Sadie Patillo Historical Marker Dedication
Please join the Beaumont Heritage Society for the Historical Marker Dedication honoring Sadie Patillo. The dedication ceremony will be held on November 14, 2026, at 11 a.m. at the Tyrrell Park Nature Center, 3930 Babe Zaharias Drive, Beaumont, Texas, where the marker inscription will be read aloud. This event is free and open to the public.
Speakers include Saige Patillo, Councilman Chris Durio, Vince Leibowiz, and Kate Hambright.
The Beaumont Heritage Society is proud to support the efforts that made this marker dedication possible through our work with the Jefferson County Historical Commission. This historical marker was awarded under the Texas Historical Commission’s competitive statewide under-told marker program, which seeks to address significant gaps in our state’s geographical and historical narrative. Limited funding is available to the THC for its under-told program, and only 15 marker topics are approved annually. The Pandit Mehar Chand marker, which was dedicated on November 15, 2025, was the first marker to be approved under this program in Jefferson County. Since then, Jefferson County has been fortunate enough to be awarded four in the past several years.
Who was Sadie Patillo?
Sadie Patillo was born on November 18, 1897, in Beaumont, Texas, to Mary Alice (Boykin) and Allison Jackson “Jack” Patillo. Her father founded Patillo’s Barbecue, which remains in the Patillo family to this day. Sadie married Anthony C. Karrey, and she was a social studies teacher at Charlton-Pollard High School for almost 40 years and was a member of the Texas State Colored Teachers Association. Sadie died June 15, 1971, and is buried in Live Oak Memorial Park Cemetery in Beaumont.
On December 17, 1930, Sadie Patillo was riding in the white section of a Beaumont city bus when she was told to move to the Black section. She refused and was ultimately fined $10 for her violation of the state’s separate coach law. This act of civil disobedience resulted in a ruling from Texas’ highest criminal court declaring Section 1659 of Texas’ penal statutes—the state’s separate coach law—altered and refined since 1889, did not apply to motor buses. Sadie’s victory came more than two decades before Rosa Parks refused to leave the seat she occupied on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus. While a monumental ruling for its day, the decision gained little more than newspaper notices when it was issued. Today, the decision has largely been lost to history, having been rendered moot by acts of the Legislature in 1935 and, prior to that, city ordinance and longstanding custom. Although Sadie’s case had little impact on the day-to-day lives of Blacks living in Texas during the mid 1930s, it remains a milestone in the history of public accommodation segregation in Texas.
If you’re traveling to town, we’ve arranged a special rate at the Hilton Garden Inn Beaumont, 3755 I-10, Beaumont, TX 77705. Book online or call the hotel and reference client/company number 3553285 for a special rate.