Martinez / Relationship with Al Lipscomb
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So, police-community relations were very challenging for a lot of us and Al Lipscomb was a very, very closely cause Al was a community organizer [?] partnership and Randy [?] has been his mentor also to see Lip a lot and we became very good friends, we marched together, we picketed together. He got involved with the Cesar Chavez movement and myself, and others. And, I later learned that Zahn Holmes and I Al were driving to Fort Worth one day to church, we were in a car driving together and I made a comment and Lip would always say, "Excellent, Excellent Point!" and that was is a cliche comment and so, it caught my attention, I was in the front seat and he was in the back seat and I said, Lip, what did you do before you became an organzer?" And, he said, "I was a bootlicking waiter at the best restaurents in Dallas." And, well, I said, "Well, my dad was a waiter, I said, "Where?" And, he started naming all the restaurants [?] and he said, "And then I also worked at Latonesha Restaurant." I said, "When did you worked at Latinesha?" He said, "Around the early 60s, 61, 62." And, I said, "Lip, I was a busboy at Latinesha." And, he said, "I was a waiter, where were you stationed?" I said, "I was stationed out in the front." I said, "No wonder you use that term." because when we were trained at Latinesha, we would come in and order a beef kobab or a shish kobab and ask em. And they would say, "How is this entree?" Our response was, "Excellent, excellent choice!" I said, "Lip, I think I was your busboy." So, that's how far back, I go back, and we all laughed, of course. But, we marched together, we picketed together, we protested together, and we became very very dear friends. I learned a lot from Al Lipscomb, in terms of his passion and his commitment to seeing what the minority community is all about........
| Interview | Interview with Rene Martinez |
| Subjects | Work › Occupations |
| Police and Law Enforcement › Community Relations and Law Enforcement | |
| Direct Action › Marches | |
| Direct Action › Picket lines | |
| People › Chavez, Cesar | |
| Family › Parents | |
| Tags | Lipscomb, Al |
| Ratliff, Randy | |
| Holmes, Zan | |
| La Tunisia Restaurant, Dallas, TX | |
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| Interview date | 2011-09-07 |
| Interview source | Documenting the History of the Civil Rights Movement in Dallas County |
| Interviewees | Martinez, Rene |
| Interviewers | Dulaney, W. Marvin |
| Thomas, Alfred | |
| Locations | Dallas, TX |
| Duration | 00:02:24 |
| Citation | "Relationship with Al Lipscomb," from Rene Martinez oral history interview with W. Marvin Dulaney and Alfred Thomas, September 07, 2011, Dallas, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/6093/relationship-with-al-lipscomb, accessed December 12, 2025 |