Houston’s Fourth Ward is home to a historic district known as Freedmen’s Town, a major destination for formerly enslaved individuals following the end of the civil war in 1865. Throughout the decades the town would grow into a major center of Black culture in the United States, although by the 1970s it had begun to fall into decline. Forces of gentrification were threatening the historic homes, churches and Black-owned businesses that had made the community vital.
Since then, the residents of Freedmen’s Town have fought back to preserve their history and their culture. This work extends into the arts world, and visitors to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston now have an opportunity to learn about the beauty of one of Houston’s hidden gems, while supporting the continuing autonomy of this community. Titled This Way: A Houston Group Show, this a new art exhibition is a salvo in the larger campaign by the residents of Freedmen’s Town to maintain the character that has made their settlement a crucial piece of Black culture in the US.
“We’re using art as a catalyst for awareness, change, possibility in Freedmen’s Town,” said Mich Stevenson, who curated this exhibit along with Charonda Johnson, an artist and fifth-generation resident of Freedmen’s Town. “This is the first freed settlement of Black people in city of Houston. It has beautiful, incredible historic sites. We wanted to spread awareness of this community’s historic impact on the city of Houston – to highlight a hidden treasure that is not a paragraph in a social studies book but very much alive and real.”
One thing that Stevenson and Johnson make visible in This Way are the many ways in which the culture of Freedmen’s Town is threatened with erasure. The artist Gem Hale’s contribution to the show, a stirring photo series titled The Protest Before the Protest, celebrates the Brick Street protest, a spontaneous manifestation against gentrification that occurred in Freedmen’s Town on 14 November 2015. Community action was sparked that day when a town resident saw that the city of Houston was trying to remove the bricks that form Freedmen’s Town’s streets – one of the community’s prized possessions. “These bricks are over 100 years old, and they outlast any other modern bricks that are made today,” said Stevenson.
As Stevenson recounted, on 14 November his co-curator Johnson was out for a walk when she saw city workers tearing up the streets. “Charonda’s mentor, Miss Lue Williams, always told her, if you see people coming to get these bricks, that’s a red alert emergency.” Johnson was quickly able to round up a group of community members to protest what was happening. Seeing the growing protest, the workers soon departed, and the news eventually reached the then mayor of Houston, Annise Parker, who was about to start a press conference. “We have this moment that was probably as epic as any,” said Stevenson. “And what’s important to know is that out of this came an injunction against further removal of the historical streets. And it brought together new activists like Charonda.”
Hale represents this major community moment in This Way in a series of photos in which he documents the home of the Rev Ned Pullum, whose brickyard produced upwards of 25,000 bricks a day to line the streets of Freedmen’s Town. These photos of Pullum’s brickyard are joined by others that Hale took of a re-enactment of the protest. In one, two young men grasping bricks fill the front of the image, heads turned away from the camera to stare through the window of a vehicle at a city worker, wearing a hard hat and seeming to dissociate as he stares forward through the windshield of his car. The moment is taut, at once filled with drama and potential. “There’s something really special for Black people to stand in the midst of something that belonged to Black people a long time ago and still does,” said Stevenson.
Johnson’s own piece in the exhibition, De Ro Loc, was inspired by the carnival of the same name that ran in Freedmen’s Town from 1909 to 1920. “It emerged as a response to Houston’s version of Mardi Gras, since Blacks could not participate,” she said. De Ro Loc is inspired by ads for the carnival, and Johnson hopes that it captures the energy of the Black community creating a huge celebration for itself. Made of found materials, the artwork includes cotton to honor the workers who would have attended the carnival, as well as a working ferris wheel, because Johnson wanted it to be interactive. “This is my first art piece in Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and I’m so excited about that,” she said.
Johnson’s De Ro Loc is far from the only tactile experience in the show, as many artists have sought to bring Freedmen’s Town to life by recreating things like furniture, a favorite local hangout called The Ebony Bar and a cozy personal space. Gumbo Stool and Gumbo Chair were the co-creations of the former NFL player Michael Bennett and the architect Imhotep Blot, who died before his pieces could be brought to fruition. The chairs form an intimate space where museumgoers can get a sense of the community spirit that infuses Freedmen’s Town; across from the installation is a pedestal, atop which is shown a film made by Blot’s sister, Amaechina, documenting his creative process, as well as three of Blot’s paintings reflecting on Black spirituality. “This exhibition was also a way to build on our ancestral legacy and connection to friends and loved ones,” said Stevenson.
For Stevenson and Johnson, the crucial thing was to bring in artists who would understand the mission and really be able to capture the vitality of Freedmen’s Town. “Getting people who would serve the community was job one,” said Stevenson. “The community has to see itself in the museum. These artists were going into the community and allowing themselves to be impacted by these stories.”
This Way is proof positive that art can play an important role in building up our communities, creating vehicles for creation, reflection and healing. It is an important step in the ongoing journey of Freedmen’s Town toward vibrancy and autonomy. “When artists care about things, they make other people care about things,” said Stevenson. “This Way is a drop that we hope ripples into beautiful waves, not just nationally but internationally. I’ve seen what happens to communities when artists come together and do really powerful things to heal communities.”
This Way: A Houston Group Show is on show at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston until 17 March
