Pictured, Mary Shankle (Liberty Community, Newton County) and Gwen Bluiett (Mount Union, Jasper County) at the 2014 Shankleville Homecoming, Photo by Andrea Roberts

Andrea Roberts, PhD is the founder of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project and is an Emerging Scholar Fellow at the School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin. This presentation represents the culmination of the first phase of her research with descendants of Black settlements (also known as Freedmen’s Towns or Freedom Colonies) any of which were founded by former slaves. The presentation was made at the Purple Hull Pea Festival, in Shankleville Texas (a Freedom Colony). Results of this initial ethnographic and participatory action study were discussed with some of the participants.

Email Andrea Roberts to request the PowerPoint presentation that accompanied the audio or to learn more about her research.