Highlighting Diverse Collections Archive

This book presents a history of independent African American settlements in Texas during the Jim Crow era, often known as "freedom colonies”. The authors draw on a number of narratives to demonstrate how these communities created a refuge from the discrimination and violence that routinely limited the opportunities of Black people in the Jim Crow South.

This book features over thirty oral histories recorded as part of the Federal Writers' Project, describes life as an enslaved person in Texas —the family relations, entertainment, religion, labor, foodways, hardship and joy.

Essays include reminiscences of African-American folk culture in Texas, studies of specific genres of folklore, information about Texas-African food-ways, studies of specific performers, information about songs and other folklore.

All-day cook-outs are essential to Juneteenth gatherings. Watermelon and Red Birds features over 75 recipes by food writer Nicole A. Taylor, who puts jubilation on the main stage in the first published cookbook to celebrate Juneteenth.

Interweaving U.S. history, dramatic family chronicles, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed, the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas in the 1850s, recounts the origins of Juneteenth and explores the legacies of the holiday that remain with us.

Excerpt from the poem Juneteenth:

Juneteenth: when the Negro telegraph / reached the last sad slave… / It’s Boley’s second Easter; / the whole town a picnic.