DaLyah Jones
Announcing the Texas Observer’s New Engagement Initiative
Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas
The Mary Allen Museum of African American History continues to race the clock to preserve what’s left of Texas’ first African American school for Black girls and women.
Opened in 1886, the Mary Allen Seminary in Crockett once taught Black Texans etiquette, discipline, home economics, and agriculture. Now, it’s barely standing, held up by crumbling clay bricks and chipped, brittle wood. Tattered windows expose what’s left of the … Read More
Quilts of Color
Laverne Brackens and her family carry on the interwoven legacy of Black quiltmakers in East Texas.
On a mild, showery day in August, Laverne Brackens sits in her bedroom with her daughters Lily Mays and Betsy Johnson. This is also her workroom, where she pins together cloth and sews while watching The Price Is Right on … Read More
Beyoncé Isn’t Possible Without Houston. Houston Isn’t Possible Without the Black Diaspora.
Texas’ artistic innovation is nothing new and continues to be center stage through artists like Beyoncé during yet another period of Black rediscovery.
Beyoncé’s second visual album, Lemonade, is characterized by foreboding visions of weeping willows, dark bayous, and images of Black women decorated in antebellum garb. It’s an ode to the landscape of Texas and Louisiana and heavily inspired by the 1991 … Read More
Texas Already Lacked Affordable Child Care. Then COVID-19 Hit.
The coronavirus has temporarily or permanently closed almost half of all child care providers in the state, leaving few options for low-income working families.
Jessica Nolen and her 5-year-old daughter had a morning routine. Fights with their alarm clocks first, some morning television, then quick berry smoothies, and always rushing out the door. By 8:30 a.m., they’d arrive at Opportunity School, a day care … Read More
Andrea Roberts Is Working to Define What Free Black Space Is
Through the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, researchers are working to liberate data on behalf of Black Texans.
In 1865, it was announced that more than 4 million Black people were freed, ushering in the Reconstruction Era. And although formerly enslaved people were told they were free, laws and leaders didn’t protect them from violence, unfair wages, and … Read More
What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas
Protests where I grew up–where lynchings and KKK marches have occurred in my lifetime–could signal a shift in the region long plagued by racial terror.
The first time I thought I knew someone famous was when I saw a man we called Byrd on television. I lit up. Byrd, a Black man I recognized as a friend of my dad’s, was speaking at a press … Read More
City Nature Challenge Can Help Us Find Resilience and Mindfulness at Home
This year, researchers are asking residents to become citizen scientists in their own backyards in hopes of collecting vital data in otherwise overlooked areas.
This month, as we continue to struggle with the realities of a global pandemic—and the cooped-up existence it’s brought forth—the arrival of the annual City Nature Challenge (CNC) offers a welcome reprieve. The worldwide community science competition, which aims to … Read More
COVID-19 Could Be a ‘Double Whammy’ for Those in Pollution Hotspots
Texans who breathe polluted air are more likely to have preexisting health issues. That means they're at a higher risk of getting seriously ill from the coronavirus.
Air pollution across the globe has sharply dropped, an unintended silver lining of COVID-19. But as coronavirus continues to spread, Texas environmental advocates are bracing for impacts that can’t be reversed by a few weeks of reduced industrial production and … Read More
Rapper TTBBY on How Growing Up in East Texas Shaped His Music
Tobias Traylor has overcome poverty, hurricanes, displacement, and mental health challenges, experiences reflected in his music.
Hailing from the north side of Beaumont—known to locals as Big Money Texas—26-year-old Tobias Traylor wants to make sure the world knows him as someone “real,” authentic. But in the Magnolia neighborhood, the Army veteran is still known as the … Read More