Dead Assets: Endangered Cemeteries, Sacred Spaces of African America

By Andrea Roberts* I spoke yesterday with Jeremy Nelloms, descendant of Nancy Bradshaw. Nancy Bradshaw was a former slave who attained an impressive 300 acres of land after emancipation located in today’s northeast Houston, Texas.  The land is located a few blocks off I-10 East. Her family still owns the land, and the historic African

Black Places That Matter: Rosenwald School Building Program in Texas, 1920-1932

I will be posting National Register of Historic Places Property Nominations from now through Black History Month (trying to get a full month in). These nominations are detailed descriptions of places of national, state, and cultural significance. The nomination below was composed by Karen Riles, formerly of the Austin History Center. Why does the National

Pelham, Texas’ “Guardians of Memory” in one of the State’s Last Active Freedom Colonies

“At her kitchen table she pulls out an old map from the Navarro County Historical Society and traces her finger from one town name to the next, including several old black communities. “These communities don’t exist no more,” she says. “Babylon, no more. Bethel, no more. Round Prairie’s about gone. Porter’s Bluff, it’s gone.” From