This engagement project was spearheaded by Black women with a generational legacy inextricably connected to Texas’s beginnings. We are not only witnesses to but share the historical brunt of a state predicated on white supremacy and the silencing of oppressed people.
The purpose of this project was to take a rehabilitative approach toward this history of oppression. We wanted to develop a replicable model the Texas Observer and other outlets across the state could use as a foundation for coverage of historically overlooked communities, especially in rural areas of the state. We also wanted to empower exploited residents and grassroots leaders by putting the tools of journalism into their hands while we gained insight into coverage needs. We focused on Nacogdoches County and the City of Nacogdoches; Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley region; Native American communities statewide with a focus on reservations and communities in Houston and Dallas; and Bastrop County and the cities of Bastrop, Smithville, and Elgin.
We collected information through town hall events, vigils, media trainings, aimed canvases, social media campaigns, and more. Graduate students in social work with Huston-Tillotson University helped us develop survey questions and dissemination methodologies as well as draw conclusions from the information we collected.
