History Under the Star: The Yellow Rose of Texas – The Song, Emily West and the Great Texas Myth

Sep 30 2023 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm

San Jacinto Museum

Graphic showing the star atop the San Jacinto Monument. Text reads: History Under the Star lecture series The Yellow Rose of Texas: The Song, Emily West and the Great Texas Myth with Lora-Marie Bernard

“There's a yellow rose in Texas that I am gonna see, Nobody else could miss her, not half as much as me.” The lyrics of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” are familiar to any Texan, but the true story behind the song is lost in myth and legend.  Learn how the “Yellow Rose of Texas” became the unofficial state anthem and how grit and determination brought a free Black woman from the abolitionist riots of Connecticut to the thick of a bloody Texas revolution.

Lora-Marie Bernard is a journalist and author. She has an undergraduate degree from the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas and a master’s in liberal arts extension studies from Harvard University. As a Washington D.C. field correspondent she served as an international radio commentator, journalist and photographer for the 2017 Trump presidential campaign, the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate Race, the Washington D.C. Women's March, and Hurricane Harvey. She is the author of The Yellow Rose of Texas: The Song, the Legend & Emily D. West and the vice president of the Southeast Texas Museum Association.

Date: Saturday, September 30, 2023

Time: 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. | talk 5:00 – 6:00, Q&A 6:00 – 6:30, reception 6:30 – 7:00

Location: San Jacinto Museum

Cost: $5 per person/$3 per museum member; students are free. Buy your tickets online.

This program is made possible in part by a generous grant from the George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation. For more information about upcoming lectures, visit the History Under the Star website.

For more information, email san-jacinto-battleground@thc.texas.gov or call 281-479-2431.