The Pleasant Reed Interpretive Center
The House that Pleasant Built
A visit to the house that Pleasant Reed (1854-1936) built provides a rare opportunity to see how an African American
family with limited means lived in Biloxi, Mississippi during
the early twentieth century. Like the Acadian French, the
Slavonians, and the Italians of that time, and the Hispanics
and Vietnamese of more recent times, the Reed family came
to Biloxi to find a better life for themselves and their children.
While all immigrant groups faced difficulties in finding
acceptance within their adopted community,
the Reeds had
additional challenges because they rose from lives of slavery
and began to prosper during Reconstruction following the
Civil War. In the 20th century increasingly rigid segregationist
laws of the Jim Crow era brought on new challenges for the
Reeds. The story of their lives is one of perseverance and
determination in spite of dauntingly adverse circumstances.
Pleasant Reed was not the only individual to have been born
a slave and later built his family a house with funds earned
in the post-war economy—but the Pleasant Reed House is
one of the few homes that can be identified with a particular
African American builder and homeowner. This is the story of
the Pleasant Reed House.
Click here for history of the Pleasant Reed Family
Click here to visit the Pleasant Reed Interpretive Center
