The KHOU-TV Collection - Riverside Terrace

Duration: 1:36

Year Published: 1960s

Sound: silent

Description: This film from KHOU-TV Channel 11 in Houston contains b-roll footage of the city’s Riverside Terrance neighborhood. The community was established in the 1930s as a home for Houston’s prominent Jewish families, who were not allowed to settle in the River Oaks neighborhood. Jack Caesar, a wealthy black cattleman, and his family moved to Riverside in 1952. Despite the detonation of a bomb on their front porch a year later, the Caesars stayed, prompting other black families to move to the area (as well as white flight to the suburbs). In the 1960s, remaining white residents sought to stabilize Riverside Terrace as an integrated community. The South MacGregor Promotion Committee posted signs stating “This Is Our Home It Is Not For Sale” in a campaign against block busting. Nevertheless, all but a few of the white families left Riverside Terrace, and the neighborhood became predominantly African American. Notable residents include Olympian Carl Lewis, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, and Beyoncé.