Fall 2019 Part 4

 

 Austin, Texas



When you think about Texas, you think about the capital of the state too. Texas is known for its history, culture, and large land area. The millions of people who live in Texas have gracious spirits. Austin, Texas is not only a city with a very important role in the history of Texas. It is the capital of the state of Texas too at Travis County. It’s the 4th largest city in Texas in terms of population and the 11th most populous city in the United States of America. It has a fast growing population and infrastructure in our generation. It has about 305.1 total square miles with 950,715 people in 2017. It is the southernmost contiguous United States capital. Culture flourishes in Austin with rivers, lakes, highways, museums, stadiums, and other locations. Numerous Fortune 500 companies have either their headquarters or regional offices in the city from Google to Amazon.com. Diverse people live in Austin from blue collar workers, college students, musicians, government employees, and others of numerous backgrounds. That is subsequently the reason why Austin is one of the most progressive cities of South. Live concerts are readily found in Austin, Texas as well. Austin is known as a "clean-air city" for its stringent no-smoking ordinances that apply to all public places and buildings, including restaurants and bars. Music has always been integral in the make up of the Austin atmosphere. Country, rock, soul, rhythm and blues, hip hop, gospel, and other forms of musical expression are deeply part of the whole ethos of Austin city living. It is certainly the pristine time to acknowledge the huge contributions that Austin has made in American society.

The History of Austin

The history of Austin, Texas has a long story. Native Americans lived in Austin for centuries and thousands of years. Back about 11,000 years ago, there was habitation at the Balcones Escarpment region of Texas. The Levi Rock Shelter and Smith Rock Shelter were the oldest Paleolithic archaeological sites in Texas. Nomadic Native American tribes existed in Texas. This occurred centuries before the European settlers came into the Austin area. The Native American people back then fished and hunted along the creeks like in modern day Barton Springs. It was a campsite. At the time of the first permanent settlement of the area, the Tonkawa tribe was the most common (with the Comanches and Lipan Apaches also living in the area). The first Europeans in Austin were Spanish friars who arrived in East Texas in July of 1730. They formed three temporary missions called: La Purisima Concepción, San Francisco de los Neches and San José de los Nazonis, on a site by the Colorado River, near Barton Springs. The friars relocated to the San Antonio River within a year of their arrivals. After Mexico’s independence from Spain, Anglo-American settlers started to populate Texas and reached present day Central Texas by the 1830’s. The first documented permanent settlement in the area has been dated back to 1837 when the village of Waterloo was founded near the confluence of the Colorado River and Shoal Creek.

The Texas Revolution has a complex history. Many of the Anglo-American settlers owned slaves when they traveled into Texas. The new nation of Mexico banned slavery and wanted the settlers to do the same. The irony thing is that an early President of Mexico was of black African descent, and Mexico was one location of the Underground Railroad where black slaves escaped to from the Deep South. Many Anglo-Americans refused to do so (they carried slaves with them into Texas which was controlled by Mexico back then), and conflicts occurred culminating in the Mexican-American war. The United States defeated Mexico and by 1836, the Texas Revolution was over. The Republic of Texas at first was independent. Political problems were in Texas. In 1836, there were about five Texas sites that serviced as temporary capitals of the new republic (Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco and Columbia), before President Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837.

Soon after the election of President Mirabeau B. Lamar, the Texas Congress created a site selection commission to locate an optimal site for a new, permanent capital. They chose a site on the western frontier. President Lamar led the mechanism to find the area. Lamar visited the sparsely settled area in 1838, and Lamar believed in westward expansion. The area had abundant natural resources, and it had beauty. They wanted to make it an economic hub. The central location in Texas territory was found. The commission purchased 7,735 acres (3,130 ha) along the Colorado River comprising the hamlet of Waterloo and adjacent lands. At the time, the area was remote from population centers. It had vulnerability to attacks by Mexican troops and Native Americans. Many Texans wanted independence, but some of them wanted slavery to flourish in Texas. Sam Houston was a political leader. Austin was chartered in 1839 by the Texas Congress. It was a new city. Stephen F. Austin was one of the Texas leaders who was the city was named after. He negotiated a boundary treaty with local Native Americans at the area of Treaty Oak after a few settlers were killed in raids. The Republic purchased many hundred areas to establish the city. By March 1839, the city Austin was honored by Lamar in honor of Stephen F. Austin. Many local businesses praised the city like Waterloo Ice House and Waterloo Records (as well as Waterloo Park downtown). The construction of Austin existed. Lamar used Judge Edwin Waller to direct the planning and construction of the new town. Waller decided to work on a 640 acre site on a fluff above the Colorado River (between Shoal Creek to the west and Waller Creek to the east). Waller surveyed a grid plan on a single square mile plot with 14 blocks running in both directions. Lamar named a place called Congress on one grand avenue. It was in the city of the town from Capitol Square down to the Colorado River.

The streets running north-south (paralleling Congress) were named for Texas rivers with their order of placement matching the order of rivers on the Texas state map. The east-west streets were named after trees native to the region, despite the fact that Waller had recommended using numbers. (They were eventually changed to numbers in 1884). The city's perimeters stretched north to south from the river at 1st Street to 15th Street, and from East Avenue (now Interstate 35) to West Avenue. Much of this original design is still intact in downtown Austin today. By October 1839, the government of the Republic of Texas arrived by oxcart from Houston. The town of Austin had 839 people by January 1840. During the Republic of Texas era, France sent Alphonse Dubois de Saligny to Austin as its chargé d'affaires. Dubois purchased 22 acres (8.9 ha) of land in 1840 on a high hill just east of downtown to build a legation, or diplomatic outpost. The French Legation stands as the oldest documented frame structure in Austin. Also in 1839, the Texas Congress set aside 40 acres (16 ha) of land north of the capitol and downtown for a "university of the first class." This land became the central campus of the University of Texas at Austin in 1883.

Austin increased in its power. By 1842, Lamar’s successor was President of Texas, Sam Houston. Houston ordered the national archives transferred to Houston for safekeeping after Mexican troops captured San Antonio on March 5, 1842. Convinced the removal of the republic’s diplomatic, financial, land, and military service records was tantamount to choosing a new capital. People from Austin refused to relinquish the archives. Houston moved the government anyway, first to Houston, and then to Washington on the Brazos, which remained the seat of government until 1845. The archives stayed in Austin. When Houston sent a contingent of armed men to seize the General Land Office records in December of 1842, they were foiled by the citizens of Austin and Travis County (via the Texas Archive War incident). Austin suffered. Between 1842 and 1845, Austin’s population dropped below 200. Its buildings deteriorated. By the summer of 1845, Anson Jones (Houston’s successor as President) called a constitutional convention meeting in Austin. Anson Jones approved the annexation of Texas to the United States. Austin was the state capital until 1850. This was the year when at which time the voters of Texas were to express their preference in a general election. After resuming its role as the seat of government in 1845, Austin officially became the state capital on February 19, 1846, the date of the formal transfer of authority from the republic to the state. Austin’s status as capital city of the new U.S. state of Texas remained in doubt until 1872, when the city prevailed in a statewide election to choose once and for all the state capital, turning back challenges from Houston and Waco.

Austin gradually increased their population reaching 854 by 1850. All black people in 1850 were slaves except for one free black person. So, 225 slaves were in Austin back then. 48 percent of Austin’s family heads owned slaves. The city increased its growth after the 1850 election. The new Capitol building was found at head of Congress Avenue. It was finished in 1853. The Governor’s Mansion was completed by 1856. By the outskirts of the town, there were state run asylums for the deaf, blind, and mentally ill Texans. There were many churches filled with Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Catholics. Greek revival mansions were common back then. By 1860, Austin’s population increased to 3,546 people. There were 1,019 black slaves and 12 free black human beings. 35 percent of Austin’s family headed owned slaves. So, this was a very terrible existence for African Americans back then. Texas voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy in 1861. Travis County was one of the few counties in Texas to vote against the secession ordinance (704 to 450). Yet, Unionist sentiment waned once the war began. By April 1862, about 600 Austin and Travis County men had joined some 12 volunteer companies serving the Confederacy. Austinites followed with knowing about the successive Union thrusts toward Texas, but the town was controlled by the rebels. Like other communities, Austin experienced severe shortages of goods, spiraling inflation, and the decimation of its fighting men. The end of the Civil War brought Union occupation troops to the city and a period of explosive growth of the African-American population, which increased by 57 percent during the 1860's. During the late 1860's and early 1870's the city's newly emancipated black Americans established the residential communities of Masontown, Wheatville, Pleasant Hill, and Clarksville. By 1870, Austin's 1,615 black residents comprised some 36 percent of the town's 4,428 inhabitants.

From the Gilded Age to the end of World War II


Reconstruction saw a boom in Austin, Texas. The Houston and Texas Central Railway was opened on December 25, 1871. Construction has increased in five years to 10,863. By the 1870's, more immigrants came to Austin from Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Sweden, etc. There was a streetcar line in 1875. There was 11,013 people in Austin by 1880. The Texas State Capitol was built in Austin by 1888. Architect Elijah E. Myers built the Capitols of Michigan and Colorado including at the city of Austin. He wanted to use a Renaissance Revival Style. The state capitol in Austin is smaller than the United States Capitol in total gross square footage, but it's actually 15 feet taller than its Washington, D.C. counterpart. Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute or the forerunner of Huston-Tillotson University, founded by the American Missionary Association to provide educational opportunities for African Americans, opened its doors in East Austin by 1881. The Austin Independent School District was established the same year. The Austin Dam was finished by 1893. It was a wall of granite and limsteone 65 feet high and 1,100 feet long with no catwalk or floodgates. The dam was ruined by massive flooding. By the early 1900's, many black communities were found in Kincheonville (1865), Wheatville (1867), Clarksville (1871), Masonville. St. Johns, Pleasant Hill, and other locations. Black people started to heavily live in East Austin by 1930. The 1928 City Plan recommended that East Austin would be designated as place for African Americans. By the late 1940's, African Americans had 150 small businesses, more than 30 churches, and two colleges (they are Tilloston College and Samuel Huston College). By 1940, 14,861 black Americans lived in Austin. Hispanic Americans grew in population too. Many Hispanic Americans owned food businesses. From the Great Dpepression to the end of World War II, Austin grew in its population and infrastructure. Mayor Tom Miller and Congressman Lyndon Baines jOhnson was in the House of Representatives during the 1930's. Many dams in the Austin area brought cheap hydroelectric power to Austin residents. Austin expanded to 225.40 sauqre miles by 1990.

Civil Rights History in Austin, Texas

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 started 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 protested 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 picketed 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 were 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, was appointed to the University faculty as a teaching assistant in the English Department (by 1964). Dr. Ervin Swelle Perry was another African American 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 was 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 day to combat injustices.

Modern Austin


During the 1960's, Austin was home to large technological industries. IBM, Motorola, and other companies were found in Austin as home. By the 1970’s and the 1980’s, Austin had a widespread, large development economically. It was only halted with the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980’s. During the era of growth, debates happened between developers and preservationists. There was the preservation of Barton Springs and the extension of the Edwards Aquifer. There was a resistance to the growth during the 1970’s. Some didn’t like the new apartment complexes and traffic flow. Some neighborhood groups worked together to protect residential areas. There were more than 150 of such groups by 1983. Environmentalists formed a political movement to protect streams, rivers, lakes, watersheds, and wooded hills from environmental degradation. Later, there were many environmental protection ordinances during the 1970’s and the 1980’s. There was a program from 1971 to beautify the shores of Town Lake (now called Lady Bird Lake), a downtown lake impounded in 1960 behind Longhorn Crossing Dam. There were historic preservationists who didn’t want Austin’s architectural heritage gone. Many historic buildings were maintained or restored. Many neighborhood groups and environmentalists fought political business and development interests over the management of growth. Many home grown businesses were replaced by corporate retail branches. In the 1970's, Austin became a refuge for a group of country and western musicians and songwriters seeking to escape the music industry's corporate domination of Nashville. The best-known artist in this group was Willie Nelson, who became an icon for what became the city's "alternate music industry"; another was Stevie Ray Vaughan. In 1975, Austin City Limits premiered on PBS, showcasing Austin's burgeoning music scene to the country. Many anti-establishment musicians performed at the Armadillo World headquarters. Austin is a place where musicians started their careers. That is why it has been called, “The Live Music Capital of the World.” The economic boom in Austin continued in the 1990’s. New technology came about. IBM worked in Austin. The dot com boom and the dot com bust transpired in Austin too.

Austin is now a home for game development, film-making, and popular music. By May 23, 1999, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport served its first passengers, replacing Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. By 2000, Austin was the center of a media focus as the headquarters of presidential candidate and Texas Governor George W. Bush. The headquarters of his main opponent, Al Gore, were in Nashville, thus re-creating the old country music rivalry between the two cities. Also in the 2000 election, Austinites narrowly rejected a light rail proposal put forward by Capital Metro. In 2004, however, they approved a commuter rail service from Leander to downtown along existing rail lines. Capital MetroRail service finally began service in 2010. In 2004, the Frost Bank Tower opened in the downtown business district along Congress Avenue. At 515 feet (157 m), it was the tallest building in Austin by a wide margin, and was also the first high rise to be built after September 11, 2001. Several other high-rise downtown projects, most residential or mixed-use, were underway in the downtown area at the time, dramatically changing the appearance of downtown Austin, and placing a new emphasis on downtown living and development. Toll roads existed in 2006. Some wanted to fund highway projects, but others viewed them as a double tax. By March of 2018, four explosions were in Austin, Texas. Austin continues to experience popularity and rapid growth. Young people have heavily moved into the city. Austin is known for its liberal politics and alternative culture. It has lower housing costs as compared to other areas of America. There is the promotion of smart growth. People debate environmental concerns too. Employment growth and rising housing costs have existed as well. Austin is an iconic city of America.

The Culture of Austin, Texas


 Austin’s culture is diverse. It is known for supporting independent businesses and its eccentricity. That is why many people of Austin want its culture to maintain itself. There is the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin (at the Rainey Street Historic District). According to the Nielsen Company, adults in Austin read and contribute to blogs more than those in any other U.S. metropolitan area. Austin residents have the highest internet usage in all of Texas. Austin was selected as the No. 2 Best Big City in "Best Places to Live" by Money magazine in 2006, and No. 3 in 2009, and also the "Greenest City in America" by MSN. According to Travel & Leisure magazine, Austin ranks No. 1 on the list of cities with the best people, referring to the personalities and attributes of the citizens. In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the U.S. by CBS Money Watch. In 2015, Forbes listed Austin as #1 Boom Town because of its economic strength, including jobs among other appealing attributes .Many trailers, restaurants, stores, coffee shops, and other places are found in the South Congress shopping district.

The Rainey Street Historic District is a neighborhood in Downtown Austin consisting mostly of bungalow style homes built in the early 20th Century. Since the early 2010's, the former working class residential street has turned into a popular nightlife district. Much of the historic homes have been renovated into bars and restaurants, many of which feature large porches and outdoor yards for patrons. Austin is home of many festivals from the Austin City Limits Music Festival to the Kite Festival.  Texas barbecue and Tex-Mex cuisine is found in Austin, Texas. Breakfast tacos and queso are popular in the city. That is why Austin is called, “the home of the breakfast taco.” African Americans, people of Czech descent, and people German of German descent have contributed heavily to Austin culture. Six Square is the African American Cultural Heritage District. It’s located in East Austin (since 1928. It has been filled with businesses, schools, 2 colleges, etc. Germans, Lebanese, Italians, Swedes, and others lived in the area too). The African American Cultural and Heritage Facility was at a place where one of the first freed slaves lived at. The George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center was Texas’ first neighborhood African American museum. Music from orchestra, country, hip hop, soul, gospel, and pop are all found in Austin. A film culture is strong in Austin like the SXSW Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival. International films are hosted in the city. Dynamic culture is always found in the city of Austin, Texas.

By Timothy