Texas barbecue history began with the San Felipe Trail Photo: The Fourth Ward building at 138 W. Gray, where long ago "barbecue baron" Matt Garner once made and sold his barbecue. (Photo by J.C. Reid / For the Chronicle) (Houston Chronicle) In antebellum Texas, the cotton plantations along the Brazos and Colorado were worked by [...]
PVAMU African-American studies initiative awarded $1M in grants and gifts (PVAMU) The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Prairie View A&M University a grant of $500,000 to support its effort to establish an African-American Studies Initiative which will be housed in its Marvin D. and June Samuel Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences. Inspired [...]
What should be done with the bodies found in the Sugar Land mass graves? Photo: A mass grave was discovered earlier this year at the construction site of the James Reese Career and Technical Center in Sugar Land. (Photo: Marie D. De Jesús, Houston Chronicle) (Houston Chronicle) When archaeologists discovered the intact skeletons of [...]
Why Sarah Bird waited for decades to tell the story of a woman who enlisted in the Buffalo Soldiers Image: Army painting imagining Cathy Williams, a.k.a. William Cathey, who enlisted in the Army in 1866. (U.S. Army/U.S. Army) (Dallas News) It's safe to call Sarah Bird one of the best writers in Texas. Just look [...]
What Dorothy Porter’s Life Meant for Black Studies Dorothy Porter, a Black woman pioneer in library and information science, created an archive that structured a new field. Photo: Dorothy B. Porter photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1951 ©Van Vechten Trust/Carl Van Vechten Papers Relating to African American Arts and Letters, James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection, [...]
The Great Escape From Slavery of Ellen and William Craft Passing as a white man traveling with his servant, two slaves fled their masters in a thrilling tale of deception and intrigue Image: One of the most ingenious escapes from slavery was that of a married couple from Georgia, Ellen (left) and William Craft. [...]
Can the national lynching memorial help Houston face its past? Photo: More than 800 steel monuments represent victims of lynching at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in downtown Montgomery, Ala. (Credit: Johnathon Kelso, STR/NYT) (Houston Chronicle) Houston is a city that is fiercely proud of its possibility. We tout our Medical Center, [...]
The Massacre of Black Sharecroppers That Led the Supreme Court to Curb the Racial Disparities of the Justice System White Arkansans, fearful of what would happen if African-Americans organized, took violent action, but it was the victims who ended up standing trial Photo: Elaine Defendants, Helena, Phillips County, Ark., ca. 1910, (Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, [...]
Jefferson and Hemings: How Negotiation Under Slavery Was Possible Image: Mothers being separated from their children at a slave auction. Although enslaved people held little leverage, some tried to negotiate to keep their families together. (Credit: Benoitb/Getty Images) When she couldn’t negotiate with her enslaver, Harriet Jacobs went to extensive lengths to avoid his [...]
How Enslaved Chefs Helped Shape American Cuisine Black cooks created the feasts that gave the South its reputation for hospitality Image: The Gilbert Stuart painting “Portrait of George Washington’s Cook” may depict Hercules, the first president’s famous chef. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) (Smithsonian.com)"We need to forget about this so we can heal,” said an elderly [...]
