Freedom Colonies
Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow
By Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad
Research assistance and photographs by Richard Orton

"Landownership rose more precipitously in Texas than in any other southern state. In 1870 only 1.8 percent of the state's black farmers owned land, but by 1890 an astonishing 26 percent of them did. Just after the turn of the century, black Texas landownership peaked at 31 percent."

Table of Contents and Excerpt at the University of Texas Press site.