Preserving Fort Worth’s Historic Black Settlements

A team of researchers from the University of Texas Arlington is working with a historic Black settlement in Fort Worth to preserve the area’s remaining residents and history. “According to the project, these communities have declined because of gentrification, cultural erasure, natural disasters, urban renewal and land dispossession.”

As Kamal Morgan explains in an article in Governing, “Historical Black settlements in North Texas have been threatened for decades by growth. Surviving communities like Garden of Eden must deal with the consequences of urban development and environmental contamination that put their health and safety at risk.”

Now, the research team is using a $40,000 grant to map Black settlements along the Trinity River and “create a design playbook to the needs of historic Black settlements in the Metroplex experiencing environmental issues due to explosive urban development.”

According to the researchers, “Cities can do better in supporting the families’ connections to their communities and land, instead of allowing potentially hazardous development around them.”

The university team developed a set of proposals that could address environmental and land use issues such as pollution, stormwater, transportation, and parks. “Students created projects with multiple ideas such as having a green infrastructure network to deal with stormwater drainage, an urban sponge to absorb water. There were also suggestions of a park, neighborhood commercial area, and a train station.”