Marie D. De Jesús

Whitmire and Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy board member and president walk down the Freedmen Town’s bricks.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced on April 5 his plans to support local community groups’ efforts to restore Freedmen’s Town, located merely three minutes away from Carnegie Vanguard High School.

Freedmen’s Town, established by recently emancipated slaves in 1863, has seen much of its historic city buildings lost due to Houston’s industrial expansion, serving as an early example of gentrification in the city. Today, the area faces infrastructure issues such as plumbing malfunctions and neglect.

A few years ago, Freedmen’s Town was designated a Heritage District, which was a huge triumph for advocates of the community in giving Freedmen’s Town more recognition and garnering more attention to the issues Freedmen’s town faces. The Heritage District designation also positions Freedmen’s Town to receive grant money and funding for repairs. However, progress has been slow despite community support.

One feature of Freedmen’s Town has garnered more attention than others: the paved brick-roads. These roads were laid by the slaves themselves and span 1.5 miles. In 2017, the city needed to repair some pipes below the bricks, but after these repairs were completed, the bricks were replaced. This spurred great efforts from organizations like the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy (HFTC) to restore the bricks, the efforts which are now being supported by John Whitmire. Whitmire showed his support by walking down the bricks with leaders of the HFTC in discussions.

In addition to restoring the bricks, Whitmire announced that restoring Freedmen’s Town in full would cost upwards of $10 million dollars. He also stated that they will source this money mostly from donations, which is already making progress with the Mellon Foundation pledging $1.5 million towards efforts.

APUSH teacher Nathan Wendt emphasized the significance of Freedmen’s Town to residents.

“I don’t think a lot of Houstonians understand, number one what Freedmen’s town was, or number two the significance of that community— so the bricks I think will be more meaningful to the residents of Freedmen’s Town,” Wendt said.

He then mentioned the changing demographics of Freedmen’s town, referencing how gentrification and industrial development has vastly changed the landscape of the community since its inception.

Wendt also brought up apprehension to Whitmire’s plans, stating that he often has ambitious goals but they will get canceled for budgetary or other reasons.

“In terms of infrastructure projects like this, the goals and agendas are very different from the actual application”

Whitmire is in fact known for his many campaign promises, but with no active restoration in the works yet, only time will tell what will become of these promises by the end of his mayorship.