BEAUMONT, Texas — A Beaumont man is on a mission to document the stories of Black people and leaders in Southeast Texas.
Tony Renfro dives into voting rights, healthcare and even showcases black chefs through his "Knowledge is Power Podcast Live" podcast.
Renfro created this podcast as as a way to celebrate black history in Southeast Texas all year round, but it's personal for him having grown up a child in the 1950's.
"I remember so much about segregation, I remember what day we could go to the fair it was only one day a week," Renfro said.
Renfro is a Black man born and raised in Southeast Texas. He grew up watching Black history unfold before his eyes through desegregation.
"It blew my mind because I saw the difference between where I come from and into an integrated schools. Where we had the soap and water, and towels folded and nice uniforms," Renfro said.
Renfro now understands the value of documenting black stories first hand from the people.
"Everything was passed on to us by the word of mouth so now that we can write books now, we can write recipes we can do all these things now, " Renfro said. "I can educate you by bringing those type of people on the show."
Renfro's podcast gives Southeast Texans life skills advice from experts.
"How to increase your credit, how to grow your credit. I've had experts to come on and talk about credit, how to prepare for a home, how to buy a home. I've had realtors on here, I've had the mayor on here," he said.
One thing Renfro makes sure to do on his podcast is highlight black leaders who live in the community.
"So they'll know about all our Black history, our Black communities, our culture," he said.
Once a month, Renfro hosts round table talks with the intentions of educating the community.
"Kids being arrested, talks about the school districts problems, talks about the city problems, economic problems issues that were having in the city," Renfro said. "It's a variety of things that we teach on knowledge is power. I always say knowledge is power but you have to have power to have knowledge."
Renfro's podcast can be listened to on most major podcasting platforms, such as Apple Podcast and Spotify.