The Legacy of Emancipation Park

Richard Allen, one of the park's trustees, came to the purchase as a builder and a politician. Born enslaved in Richmond, Virginia, in 1830 and brought to Texas in 1837, he was a carpenter credited with designing and building Mayor Joseph R. Morris's mansion. Freed in 1865, he registered voters and in 1869 won a seat in the Twelfth Legislature, among its first Black members. In 1873 the House seated his Democratic opponent instead. In 1878 he became the first Black Texan to seek statewide office, for lieutenant governor, and in 1879 he backed the Exodus to Kansas.

What the plaque says

The Legacy of Emancipation Park Emancipation Park was acquired in 1872 by previously enslaved African Americans who were in unanimous support of purchasing their own land on which to celebrate Juneteenth and to use for community development and cultural enrichment. Rev. Jack Yates (1828-1897) of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Rev. Elias Dibble (1811-1885) of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Richard Brock (1824-1906) of St. Paul A.M.E. Church and Richard Allen (1831-1909), civic leader and elected official, served as the core leadership. It took the whole village and area churches using effective community organization skills, business acumen and political savvy to help raise money. The colored people of Harris County Festival Association was formed and trustees Richard Brock, Richard Allen, Daniel Riley, John Graham, Taylor Burke, Frank Keeland, Johnson Rice, John Sessums and Tillman Bush purchased this 10-acre site just outside the city limits for $800. The colored emancipation park association was formed in 1883 and later both groups continued to be active in the management of the park for decades. Emancipation Park was the only space open to African Americans until 1940 and many influential organizations and institutions worked with board management to plan celebrations which included picnics, concerts, carnivals, industrial and agricultural fairs, proms, military drills, dances, sporting events, movies, classes for youth and adults, and community meetings. The park's significance to the Houston African-American community remains as impactful today as it was in 1872. Emancipation Park is a true legacy of Texas African-American heritage and a gift to humanity for all generations. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Emancipation Park — steps away
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 0.8 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 1.7 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 1.7 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.

More markers nearby

• Eldorado Ballroom — steps away
• Jordan Grove Missionary Baptist Church — steps away
• Sam (Lightnin') Hopkins — steps away
• Grand Court Order of Calanthe of Texas — 0.3 mi