The Austin
City Council has officially apologized for the role the city has played and may still be playing to disenfranchise
Black Austinites – from the city’s founding in 1839, when the local economy depended on slave labor, through today as disparities between Black and white Austinites persist.
As in all Texas cities, Austin’s early economy relied on the labor of enslaved people, working in agriculture around Central Texas and to haul those goods to market. After Emancipation (commemorated in Texas with the observance of
Juneteenth), freedom settlements of Black men and women grew in places on all sides of the 19th-century urban core – such as
KUT
Rapper, activist and East Austin native Nook Turner at a press conference announcing the creation of the Black Austin Coalition, a group that s called on the city to formally address systemic racism in its historical policies – and invest more intentionally in Black Austin communities.
The Austin City Council has formally apologized for its role in perpetuating racist policies that contributed to historical equity, health and wealth gaps that persist for Black Austinites.
A resolution, which passed unanimously Thursday, also directs the city to quantify the impact of systemic racism in real dollars and invest in an effort to build a Black embassy in East Austin, which would serve as a resource center for Black residents.
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