Naomi Carrier
Naomi Carrier, M.Ed. is a historian, educator, playwright, composer, and author of Go Down, Old Hannah: The Living History of African American Texans (University of Texas Press, 2010). She taught for thirty years at St. James Episcopal School, beginning in 1979, when trains still ran along the Columbia Tap Railroad—less than 100 yards from her classroom in Houston’s Third Ward.
Carrier has been a passionate and persistent advocate for public awareness of the Columbia Tap and its significance in Texas history. She has illuminated how this rail line once transported cotton to the Port of Galveston—then the world’s largest cotton port—ultimately connecting to Manchester, England. That city, transformed by cotton imports, became known as “Cottonopolis,” the world’s first industrial city, driven by its booming textile mills. Texas’s economic growth was deeply tied to “King Cotton,” and the Columbia Tap played a critical role. Built cheaply with enslaved labor in 1856, it fulfilled a crucial transportation need. The sugar industry also made use of the line, connecting Stafford’s Point to the Arcola Sugar Mill, earning the Columbia Tap the nickname “The Sugar Road.”
As material culture, the Columbia Tap offers a powerful opportunity for historical interpretation. With Carrier’s guidance, design teams gain a clear understanding of this site’s history, its place in the global economy, and the significance of the physical artifacts that remain today.
Carrier has developed self-guided walking tours for Houston’s Third Ward in partnership with the OST/Almeda Redevelopment Authority (TIRZ #7), conducted research for the Emancipation National Historic Trail, and is currently working with the Houston Parks Board to create historical interpretation for the renovation of MacGregor Park. She recently dedicated a Texas Undertold Stories Historical Marker honoring the 16,000 United States Colored Troops who protected the Mexican border after the final Civil War battle at Palmetto Ranch in 1865.
Her 160th Anniversary Juneteenth performances have been featured at the Ensemble Theatre Houston, Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, The Bryan Museum in Galveston, Sam Houston Park, and the Mitchell Museum in Lavaca County.
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