“We have to get the history before it goes to the grave”.
- Rev. Andrew Penns
The Curtis House Cultural Center, nestled in the Carver neighborhood, stands as the lone preserver of Black history in the town of Abilene, Texas. As the years pass we see investment and awareness of this space continually decline. The legacy and stories that are housed in the Curtis House deserve to be protected and passed down. This film is a look into the work being done at the Curtis House, and the far too often forgotten, Black history of Abilene.
The Curtis House Funeral Home was established in 1951. It was one of just a few homes that serviced the Black community. The Curtis House Funeral Home was in business for 54 years. Today, the Curtis House serves as a cultural center depicting the lives and achievements of Black Abileneans throughout the years.
Rev. Andrew Penns serves as the Co-Founder, Director, and Curator of the center. Through his diligent work the stories that are housed in the Curtis House are protected and being passed down.
A Legacy Unearthed is an official selection of the 2023 Queens Underground International Black History Film Festival, and has had a number of local community screenings!
we were illegal
We Were Illegal, by author Jessica Goudeau, looks at multiple generations of her family and how their lives reflected a history of racism, slavery and violence in her home state of Texas. Tracking her ancestors’ involvement in pivotal moments from before the Texas Revolution through today, We Were Illegal is at once an intimate and character-driven narrative and an insider’s look at a state that prides itself on its history. It is an act of reckoning and recovery on a personal scale, as well as a reflection of the work we all must do to dismantle the whitewashed narratives that are passed down through families, communities, and textbooks.
We are honored that A Legacy Unearthed is cited in We Were Illegal! It was used as a reference for the Abilene portion of the book.
The New York Times: A Proud Texas Reckons With Her State’s Complicated Past
