Deep Roots Vol. 3 — Black Houston: The City Within the City (Interactive Edition)

Inside the city limits of Houston, Black Houstonians built a second city — churches, a university, a movement — and then used it to change the first one. This is that city's story, told person by person.

Jack Yates, who helped buy Emancipation Park and build Antioch — the book prints all three of the congregation's founding accounts side by side, because the record keeps all three. Heman Sweatt, the Houston mail carrier who sued the University of Texas, with the Supreme Court's own ledger from Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629: sixteen Black law professors against three, 850 volumes against 65,000, five law students against 23 — the inequality, counted. Texas Southern University, created by Senate Bill 140 (March 3, 1947) and funded $2 million by House Bill 788 in the same fight. Christia Adair, whose tenure is dated the way the evidence dates it (most commonly 1943–55) and who is quoted zero times in this book — because no authenticated words of hers survive to quote, and this series does not invent them. Barbara Jordan, with her July 25, 1974 words taken verbatim from the National Archives transcript. And the 1960 sit-ins of March 4, 1960 — with the student headcount printed the way the sources give it: 13, 17, "more than a dozen," all three on the page — and the lunch counters desegregated by August 25, 1960, without a riot.

Inside the Interactive Edition:

- The complete book — all 6 chapters, full text

- Recorded narration by Marcus — about 70 minutes, every chapter read aloud

- A chronological timeline that jumps straight to the chapter behind each date

- A 10-question educator quiz drawn strictly from the text

- Every chapter closes with its sources and a method note — disagreements in the record are printed openly, and nobody is quoted who cannot be documented

- The storybook-style cover, drawn for young readers and the families who read with them

- For educators: a TEKS correlation sheet for this volume is available with the Deep Roots Educator materials — Sweatt v. Painter is a named standard in both African American Studies and U.S. History

The chapters: The Preacher Who Bought the Park: Jack Yates and Antioch · The Mail Carrier Who Sued a University: Heman Sweatt and Sweatt v. Painter · Texas Southern University: A University Built to Keep a Man Out · Christia Adair and the Quiet Wars · Barbara Jordan: The Voice That Taught the Constitution Back · The 1960 Sit-Ins: The Counter That Integrated Without a Riot

Two states. One story. All receipts.