Emancipation Park, created 1872 by the African-American community as a place to celebrate Juneteenth. In 1922 Houston parks segregated. Emancipation Park was the only park African-Americans could patronize until Houston parks desegregated in 1940.
Emancipation Park, a longtime cultural and recreational center for Houston's African-American community, is located at 3800 Emancipation Avenue (formerly Dowling Street) in South Houston.
The state historic maker at Emancipation Park reads as follows:
"EMANCIPATION PARK
Many Texas African-American communities began to regularly commemorate “Juneteenth” soon after the June 19, 1865, reading of the Emancipation Proclamation at Galveston by Union General Gordon Granger. Members of Antioch Baptist Church and Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church organized the Colored People of Harris County Festival Association to promote the annual Houston Juneteenth celebration. It soon became apparent that a permanent location for the celebration was needed, and in 1872, the Association purchased this ten-acre site for Emancipation Park. The creation of the park as a recreational and educational facility by the organization and its successors so soon after emancipation demonstrates the determination of African-Americans in Houston to create an institution that they owned and operated.
The park was the home of the first De-Ro-Loc No-Tsu-Oh (“Colored Houston” spelled backwards) Carnival in 1909. The carnival was patterned after the No-Tsu-Oh Carnival, and included attractions such as a Wild West show and a football game between Prairie View and Bishop colleges. The park was donated to the City of Houston in 1916, and when Houston parks were officially segregated in 1922, Emancipation Park became the only public park in Houston open to African-Americans until 1940.
Through years, the park has been the site of parades, concerts, movies, classes for youth and adults, and community meetings. Juneteenth celebrations continue at Emancipation Park, which remains an important central gathering place for area African-American residents. (2008)
Marker is property of the state of Texas"
But of course there is more to the story . . . .
In 1910, the State of Texas, discovering that in the 40 years since Emancipation Park had been given to the Colored Festival Association the land had appreciated in value from $300 in 1872 ro $65,000 in 1910, sued the Festival Association in an attempt to strip the land fro the Association and escheat it to the State, who would then sell the land.
On Newspapers.com, we found this Houston Post article from 1910: (
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"THE HOUSTON POST
Sunday May 15, 1910
SUIT BY STATE
to Escheat Property Known as the Emancipation Park
Filed in District Court
Suit to recover $5000 in damages for alleged failure to furnish drinking water was filed yesterday.
Suit to escheat to the State of Texas the property known as Emancipation Park, a tract of land containing about 10 acres, which was given to the colored citizens of Harris County shortly after they were granted their freedom from slavery and which has been used every year since to celebrate June 19, the day upon which they were granted freedom, was filed in the 61st District Court yesterday afternoon by district attorney W. G. Love.
The defendants named are D. Bowman et al., M. W. Washington, G. A. Branch, Clem Johnson, W. H. Shaw, J. W. Watson, B. H. Grimes, Sam Bell, S. J. Leonard, J. S. Kyle, then J. Austin, L. C. S. Watson, Will Clarke, H. Franklin, Tom Harris, H. Powell, Moore Bond, Robert Simpson, H. Gordon, grant Bass, B. C. Washington, P. C. Fox, W. E. Jones, L. R. Jones, Sam Wilson, H. Watts, J. B. Bell, John Collins and H. Quillen, individually and as officers and directors of the Colored Emancipation Park Association, Frank Keeneland, John Sessums, Johnson Rice and Daniel Rainey, and the unknown heirs of Sarah J. Wellborn and M. C. Wellborn.
It is alleged that the title to Lot 25 of the Holman survey has reverted to the state; that on July 10, 1872, the property was owned and possessed by Marshall C. Wellborn and Sarah J. Wellborn; that thereafter, in July, 1885, Sarah J. Wellborn died, leaving as her sole heir at law Marshall C. Wellborn, who was her son, being born of wedlock between her and general William Wellborn, who died August 1, 1876; that William Wellborn and Sarah J. Wellborn both died intestate, and that Marshall C. Wellborn was the sole surviving heir at law of both decedents, and that whatever title had heretofore been in William Wellborn and Sarah J Wellborn descended by law and vested in so far as the property involved is concerned in Marshall C Wellborn; that Marshall C. Wellborn died September 1, 1844 in Los Angeles; that he left no lawful child or children, and no descendents of child or children; that he had in fact never been married, and had no heirs born; that he died without any next of kin who could inherit the title in use and possess the land, and without any heirs-at-law to whom his title in the land could revert.
It is asked that the land be escheated to the state and that it be sold and proceeds turned into the treasury of the state.
It is further alleged that there are persons in existence who are claiming to be the heirs of M. C. Wellborn, the name, places of residence and addresses of whom are unknown to the relator.
It is further alleged that the trustees of the Emancipation Park Association, to whom the land passed years ago, are all dead except Frank Keeland, John Sessums, Johnson Rice and Daniel really, all of whom are made defendants in this action.
The land sought to be escheated to the state is considered quite valuable, it being situated in a section of the southern portion of Houston which has developed fast within the past few years.
The property when it first passed into the hands of the trustees of the Emancipation Park Association, was considered of little value on account of its remoteness from the business section of Houston."
This being 1910 Houston, and with black residents having no power and all the white establishment of the city arrayed against them, the state did not expect the black community would be willing or able to fight back.
W-R-O-N-G.
Next: (
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"THE HOUSTON POST
MAY 17, 1910
TRUSTEES TO FIGHT
Will Contest Claim of State to Escheat Emancipation Park
The trustees of the Emancipation Park Association are preparing to wage a bitter contest to the suit filed last Saturday by District Attorney W. G. Love in behalf of the state of Texas to escheat the 10 acres of land known as Emancipation Park.
The land passed into the hands of the Negro residents of Harris County years ago and was dedicated as the place where the celebrations of theIR freedom from slavery were to be held.
The announcement of the filing of the suit came has a surprise to the trustees of the Association as well as too many other negro residents of Harris County, who are interested in retaining the property, which has now become quite valuable.
The claim of the state is that the Emancipation Park Association has no legal title to the property, while on the other hand the defendants will claim that they have had title to the land and have held the same peacefully for years."
After four years of bitter litigation, a verdict: (
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"THE HOUSTON POST
Aug 5, 1914
page 9
NEGROES WILL RETAIN POSSESSION OF THE LAND
Suit involving Emancipation Park closed when claims of heirs were set aside
Harris County negroes will retain their possession of Emancipation Park, according to a decision handed down by Judge Norman G. Cantrell in the 61st District Court Tuesday.
Back in the 70s Marshall Wellborn sold to eight negro trustees 10 acres of land, forming what is now known as Emancipation Park. The purchase price was $300. Many white residents aided with various sums in buying the land in order that the Negroes might have a park.
Six years ago, suit was instituted by W. G. Love, at that time District Attorney, for the possession of the land, claiming that the absence of the word "heirs" in the deed reverted the land back to the state. The negroes employed attorneys and the fight began.
Through publicity given the matter in the press, it was learned that there were 42 heirs of Marshall Wellborn living in Texas. Then the state withdrew their favor and the fight was continued.
The case finally came to trial one day last week and on Tuesday Judge Cantrell rendered his decision, giving the possession of the land to the Emancipation Park Association, which superseded the eight trustees, only one of whom is living. Judge Cantrell based his decision on the grounds that the deed was a perpetuity deed, inasmuch as the selling of the park for the use as a park amounted to deeding it to charity, and held that the deed should stand. The land is valued at $65,000 dollars."
So the state and Welborn heirs lost their case to escheat the land to the State of Texas and take Emancipation Park away from the black community.
The court passed legal title to Emancipation Park to the Emancipation Park trustees, who held the land until they conveyed and sold the land in 1916 to the City of Houston. The deed specified that Emancipation Park would forever be a park for colored Houstinians, and after all Houston parks were segregated in 1922, Emancipation park was the ONLY part Houston's black population could enjoy.
Houston's parks were not desegregated until 1940.