Black Houston(s): Place and Memory

Known to locals as “H-Town” and “the Prophetic City,” Houston is the most ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the United States and the fourth largest city in the nation. Since its official founding in 1837, Afrodiasporic people have fundamentally shaped Houston’s social and cultural landscapes. Precisely what opportunities have Black people negotiated and redefined, created and maintained in response to life lived in the Bayou City? How do residents establish their sense of place in the city, and in what ways might Houstonian cultural productions continue to influence Black artists, activists, and scholars in the 21st century? Houston certainly provides an ideal landscape to reflect on the rich contributions of shifting and dynamic Afro-Diasporic communities as key to a fuller picture of Black southern histories in the United States.