Source: Chron.com

The Houston Chronicle reports UNESCO – the Paris-based cultural arm of the United Nations – is considering Freedmen's Town for its Slave Route Project, which is a registry created in 1994 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization of historically significant sites that tell the global story of the trade in human labor. Jane Landers, the U.S. envoy for the Slave Route Project, spent three days last week in the Houston area learning about Freedmen's Town and other sites that can be combined for a nomination. Landers was invited by Catherine Roberts, co-founder of the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum in Freedmen's Town. International designation has been a city goal since at least early 2016 when Mayor Sylvester Turner's post-election transition team's quality of life committee recommended that his office "announce initial support of the application to designate Freedmen's Town a UNESCO World Heritage Site" and to determine its feasibility and impact "as a tourist destination and historic landmark."