South Texas & San Antonio: Black History, Culture & Place™_1

Black businessmen began to work on San Antonio’s Alamo Plaza soon after the end of the Civil War in 1865.  Mr. Simon Turner (Black; 1855 – 1942) enlisted at the rank of private in the United States Cavalry in 1867.  He was assigned to the Buffalo Soldiers regiment of the U.S. Cavalry stationed in Oklahoma until 1881.  In 1881 he was reassigned with other Buffalo Soldiers to deliver mail from El Paso, Texas.  Mr. Turner was wounded in action in 1882, and was discharged at the rank of sergeant in 1883, before moving to San Antonio.  Initially, he found work as a porter at the Maverick Bank, on the northwest corner of Alamo Plaza,  at the intersection of Alamo and East Houston.  From 1886 through 1892 Mr. Turner served in the 1st Colored Regiment, Infantry as the Captain of Company A, Excelsior Guard militia (San Antonio).

Between 1884 and 1890 Mr. Turner served as a delegate to a series of “Colored Men’s State Conventions” that addressed civil rights and social issues for Black Texans during the Reconstruction period. By 1891 Mr. Turner was able to operate his own fruit store and “ice cream saloon” near the southwest corner of what is now Alamo and East Crockett Street.  By 1900 he moved to San Jose, California.  In 1928 he received a medal of honor forty five years after his honorable discharge.