The displacement and erasure of people of color in Austin is a known fact for communities themselves. Yet for decades, whites citizens and institutions dismissed this claim (along with claims that brown communities were over-policed) as hyperbolic. By the time researchers in gentrification took notice and reported hard numbers, many citizens had already moved on. These neighborhoods and the people in them were described as “bad” or “dangerous”.
In the attached publication, authors Stephanie Webb and Jamie DeAngelo deconstruct the legal framework in place that allowed the municipal government in Austin to implement specific (and damaging) policies, specifically urban renewal policies that directly targeted communities in East Austin.
The paper identifies the cause and effect relationship between these ordinances, the subsequent zoning and land use changes, and the incoming path of development.
Coercion_Control_Displacement_Austin
Header Image: Velma Roberts of the Black Citizens task Force speaking against the KKK at their rally in Austin in 1983.