Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City
Dublin Core
Title
Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City
Description
In the first chapter of Houston Bound, Steptoe investigates the cultural and racial transformations in Houston, Texas, during the era of Jim Crow segregation. She explores the migration patterns that shaped the city's Black, Creole, and Mexican American communities, illustrating how these groups navigated racial boundaries and influenced Houston’s cultural landscape. Using historical interpretation, narrative accounts, and folkloric traditions, Steptoe shows how music, migration, law enforcement, and other factors created and "managed" Black urban life.
One of the major aspects of the work is the rural work and urban police system as exemplified by Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) and the construction of Black neighborhoods as centers of cultural and political defiance. This work offers great insight for students and practitioners of the African American history, urbanism, and cultural geography by revealing the complex interrelations of race, place, and identity in the South United States.
One of the major aspects of the work is the rural work and urban police system as exemplified by Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) and the construction of Black neighborhoods as centers of cultural and political defiance. This work offers great insight for students and practitioners of the African American history, urbanism, and cultural geography by revealing the complex interrelations of race, place, and identity in the South United States.
Source
Tyina L. Steptoe, "The Bayou City in Black and White" in Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City:21-59. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2016.
Collection
Citation
“Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City,” The Kudzu Experience, accessed July 21, 2025, https://kudzu.ecdsomeka.org/items/show/127.