Working on a sugar cane plantation was one of the most grueling and worst jobs in the world.

443 African Americans arrived with Stephen F. Austin and his Anglo settlers in 1824. They represented almost a quarter of its population.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Sugar Land got its name from growth of the sugar cane industry from the free labor of African American people in Fort Bend, County.

Without the field hands (referring to African American enslaved people who were brought to Texas with white settlers), these fertile lands, instead of being occupied by wealthy white people, will remain for many years, in the hands of mere shepherds or poor people

THEN (1850): FORT BEND IS ONE OF ONLY SIX COUNTIES IN THE STATE WITH A BLACK MAJORITY.

Beginning in 1824, African Americans grew, processed and refined all of the sugar products in Fort Bend County. The slave population totaled 4,127 more than twice that of the 2,016 Whites.

NOW (2024): AFRICAN AMERICANS COMPRISE 20.8% OF FT. BEND COUNTY

Educate. Honor. Heal. The Society of Justice & Equality for the People of Sugar Land (S.O.J.E.S.) is an independent, non-profit community organization dedicated to historic preservation and educating the community about the contributions of African Americans in the creation and progression of Sugar Land and Fort Bend County, Texas. This includes commemorating and memorializing the Sugar Land 95. sojesjustice.org