Episode 8 Part 1 – UT faculty and Austin community leaders discuss Black history and preservation in East Austin

Welcome to the bridge, a podcast from the division of diversity and community engagement at the university of Texas at Austin, where we share stories and best practices from university of Texas instructors who connect on campus learning and research with real world community projects. The bridge has been on hiatus due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

We are with new episodes that will be released over the rest of the spring 2022 semester. In this episode, Stephanie Lang director of equity and community advocacy in the center for community engagement is joined by Rachel Winston, archivist of black diaspora archives at the UT Lela Benon library. Dr.

Tara Dudley from the UT school of architecture, Pamela Owens, CEO of the six square historic district and Harrison fright manager of visitor services at Austin convention and visitors bureau to discuss the importance of historical and cultural preservation in the context of intensified gentrification for the focus of on the ongoing preservation of the John S and DRCR chase building located within the Robertson hill neighborhood.

The chase building provides us entry into a broader discussion about the history and development of black life and culture in Austin. Our panelists invite the past into the present as a vantage point for imagining the future of black community in Austin.

So welcome, welcome. And to kind of start off, I would love for everybody to kind of share a little bit about who you are and the work you do, like how you kind of come into this work around, you know, history and preservation, um, the discipline, the way in which you approach it.

And. I think that’s probably enough for there. And then we’ll go from there. Sound good. Okay. So who would like to start it? I’m happy to jump in. So as you mentioned in that very generous bio, Stephanie, I am an archivist and curator. So really what that boils down to is that when it comes to history and storytelling, storytelling, and narrative sharing, building interpretation, ideal.

So often with the tangible things, with the things that have been left for us to create these stories and piece together, these narratives from a so it’s a very, it’s a very exciting privileged space to work in, um, to see photos, to see handwritten letters, to see people’s personal aspects, their artistic works, their notebooks things in large groups.

Um, and with that too, also honoring the fact that so often, um, I don’t want to be remembered some do and want to leave their personal affects family members collect. And for some people that’s not a part of how they want to move in the world, um, and accepting that truth and still being mindful and careful about the stories we tell and the language we use in telling those stories.

Um, so I, I’m excited to be here and be in conversation with, um, people I admire so deeply in the community. Rachel, I will move it over to tar. Sure. I am an architectural historian by trade. Um, and I come at this, uh, this field at the profession for various lenses or perspectives. Um, I’m not a native Austinite or Texan.

I’m from Louisiana in graduate school, in the preservation program at UT. Austin is what brought me here. Um, and over the course of the years, I’ve worked as a historic preservation consultant at a local preservation firm here in Austin. And then in conjunction with that, I had been teaching as a teaching assistant assistant and then lecture in the school of architecture at the university of Texas.

Um, and over the past, uh, two, three years or so have delved more deeply into academia, um, as a full time lecture and starting in January, I will be, uh, an assistant professor in the school of architecture. And so just being able to thank you, um, continue to pursue the work that I do, um, as an architectural historian, but really working more largely in the built environment and increasingly, um, the stories of the individuals who have contributed to the built environment are, um, as important to me and sometimes more.

Then the actual buildings themselves, the physical fabric of your building, do you know who created these spaces? How and why they inhabited them? And I’m of course looking at, at black history in, um, in Austin, Texas, and Louisiana, and then my areas of focus or increasingly I also study, um, interior design history, um, in other areas as well.

Difficult. Thank you. All right. Um, let’s see, Harrison. Yes. Can you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do? Um, well, let’s see, I am manager of visitor services and to ambassador visited Austin and I am a certified tour guide into the Austin tour guide association and have been giving tours for 16 years.

And I’m also involved with six square Austin’s black cultural district. That has been a great joy of mine. And I am tour guide on call for the Driscoll hotel. In fact, a book was published about the Driscoll hotel a few years ago when titled the grind down, but Austin and I wrote the introduction to that book.

So, um, I’m very happy with that. And I’m just happy with the fact that for me, this has been a way of coming home. I am a native Austin. I’m a native east Austin. I, and it’s so great that I’ve seen so much in my life. And the eyes are like cameras recording so much and things that are, are, are still what does and things that are no longer with.

And this has been a great time for me to approach history and I have were posted for the lats last 16 years as the art of recovery, the active recovery, uh, floor for myself, as well as for the community. I, the, uh, weather port for those who know the history and those who do not know the history and so many people, uh, they do not know the history of Austin or that, that, that Austin history is very vital, but also the history of African-Americans in Austin, extremely vital in the development of Austin.

So when you talk about Austin history, you, you, you, you cannot exclude the black, uh, Austin history of the black contribution of black Austinites. I’m sorry to Austin’s history. Thank you.

A lot of time austenite and entreprenuer as Michonne consulting firm. But I also CEO of six square, which is the name of the organization that governs over the, uh, district, which is a six square miles, um, as predicated by the master plan of 1928. And so while we do focus a lot about cultural arts, but people probably don’t know is that we do that as a catalyst to preservation, um, cultivating the past cultural projects, economic development education.

And so we do a lot of those things and people say, well, what is it really? We’re all about removing obstacles for people and figuring out how we honor the past, how we sit from. And the present that feels like we’re having to anchor ourselves for the community here, that believes that history started when they woke up and then for the future, figuring out to how to support and fund the future.

And so that’s really what we’re focused on small team of five who are mighty, and we work really hard to remove obstacles so that black excellence could be blackness. All right. Thank you. So, you know, and thinking about what you all just shared and, you know, a big part of what this conversation is about, you know, is it starting with the Robertson hill neighborhood and, um, the John and Drussy chase building.

And so I know I have, you know, worked with each of you in some way, kind of around this history, as you know, the Sanford commune engagement for those who are viewing this, um, May or may not know that this is going to be where we’re housed. And so I would really like to talk about, you know, for each of you, why, you know, what is the importance?

Do you see this importance, which I know the answer to in these, in the Robinson hill community, the importance of this building and all of the lies that it’s lived, um, and you know, even kind of how you specifically engage in that work. So for example, with Harrison, with your tours, you know, as an archivist, Rachel, and the work that you do, Tara, with the history of John Chase.

So if you all can, if we could begin a conversation there, that would be great.

Anyone who feels so moved from, I think it just, the story of the building in John Chase is a little bit indicative or. Representative of my experience, um, with, you know, Austin is home for me now and I technically live in Chi well, um, but in, um, you know, and have been brought to Austin, and this is the place where I am.

I started my married life. I’m raising my children here. And, um, John, uh, John Chase was also not a native Austinite, but for a few short years, um, made Austin home really impacted the community by, um, his various historic curse is that he achieved here and was able to, um, you know, Austin became the springboard for his career.

He married a native Austinite, Ms. Juicy chase or juicy referee chase. And, um, just the, the way that east Austin was in his home, um, for so many people and the way that, that history. Has been remembered, but also how it’s changing and how we as professionals, tour guides, historians, archivists, um, community activists are recaptured that history, how we choose to, um, re embrace it and then share it.

Because as we know every day, uh, east Austin is changing more and more, um, so that it is physically unrecognizable in many ways, but at the core of that at the heart, part of the people who established, um, not only east Austin, but the black people established Austin, um, and their stories and how those have, uh, perpetuated oh, uh, over the years and across the generations.

Um, and I think the, the, um, the chase building can be representative of that in many ways and speak to our responsibility to preserving those stories to the university’s responsibility, uh, for preserving those stories as well. And so. Those are a few of the things that, uh, based on my per personal and professional experiences that, um, that the chase building a means for me.

And then it’s important, um, you know, place of prominence in east Austin in the rapid city hill district.

So one of the things I think is so important and exciting about the work that has been done to restore and preserve, uh, the John Chase house. Is that in? So doing it not only reminds us that the built environment is part of our living archive, that we live and breathe every day. Um, but also reminds us that, that in that space, there are so many connections, right?

So as the story of the physical building is told, um, Within itself is just very marvelous. Um, you uncover all of the different people who are involved in creating and building and uplifting those different iterations of life within that building and all of the different connections and touch points there.

And so that is a really nice invitation for us to, for those of us who may not feel as though we are already in community with the building, with, um, the, the east Austin community with Robertson hill. Um, it provides a nice way to begin that work of building community, even after, um, these stories that we’re telling, um, have, have been at their their piece.

So, um, I think the work of working with, with you, Stephanie and preserving the physical materials that have come out of the many lives of this house are a great way to start. Engaging students and community members in different ways and building on that connection. As we also build community,

I like to think about what the community was like at the time that the Robertson, uh, at the time that, that, that, that particular building, uh, was constructed in the Robertson hill area. The fact that that was even then, I mean, it in, in the, what was called the Negro district, but that was a vital part of east Austin, uh, black Austin.

I mean, that, that, that’s just the few blocks. So public is called black downtown, um, uh, between east 11th and east 12th street black downtown with, with, with, with, with the clubs such as the, the victory grill and the, uh, also the Southern diet. Uh, that the hotel that was up the street, that, that doctor, that, that Mr.

Chase, uh, um, um, built R R or, or was a part of the construction of the, uh, the fact that on east 12th street, we’ve had, uh, the Harlem theater on east 12th street, east 12th street was heavily residential, uh, as well. And just a Stone’s throw from in 1952. Well, that was the year that, that Samuel Houston merged with Tillotson two separate schools within a Stone’s throw of each other and this particular, um, place and they merged.

And these two schools relocated to the campus until. So a lot of things where we’re going on and this house, I mean, this, this building was in the midst of it and the design, the fact that it started out as the color teachers association building, uh, that, that, that, that hearkens back to the course that brings up racial segregation.

But the fact too, that, uh, this, in this particular, in this community, as well as throughout Texas in black communities, people were organizing, there were associations, there were, uh, fraternal associations, professional associations, um, uh, like the, the colored teachers association. And just to just, just the impact that, that had on east Austin itself and its spread to, to the rest of Texas, as well as the rest of the nation.

And this was at a time of course, racial segregation and the fact that. Then over half of the streets and east office, and we’re not paying. And yet you had this, these, these, these things, um, in, in, in buildings, uh, you have progress. People were still going forward. Uh, they, they, they didn’t let, uh, inconveniences like unpaid streets or, uh, lack of good lighting.

They didn’t let that hinder them. They, they truly made a way out of no way. Absolutely. And in some cases it was the seventies before some of the roads were paved, um, over, over, I would say half of the streets and black east Austin weren’t paid until the seventies and in Mexican east Austin, unfortunately it was even worse.

Uh, uh, I mean that’s a shame. Yes. Yes. Thank you. I really am. I don’t have much to add because these amazing colleagues have done it. And every time I hear Harrison, I’ve learned something new every single time. Yes. Where are the works that you’ve done? And right now I would just say that if we’re talking about this as we’re in this space, and you’re like, I don’t know about that.

I know about the case building. I’m really, um, I’ve been really in a space, especially the last two years. I just watched her farm. We’re getting away from the narrative of black Austin and we really have to pay for ourselves at one of the core tenets around culture is not the spark curiosity. And so if you have been to that area and you see names that you are not familiar, right.

Or you, um, I, I really encourage people to think about what it is. You don’t know when you’re in east Austin and then get curious enough to find it. So that we don’t keep perpetuating this space where it’s not important in that it’s the story. The narrative is important. We can’t really, you know, move things forward.

If you don’t know, you know, the parents and, and so everything my colleagues said, and you know, how do we then sit in these spaces and create a culture around curiosity and, and, uh, things are going so fast. And the pace is so busy in Austin, and we have to be more intentional about knowing and how that informs where we move forward in the city, where we honor a lot of times woes and development, and think we have to then eliminate history and.

So that’s all I have to add there. Cause my colleagues there and it’s setting.

Thanks for joining us for our first episode of the year. The second half of this robust discussion will be featured in our next episode until then keep up with the center for community engagement on social media at UT underscore CCE on Twitter and Instagram at U Texas CCE on Facebook or visit our website diversity UEX EDU community engagement.