WPPB Image Addons Dr. Andrea Roberts is an Associate Professor of Urban + Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture and has been appointed Co-Director of the School’s Center for Cultural Landscapes. She is a scholar-activist who brings 12 years of experience in community development, nonprofit administration, and advocacy to her…
PEER-REVIEWED Forthcoming Andrea Roberts, Valentina Aduen, Jennifer Blanks, Schuyler Carter, Kendall Girault, Digital Juneteenth: Territorializing the Freedom Colony Diaspora. (2022) Public Culture. Abstract: After Juneteenth, formerly enslaved African Americans in Texas founded hundreds of historic Black settlements known as freedom colonies. Later, freedom colonies’ populations dispersed, physical traces disappeared, and memories of locations vanished as…
Looking for examples of anti-banking system, anti-respectability, pro-cooperative Black planning &community building? Try 19th Century Texas History. I recently published an article on race gender, planning, and mutual aid called “The Farmers’ Improvement Society and the Women’s Barnyard Auxiliary of Texas: African American Community Building in the Progressive Era,” in the Journal of Planning History.…
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…
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…
I grew up going to rodeos. Yes, this little black girl went to rodeos. They were all-Black and held in Richmond and Rosenberg. Sometimes they had a little chittlin’ circuit show associated with them, but mostly, it was just lots of Black cowboys and cowgirls doing their thing. Apparently, the lowest and highest caliber of…
“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…
Fort Bend County’s little known African American history is in danger of being forgotten. Especially as it relates to struggles around voting rights in areas like Stafford and Fifth Street. The west end of the County commemorates the Terry V. Adams, which ended whites only primaries in Texas. See ceremony below: Terry v. Adams Marker…
So I had the delightful privilege of riding back from the Guadalupe Mountains with my friend Greg. Besides serving as the National Register Coordinator for the Texas Historical Commission, Greg has a passion for road side art, African American “Green Guides” sites, and just all kinds of cool stuff. The NPS park was celebrating the…
