Pam Tilley

Retired military nurse Pam Tilley grew up in the East End of Freeport, Texas—a historically black neighborhood that was filled with a vibrant community of homes, stores, and churches. First established in the 1920s as the only part of town in which black people were legally allowed to live, Freeport eventually grew into the neighborhood Pam remembers from her childhood. Her father stayed put in her childhood home until well into his 90s. But that home isn’t there anymore. Neither is the East End.

That’s because Pam and her family and neighbors weren’t the only people interested in the East End. The neighborhood was also squarely in the sights of nearby Port Freeport, the self-proclaimed “fastest growing port in Texas,” which wanted to use the East End as a site for its latest expansion. After years of targeting the neighborhood, the Port finally resorted to eminent domain, seeking to take the entire neighborhood by force.