The birth and killing of Black Freedman’s Towns: Part 2: The sins of Austin, Texas
The following is the second in a series of post about the birth and killing of post Emancipation Proclamation and Civil War Black Freedman’s Towns. This one is from deep in the heart of Texas. Given the oft-cited reputation of Austin, Texas, this story may tamp down that lauded renown.
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Clarksville neighborhood of Austin, Texas (1871-1970s)
Wheatville neighborhood of Austin Texas (1867-1930s)
Founded as a Freedman’s Town in 1871, Clarksville was originally one of many such communities situated in and around Austin. It eventually occupied approximately 365 acres. Meanwhile, nearby Wheatville was another Freedman’s Town founded in 1867. Both eventually were swallowed up as a part of the larger capital city as it grew and expanded.
Black-owned land in Clarksville (red) in 1920 (the railway and adjacent lands are where the Mo-Pac Expressway would be built 50 years later – Source: ctxretold.org
“City neglect of Clarksville manifested as early as 1912, when, in response to a typhoid epidemic that sickened white residents, the city purchased private sewage lines and expanded the system. It did not build sewage lines in Clarksville, turning the bottomland into a receptacle for its own sewage and for increasing amounts of sewage run-off from white neighborhoods on the surrounding hills.”
Source: ctxretold.org
Continued growth and expansion of Austin brought the wanton gaze of monied interests upon both Clarksville and Wheatville, as they were on the scenic hilly and wooded west side of the city. To accelerate this interest, the Austin City Plan of 1928 stressed that the black communities of Austin should be concentrated on the east side, not the more tony west side where Clarksville and Wheatville are situated.
Source: peasepark.org
“One of the city plan’s recommendations, detailed mainly in the “Schools” section, is the establishment of a “negro district” on the southeast fringe of the city, east of East Avenue (now Interstate 35) and south of the City Cemetery,[6] which the plan identified as the neighborhood with the highest preexisting concentration of black residents.[8]: 57 After noting that explicitly racial zoning was not legally feasible (thanks to Buchanan v. Warley), the document advises that the city concentrate all public amenities aimed at black citizens in this region, so as to draw the black population to it.”
Source: en.wikipedia.org
To accomplish this nefarious task, the city directed “amenities aimed at black citizens” to the east side as a way of drawing them there from other parts of the city. To accelerate the exodus from Clarksville and Wheatville, Austin also denied access to and from traditional city services for these two neighborhoods including electricity, trash collection, water, and paved streets.
“Despite these environmental hazards and ongoing city neglect – through the 1970s, Clarksville also had no paved roads, city parks, or street lighting – the enclave provided refuge from the economic and psychological toll that Jim Crow took on African Americans.”
Source: ctxretold.org
The exact year of death for the Freedman’s Towns of Clarksville and Wheatville in Austin is hard to specifically pinpoint, as it took some time for their majority black populations to depart. However, there is little doubt that the adoption of Austin’s 1928 City Plan was the signaling of their death knell.
Mo-Pac Expressway tearing through the Clarksville neighborhood in 1970 – Source: kuve.com
While Wheatville eventually became part of the West Campus of the University Texas, Clarksville suffered a triple-whammy of forced removal with the construction the Mo-Pac Expressway, which tore through the neighborhood in early 1970s, and rising property values (and taxes) making the community unaffordable to many of its original residents. This destruction and more recent gentrification (accelerated by rising values/prices) contributed to the departure of most poor and minority residents from the Clarksville neighborhood. Despite these injustices, 305 acres of the Clarksville neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Source: bookshop.org
Unfortunately, the vast majority of those folks who built and shaped the community of Clarksville did not remain there to enjoy the historic honor nor few, if any, benefits of increased home values. According to the extraordinary book, Lost In Austin, and other online resources, the average house value in Clarksville now exceeds $1 million. Furthermore, Clarksville along with adjacent Old West Austin are today touted as being part of an exciting Entertainment District, full of trendy places to eat, drink and shop.
Such a designation would seem rather ironic to those who were denied even the most basic of city services almost a century ago. Peace!
p.s. It should be noted that several factors that led to the demise of the Black Freedman’s Towns of Clarksville and Wheatville in Austin have recently played a role in the ongoing gentrification of the East Austin as well. In particular rapid socioeconomic changes and monied development interests have led to its transition into one of the city’s the latest hotspots for redevelopment and investment. Sadly, once again, those who called East Austin home for many years rarely reaped any of the benefits of its newfound “discovery.”
“It’s a lot of money that was lost, a lot of Black landowners and Black homeowners who got pushed out by no fault of their own. They lost out on a significant amount of generational wealth.”
Source: the daily texan.com
SOURCES:
#Austin #BlackFreedmanSTowns #books #Clarksville #discrimination #displacement #EastAustin #gentrification #highways #history #landUse #LostInAustin #planning #preservations #racism #segregation #Texas #Wheatville #zoning
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