Katy’s forgotten, yet still standing historic Black community

One thing is for certain about Black history: It never ceases to amaze and never stops revealing previously unknown or rarely told aspects of Black people’s never-ending journey.

Take, for instance, Katy. Many recognize the city for its high school football prowess. Many more view it as a “beyond the loop” must-visit shopping destination. Over the past few decades, it has become home to an ever-growing Black population.

But historian and activist Tanya Debose says Black people, and all people, better recognize Katy had a thriving Black community before Katy was even Katy.

“The community was established right after emancipation, as a freedom community,” said Debose. “Many of the rice farmers that had been on plantations actually settled in this area. The area’s called the Danover community. It’s not a huge community. There are less than about sixty or so houses that are there. But the families that still live there are descendants of the original people.”

Debose says that as with any area, when you start to see growth, as Katy has over the years, there’s gentrification.

“So, some of the families have been pushed out. Some have been bought out. But there is a small group that are still holding out, to maintain their space there In Katy.”

According to Debose and historical records, Milton McGinnis, a Black man, was one of the early settlers in the area. He bought a large amount of acreage in what is now Katy and started his family. Several of McGinnis’s siblings followed suit, along with other Blacks who purchased property in the area.

“That is how that community got started. They’ve been there since 1865,” added Debose.

Debose adds the community had several heroes, like legendary educator Odessa Kilpatrick Punchard, who was a force in the area serving professionally for 42 years.

Debose says the historic Danover community consisted of homes, multiple churches, barbershops, feed stores, and blacksmiths. The community also had its own cemetery since it was illegal to bury deceased Black bodies in all-white cemeteries in a society that upheld segregation from the cradle to the grave. The final resting place for Danover residents was originally named Antioch Community Cemetery. It has since been renamed the Katy Comunity Cemetery. And then there are older churches that are there that were started in the 1800s.

Debose and Brenda Washington founded the Katy, Texas African American Heritage Society (KTAAHS) to bring attention to the area to bring attention to its history and preserve it from total destruction.

“Because what’s happening right now is the city of Katy, back in the 1980s rezoned this area as commercial when they started with the Katy Mills Mall Construction. So, this particular area has been mapped out. And if you look on the maps in Katy’s planning department, you will see that over the neighborhood that I’m talking about, Danover, there is plans now for what’s called the New Katy Town site. So, there are plans to erase this community,” said Debose.

In hopes of saving the community and informing people about this little-known Black history, the KTAAHS is hosting the “Katy, Texas Black Heritage Family Festival” on Sept. 1 from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. at Woodsland Park (443 Danover Rd., Katy, 77494).

“The Sept. 1 (Labor Day) event that we’re having is to bring awareness and to get people involved. It is being sponsored by the D9 organizations and other organizations to get involved in reinvesting in our Black communities, strengthening them and making sure that people know the history of these types of spaces.”

For more information on the event or on the historic community, follow the Katy, Texas African American Heritage Society on Facebook, Instagram and/or X. Additionally, contact Brenda Washington at KatyBlackHeritage@gmail.com.