Notable Achievements

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed published the article “The Changing Same of Race and Racism in Sugar Land, Texas: Memorializing The Sugar Land 95” in the Journal of Black Studies on September 8. A total of 95 Black men who were murdered during the convict lease era in Sugar Land, Texas were unearthed on a construction site for a new Fort Bend Independent School District (FBISD) school in 2018. These men would become known as the Sugar Land 95 (SL95). Memorializing the SL95, creating a cemetery, and searching for descendants became a point of conflict between FBISD and the local Black community who felt the school district’s efforts were subpar. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, FBISD attempted to improve their efforts with minimal funding. This resulted in inaccuracies on historical markers, erroneous genealogical results, and burial ceremonies that excluded the descendant community. Sugar Land has had a long legacy of diluting Black history in order to redeem white subjectivity. This pattern has occurred in history curricula, local historical narrative, and cultural heritage projects like The SL95 Memorialization Project. Through the notion of racialized geography, silences in historical narrative, and the rejection of subjugated knowledges, Dr. Reed aims not only to demonstrate how the poor memorialization of the SL95 is a new manifestation of the same anti-Black racism that has existed in cultural heritage projects in the US, but also that Black resistance remains and continues to create new methods of preservation and memorialization. The article can be accessed here.

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Naomi Reed

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Expertise

The Anthropology of Whiteness, Critical Whiteness Studies, African Diaspora Studies, Black Cultural Heritage, Race and Racism in the American South, Jewish Studies.

Dr. Naomi Reed is a sociocultural anthropologist who studies whiteness, Blackness, Black cultural heritage, Whiteness and Jewish studies. Her primary focus has been on Sugar Land, Texas, US History curriculum, and the Sugar Land 95. She received her B.S. in Pure Mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin and her M.A. in Social Sciences from The University of Chicago. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She also co-wrote and co-hosts the Texas Newsroom Podcast series, Sugar Land

  • Biography

    Dr. Naomi Reed is a sociocultural anthropologist who studies whiteness, Blackness, Black cultural heritage, Whiteness and Jewish studies. Her primary focus has been on Sugar Land, Texas, US History curriculum, and the Sugar Land 95. She received her B.S. in Pure Mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin and her M.A. in Social Sciences from The University of Chicago. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She also co-wrote and co-hosts the Texas Newsroom Podcast series, Sugar Land

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