Pleasantville, the longstanding Houston Black neighborhood with national historical significance, is currently contending with something it has not experienced since its inception in 1948 – attacks and displays of racist vandalism.
“Can you imagine, the first racial slurs known in Pleasantville didn’t happen until 2023,” said Mary Fontenot, president of the Pleasantville Historical Society and the Pleasantville Civic League.”
Pleasantville residents, who recently celebrated their annual Pleasantville Reunion, are at a loss for who could be targeting this community known historically as the first master-planned community in the U.S. created to house middle- and upper-income Blacks and celebrated locally for being one of the highest-voting precincts in the state for generations.
Fontenot said City of Houston-produced signs welcoming visitors to Pleasantville have been defaced and torn down multiple times. An area stop sign was also defaced with the words, “No money Ni**ers not allowed.”
The signs were cleaned off by residents and/or replaced only to be defaced again. And most recently, the metal fixtures that held the signs in place were even cut. Fontenot and neighbors were even more outdone that vandalism visited a Pleasantville institution named after arguably the community’s most famous resident.
“They actually spray painted over the Judson Robinson Sr. Park sign. We’ve never, since the inception of Pleasantville, had to deal with racism,” added Fontenot.
Created in the aftermath of WWII specifically for Black people of means who were looking for a community in which to purchase homes with the latest modern amenities, at a time when segregation blocked Blacks from all-white neighborhoods, Pleasantville became a beacon of hope and an example of Black excellence in all forms – entrepreneurship, sports, civic engagement and more.
The list of local and national movers and shakers with Pleasantville roots and ties is long and provides a proverbial “Who’s Who” of Houston-area difference-makers. Over the decades, this once all-Black community has experienced a demographic shift, where Latinx residents now make up nearly half of all residents. Individuals of Asian ancestry are seeing their numbers increase in Pleasantville, as well.
“Everybody on our Pleasantville Facebook page was totally enraged after I posted pictures of the vandalism,” said Pleasantville-born resident Felicia Thibodeaux. “However, we’re just kind of at a loss regarding why and who did this.”
Thibodeaux was in Pleasantville in 1961, moved away as an adult, but returned about 12 years ago. Her parents originally purchased a home in the neighborhood in 1957. Thibodeaux has personally witnessed the neighborhood’s changing demographics.
“I have Spanish and Asian neighbors around me, and we all get along. We’re a very welcoming neighborhood,” she said. Still, Thibodeaux is fearful of more vandalism, specifically to the historical marker the neighborhood received last year.
“We’re trying to understand why, all of the sudden, this vandalism is happening,” said Thibodeaux, who thinks police could do more. “I believe if the officers reached out and talked to neighborhood kids they’d find out. Officers haven’t asked any residents about their ring cameras that may have recorded something.”
