City of Hearne

The town the Hearnes' land gift created made national civil-rights news in the 2000s. In November 2000 a federally funded regional narcotics task force raided Hearne and arrested almost 15 percent of its young Black men on felony cocaine charges, on the uncorroborated word of one confidential informant. Regina Kelly, a single mother of four, refused to plead guilty, and her charges were dropped. The ACLU's suit, Kelly v. Paschall, settled in May 2005, and her case led to a Texas law barring prosecutions on a lone informant's word. The 2009 film American Violet dramatized it.

What the plaque says

City of Hearne Situated on land originally granted (1830) to Francisco Ruiz, commander of Fort Tenoxtitlan. The first settler, S. Code Brown, operated a tavern, stage stand, store, and post office which served a large area. Among the southern planters coming here (1852) were Ebenezer and Horatio Hearne, who later tilled 5,000 acres of land. Mrs. Christopher Columbus Hearne honored promise of her husband by donating 700 acres to Houston & Texas Central when the railroad built to this site in 1868. The town, platted in 1870 and named for the Hearne family, was incorporated in 1871. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 8.2 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 23 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 24 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.

More markers nearby

• A Century of the Methodist Church — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Hearne — 0.2 mi
• Site of the Town of Nashville — 5.0 mi
• The Parish Carriage House — 8.2 mi