The Civil Rights Movement in Austin.

Austin, Texas has a long history of civil rights activism. Back decades ago, Austin experienced legal segregation. The 1928 City Plan promoted a segregated Austin. Back then, the vast majority of black Austin residents lived in the area of East Austin. Many in those communities were strong, and black leaders were common there. The story of the defeat of Jim Crow in America is part of American history, and it illuminated the courage of human beings who sought to eradicate nefarious injustices. Back in 1940, Arthur De Witty was the first African American to be appointed to a Travis county grand jury. By May of 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt filed a lawsuit against the University of Texas at Austin President Theophilus Painter and other school officials for denying him admittance into the University of Texas School of Law, because he is an African American. The African American pianist Hazel Scott was congratulated by members of the Campus Guild at the University of Texas. Hazel refused to perform before a segregated audience at Gregory Gym at 1948.

During the 1950’s, Jim Crow continued. Herman Marion Sweatt was registered by the University of Texas by 1950. In 1951, the Austin City Council ended racial segregation in the Main Library and the Carver Branch library by December of 1951. The first African American to receive a master’s degree from the School of Social Welfare from the University of Texas was August Novel Swain (1927-2006). By the 1950’s, restaurants startrd to be desegregated in Austin including by the efforts of Harry Akins (or the owner of the Night Hawk Restaurant). In 1953, Mrs. Myrtle Washington was arrested for not moving to the back of the bus when asked by an Austin Transit Company bus driver. The Austin Chapter of the NAACP represented Mrs. Washington. This act was trying to end the 1945 Jim Cow law about buses.  The NAACP in Austin wanted to end segregation in Austin Public Schools. The University of Texas Board of Regents admitted African American students starting in the fall semester of 1956 in 1955 via a unanimous decision. The Austin School Board tried to end racial barriers involving high schools. Arthur De Witty represented Mrs. Howellen Taylor who didn’t go into the back of the bus. Austin started to see changes. Thirteen African American students become the first to integrate Austin’s high schools-seven at Stephen F. Austin High; five at William B. Travis High; and one at A.N. McCallum High. Desegregation efforts in the 1950's have existed in Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth too. In 1958, Bishop John E. Hines of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas called for equality and racial integration. When fourteen-year-old Sandra Kay Hall was admitted into Allan Junior High, she became the first African American in Austin to attend a white junior high school. In 1960, when fourteen-year-old Sandra Kay Hall was admitted into Allan Junior High, she became the first African American in Austin to attend a white junior high school. By 1960, black and white students from many colleges protest to end segregation in businesses on Congress Avenue. 

Many students of many races wanted to end Jim Crow in a protest against the segregated Texas Theater on the main Campus. Racists set off a homemade bomb outside a civil rights meeting at the University of Texas YMCA. The Travis County Grand Jury indicted University students John Winborn and William H. McKnight. By 1961, there are more efforts to end Jim Crow. Many wanted Dr. King to speak on the integration of all university facilities like dormitories and intercollegiate athletes. In 1963, University of Texas and Huston-Tillotson College students picket Piccadilly Cafeteria in downtown Austin for not serving African Americans. During the 1960’s, countless heroes fought for equal justice in Austin. One person is Ada Anderson who stood up for freedom. Bertha Means, Joan Khabele, and other people told stories about their experiences back in the 1960’s. Wilhelmina Delco is a famous Austin political leader.

In 1963, playgrounds and pools are integrated throughout Austin. Mrs. Cora Eiland Hicks, who in 1953 became the first African American to hold a position higher than a clerk at The University of Texas, is appointed to the University faculty as a teaching assistant in the English Department (by 1964). Dr. Ervin Swelle Perry was another African leader of the University of Texas at Austin. In 1964, three African American teachers integrate for the first time the faculty of two Austin high schools. William Akins, world history teacher, integrated Johnston High School; B.T. Snell, seventh grade English and social studies, along with English teacher Narveline Drennan, integrated Allan Junior High School. Racism was still commonplace. There was a Cowboy Minstrel show with blackface as late as 1965 in Austin, Texas. In 1967, the Austin city council banned housing discrimination via the Fair Housing Ordinance. By 1968, in April, Wilhelmina Fitzgerald Delco is elected to the Austin ISD Board of Trustees, becoming the first African American in Austin to be elected to such a position. After Dr. King was unjustly assassinated, students of all colors held a memorial in the Texas University campus. African American studies were created in 1969 spearheaded by John Warfield at the University of Texas. With integration, a backlash existed. Mexican Americans in Austin by 1970’s promote desegregation and educational policies. Many people opposed busing. From the 1970’s to the present time, the civil rights movements continues to be strong. People as diverse as the NAACP and Black Lives Matter may have differences, but they have the same goal of total human liberation. The fight for justice isn’t over. Austin like many places in America does have gentrification, discrimination, and other evils. That is why Austin residents, who deplore such evils, are working all days to combat injustices. 

Oceania is a geographic region spanning the Eastern and Western hemisphere. It has been neglected by some, but it is very important part of humanity. It has Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. It has a land area of 3,291,903 square miles, and it has 40,117,432 people. It is smaller than Antarctica in land size, but it’s bigger than it in terms of population. It has a diversity of cultures and histories. It has the highly developed areas and the more remote locations. Oceania has a diverse mix of economies from the highly developed and globally competitive financial markets of Australia and New Zealand, which rank high in quality of life and human development index, to the much less developed economies that belong to countries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu, while also including medium-sized economies of Pacific islands such as Palau, Fiji and Tonga. The largest and most populous country in Oceania is Australia, with Sydney being the largest city of both Oceania and Australia. Japan, America, and other nations control many islands in the region of Oceania. Oceania dominates parts of the Pacific Ocean. The Australasian ecozone and the Pacific ecozone including New Zealand have a diversity of animal plus planet species. Aboriginals and Austronesian people traveled from Africa into Oceania over the course of thousands of years.

Some Austronesian people live in New Guinea. Micronesian people had the early culture found at Saipan back in 1,500 B.C. Polynesian peoples had large structures made at Easter Island, and they are came from the sea-migrating Austronesian peoples. Oceanian islands are of four basic types: continental islands, high islands, coral reefs and uplifted coral platforms. High islands are of volcanic origin, and many contain active volcanoes. Among these are Bougainville, Hawaii, and Solomon Islands. Australia and New Zealand have mountain ranges, tropical rainforests, and coastal uplands. The Pacific Islands are ruled by a tropical rainforest and tropical savanna climate. In the tropical and subtropical Pacific, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects weather conditions. In the tropical western Pacific, the monsoon and the related wet season during the summer months contrast with dry winds in the winter which blow over the ocean from the Asian landmass. November is the only month in which all the tropical cyclone basins are active. In Oceania, the largest cities in terms of population are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Auckland, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, and Wellington. Most people of Oceania from Melanesia to Australia are Christians. Some follow traditional religions. Many of the Baha’i faith adherents live in Samoa. Languages from different regions are expressed like Malay, Aboriginal languages, English, French, Spanish, Polynesian languages, etc. Art and sports like rugby are very common in the region. Australia has hosted two Summer Olympics: Melbourne 1956 and Sydney 2000. Therefore, Oceania remains a totally great region of the world society.


By Timothy