{"id":530,"date":"2014-07-16T09:14:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T09:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/07\/african-american-texas-history-in-houston.html"},"modified":"2014-07-16T09:14:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T09:14:00","slug":"african-american-texas-history-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/07\/african-american-texas-history-in-houston.html","title":{"rendered":"African American Texas History in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Miles Mullin,\u00a0II<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

R3 Contributor<\/span><\/div>\n

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This first appeared on the Anxious Bench<\/a> blog<\/span><\/div>\n

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The best research projects are ones that can reasonably be accomplished. Since I enjoy archival research and travel funds are limited, I recently began considering what projects I might pursue locally. With a strong interest in African American religious history and the recent historiographical turn towards grassroots activism during the Civil Rights era, focusing on Houston-area churches and religious individuals in the freedom struggle seemed a good place to start. With that in mind, I applied to attend in the Summer Workshop on African American Texas History (SWATH<\/a>). I had three personal goals for the workshop: 1) learn a good deal of Texas-specific African American history 2) garner some ideas for archival research in Houston, and 3) expand my group of similarly-interested colleagues. I was not disappointed.\n

The spark for the workshop came from the publication of five books on Texas African American Texas<\/a> history by Texas Southern University (<\/a>TSU<\/a>)<\/a> professors and alums last year (2013). Desiring to facilitate good teaching and further research on the topic, Karen Kossie-Chernyshev<\/a> of TSU secured monies, planned, and organized the workshop. Open to K-16 teachers, I qualified due to my teaching responsibilities in our college and prison<\/a> undergraduate programs. I was honored to be selected to participate in the workshop.<\/p>\n

Hosted by TSU and The African American Library Gregory School<\/a> (both beautiful venues), the workshop consisted of three emphases each day: learning history, doing history, and making history.<\/p>\n

I learned quite a bit of history:<\/p><\/span>\n