Emancipation Park

In 1890, shortly after the 25th anniversary of Juneteenth, new directors for the Emancipation Park association were elected: Milton A. Baker, H. C. Ferguson, C. N. Love, Rev. H. [Watts?], Robert Jones, RObert Andrews, and [first name?] Quillen. Baker was elected at the same time to the Gregory Institute board, along with Monroe Baker and Rev. C. C. Minegan, to “[fill] the vacancies caused by the deaths of Rev. Elias Dibble, Peter Noble and Sandy Parker.”¹

In 1915, Mollie A. (Mary) Baker (widow of Milton A. Baker, who died in 1905?²) loaned $1000 to the directors of the Association.³

From 1923, Houston Informer article emphasizing that Black citizens purchased EMancipation Park, and also mentioning Robert Fairchilds as an early trustee.

This article, by C. F. Richardson, was responding to an editorial in the Houston Chronicle, November 25, 1923, attacking the NAACP effort to secure pardon for the 1917 soldiers. According to the Chronicle, when the events of the so-called Houston mutiny broke out, “arrangements were being made and were nearly completed to provide a watermelon feast for all the negro soldiers at Emancipation park, a 10-acre piece of property worth at least $50,000, which was the gift of a white man and former slave owner to the negroes of Houston.”⁴ Richardson responds by pointing directly to the deed records.

See more here on later legal actions by city: https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wmY3CC_Suit_By_State_to_Escheat_Property_Known_as_the_Emancipation_Park_Houston_TX