Note: This story originally appeared in a Killeen ISD newsletter called On Campus in 2002. It is based on a presentation at West Ward Elementary School from Killeen native Joseph Searles, III.
Joseph Searles, III grew up on Central Avenue in the Walker Village neighborhood in north Killeen. His father was a soldier. The little family of three moved around a lot but managed to find a stable home at the growing Camp Hood.
Young Joseph attended a segregated elementary school on the military post at a time when the Camp Hood schools were about to consolidate with the Killeen Independent School District.
He would go to Marlboro Heights for junior high and, in the first year of integration in Killeen, to Killeen High School when it was located in what became Fairway Middle School.
In late February 2002, Searles returned to Central Texas to speak to Killeen area students about the importance of education and to offer up a model of one who found professional success despite humble beginnings.
He referred to Killeen High as “the new Killeen High on 38th Street,” and expressed amazement at the colorful, vibrant campuses he visited.
Growing up in Killeen in the 1950s as a black student gave Searles plenty to think about besides the artwork hanging in the school hallways. The writing on the wall back then wasn’t always inviting. Students at West Ward Elementary immediately related to the speaker’s description of his neighborhood, since it’s the same neighborhood many of them live in today.
He described a childhood of stern discipline. He was up at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Friday to shine his shoes and his father’s shoes. He was also required to sweep the porch and wash the dishes and handle various other chores. Sometimes weekends were free, but many times his father gave him work then as well.
“I thought he was tough, but now I know he made me stronger,” Searles said. “Now, I have the patience to wait for success.”
He began high school the first year of integration, which was a difficult adjustment for many in the community. The first day of school, Searles and the other black students were greeted with a racial slur written on the outside of the school building.
Still, Searles knew he was as good as any other student. His parents, unlike many of his friends’ parents, encouraged him to take part in activities even if he was the only black child to do so.
He threw himself into high school athletics and the Boy Scouts. Though he was the only black boy in his Cub Scout Troop 111, he found acceptance there and credits that organization and its leaders for turning his life around.
At one point during high school, he decided he wanted to go to college. A helpful counselor told him he would have to improve his grades to continue his education. That was all it took to motivate the young man to bring up his grades.
His time in high school was made easier by his athletic prowess. He was a star football and baseball player. Even then, football was king in Texas and Searles wanted to be a part of the excitement. “Being a football player, I could contribute to the school,” he said. “In that way, I became ‘one of us,’ instead of ‘one of them,’” he explained. “Often, I was a bridge between the black students and the white students.”
He graduated from Killeen High School in 1959 and accepted a football scholarship to Kansas State University. Though the team at that time rarely won many games, Searles distinguished himself. He was an All-American and proved talented enough to play for the New York Giants during the 1967 season. More importantly, though, he graduated from Kansas State with a political science degree and continued to law school at George Washington University.
His professional football career lasted just one year. He played long before the era of huge sports contracts. Searles earned $14,000 as a running back for the Giants. He played alongside a rookie quarterback, Fran Tarkenton, who would become one of football’s most prolific passers.
It was just as well, said Searles, who endured numerous injuries in a sport that was still a long way from its current status as an icon of American culture. So Searles went to work as an assistant to the mayor of New York City, a job that paid $15,000 a year.
From there, he began to move into business ventures, first with the city’s economic development administration, then on the New York Stock Exchange. He was the first black member to own a seat on the exchange.
All the while, he was able to encourage minority enterprises. He eventually entered real estate and commercial development and by 2002 built $600 million worth of residential and commercial development, mainly in high minority inner-city neighborhoods.
Along the way, Searles has found himself in the company of some of the biggest names in the African-American community. As a college student, he met Martin Luther King, Jr. and Muhammad Ali. Later, he rubbed shoulders with Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes and Denzel Washington.
Despite his considerable accomplishments and responsibilities, Searles said it was important for him to return to Killeen and try to give back to today’s students. “At that time, it was difficult,” he said, while answering a question of a student about what it was like to be one of the first black students at Killeen High. “When people think you are less, you feel less. But I knew I was capable and equal. I proved I was not only a good athlete, but a good student.”
He impressed on students the need to make others feel welcome and accepted despite their differences. After his final presentation, he explained that, “If I can touch a spark that would become a Roman candle that would make me happy.”
In 2022, Killeen ISD named the district's second regional stadium in honor of the late KHS graduate.
