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-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted
from the July 4, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
The struggle to save the Allen Parkway Village public housing development here reaches deep into the memories of the Black community.
"We have been the stewards of this land," says APV resident Wessie Scyrus. "We had to stay on site because we could not trust any government officials. They would long since have bulldozed the area and built a yuppieville on land our ancestors created, and under which they lie buried."
The housing development sits on farmland reclaimed from the swamps by ex-slaves. Denied access to public graveyards, they had buried their dead on their farms. One victory in the 16-year struggle to save Allen Parkway Village has been to get the Freedman's Town area it sits on declared a national historical district. This has helped hold off those who covet the land adjacent to Houston's downtown area.
As soon as the swamps were drained by freed slaves, who built productive farms and later a self-sufficient town on this newly created land, outside forces claimed it. White "land grant" holders, who had been "given" Native land by the U.S. government, claimed ownership and demanded the former slaves buy the land from them.
In 1939 the city's housing authority claimed eminent domain over 37.5 acres along Buffalo Bayou, saying it was for low-cost housing. After World War II a housing project was built there for white veterans. The solidly built houses were no more than three stories, on plenty of land with many oak trees.
By the 1960s, many of the white tenants began moving out and African Americans moved in. The city again began to covet the choice land. Soon it stopped doing repairs and tried to force people out.
When tenants organized and resisted in the 1980s, the city tried a racist tactic meant to weaken the resistance. It moved in Vietnamese immigrants ahead of others long on the waiting list for public housing. But the tactic backfired. Some of the Vietnamese became strong members of the resistance.
Over the years, the Residents' Council of Allen Parkway Village reached out for help. There were fund raisers and picket lines. An imaginative "campus plan" was devised not only to save the existing, well-built houses and spacious grounds but to turn the project into a "university of independence" for low-income people. This plan calls for onethird of the tenants to be low-income families, one-third elderly, and one-third graduate students and their families. The latter would staff a health center, tutoring and jobtraining programs.
In other cities, this approach has received widespread attention and praise. But in Houston, where it originated, the plan is virtually unknown. The media are full of stories castigating APV as an "eyesore" and praising the authorities' plan for "scattered site" housing. This means scattered beyond public transportation and jobs. It also means diluting the strength of organized residents.
Before the June 12 eviction of the last remaining residents, the 16-year struggle had prevented the sale of the land to private real-estate interests. All buildings will not be destroyed. Residents have been promised they can return when renovations and new construction are com pleted. And the Residents' Council is one step closer to receiving a $300,000 HUD grant for studies to realize the campus plan.
A new coalition is being formed and meets at the SHAPE Community Center on Live Oak Street.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)