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Dorn is currently dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and his insight into what Austin was like in the mid to late 1900’s provides an extremely valuable insight to the history of the Black community.

Published on behalf of the Oral History Association, this article provides a valuable insight into the important of African American culture, and music, in creating notions of identify and inclusiveness in the black community within Austin and wider Texas.

It provides an account from a credited author, investigating the treatment of the black community through Texas history and events of importance that shaped the way society viewed the African American communities.

This peer reviewed article published by the Society of Historical Archaeology, investigates the history of the African American and Hispanic peoples living in Austin and other regions of Texas, and their history, exploring notions of structural racism and oppression.

This article is useful to my research as it explores the large migration of the African American community to the city of Austin, and explores the impact this had on the Austin community, moving forward into the 20th century, which I can discuss in my 20th century related sections.

History
Texas was the last Confederate state with institutional slavery until June 19, 1865 following the announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army General Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas. Juneteenth celebrations were first celebrated in Austin in 1867 under the auspices of the Freedmen's Bureau, and it had been listed on a "calendar of public events" by 1872. That year, black leaders in Texas raised $1,000 for the purchase of 10 acres (4 ha) of land to celebrate Juneteenth, today known as Houston's Emancipation Park.

In 1863, the Henry Green Madison log cabin was built in the name Henry Green Madison, a civic leader and the first African American to serve on the City Council. The cabin was reconstructed at Rosewood Recreation Centre, and was home to Madison, his wife and their eight children.

During much of the 19th and 20th century, Austin and the rest of the United States of America, experienced significant racial segregation. Members of the African American community were faced with legal and systematic segregation of most public spaces and resources, which saw a large demographic shift, forcing many African American’s in Texas into East Austin neighbourhoods. Many homes within the within these neighbourhoods were subsequently used as lodges and communal centres for members of the African American community in Austin.

The 1928 Austin City Plan (also known as the Koch and Fowler Plan), was a strategy imposed by the city council to isolate minorities through a creation of a "negro district" and other areas specific to ethnic minorities. Members of these districts were only allowed to access schools and other public services within their identified areas. This segregation was later enforced by the New Deal program that was launched in 1935, excluded the African American community and other minority groups from the benefits of the program, which sought to restore household wealth following the Great Depression.

The Limerick-Frazier House operated as a lodging for African American students and travellers who were excluded from white-owned hotels in Austin during the era of the Jim Crow Laws. The house was owned by John W. Frazier, an African American professor at Samuel Huston College and has a century-long connection to African American History.

The W.H. Passon Historical Society was formed in 1975 to preserve materials, artefacts and historic sites pertaining to African American culture. The society is named after Wesley H. Passon, an educator and prominent churchman who wrote what is believed to be the first published history of African Americans in Austin; a 1907 book commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 2016, the Texas African American History Memorial was installed on the state Capital grounds. Its purpose is to honour, acknowledge and commemorate Austin’s and wider Texas’ African American population, their culture and all of its people collectively and individually. Sculpted by Ed Dwight, the Memorial encapsulated African American history from Early American history in the 19500s to modern day, with reference to significant African American individuals who shaped the community including Hendrick Arnold and Barbara Jordan. The memorial also acknowledges the events of Juneteenth.

Music
Austin is known as the 'Live Music Capital of the World', with the most live music venues per capita. This can be largely attributed to the prominent African American jazz and blues, which can be traced back to the early 1900s. The Victory Grill became the home to the blues and R&B in Austin during the 1940s, featuring live music and weekly screenings of African American movies.

Charlie Gilden, an African American businessman purchased a block on the East Side of Austin during the height of segregation in the 1950s, which included a swanky jazz and blues venue called ‘Charlie’s Playhouse’ and an after-hours club called Ernie’s Chicken Shack. Hubbard and The Jets, led by Henry “Blues Boy” Hubbard, were the house band for both venues. Hubbard is considered one of Austin’s ‘most legendary living musicians’.

Sport
The Austin Black Senators were a minor league Negro League baseball team based in Austin during the early 20th century, leading up to the 1940s. Their home ground, Downs Field is currently home to the Huston-Tillotson University and Austin Metro Baseball League. National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Willie Wells played one season for the Black Senators in 1923.

Education
In 1884, the Robertson Hill School, one of the city’s first schools for African American children was built at San Marcos and 11th streets. A high school was later added in 1889 before being relocated in 1907 to Olive and Curve Streets, where it was renamed to E.H Anderson High School.

The Coloured Teachers State Association building served African American teachers from 1952 until 1966, when it merged with the Texas State Teachers Association. The group was instrumental in the struggle to desegregate public schools and win equal rights and wages for African American teachers throughout Texas.

Politics
Barbara Jordan, an Austin native, was the first African-American person to serve in the Texas Senate since its reconstruction, and served from 1966-1972. She was also the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress from the South, serving from 1972-1978, and was the first woman to deliver the keynote address at a national party convention (Democratic Convention in 1976 and 1992). To commemorate her achievements, there are statues of Jordan placed at Austin’s airport and on the University of Texas campus.

Housing
The Rosewood courts were the first housing projects built for African Americans under the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 and were established as part of the New Deal, which was lobbied by the then congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Notable People
•	Barbara Jordan – US Representative

•	Willie Wells – African American Baseball Player

•	Wesley H. Passon

•	Gary Clark Jr. – Musician

•	Nelly – Musician

•	Mehcad Brooks – Actor

•	Ephraim Owens – Musician

•	Don Baylor – African American Baseball Player

•	Thomas Henderson – African American Football Player

•	Richard Lane – African American Football Player

•	Michael Devin Griffin – African America Football Player