History of African Americans in Texas

African American Texans or Black Texans are residents of the state of Texas who are of African ancestry and people that have origins as African-American slaves. African Americans formed a unique ethnic identity in Texas while facing the problems of societal and institutional discrimination as well as colorism for many years. The first person of African heritage to arrive in Texas was Estevanico, who came to Texas in 1528.^[4]

The earliest black residents in Texas were Afro-Mexican slaves brought by the Spanish.^[5]

A large majority of Black Texans live in the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio metropolitan areas.^[6]

The 2020 U.S. Census identified the Black population alone, non-Hispanic population at 3,444,712,^[1] making Texas' Black population the largest of all states and territories in the United States.^[7]

In 1529, a Moroccan Muslim man named Estevanico became the first African to come to Texas. He was from Morocco, and was sold into slavery to a Spanish explorer. Arriving in the New World, Estevanico and the rest of his party (including Cabeza de Vaca) were shipwrecked near Galveston Island, captured by a group of Coahuiltecan Native Americans, escaped, and trekked across what is now Texas and northern Mexico. He was killed later while traveling to the state of New Mexico.^[8]

The first Africans that lived in Texas were Afro-Mexicans when Texas was still a part of Mexico before the Mexican–American War. Enslaved Africans arrived in 1528 in Spanish Texas.^[9] In 1792, there were 34 blacks and 414 mulattos in Spanish Texas.^[10] Anglo white immigration into Mexican Texas in the 1820s brought an increased numbers of enslaved people.^[11]

Most slaves in Texas were brought by white families from the south. Some enslaved blacks came through the domestic slave trade, which was centered in the city of New Orleans. Most enslaved blacks in Texas were forced into unskilled labor as field hands in the production of cotton, corn, and sugar. Some other enslaved blacks lived and worked on large plantations and in urban areas where they engaged in more skilled forms of labor such as cooks, blacksmiths, and carpenters.^[12]

Their proportion of the population has declined since the early 20th century after many left the state in the Great Migration. Blacks of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic origin made up 11.5 percent of the population in 2015; blacks of non-Hispanic origin formed 11.3 percent of the populace. African Americans of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic origin numbered roughly 2.7 million individuals, increasing in 2018 to 3,908,287.^[13] The majority of the Black and African American population of Texas lives in the Greater Houston, Dallas and San Antonio metropolitan areas.^[2]

Many African Americans in Texas remained in slavery until after the U.S. Civil War ended. There was scarce Union Army activity in Texas, preventing them from joining the Northern Army. Some escaped over the borders to areas where the Union Army was operating. The announcement of emancipation was delayed until June 19, 1865, when officials announced that slavery had been formally abolished. It was celebrated first in Texas as Juneteenth. Juneteenth was celebrated in many African American Communities throughout the United States, it was not until 156 years later in 2021, it became a Federally Nationally recognized Holiday. African Americans left Texas by the tens of thousands during the Great Migration in the first half of the 20th century, seeking work and political opportunities elsewhere. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, African Americans were 11.8% of the state's population which mirrors the national average of 12.1%. The long-term effects of slavery can be seen to be present in the state's demographics. The eastern quarter of the state, where cotton production depended on thousands of slaves, is the westernmost extension of the Deep South and contains a very significant number of Texas' African-American population.^[4]

Texas has the largest African-American population in the country.^[14] African Americans are concentrated in eastern, east-central and northern Texas, as well as the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio metropolitan areas.^[15] African Americans form 24 percent of both the cities of Dallas and Houston, 19% of Fort Worth, 8.1 percent of Austin, and 7.5 percent of San Antonio.^[2] The African American population in Texas is increasing due to the New Great Migration.^[14][15]

A 2014 University of Texas at Austin study observed that the state's capital city of Austin was the only U.S. city with a high growth rate that was nevertheless losing African Americans, due to suburbanization and gentrification.^[16]

In 2018, African-Americans had the second highest net growth in population in Texas compared to 2010. Harris County accounted for the largest percentage of that growth.^[17] Harris County's largest city Houston is now known as a center of African-American political power, education, economic prosperity, and culture, often called the next black mecca.^[18]

There is a black Louisiana Creole community in Texas.^[19]

There is also a Black Seminole presence in the state.^[20]

There are nine historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in Texas. Texas Southern University (largest) and Prairie View A&M University (second largest) are the two most notable HBCUs in Texas and annually produce a significant portion of college degreed African-American in the state. The schools are also major SWAC sports rivals.^[21][22] St. Philip's College is a public community college located in San Antonio, accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It is the westernmost HBCU in the United States.

Here are some prominent singers, actresses and other celebrities with separate articles.^[23]

• Barbara Jordan, politician
• Beyoncé
• Forest Whitaker
• Jamie Foxx
• Lecrae
• Travis Scott
• Ciara
• Megan Thee Stallion
• Lizzo
• Bessie Coleman, pilot
• Debbie Allen
• Doris Miller, war hero
• Mel Waiters
• Mickey Leland, politician
• Juanita Craft, politician
• Etta Barnett
• J. Mason Brewer
• Rube Foster, baseball
• Yella Beezy
• Phylicia Rashad
• Chamillionaire

• History of Mexican Americans in Texas
• History of African Americans in Austin
• History of African Americans in Houston
• History of African Americans in Dallas–Fort Worth
• History of African Americans in San Antonio
• History of Nigerian Americans in Dallas–Fort Worth
• History of Nigerian Americans in San Antonio
• Estevanico
• Juneteenth
• Sweatt v. Painter
• Ivy Taylor
• Barbara Jordan
• Joe Lockridge
• History of slavery in Texas
• Demographics of Texas
• Black Southerners
• Black cowboys
• List of African-American historic places in Texas
• List of African-American newspapers in Texas

• Abel, Joseph. "African Americans, Labor Unions, and the Struggle for Fair Employment in the Aircraft Manufacturing Industry of Texas, 1941–1945", Journal of Southern History 77 (Aug. 2011), 595–638
• Alonzo, Armando C. Tejano Legacy: Rancheros and Settlers in South Texas, 1734–1900 (1998)
• Barr, Alwyn. Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528–1995 (1996) online
• Barr, Alwyn. Black cowboys of Texas (Texas A&M University Press, 2000) online.
• Barr, Alwyn. "Black Urban Churches on the Southern Frontier, 1865-1900." Journal of Negro History 82.4 (1997): 368-383. [Barr, Alwyn. "Black Urban Churches on the Southern Frontier, 1865-1900." The Journal of Negro History 82.4 (1997): 368-383. online]
• Barr, Alwyn. "The Black militia of the new south: Texas as a case study." Journal of Negro History 63.3 (1978): 209-219. online
• Barr, Alwyn. "Black Legislators of Reconstruction Texas." Civil War History 32.4 (1986): 340-352. excerpt
• Barr, Alwyn. in Light Townsend Cummins and Alvin R. Bailey Jr., eds., A Guide to the History of Texas (1988),
• Crouch, Barry, et al. The Dance of Freedom: Texas African Americans during Reconstruction (2007)
• Crouch, Barry A. "'Unmanacling' Texas Reconstruction: A Twenty-Year Perspective", Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1990 93(3): 275–302
• Crouch, Barry A. The Freedmen's Bureau and Black Texans. (1992).
• Crouch; Barry A. "The 'Chords of Love': Legalizing Black Marital and Family Rights in Postwar Texas" The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 79, 1994
• Davidson, Chandler. Race and Class in Texas Politics. (1990).
• Foley, Neil. The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (University of California Press, 1997).
• Glasrud, Bruce A. and Merline Pitre. Black Women in Texas History (2008)
• Glasrud, Bruce A. et al eds. African Americans in Central Texas History From Slavery to Civil Rights (2019); scholarly essays online
• Glasrud, Bruce A. and James Smallwood, ed. The African American Experience in Texas: An Anthology (2007) essays online
• Glasrud, Bruce (March 2014). "Anti-Black Violence in 20th Century East Texas" (PDF). East Texas Historical Journal. - Article 13
• Harper, Cecil Jr (12 June 2010). "Freedmen's Bureau in Texas". Handbook of Texas (online ed.). Texas State Historical Association.
• Kellar, William Henry. Make haste slowly : moderates, conservatives, and school desegregation in Houston (1999) online
• Ladino, Robyn Duff. Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (University of Texas Press, 1996) footnotes
• Moneyhon, Carl H. Texas after the Civil War: The Struggle of Reconstruction (Texas A. & M. U. Press, 2004).
• Moneyhon, Carl H. "George T. Ruby and the Politics of Expediency in Texas", in Howard N. Rabinowitz, ed. Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era (1982) pp 363–92.
• Pitre, Merline. Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares: The Black Leadership of Texas, 1868–1900 (1985).
• Rice, Lawrence D. The Negro in Texas, 1874–1900 (1971)
• Richter, William L. Overreached on All Sides: The Freedmen's Bureau Administrators in Texas, 1865–1868 (1991).
• Shabazz, Amilcar. Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas (University of North Carolina Press, 2004);
• Smallwood, James M.; Crouch, Barry A.; and Peacock, Larry. Murder and Mayhem: The War of Reconstruction in Texas. Texas A. & M. U. Press, 2003. 182 pp.
• Sneed, Edgar P. "A Historiography of Reconstruction in Texas: Some Myths and Problems", Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1969 72(4): 435–448
• Storey, John W., and Mary L. Kelley, eds. Twentieth Century Texas: A Social and Cultural History (2008)
• Taylor, Quintard. "Texas: The South Meets the West, The View Through African American History", Journal of the West (2005) 44#2 pp 44–52.
• Winegarten, Ruthe et al. eds. Black Texas Women: A Sourcebook (1996), primary sources
• Wintz, Cary D. "The Struggle for Dignity: African-Americans in Twentieth-Century Texas" in Twentieth-Century Texas: A Social and Cultural History ed by John W. Storey and Mary L. Kelley. (2008) pp. 69-104.
• Work, David, "United States Colored Troops in Texas during Reconstruction, 1865–1867", Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 109 (Jan. 2006), 337–57.
• Zelden, Charles L. The Battle for the Black Ballot: Smith v. Allwright and the Defeat of the Texas All-White Primary (UP of Kansas, 2004).

• Barr, Alwyn. "African Americans in Texas: From Stereotypes to Diverse Roles,"jn Walter L. Buenger, and Robert A. Calvert, eds. "Texas Through Time: Evolving Interpretations." (1991): 50-80, reviews the historiography.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to African Americans in Texas.

• "African Americans." Handbook of Texas.
• Blacks in Colonial Spanish Texas
• Afro-Mexicans: The History, The Culture, The Presence
• African Presence in Texas
• Education For African Americans
• African Americans and Politics
• African-American Churches
• Free Blacks
• Black Cowboys