When Houston was founded in 1836, an African-American community had already begun to be established. there were eight free blacks and 1,060 slaves. African Americans in Houston were poorly represented by the predominantly white state legislature and city council, and were politically disenfranchised during the
Jim Crow era; whites had used a variety of tactics, including militias and legislation, to re-establish political and social supremacy throughout the South. African Americans have owned land in Houston since Texas’ early colonial period and still is to this present day. In 1929 Houston Planning Commission chairperson Will Hogg made a proposal to designate areas of the city by race in its zoning so African-Americans do not become too numerous near White communities; the city did not enact this as it never adopted zoning. In the 1940s and 1950s black people from small southern towns moved to Houston, resulting in the black communities increasing in size. The black population in the Third Ward became larger and therefore closer in proximity to nearby Jewish communities. White people began to move from the Third Ward area, partly due to the passage of
Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.
Texas Southern University students led the integration of Houston in the 1960s. On Friday, March 4, 1960, Texas Southern University students led Houston's first sit-in at the Weingarten's grocery store lunch counter located at 4110 Almeda Road. That sit-in played a major role in the desegregation of Houston's white owned businesses. Today, a U.S. Post Office sits at that location; however, a Texas Historical Marker sits in the front of the building reminding visitors of the courageous role TSU students played in the desegregation of Houston, Texas. Six months after their first sit-in, 70 Houston lunch counters were
desegregated. The success of their continued efforts eventually led to the full integration of businesses within the city. In 1970, 90% of the black people in Houston lived in mostly
African-American neighborhoods. By 1980 this decreased to 82%. Historically, the City of Houston placed established landfill facilities in established African American neighborhoods. Private companies also located landfills in black neighborhoods. Between the early 1920s and the late 1970s the five municipal sanitary landfills were in black neighborhoods. During the same period, six of the eight
municipal solid waste incinerators resided in mostly black neighborhoods. From 1970 to 1978 three of the four private landfills established during that period were located in Houston black neighborhoods. The political efforts and advocacy behind a 1979 federal lawsuit regarding one proposed landfill led to political changes that ended the deliberate placement of landfills in black neighborhoods. (formerly
Ryan Middle School) exists at the first location of
Yates Colored High School In 1980, the city had 440,257 African American residents, making it one of the largest black populations in the country. From the
1980 United States census to the
1990 U.S. census, many African Americans left traditional African-American neighborhoods such as the MacGregor area,
Settegast,
Sunnyside, and the
Third Ward and entered parts of
Southwest Houston, such as
Alief,
Fondren Southwest,
Sharpstown,
Westchase, and Westwood. Meanwhile, a significant percentage of Houston's
Non-Hispanic whites population (particularly those with children under 18) left the city for
suburban communities, this phenomenon was known as
white flight. In 2004, some African-Americans who had lived in the suburbs had returned to the inner city area due to their previous ties to those communities. By 2005 the outflow from traditional black neighborhoods, such as the Third Ward, Sunnyside,
Kashmere Gardens, and the
Fifth Ward continued, with blacks moving to Alief, other parts of Southwest Houston,
Fresno,
Missouri City, and northwestern suburbs. Around 2005, African Americans began to move to an area around
Farm to Market Road 1960, in an
unincorporated area in
Harris County. In many traditional inner-city black neighborhoods, Mexican and Latino residents moved in. Houston is one of the fastest-growing large cities in the United States, and a large portion of that growth is due to an influx of Black residents. In addition to the
New Great Migration, many African Americans in the US are now recently moving to Houston for lower cost of living and more job opportunities. Houston gained approximately 233,000 African-Americans between 2000 and 2010. Having the largest black population west of the
Mississippi River, Houston is known as a center of
African-American political power, education, economic prosperity, and culture, often referred to as a
black mecca. An additional 150,000 to 250,000 mostly black evacuees arrived in 2005 from the
New Orleans metro after
Hurricane Katrina, with many of them deciding to stay in Houston. ==Commerce==