The TexTreasures Competitive Grant Program is awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through funds received from the Library Services and Technology Act. Drs. Ana Krahmer and Mark Phillips have received an FY24 TexTreasures grant of $39,998, to fill in newspaper gaps relating to the history of underrepresented Houston communities, including: 

• The Houston Informer, the city’s African American paper, advocating for advancing the civil rights of both the Houston and wider southern African American community.  Currently, The Portal to Texas History hosts 100 issues from 1919 to 1924, and this grant will extend coverage up to 1931. 
• The Jewish Herald-Voice, a Houston-based newspaper published for and by the Jewish community in Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast, currently is available up to 1979 on the Portal, and this grant will fund completion of the next 30 years, up to 2009. 
• The South Belt-Ellington Leader, a newspaper published by women, self-described as “housewives,” (“Leader History”) living and working in the South Belt area. The Leader has served the community as a watchdog newspaper to protect citizen safety and health since 1976.  

TexTreasures is an annual competitive grant program designed to help member libraries make their special collections more accessible to researchers across Texas and beyond. For further information about this award and recipients, visit the TexTreasures Recipients page.