The integration of Houston jazz audiences followed a route of unexpected twists and turns that included the Catholic Church and the arrest of two jazz legends—singer Ella Fitzgerald and jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. The man behind this mayhem was Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet, a tenor saxophonist from Houston, Texas.
In 1958, Jack Yates High School moved from its original location at 2610 Elgin Street in the Third Ward to its current location at 3703 Sampson, just a short distance away. It should have been an improvement—modern building, larger facility—but instead it marked a reversal from the school’s position as a central, guiding force for […]
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 […]
To read the full text of this article that appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of Houston History, download the pdf version.
To read the full text of this article by Teresa Tomkins-Walsh that appeared in the Fall 2003 issue of Houston History, download the pdf version.
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