VOICES FROM THE PAST SPEAK THROUGH A TEXAS MUSICIAN AND TEACHER

By Ruth Ann Ruiz

The Post Newspaper Features Editor

Waco is the birthplace of Joan Yvonne Holbert-Hubert, where she lived with her two brothers and her parents. Her father was an airman and retired as a Master Sargent, and she would grow up to contribute her own musical talents to the children of Southeast Texas while developing a passion for history. 

Humming in her crib clued her parents into her musical aptitude. But singing “It Is No Secret What God Can Do” in front of the entire congregation at the age of 3 really brought her family into focus on her musical talents. 

“The music director told me I was going to learn that song and sing it and if she said you were going to do something, you did it. My parents didn’t even know I knew the song,” explained Hubert. 

After her grand performance, she sang all the way through her childhood while she kept her hands busy mimicking the motions of a pianist.

 “I was at the kitchen table pretending it was a piano and my granddaddy decided I needed a piano. So, he bought one for me to learn to play the piano,” said Hubert.

During high school, she developed her desire to sing opera. “I told the school counselor I was going to be an opera singer and she told me there was no way I would ever sing opera,” said Hubert. 

She has since performed with the Houston Grand Opera on numerous occasions. 

Music wasn’t her only early life experiences. She also had an encounter which her grandmother and mother said was most likely a ghostly experience.  

“My brother and I would roam the roads and lanes of Redland when we went to visit family in East Texas. One time we thought we saw a wedding and I said, ‘let’s go get some cake and ice cream from the wedding party.’ My brother didn’t want to, but I convinced him. When we got to the back of the house, there wasn’t anyone and the yard was overgrown and all the horses and buggies we had seen were gone,” Hubert said. 

“I thought it was strange that there were no automobiles, only horses and buggies, and when I told my grandma and mom about it, they told me to just pretend I hadn’t seen anything. But I heard them talking together about it being a ghost wedding,” she added. 

The wedding, as the tale goes, ended in tragedy. 

Because of her musical talents, she received scholarships and completed both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in music from Texas Prairie View A&M. 

While working on her master’s degree, she served as the choir teacher at La Vega ISD for both middle school and high school students. She then brought her talents down to the Gulf Coast and dedicated 19 years to the students at then-La Marque ISD.

Hubert finished her teaching career at Kashmere Magnet High School of Music and Fine Arts in Houston. She guided her students through musical challenges and linguistic learning as she asked them to perform in several foreign languages. Through her leadership, she was able to take her students on a trip to West Africa. 

It was on the trip to Africa that she came face-to-face with the cruelty of slavery. And again, she had an encounter with spirits from the past. 

“I was standing looking to the north and east from Elmina Castle in Ghana, and spirit voices started speaking to me. One was very loud and said, ‘remember me.’ This is what caused me to start my research into the history of slavery,” explained Hubert. 

Since retiring from public education, Hubert  worked as an adjunct professor at Texas Southern University, and she began her in-depth research into her own family genealogy along with researching the history of the slave routes.

Her research led her to the Middle Passages, which is the forced voyage of Africans across the Atlantic to be enslaved in the new world. She learned the Port of Galveston was among the ports in the Middle Passages. 

With documentation in hand, Hubert attended a Galveston Historic Foundation meeting and proposed  a marker to honor the Middle Passages be placed in Galveston

Because of her efforts, the Foundation placed a plaque on the exterior wall of the Seaport Museum The plaque states: “This maker commemorates enslaved Africans in Galveston during the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries as well as those who perished, during the transatlantic slave trade known as The Middle Passage.”

The marker is the first stop along the path of The Freedom Walk in Galveston.