Throughout its shining history, pollution has encroached on Pleasantville. It has come in floods whose waters are toxified by surrounding industrial sites, in spectacular conflagrations of unlisted chemicals, and in everyday fumes from the highways that grew up around it. And, since its earliest days, the community of Pleasantville has organized to protect itself from these hazards, from successfully advocating for enclosed sewers in the 1940s to installing its own air pollution monitor in 2019. This timeline offers a glimpse into the complex biography of this singular neighborhood, its development, its exposure to toxicity, and its vitality as a community of Black leaders.
A work in progress, this timeline is a collaborative effort between community leaders and students, researchers, and archivists to tell a story that lifts up Black civil leadership in Houston, while also laying bare the environmental racism that shapes lands and lives here.
The timeline is part of Project Pleasantville, a collaboration between Pleasantville community members Ms. Bridgette Murray (founder of ACTS) and Mr. Cleophus Sharp (ACTS volunteer), and a team of researchers, students, and archivists at Rice University, originally led by Dr. Zoë Wool and Dr. Lacy Johnson. The project also includes a growing collection of oral histories and archival materials housed at the Woodson Research Archives at Rice University, updates to the neighborhood’s Wikipedia page, a poster series, and a range of student research projects. This is a living timeline, and will be updated with new sources as Project Pleasantville continues.
Project Pleasantville founders: Bridgette Murray, Cleophus Sharp, Zoë Wool, Lacy M. Johnson.
Timeline created by: Jessica Caporusso, Sarah Swackhamer, Emma Every, and Zoë Wool, with the support of the Houston Flood Museum.
Additional research by: Portia Hopkins, Nori Guthrie, Gebby Keny, Paul Burch, Ashley Fitzpatrick, Mai Ton, Anson Tong, Maria Alejandra Mora, DeAnna Daniels, Sarah Silberman, Indya Porter, Alec Tobin, Kaitlyn Crowley, Rachel Johnson, with support from Amanda Focke and the Woodson Research Archive
Click the image above to view an interactive map of Pleasantville.
Scroll down to view the timeline of Pleasantville. Click on the blue title text or image of any entry to learn more, view archival images, and hear from residents of the neighborhood.