Residents Try To Save Texas' First Black City, But Some Worry It Might Be Too Late
Many Texas cities have neighborhoods that have been changed by gentrification recently: Bishop Arts District in Dallas and East Austin are just some examples. And now, Houston’s Independence Heights – considered Texas’ first black city – could face a similar fate.
Houston Chronicle reporter Sarah Smith, who reported on Independence Heights, says the threat of gentrification has motivated residents to fight against it. They don’t want its historical significance to be lost through new development.
Black families started settling in Independence Heights in the early 20th century.
“It was black-run with black landowners, and they didn’t have to face the worst of Jim Crow segregation with redlining because they were, themselves, running the show,” Smith says.
Residents voted to incorporate the city in 1915, but then annexed it to Houston 14 years later for access to better municipal services. But Smith says they never got those services.
Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/residents-try-to-save-texas-first-black-city-but-some-worry-it-might-be-too-late/
