SAN ANTONIO & BLACK SETTLEMENT : 3

Each step in reconstructing San Antonio’s historic Black settlements adds to a better understanding of the overall context and authentic depth of the city’s history. Oral history recording sessions were recently completed with descendants of the Hockley, Warren, Clay, Wilburn and Sutton families. The value of the oral accounts is significant because they include not only personal memories, but farm practices, civic activities, civil rights achievements, political legacies, interactions with other groups, and landmarks in San Antonio and Bexar County.

Hope House Ministries hosted Dr. Karida Brown, Ph.D. sociologist and Dr. Lydia C. Charles, Ph.D. cultural historian, to initiate the development of its community museum and archive. Dr. Brown conducted the oral interviews while Dr. Charles began to develop strategies for sustaining the new museum/archive endeavor within the Hope House Ministries mission. The Southern Historical Collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill underwrote Dr. Brown’s time and interview transcription work. Texas Public Radio provided professional studio and technical production expertise. Dove Productions provided professional video equipment and technical production expertise. Fly/Hunt provided the research base, historic interpretation and liaison between the resource families.