Texas' first Black auto mechanic to receive a historical marker

For an area filling fast with people and their cars – it would make sense the city of Forney would try to share some of its history connected to the automobile.

So, it’s inside the Spellman Museum of Forney History in its historic downtown where most of that story lives.

Inside there is a replica of a historic marker displaying the story from 1899. One of the earliest automobiles, making a 5-hour, 30-mile drive from Terrell to Dallas, broke down in Forney.

Jimmy Malone knows the story by heart, even as he reads from the marker today.

“Necessitating repairs by a local blacksmith,” Malone said. “So, that’s what was missing.”

Missing on that historical marker is the name of that blacksmith, Reeves Henry.

Malone, now in his early 70s, knows the story of his great-grandfather.

“They said he was a mechanical genius,” Malone said.

Henry’s contributions to Forney as Texas’ first Black automotive mechanic are displayed inside the Spellman Museum.

“A lot of the things that you see here were makeshift. You see tools that they used so he would modify them, customize them – so they would come to him,” Malone said.

On Saturday, Forney's history outside the museum will come to him too, with the announcement of a historic marker in the city listing Reeves Henry by name for his impact on the earliest years of the automobile repair industry.

Malone says the official recognition may even mean more coming as the Juneteenth holiday approaches. Adding it is important that young faces today know the story of Reeves Henry, a Black man in segregated early 20^th century Texas, who is regarded as one of the most gifted engineers.

A story passed down to Jimmy Malone as a kid, one he’s shared with his grandkids and one he now hopes more in Texas will know.

“That’s the legacy,” Malone said. “I want them to be able to tell their children.”