Project puts freedom colonies back on the map

The Bullock Texas State History Museum is partnering with the Texas Freedom Colonies Project to host a free discussion and workshop at the museum. The event, “Reclaiming Our Stories: Preserving Texas’ African American Placemaking History,” will “explore strategies for preserving the heritage of historic African American settlements in Texas,” according to the news release. Freedom colonies, also called freedmen’s towns, were communities founded by formerly enslaved people in the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. There were hundreds of such settlements in Texas, but many have been lost to history. With the help of their descendants, the Texas Freedom Colonies Project is attempting to locate and map these settlements and document their inhabitants’ stories. Saturday, Oct. 30, noon-2 p.m. See more details about the event here.