Independence Heights
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Promoted by the Wright Land Company, the Independence Heights community began about 1908. Many black families purchased lots and built their own homes. A school was established in 1911. Businesses in Independence Heights included retail stores, restaurants, building contractors, lumberyards, a blacksmith shop, tailor, and barber shop. Fraternal organizations were formed, as well as a number of churches: New Hope Missionary Baptist Church (founded in 1912 at this site), Green Chapel A. M. E., St. Paul C. M. E., Ebenezer M. E., Concord Missionary Baptist, and North Main Church of God in Christ. By 1915 there were about four hundred residents. In that year an election was held and the city was incorporated. George O. Burgess was elected the first mayor. City improvements over the next few years included the shell paving of streets, plank sidewalks, and the installation of a municipal water system. O. L. Hubbard and Arthur L. McCullough, Sr. also served mayoral terms. In 1928 another election was held in which the city organization was dissolved. Independence Heights was annexed by the city of Houston on December 26, 1929. The Independence Heights name is still associated with the area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Beginning about 1908, Black families bought lots from the Wright Land Company just north of Houston and built a town of their own—homes, churches, stores, a school, and fraternal lodges. In 1915 the roughly four hundred residents voted to incorporate, electing George O. Burgess as mayor and paving streets, laying plank sidewalks, and installing municipal water. The community dissolved its charter in 1928 and was annexed by Houston the following year, but the name Independence Heights endures.
Why it matters
Independence Heights is remembered as one of the first Black-governed incorporated municipalities in Texas, a landmark of African American self-determination during the era of Jim Crow.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George O. Burgess
- · O. L. Hubbard
- · Arthur L. McCullough, Sr.
Related events
- · Incorporation of Independence Heights (1915)
- · Annexation by Houston (1929)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Greater Ward A.M.E. Church
Houston, TX
Organized in 1913 and named for A.M.E. Bishop Thomas M. D. Ward, this is the oldest congregation in Houston's Acres Homes community. It began in the home of Rev. John T. Williams, rebuilt after a 1934 fire, and raised its lasting sanctuary in 1955. Under ministers like Rev. Ollie Lewis Dawson—an NAACP activist who made the church a meeting place for civic affairs—it became a hub of community life, its trustees even winning the naming of nearby streets for historically Black colleges.
Acres Homes Community
Houston, TX
Beginning in 1910, developer Alfred A. Wright platted the subdivisions that became Acres Homes, drawing Black families with cheap land, low taxes, and freedom from building restrictions. Lacking city utilities, the community built itself — churches, schools, Masonic halls, businesses, and even the South's first Black-owned bus line. By the 1950s it was celebrated as one of the largest all-Black communities in the United States, retaining its identity even after Houston annexed it in the 1960s and 70s.
Camp Logan
Houston, TX
Soon after the United States entered World War I, the Army established Camp Logan here in July 1917 as one of 34 training camps, a 7,600-acre complex named for Civil War general and senator John A. Logan. During construction, Black soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry, stationed nearby, rose in armed revolt on August 23, 1917, against Houston's Jim Crow laws and police abuse—the deadly "Houston Mutiny and Riot of 1917." Divisions trained here shipped out to fight in France in 1918, and after the camp closed part of its land became Memorial Park, named for the soldiers who fought in Europe.
J. Vance Lewis
Houston, TX
Born enslaved in Louisiana around 1863, J. Vance Lewis rose through teaching and a Chicago law degree to become, by 1904, one of only a handful of Black attorneys admitted to the Texas Bar. Settling in Houston's Freedmen's Town, he built the home he called Van Court in 1907, published his autobiography, and moved his law office here. Beyond the courtroom he funded a Black-owned bank, joined the Colored Commercial Club, and championed education and equal rights across the nation.