June 12, 2025
The necessity to defend this historical past comes at a time of heightened political stress.
Historic bricks representing Freedmen’s City in Houston have been lately broken in a development undertaking, main archaeologists to dig up the blocks for safekeeping.
Previously enslaved folks initially based Freedmen’s City after gaining freedom from emancipation. Nevertheless, some bricks memorializing this historical past have been broken throughout a avenue enchancment undertaking within the Texas metropolis.
Whereas organizers for Houston Freedmen’s City Conservancy imagine that the harm occurred unintentionally by the contractor, the necessity to protect this historical past higher nonetheless persists. Sharon Fletcher, government director of the conservancy, referenced the “present local weather” of U.S. politics as an excellent higher motive to defend such artifacts.
“These are the belongings of our ancestors, and we don’t need to lose them, particularly given the present local weather and issues we face when it comes to erasure relative to African American historical past,” acknowledged Fletcher to CHRON.
Fletcher seemingly pointed to the federal government’s assaults on African American historical past museums and teachings in public colleges, with Trump lately calling out the Smithsonian Institute for “improper ideology.”
The bricks bodily embody the enslaved individuals who labored to construct this Freedmen’s City in Houston following the Civil Warfare. The harm is very regarding as Juneteenth nears, given the city’s founding days after the vacation’s official begin of June 19, 1865.
The harm solely stopped as a result of interference of Freedmen’s City Preservation Coalition member Charonda Johnson. Johnson introduced up the difficulty as a “district emergency” in the course of the metropolis council public remark session.
“The bricks will not be only a image of the neighborhood, Freedmen’s City, however they’re an enduring legacy of the laborious work and ingenuity of the founders of this neighborhood,” stated Joseph Panzarella, a fellow neighborhood organizer alongside Johnson. “Once we disrupt the bricks, we’re exhibiting that we don’t admire our historical past or the individuals who constructed it.
The incident occurred notably when officers have been unaware of the development. Houston Metropolis Council member Abbie Kamin stated this prohibited them from guaranteeing the correct measures have been in place to guard the bricks.
“For this to occur weeks earlier than Juneteenth is much more discouraging,” Panzarella added. “We’re going to be celebrating the one hundred and sixtieth anniversary of the occasion that spurred the founding of this neighborhood, and we needs to be doing all we are able to to guard one of many key symbols of stated neighborhood.”
Safety guards will now survey the world to make sure no additional harm happens, with archaeologists preserving the bricks in a storage facility. Plans to return the bricks will occur by 2028.
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