The Texas State Historical Association’s Handbook of Texas Online, a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture, has produced an in-depth online resource detailing the history of African-Americans in Texas. The Handbook of African-American Texas features more than 850 entries, including more than 300 new articles and dozens of images, that chronicle the individuals, communities, businesses, institutions, organizations, and events that comprise the African-American experience and its significant contribution to the heritage of the Lone Star State.

This project was envisioned in 2011 by then TSHA President Merline Pitre, a professor in the Department of History and Geography at Texas Southern University. Pitre, Project Director of The Handbook of African- American Texas, acknowledges the accomplishments of blacks in Texas and the need to preserve this history, “While African- Americans have been subjected to slavery, segregation, and discrimination during this long history, they have made significant contributions to the growth and development of Texas.”

Historians from across the state have contributed new scholarship in the making of this resource, and The Handbook of African- American Texas will continue to add new articles and images in the future.