The Texas Freedom Colonies Project

Announcement! TAMU Scholar Testing Online Black Settlement Atlas, Launching Statewide Survey  The Texas Freedom Colonies Project invites you  to participate in a statewide study & to test a new mapping application! Learn How to Access Portal Here SITE GOES LIVE THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2018, 10 am Dr. Andrea Roberts (The Texas Freedom Colonies Project Founder) and her research team, are excited to announce the launch of a new crowdsourcing project: The Texas Freedom Colonies Atlas along with a survey of settlement locations, preservation activities, and culture. Since 2014, The Texas Freedom Colonies Project has documented Black settlement heritage and grassroots preservation practice among descendants of these historic communities. Freedom Colonies are everywhere, hidden behind the pine curtain of the rural countryside and beneath the concrete landscapes of Houston, Austin, and Dallas. A large number of freedom colonies were never mapped or became "ghos...

The powerpoint below was presented this Friday in Galveston at the 2015 Texas Chapter American Planning Association Conference by Andrea Roberts, University of Texas at Austin/TX Freedom Colonies Project | Lareatha Clay, Shankleville Historical Society | Kim McKnight, City of Austin Here's a summary of what our 1 1/2 hour panel was about: "From 1870 to 1890, in the shadow of Reconstruction and violent nadir of American race relations that followed, former slaves founded more than 500 “Freedom Colonies” or Freedmen’s Towns across Texas. The purpose of this panel is to gain insight into how identity and memory among the dispersed, diasporic of descendants’ associated with Freedom Colonies catalyze their planning and historic preservation activities. How can understanding the way memory is operationalized in Freedom Colony heritage, cemetery, and homestead preservation projects enable public planners and cultural resources management professionals to better serve these enda...

Posted by The Texas Freedom Colonies Project on  Saturday, June 27, 2015