February 12, 2023
GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
Vol. 28, Issue 4
African-American News&Issues
“Addressing Current & Historical Realities Affecting Our Community”
The Life of Doris R. Countee 1928–2023
By: Afram News
Pictured: Ernest Collins, Floretta Collins, Leslie Collins-Thompson, Roderick Thompson, Todd Collins, Janelle Alston-Collins, Sydney Rose Collins, Ella Gabrielle Collins, Alston Ernest Collins, Ross Thompson, Brooke Thompson, and Taylor Thompson.
We must remember a beautiful soul and pay tribute to the life of Doris R. Countee, a phenomenal educator who touched the lives of many. She died on January 21, 2021, after a strong battle with health issues. She served as an HISD teacher for 46 years at Booker T. Washington and Robert E. Lee High Schools and was a Marine Biology teacher. Doris was the oldest great-great granddaughter of the great Rev. Jack Yates and attended Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of Christ, Inc. She was heavily involved in church and family legacy. After the end of the Civil War had participated in Sunday School for 50 plus and during Reconstruction in 1871, Mr. years. She was also involved the schools she Ernest’s great, great grandfather, Mr. Newton worked at and was the half time announcing Isaac Collins, purchased 130 acres of land. voice at football games at both schools. That one purchase started a rich, loving, and She is preceded in death by her parents, committed legacy for six generations of Black Velma Amboree, great granddaughter of Jack landownership. Yates, and Alphonse Richards, adopted mother “Flo and I are in the business of agriculture, Nannie Y. Countee, two brothers (Robert and and she has been supporting me in the Willie Earl), and a sister (Betty Price), She is ranching.” These first words from Mr. survived by a brother Charley Earl (Betty), Ernest warmed my heart immediately as sister Lennie Marie Davis, and her niece/godhe explained the secret of his success is his daughter Martha Whiting-Goddard. She is also family. On March 5, 1965, on a survived by a host of Yates, Earl, Countee, and Friday evening, Flo met Ernest at Collins cont. Whiting nieces, nephews, and cousins. on pg. 3 the student union on the campus
The Collins family
By: Crystal LaShan
“Get you some dirt. They’re not making any more,” resigned from many thoughts after having an extraordinary interview with Mr. and Mrs. Collins, also known as Mr. Ernest and Mrs. Floretta. They represent a legacy like no other. A Black landownership legacy is seen as an anomaly because most black families were denied their forty acres and a mule after reconstruction. Some were even terrorized out of their land by White men who didn’t respect the hard work they put into it, or simply believed that they were entitled to something they didn’t earn just because society deemed them a superior race. Well, that is not the story of the Collins
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