Bricks of Freedmen's Town symbolizes community's legacy of strength and resilience

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Driving through Houston's Freedmen's Town in Fourth Ward, you might notice parts of Andrews and Wilson Streets are made of bricks. But do you know they represent an architectural footpoint for our city's oldest African American neighborhood after the abolishment of slavery?

After formerly enslaved people settled there in 1865, they still had to fight for about six years just to get roads paved in their new community.

"As you can imagine living in the 1900s, women with long skirts in their petticoats had to step in the mud to get into the trolley," said Catherine Roberts, co-founder of the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum. "It was also a health issue. When they purchased land here and built their homes, they knew this area flooded all the time. That's one of the reasons it hadn't been occupied by other ethnic groups."

When the City of Houston finally approved their permit, it was the freedmen and their descendants who paid and laid down these brick roads themselves.

"Because they installed it, they were able to put in a pattern that was significant to their cultural tradition, which goes back to the Yoruba pattern. It reflected where they came from and their heritage in West Africa. Some of it has been covered up or damaged," said Roberts..

Residents, advocates, and historians say the bricks of Houston's Freedmen's Town symbolize a legacy of strength and resilience.

"They (formerly enslaved people) had to be persistent. They had to be courageous. They had to collect mental and financial resources to build a community that they wanted to live in. When I look at them, I see them as a major example of opportunities that I have and that our citizens should have," said Doris Ellis Robinson, founder and president for the Freedmen's Town Preservation Coalition.

More than 100 years later, you can imagine all of the wear and tear suffered by these bricks. Clashing debates over what to do with them for the last 10 years led to a long chapter of back-and-forth and even legal action between the City and local preservationists.

In 2014, Houston City Council passed an ordinance to fix the streets in Freedmen's Town, which had pot holes, divots, and gaps. The ordinance passed by the City called for the bricks to be removed, numbered, and saved. The plan was to return the bricks to their original locations after the streets were opened up and repaired.

But preservationists strongly believed the bricks should not be disturbed to preserve their historical integrity. They proposed an alternative plan for the City to run utilities beneath the sidewalks.

"Our heritage does not have to be destroyed to give a tenant utilities. We can find some kind of middle ground," said Charonda Johnson, vice president of the Freedmen's Town Association.

However, the spokesperson for Public Works at the time said that proposal would be cost-prohibitive.

When crews started removing the bricks in 2015, their work was quickly halted when the Freedmen's Town Preservation Coalition secured a temporary restraining order in court. The City ended up fighting that order.

READ MORE: Bricks laid by slaves spur controversial plan

Efforts to save the bricks became so dire, when Robinson saw crews digging them up again in 2016, she decided to lay down in the coffin-size hole to get them to stop.

"They didn't stop digging. I mean, they were adamant. So I did whatever it took to save them, you know? They had to understand that the significance of this history and legacy should be there. It should be important to us, so that generations to come will experience it," said Robinson.

Then later that same year, City crews dug up the bricks once again during what officials called a 'mistake' for what was supposed to be underground drainage repairs. Mayor Sylvester Turner, who was in Mexico City for the Texans game, tweeted that the work was done without his authorization and should not have occurred.

READ MORE: Mayor stops construction to save Freedmen's Town bricks

Crews returned the bricks to Freedmen's Town in March 2018 after an uproar from residents and advocates. They were cleaned, restored, and reinstalled. Since then, they've remained undisturbed.

RELATED: Community members celebrate return of historic Freedmen's Town bricks

"The bricks are the foundation of our community. We're trying to make sure the things the freedmen and the descendants of enslaved people did for us will remain in our community," said Johnson.

But community members know the bricks are still at risk and that's part of the reason why they say their education and outreach efforts are so important. Just a few weeks ago, Robinson says she brought young girls and women from the Miss Juneteenth pageant to tour the area.

"Their work still stands. We hope to do this continuously so that their grandkids can also walk around these streets and tell the story," said Robinson. "Ideas that start might not necessarily be completed before one generation passes on. That's why the generation that's here must leave the roots so firm that the next generation can pick it up and understand the value of it."