Lindsay Gary on Third Ward, The New Red Book, and Black Houston Erasure

In an interview with artist Reynier Leyva Novo, historian Dr. Lindsay Gary discusses her deep ties to Houston's Third Ward, a historically Black neighborhood where she is a third-generation resident and Texas Southern University alum. Gary's grandmother migrated from New Iberia, Louisiana, during the Great Migration; her mother attended Jack Yates High School briefly before being bused for integration. Gary's project The New Red Book documents 50 existing African American cultural sites in Houston, functioning as a living guide against gentrification and erasure. She highlights 'purple places'—sites lost to displacement, such as her family's home taken by eminent domain for Highway 288, and businesses like Drexler's BBQ on Dowling Street (now Emancipation Avenue). Gary helped secure a historical marker for the Charles W. Luckie School (1909), one of Houston's oldest Black schools, though installation faces setbacks. She notes declining Black child residency in Third Ward due to school closures and rising costs, but sees some families returning and reinvesting. Gary calls for action: preserving sites, supporting Black-owned businesses, buying homes in Black neighborhoods, renaming Confederate streets, and seeking justice for historical racial violence.