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 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.”

“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.

Hale represents this major community moment in This Way in a series of photos in which he documents the home of Rev Ned Pullum, whose brickyard produced upwards of 25,000 bricks a day to line the streets of Freedmen’s Town.

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.

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.

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