For a second year, the Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival offers a day of family-friendly fun in the Deep East Texas Piney woods of Newton County’s Shankleville Community (www.shankleville.org).   

As with last year, the 2015 festival will feature lots of food vendors, including fried chicken, fried catfish, barbecue and (of course) purple hull peas.  Vendors offering crafts, fresh produce and community information will also be on hand.

Live music will be provided by the *Night Owls *out of Beaumont, and a special appearance by the *Purple Hull Pea Festival Band* with members hailing from Newton County, Houston and the D-FW area.

Festival goers can also take advantage of walking tours of the historic Shankleville Community, which is featured in the Texas Historical Commission’s “African Americans in Texas” mobile tour and print travel guide. (Download the mobile tour app at www.AfricanAmericansinTexas.com)

The Festival Symposium is back too, with Hoover Alexander of the award-winning Hoover’s Cooking (www.hooverscooking.com) restaurant in Austin kicking things off with a cooking demonstration.  Then, Nola McKey, former editor of *Texas Highways Magazine* will discuss her upcoming book, *From Teacakes to Tamales: Third Generation Texas Recipes*. 

Finally, Andrea Roberts of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project (
www.facebook.com/TheTexasFreedomColoniesProject) will facilitate a discussion focused on collecting, recording and preserving community histories – both oral and built.  The Texas Historical Commission will support the discussion, offering insight and materials for planning and implementing preservation projects, and John Crain of the Summerlee Foundation (www.summerlee.org) will provide tips for securing funding.

The Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival is organized by the Shankleville Historical Society, Inc., with financial and volunteer support from Newton County, the Deep East Texas Council of Governments, the Office of State Representative James White, the Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative, Inc.
and the Texas Historical Commission Preservation Trust Fund.

The festival will be at the A. T. and Addie Odom Homestead in the Shankleville Community on Saturday, June 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Shankleville is located between Texas Highways 63 and 87 on FM 1415 near Burkeville, Texas. For additional information, contact Lareatha Clay – 214-914-8137; lhclay@prm-od.com