This Juneteenth, Houston Activists Are Shining a Light on the City’s Black History

Also known as Emancipation Day or Freedom Day, Juneteenth is celebrated in commemoration of June 19, 1865, when the end of slavery was finally proclaimed in Texas by Major General Gordon Granger. Although the Civil War had ended that April, Confederate troops in Texas continued fighting until mid-May, Annette Gordon-Reed recounts in her book, On Juneteenth. Following emancipation, newly freed slaves journeyed north from Galveston to the banks of Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, where they established thriving communities where Black businesses and Black families flourished.

What many don't know, however, is how central the city of Houston became to the history of those communities—as well as what we celebrate on June 19 to this day. That may well change, however, thanks to the initiatives of several preservation-minded groups that work with three significant areas of the city: Freedmen's Town, Emancipation Park, and the neighborhood of Independence Heights, as well as their place on the Emancipation National Historic Trail, a path currently undergoing review for establishment by the National Parks Service that traces the migration of emancipated slaves in Texas.

“People should know that what you know about American culture, a great bit of it came from Houston, and you have no idea because the credit has not been given because the stories have not been told,” says Zion Escobar, executive director of the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy. “That is what we are doing together.”

To begin, visitors can experience the 51-mile trail that marks the original Juneteenth journey, starting at the Gulf Coast city of Galveston and ending in stops in Houston. “This trail allows us to tell [our] story authentically,” says Tanya Debose, executive director of the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council, a nonprofit that seeks to strengthen the community through a combination of preservation and revitalization efforts. “You can visit these spaces where you can see what these people actually did.”

Standing at the intersection of Andrews and Wilson Streets in the heart of Freedmen’s Town feels like stepping back in time, with handcrafted red brick streets dating to the 1800s and historic shotgun homes lining some of the narrow neighborhood roads. From this central spot, once the unofficial town square of the community, landmarks like the Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum and the J. Vance Lewis House are just steps away.

In all, the Freedmen’s Town Historic District totals about forty blocks, only a portion of the original community that once had upward of 400 Black businesses and, in the 1920s, was home to one-third of Houston’s African American population. The community’s vibrancy has diminished over time as a result of eminent domain, gentrification, and the construction of Interstate 45 in 1953, which effectively cut Freedmen’s Town in half. Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, whose spires rise amid downtown’s towering buildings, is the only vestige of Freedmen’s Town east of the interstate. Parishioners still worship in the church’s original handmade pews.

Known as the Mother Ward of Black Houston, Freedmen’s Town’s residents and activists went on to establish community strongholds like Emancipation Park in the city’s Third Ward, and Independence Heights, a neighborhood north of Interstate 610 that was the first Black city to be chartered in Texas. These Black enclaves “affected the entire trajectory of the city of Houston,” Escobar says. The legacies of these three spaces are naturally interconnected, as residents “mov[ed] fluidly throughout these communities,” she says.

Emancipation Park’s 10 acres were purchased and established in 1872 by four of Freedmen’s Town’s community leaders as a gathering place to host Juneteenth celebrations. Emancipation Park has since transformed from an open field with a single pavilion to an art-filled space featuring architecture from Philip Freelon of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, indoor and outdoors spaces for community building and gathering, and state-of-the-art recreational facilities. A self-guided audio and GPS tour walks visitors through the park’s 19 points of interest.

Despite the challenges wrought by destructive development and gentrification, these former cornerstones of a burgeoning Black community post-Emancipation are experiencing a revival of story and structure as activist groups and leaders retell the story of freedom through the histories of their respective spaces.

In Freedmen’s Town, for instance, the weekly Saturday farmers market at 1108 Victor Street channels the communal, giving spirit of the neighborhood’s founders (Freedmen’s Town’s home-grown network of goods and services was the original “Buy Black,” Escobar says). Hopping on a bike tour, scheduled every fourth Saturday after the farmers market, will take you across Freedmen’s Town to sites like the African American Library at the Gregory School, the first public school for African Americans in Houston; the Freedmen’s Town Labyrinth, lined with red bricks from the century-old church that once stood at the site; and Beth Israel Cemetery, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Texas. Self-guided tours are easily done any time, thanks to Freedmen’s Town’s central location and the historical markers scattered throughout the community. For a deeper dive into the neighborhood, Freedmen’s Town resident and activist Charonda Johnson recently kicked off guided walking tours.

The story of freedom finds its roots in Freedmen’s Town and the communities born from it, and Juneteenth is “the one time where we’re activating in a visible and coordinated way,” Escobar says. All sites are available to explore year-round—but Juneteenth offers a robust schedule for virtual and in-person storytelling, learning, and celebration.

For Lucy Bremond of the Emancipation Park Conservancy, which focuses on preservation efforts of the park itself, the story of Juneteenth is one of community and connection. “People right out of slavery used their ingenuity to complement each other, to pool their resources together,” she says. Emancipation Park, one of the oldest parks in Texas, was born after founding community members worked together to raise $1,000 for the park land. “To me, that is just so profound to think about,” says Bremond.

The current phase of revitalization and engagement has activists digging deep into past records and oral histories to uncover the communities’ stories. As founder of the Preserving Communities of Color movement, Debose replicates the work she’s doing in Independence Heights “to advocate that other communities start to grab hold and preserve their own spaces, create inclusive communities, and turn them into cultural designations,” she says.

“We’re at a stage now where I can say African Americans are now owning their history,” she says. “We’re no longer turning our heads to it, believing what was written in the history books. We’re digging it up, we’re understanding and learning about our ancestors and their contributions,” Debose continues. “We’re not just allowing others to tell our story now—we want to tell our own story.”

Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler