Welcome to Gregory Library Watch

This blog is to monitor the activities of the African American Library at Gregory School which is located in the historic Freedmen’s Town area of Houston, Texas.

According to the Gregory Library, their mission is  “To serve as a repository for use by historians, researchers, and the general public.”

Unfortunately the library offers very little for the public besides a nice diversion for an hour or so to peruse their galleries. It will take years, if not decades, to build a collection of African American archives. In the meantime the Gregory Library and our tax dollars could serve the community. Gregory does not have a computer room for people to use to search for jobs or for children to do homework. They do not have any programs like most libraries do. They have lots of empty space and two floors but nothing for any of the low income or other residents that live in the immediate vicinity of the library.

Even for the researcher, whether it is someone with a doctorate in African American history, or a grade school student doing a history project, there is very little material to work with. Currently the library only houses fourteen (14) archival collections. Here is the complete list. These archival collections only add up to 11 linear feet or less than 6 full boxes of documents. The library also has done a few oral histories and made them available on their website. The link on the Gregory library website shows only 22 oral histories, eight (8) which were already owned by the Houston Public Library.

We are  a group of concerned activists living in Freedmen’s Town. Our mission is to ensure that all of the history of African Americans in the City of Houston, but particularly in the Freedmen’s Town Historic District, is represented in the Gregory Library.