The June 1865 Council meeting was a call to respond to the Black presence in Austin with more police and with expanded police power. Following the call for more police in order to deal with the presence of Black people, a vagrancy law was put into place to single out Blacks. It called for the … Continued
Black emancipation officially came to Texas on June 19, 1865. On this day, a Union military MajorGeneral stationed in Galveston, Texas read General Order No. 3, which declared that “all slaves are free.” The occasion of this order has come to be known and celebrated by African Americans and others across the nation as Juneteenth. … Continued
Barton Springs was established. A third community grew up in 1865, southeast of the famous springs, settled by former slaves from the Goodrich Plantation. School was held at Barton Springs Baptist Church, established in 1870.
Kincheonville was established in 1865, this hamlet was home to 80 freedmen. Far outside Austin at the time, it was in the area now defined by Paisano Trail, Davis Lane, Brodie Lane and Longview Road near southwestern Austin’s Longview Park.
Pleasant Hill was established in 1865, this settlement took the highlands above Waller Creek just beyond East Avenue (now Interstate 35) between Seventh and 11th streets. With a population of 180, it included houses and tents. Mears: “Pleasant Hill could not have been very pleasant when the creek flooded, which it often did.”
Former enslaved Africans freed during the Civil War lived all over Austin, but settled primarily in the following communities Clarksville, first settled by Charles Clark, went from West Lynn to the Missouri-Pacific railroad tracks and from 10th Street to Waterston Avenue. Wheatville [not Wheatsville] was named for James Wheat and was bounded by Rio Grande … Continued
After the Civil War, segregation developed as a method of group control. For both minority groups, segregation existed in [Texas] schools, churches, residential districts, and most public places such as restaurants, theaters, and barber shops. By the latter years of the nineteenth century, institutionalized segregation flourished legally in places with a visible Black population and … Continued
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865 and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865 and proclaimed on December 18. It was the first of the … Continued
After the Emancipation Proclamation, free Blacks experience homelessness on the edges of Union Army Camps and in Northern cities.
President Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation September 22, 1862, and his final Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863.