"Telling the Story of Freedom" in Freedmen's Town

Houston Freedmen's Town Conservancy (HFTC) is charged with "Telling the Story of Freedom" in the historic Freedmen's Town, Houston’s oldest African American neighborhood, located in the Fourth Ward district. HFTC’s primary focus is to protect and preserve the history of Freedmen’s Town for the benefit of future generations. We support community engagement, re-education, and heritage-based tourism and events.

Freedmen’s Town is a critical part of not only Texas (Houston) history, but our nation’s history. It is crucial that “stories of freedom that transpired” in this historic place be kept alive and told to generations to come. Stories of the migration of some 1,000 freed slaves to Houston; of how these freedmen serviced their own community, becoming blacksmiths, lawyers, and doctors, building paved streets with bricks made by hand, and building their own schools and churches.

Freedmen’s Town was cited for inclusion in the Emancipation National Historic Trail study, which was a result of a law passed by U.S. Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee and Senator John Cornyn; and, multiple spaces located in the area, were designated as “Sites of Memory” by UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

These two national and global recognitions alone validate the importance of Freedmen’s Town as part of slave history, and the urgent need to continue “Telling the Story of Freedom.” The HFTC has a special combination of leverage points and powerful partnerships.  Our unique and comprehensive set of goals and strategies to deliver on our mission and vision, unleashes previously unheard-of momentum for lasting impact in Freedmen's Town.

Our Give 8/28 goal is to raise $100,000!

All funds raised will go toward building organizational capacity to:

    • Protect

Protection looks like defending landmarks (historic homes, museums, prayer gardens, public art) and creating clusters of historic districts in Freedmen's Town and ensuring that these landmarks and districts meet expectations for World Heritage Site designation criteria. 

    • Preserve

Preservation looks like restoring historic brick streets, supporting FT stakeholders and orgs, supporting the defense of all historic assets, unifying the story of FT, advocating for preservation incentives, proposing conservation districts, proposing restoration grant funds for residents, etc.

    • Education

Education looks like telling the story of freedom through our new Augmented Reality Tourism app, Emancipation National Historic Trail, supporting curriculum development, district-wide children’s tours and field trips, etc.

    • Engage

Engagement looks like launching the Visitor's Center, Juneteenth celebrations, district-wide community engagement like Sunday Streets to support residents/businesses/orgs, bike/trolley tours through Freedmen's Town, food and culture celebrations, powerful re-enactments, outdoor movie nights and music, etc.

We can not celebrate, learn from, and be inspired by a history which no longer remains!

Support bringing this powerful story of freedom to the world!!