https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9979-6026
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ABSTRACT
African Americans’ memories of the Great Migration and urban displacement surface in popular film and culture as a desire to return to rural homeplaces while retaining access to opportunity in urban meccas. The author argues that real examples of this “limbo imaginary” are relevant to research on Black meccas. Findings from the author’s ethnographic study of rural Freedom Colonies (settlements Black Texans founded 1865–1920) showed that, for African Americans, embodying urban-rural liminality is an existential space of opportunity and ingenuity. Urban baby boomers in the study call Houston and rural Black meccas (Freedom Colonies) home, holding dual senses of belonging and commitments to place preservation. These baby boomers performed liminality during homecoming celebrations where they commemorated ancestors and reconnected descendants’ ties to settlements severed during the Great Migration. The article recommends that researchers and urban planners help communities identify liminal spaces appropriate for catalyzing inter-generational bridging and bonding of urban-rural social capital to preserve endangered communities of color.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Andrea Roberts
Andrea Roberts is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at Texas A&M University and founder of The Texas Freedom Colonies Project, a research initiative documenting forgotten Black geographies, placemaking history, grassroots preservation practice, and contemporary planning challenges. Her work has been published in the Journal of Planning History, Journal of the American Planning Association, Planning Theory & Practice, and the Journal of Community Archeology & Heritage.
Melina Matos
Melina Matos is a PhD student in Urban and Regional Science at Texas A&M University. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, and her research focuses on how to develop and deploy strategies to create communities that are innovative, sustainable, and resilient.