the family. “
After Chavez Villa goes through the recognition process, she plans to find Williams’ offspring in order to reach them. She found out that Williams moved to Illinois in 1951 to follow her sons who became doctors in Chicago.
Honor their own family
Chavez Villa carried out this project for her own family as well as for Williams himself.
She said it was especially important to show her daughter Tory everything she has learned about Williams – a strong African American, just like her daughter.
“It gives her a piece of her that I can’t give her because I’m Hispanic. And even though she grew up Hispanic (culturally), she looks African American, ”said Chavez Villa. “It’s just part of her story that I think brought her closer to feeling even more connected in a special way.”
Chavez Villa said another factor that motivated her on this trip was her father Arturo Chavez and his deteriorating health.
He was hospitalized for the first time in March. Arturo would go in and out of the hospital for the rest of his life. Chavez Villa said this may have been unconscious when she really buckled up to obtain property recognition.
The property was recognized in August and her father passed away pretty much two months later on November 12 at the age of 76.
“My father loved this house,” said Chavez Villa. “I just thought it was too important. We have to get this home recognized, there is too much history to go unnoticed.
“My father was really proud because I just know he loved being at home.”
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