The Dawn at My Back: Memoir of a Black Texas Upbringing explores what it means to grow up in a racist society. It describes the injustices endured daily and vividly paints a picture of the pain they carry with them. Blue’s story demonstrates the power of racism to rip families apart, even as one consciously […]
One of the most significant socio-economic impacts resulting from white supremacy, and its attending corollary of Black inferiority, was the use of race as a determinant of residential housing patterns which forced African American families into isolation in segregated neighborhoods. For Zinetta Burney and her African American neighbors in Houston’s Third Ward, Alabama Street was […]
In 1927, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) created two colleges during a local economic boom: Houston Junior College, and a “separate but equal” branch, Houston Colored Junior College. Eventually, they were designated the University of Houston and Texas Southern University respectively. What became TSU only admitted black applicants until 1956, and UH only admitted […]
The University of Houston (UH) is celebrated today as one of the most diverse research institutions in the nation. It also has one of the oldest African American Studies programs in the country. The transition UH has made from its foundation as an exclusively white university, to becoming a diverse school with ethnic studies programs, […]
In 1839 Houston was divided into four wards, each a geographic area which provided representation for the municipal government. The crossing at Congress Avenue and Main Street became the intersecting point for dividing the wards. The First Ward, located in the northwest quadrant of that intersection, bordered the strategic location where Buffalo Bayou and White […]
Second Ward was home to the extremely wealthy and extremely poor, bartenders and brewers, renters and ranchers, priests and politicos. The residents lived in a variety of situations ranging from traditional neighborhoods to suburban ranches. The area boasted one of Houston’s first churches, several early park and recreational areas, and the city’s first suburb.
On the evening of November 27, 1920, some two hundred mysterious figures threaded their way behind a torch bearer through the downtown streets of Houston. A hush fell over thousands of onlookers as the hooded figures silently “passed like specters from another world.” The second Ku Klux Klan had arrived.
To view the entire article about the Buffalo Soldiers Museum by Joe Skeen, which appeared in Houston History Volume 7, Number 2, download the pdf version.
To read the full text of this article by Jordan Bauer that appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of Houston History, download the pdf version.
Confronting Jim Crow Vol. 8, No. 1 (Fall 2010) Download PDF Letter from Editor 2 Guardians Against Change: The Ku Klux Klan in Houston and Harris County, 1920-1925 by Casey Greene 6 Illinois Jacquet: Integrating Houston Jazz Audiences . . . Lands Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie in Jail by Aimee L’Heureux 9 […]
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