One year after Amarillo was first settled in 1887, Jerry Calloway moved to Amarillo.
Recognized as Amarillo's first black resident, Jerry Calloway moved to the city with a white family from Georgia, living as a domestic in the home of his employer J.C. Calloway.Jerry Calloway helped start Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Amarillo's first black church. He mentored youth in the community and was known for protecting African-American women against harassment by white men, according to the Amarillo Globe-News. For this, he was known as the bravest man in Amarillo.