Freedmen’s Town is Houston’s first and oldest free Black neighborhood—and one of the most significant post-emancipation Black communities in the United States. Founded just after Juneteenth 1865 by formerly enslaved people, it was a radical act of self-determination. On the southern banks of Buffalo Bayou, these men and women built a safe haven where Black families could live, work, and thrive on their own terms.
They laid the streets by hand using handmade bricks. They constructed homes, founded churches, and started businesses. They created schools to teach their children and trade colleges to pass down skills. Antioch Missionary Baptist Church—founded in 1866—became a cornerstone of the community. Reverend Jack Yates, its first pastor, encouraged land ownership and helped lead efforts to establish Houston’s first Black institutions.
By the early 20th century, Freedmen’s Town was known as the “Harlem of the South.” Over 400 Black-owned businesses lined its streets—jazz clubs, restaurants, beauty shops, newspapers, theaters. It was a cultural hub and a model of Black prosperity, despite the forces of systemic racism beyond its borders.
But even its historic status couldn’t shield Freedmen’s Town from the violence of displacement. In the decades that followed, redlining, urban renewal projects, and highway construction forced out thousands of residents. The city bulldozed historic landmarks to make way for parking lots, condos, and freeways. Even as the neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places, preservation efforts were underfunded, sidelined, or ignored.
Today, that fight continues. Residents, descendants, and preservationists are still working to protect what remains of Freedmen’s Town—from the hand-laid brick streets to the churches and homes that survived generations of erasure. The neighborhood stands not just as a site of memory, but as a frontline in the ongoing struggle for cultural preservation, land rights, and Black belonging in the face of gentrification.
Freedmen’s Town is not just a piece of history—it is a living archive of Black freedom, memory, and resistance.
They laid the streets by hand using handmade bricks. They constructed homes, founded churches, and started businesses. They created schools to teach their children and trade colleges to pass down skills. Antioch Missionary Baptist Church—founded in 1866—became a cornerstone of the community. Reverend Jack Yates, its first pastor, encouraged land ownership and helped lead efforts to establish Houston’s first Black institutions.
By the early 20th century, Freedmen’s Town was known as the “Harlem of the South.” Over 400 Black-owned businesses lined its streets—jazz clubs, restaurants, beauty shops, newspapers, theaters. It was a cultural hub and a model of Black prosperity, despite the forces of systemic racism beyond its borders.
But even its historic status couldn’t shield Freedmen’s Town from the violence of displacement. In the decades that followed, redlining, urban renewal projects, and highway construction forced out thousands of residents. The city bulldozed historic landmarks to make way for parking lots, condos, and freeways. Even as the neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places, preservation efforts were underfunded, sidelined, or ignored.
Today, that fight continues. Residents, descendants, and preservationists are still working to protect what remains of Freedmen’s Town—from the hand-laid brick streets to the churches and homes that survived generations of erasure. The neighborhood stands not just as a site of memory, but as a frontline in the ongoing struggle for cultural preservation, land rights, and Black belonging in the face of gentrification.
Freedmen’s Town is not just a piece of history—it is a living archive of Black freedom, memory, and resistance.
Historic images courtesy of Elbert Howze, Texas State Historical Association, Houston History Magazine, Houston Center for Photography, and The Heritage Society.