Houston African American Settlements

Houston African American Settlements

Author: Priscilla T Graham

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2015-12-07

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 1329648226

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8.5 x 8.5-58 page full color paperback pictorial history of some of the remaining structures in historical Texas settlements founded by African Americans after the Civil War including Lily White, Riceville, Piney Point, Kohrville, Barrett Station, Bordersville, and Independence Grove.


Freedom Colonies

Freedom Colonies

Author: Thad Sitton

Publisher: Univ of TX + ORM

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 0292797125

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A history of independent African American settlements in Texas during the Jim Crow era, featuring historical and contemporary photographs. In the decades following the Civil War, nearly a quarter of African Americans achieved a remarkable victory—they got their own land. While other ex-slaves and many poor whites became trapped in the exploitative sharecropping system, these independence-seeking individuals settled on pockets of unclaimed land that had been deemed too poor for farming and turned them into successful family farms. In these self-sufficient rural communities, often known as “freedom colonies,” African Americans created a refuge from the discrimination and violence that routinely limited the opportunities of blacks in the Jim Crow South. Freedom Colonies is the first book to tell the story of these independent African American settlements. Thad Sitton and James Conrad focus on communities in Texas, where blacks achieved a higher percentage of land ownership than in any other state of the Deep South. The authors draw on a vast reservoir of ex-slave narratives, oral histories, written memoirs, and public records to describe how the freedom colonies formed and to recreate the lifeways of African Americans who made their living by farming or in skilled trades such as milling and blacksmithing. They also uncover the forces that led to the decline of the communities from the 1930s onward, including economic hard times and the greed of whites who found legal and illegal means of taking black-owned land. And they visit some of the remaining communities to discover how their independent way of life endures into the twenty-first century. “Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad have made an important contribution to African American and southern history with their study of communities fashioned by freedmen in the years after emancipation.” —Journal of American History “This study is a thoughtful and important addition to an understanding of rural Texas and the nature of black settlements.” —Journal of Southern History


The Other Great Migration

The Other Great Migration

Author: Bernadette Pruitt

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2013-10-24

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 1603449485

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The twentieth century has seen two great waves of African American migration from rural areas into the city, changing not only the country’s demographics but also black culture. In her thorough study of migration to Houston, Bernadette Pruitt portrays the move from rural to urban homes in Jim Crow Houston as a form of black activism and resistance to racism. Between 1900 and 1950 nearly fifty thousand blacks left their rural communities and small towns in Texas and Louisiana for Houston. Jim Crow proscription, disfranchisement, acts of violence and brutality, and rural poverty pushed them from their homes; the lure of social advancement and prosperity based on urban-industrial development drew them. Houston’s close proximity to basic minerals, innovations in transportation, increased trade, augmented economic revenue, and industrial development prompted white families, commercial businesses, and industries near the Houston Ship Channel to recruit blacks and other immigrants to the city as domestic laborers and wage earners. Using census data, manuscript collections, government records, and oral history interviews, Pruitt details who the migrants were, why they embarked on their journeys to Houston, the migration networks on which they relied, the jobs they held, the neighborhoods into which they settled, the culture and institutions they transplanted into the city, and the communities and people they transformed in Houston.


Freedom Colonies

Freedom Colonies

Author: Thad Sitton

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2005-03-01

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0292706421

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In the decades following the Civil War, nearly a quarter of African Americans achieved a remarkable victory—they got their own land. While other ex-slaves and many poor whites became trapped in the exploitative sharecropping system, these independence-seeking individuals settled on pockets of unclaimed land that had been deemed too poor for farming and turned them into successful family farms. In these self-sufficient rural communities, often known as "freedom colonies," African Americans created a refuge from the discrimination and violence that routinely limited the opportunities of blacks in the Jim Crow South. Freedom Colonies is the first book to tell the story of these independent African American settlements. Thad Sitton and James Conrad focus on communities in Texas, where blacks achieved a higher percentage of land ownership than in any other state of the Deep South. The authors draw on a vast reservoir of ex-slave narratives, oral histories, written memoirs, and public records to describe how the freedom colonies formed and to recreate the lifeways of African Americans who made their living by farming or in skilled trades such as milling and blacksmithing. They also uncover the forces that led to the decline of the communities from the 1930s onward, including economic hard times and the greed of whites who found legal and illegal means of taking black-owned land. And they visit some of the remaining communities to discover how their independent way of life endures into the twenty-first century.


African Americans of Houston

African Americans of Houston

Author: Ronald E. Goodwin

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 0738584878

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Texas is a Southern state, and in many ways, Houston is a typical Southern city. While Houston did not experience the types or degrees of racial violence found in other Southern cities during the Jim Crow era, black Houstonians nonetheless found themselves often relegated to the margins of society. For decades there were two distinct Houstons: one white and the other black. However, Houstons black community created businesses that flourished and schools that educated children and developed a culture that celebrated the accomplishments of their parents while eagerly anticipating the accomplishments of future generations. Images of America: African Americans of Houston captures the many facets of black Houston. From churches to nightclubs; city parks to city hall; and political giants Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, and Sheila Jackson Lee to the driving beats of Archie Bell and the Drells, the Ghetto Boys, and Beyonc, black Houston is alive with a determination that past injustices will never dampen the future opportunities for greatness.


Historic Acres Homes the 44

Historic Acres Homes the 44

Author: Priscilla T Graham

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2018-11-19

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13: 1387726951

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Acres Homes was established in 1910. Working class families, laborers, farmers, water front workers, carpenters, domestics, military, and factory workers filled with hope and self-pride began migrating and purchasing property platted for African Americans approximately 10 miles northwest of downtown Houston from developer Alfred A. Wright. The settlement acquired its name Acreage Home from the fact that land was sold by the acre rather than by the lot. The land owners benefited from low taxes, inexpensive land, and an agrarian lifestyle a bit of genteel country with quick and easy access to the city.


The African Texans

The African Texans

Author: Alwyn Barr

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 1603446257

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Discusses the experiences of immigrants of African descent in Texas, and examines their social and cultural contributions to the Lone Star State. Includes illustrations, biographical sketches, a time line, and newspaper excerpts.


Changing Perspectives

Changing Perspectives

Author: Allison E. Schottenstein

Publisher: University of North Texas Press

Published: 2021-03-15

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 1574418378

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Changing Perspectives charts the pivotal period in Houston’s history when Jewish and Black leadership eventually came together to work for positive change. This is a story of two communities, both of which struggled to claim the rights and privileges they desired. Previous scholars of Southern Jewish history have argued that Black-Jewish relations did not exist in the South. However, during the 1930s to the 1980s, Jews and Blacks in Houston interacted in diverse and oftentimes surprising ways. For example, Houston’s Jewish leaders and eventually Black political leaders forged a connection that blossomed into the creation of the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim Internship in Israel for disadvantaged Black youth. Initially Houston Jewish leadership battled with their devotion to liberalism and sympathy with oppressed Blacks and their desire to acculturate. The distance between Houston’s Jews and Blacks diminished after changing demographics, the end of segregation, city redistricting, and the emergence of Black political power. Simultaneously, Israel’s victory during the Six-Day War caused the city’s Jews to embrace their Jewish identity and form an unexpected bond with Black political leaders over the cause of Zionism. Allison Schottenstein shows that Black-Jewish relations did exist during the Long Civil Rights Movement in Houston. Indeed, Houston played a significant role in the scope of Southern Jewish history and in expanding our understanding of Black-Jewish relations in the United States.


Black Dixie

Black Dixie

Author: Howard Beeth

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13:

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Sections, the book covers a broad range of both time and subjects. The first section analyzes the development of scholarly consciousness and interest in the history of black Houston; slavery in nineteenth-century Houston is covered in the second section; economic and social development in Houston in the era of segregation are looked at in the third section; and segregation, violence, and civil rights in twentieth-century Houston are dealt with in the final section.