Pandit Mehar Chand

A profile in NRI Pulse says Chand left home at 17 after his mother's death, looking for a place "where there was no lying and stealing." It traces a route through Italy, Argentina, Chile, Barbados and Jamaica to Tampa in 1913, then to California's Imperial Valley and Beaumont in 1918. He and his wife, Lola Torres, had eight children, and the Crockett Street grocery he opened in 1921 with a partner served Beaumont's Black community. The South Asian American Digital Archive holds his papers, including an April 22, 1937 letter from the Attorney General about his pardon.

What the plaque says

Pandit Mehar Chand Born in Mahilpur, Punjab, India, on May 18, 1894, Pandit Mehar "P.M." Chand was an early Asian Beaumont resident and business owner. After moving to Lahore (current day Pakistan) as a child, Chand immigrated to the United States in 1913. He and friend Kayaun Sing "K.S." Joe moved to a rice farm near Beaumont in 1918, and one year later, Chand married Eulalia "Lola" Torres. In October 1921, Chand and K.S. Joe purchased a grocery store in downtown Beaumont on Crockett Street. He filed a petition of naturalization to become a United States citizen on February 14, 1923, but just five days later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind that Indian citizens were not white and therefore could not be granted U.S. citizenship. Chand's application was thereafter rejected. In the early 1920s, a growing nationwide white nationalism and xenophobia movement manifested in Beaumont. In April 1923, P.M. Chand and K.S. Joe were tried, along with three black men, for an interstate conspiracy to sell cigarettes. Initially sentenced to two years in federal prison at Fort Leavenworth, Chand pled to stay with his wife and children, and his sentence was reduced to a $500 fine. Chand made efforts to build strong bonds in the community, participating in a Sunday school group educating participants about his Hindu faith, and speaking against school segregation. In 1936, the immigration naturalization service notified Chand they intended to deport him based on his previous conviction. The community rallied in Chand's defense, and on April 26, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt officially pardoned Chand. In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the Luce-Celler Act, allowing Indians to apply for citizenship. On November 23, 1949, Chand's second petition for naturalization was accepted and he became a U.S. citizen. Chand continued to operate his business until 1966. He died in 1977. (2023)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• McFaddin-Ward House — 0.7 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 3.6 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Village Creek State Park — 12 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 18 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• First Security National Bank — 0.4 mi
• Congregation Temple Emanuel — 0.4 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Beaumont — 0.4 mi
• The Clubhouse, The Woman's Club of Beaumont — 0.5 mi