Al Price, the Texas Civil Rights Legend You Never Heard Of

The legendary figures that make up our Black history are first and foremost members of their own families. Known or unknown, our relatives and ancestors are worthy of a page in history, and telling their story is our responsibility and our birthright.  

Meet Al Prince, Texas civil rights leader, radical political figure, and most importantly - Sasha's grandpa.

By Sasha Ashton

I sometimes find myself going through old pictures of my grandfather, desperately searching for pieces of my face in his. I couldn’t really tell you why. I hunch over my desk at my computer with images of him, which usually accompany some amazing story. I deliberately crop out the fascinating things and people that are part of these stories as to not distract myself.

I sit here now, hunched over my computer trying to do something similar. With no thought or effort at all, I could sit and write a story about my grandfather, Al Price, the Texas Civil Rights legend you never heard of. It would be mind-numbingly easy because I’ve been writing that article verbally in my explanations of my grandfather to others for my whole life.

Throughout my childhood, right up until his death in 2012, my mom, brothers, and I would make the four-hour drive from our home in Austin to my mother’s hometown of Beaumont, Texas to see my grandpa. I was always excited, but never because of his accolades or accomplishments. That wasn’t who he was to me. Seeing my grandpa meant going to Luby’s, and Golden Corral.

It meant having him explain the non-jokes to me in the treasured comic strip panels of F Minus that he so precisely cut from newspapers and pinned to his refrigerator. It also meant feeling, but not really understanding - in that way kids do sometimes - the distance and tension that was at its worst a fixture of his relationship with my mother. But never once did I sit in the back seat of my mom’s highlander thinking “I can’t wait to eat dinner with former state representative Al Price” or “I hope he tells us more about his friendship with Martin Luther King Jr.”

That said, I’ll try my best to explain who Al Price Sr. was. Actually.

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Sasha Ashton is a writer and radical organizer based in Philadelphia, PA. She is a freshman studying political science on the pre-law track at Temple University. For more from Sasha, you can find her on Instagram @ashasashton and Twitter @slashatrashton.