Volume I, Chapter 2: Clarksville
This week on Regrounding the Landscape, we are focusing on Clarksville, one of the largest and oldest freedom communities in Austin.
For Planting Justice, a UTSOA studio led by James A. Lord and Roderick Wyllie of San Francisco firm Surfacedesign, MLA candidate Joseph Berek has created a video exploring the history of Clarksville, the city of Austin’s attempts to dismantle it, and what Clarksville looks like today.
Historic Clarksville: Lessons From a Freedman’s Town
Clarksville was founded in 1871 by Charles Griffin Clark, a formerly enslaved person who was born in Mississippi in 1820. Elias Mayes, a state legislator, lived near Clark’s homestead, and he and his wife, Maggie, were pivotal early members of the community. The Mayeses helped create Clarksville’s first school, which operated out of the Sweet Home Baptist Church. The first houses were “Cumberland” style, meaning they were built with found materials, had batten sides and often had wood shingle roofs. The area at the time was heavily wooded, and members of the community raised cows, pigs, and chickens.
From 1891–1970, a hospital founded for Confederate veterans called the Texas Confederate Home was located near Clarksville. The presence was a painful reminder of the history of slavery, but many members of the Clarksville community had to work there as caretakers since it was one of the limited jobs available to them.
The one-room Clarksville School stood at the current location of Mary Baylor Park, 1811 W. 11th, and offered first- through fourth-grade classes to African-Americans from 1916 to 1965; it was closed after Austin's public schools were integrated. The chalkboard in the background reads, in part, "Do to others as you ...." (via the Clarksville Community Development Corporation via the Austin Chronicle)
The Hezikiah Haskell House was built in the 1870s and was owned by Mary and Edwin Smith. They used the home for religious services and community events, and today is one of the last remnants of the Cumberland-style house. Today, the building, which takes its name from Hezikiah “Kye” Haskell—the Smiths’ son-in-law, a Union soldier, Buffalo Soldier, and member of the Black Cavalry—it is still used for community events, and has a community garden in the back.
In 1917, as part of the Buchanan v. Warley case, the Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal to use zoning laws to enforce segregation. In response, the city of Austin instead began to use deed laws and redlining to prohibit Black residents from renting or purchasing homes. The 1928 Master Plan (PDF) was one of the first attempts by the city to push Black communities to the east side of Austin. One way in which officials did this was to target basic services like trash and clean water, which the city refused to provide to Black communities, where waterways were polluted from trash dumping. To incentivize community members to move, the city finally began offering essential services, but only on the east side of town.
The Mopac (Missouri-Pacific) Expressway, built in 1971, was another mechanism the city of Austin used to push Black communities off of their land and to the east side of Austin, an area that was less developed. Before construction began, Clarksville spanned both sides of the Missouri Pacific Railroad line, located where the Mopac Expressway is today. The community fought to prevent the construction, but ultimately failed, and the project destroyed 33 homes and displaced about one third of community residents. However, they did stop the construction of an additional cross-town expressway, which would have completely destroyed any remaining homes. Clarksville was still left with a divide, and many members were forced to relocate.
Founded by activists in 1978, the Clarksville Community Development Center operates a number of homes in the neighborhood that it rents to low- and moderate-income families. Purchased with the aid of federal grants, loans, and donations, these homes are part of the organization’s affordable housing program.
The Clarksville Community Development Center is located in the Pauline Brown Clarksville Neighborhood Center (1807 W. 11th St., which hold public monthly meetings). Other important buildings still remaining in the neighborhood are the Sweet Home Baptist Church, which maintains services and hosts many community events, and the Mary Freeman Baylor Clarksville Park. The park was home to the Clarksville Colored School from 1916–1965, at which point Austin schools were finally integrated; to this day, it still serves as an important community space.
Read On: A Bibliography of Austin Freedom Communities
Dr. Andrea Roberts and Evan R. Thompson, “Saving Austin’s Freedom Colonies,” Preservation Texas, March 17, 2020.
Roberts, Andrea. The Texas Freedom Colonies Project.
Barnes, Michael, “Clarksville and Wheatville were not Austin’s only freedmen towns,” Austin American Statesman. December 11, 2018.
“The Early Freedman Communities (PDF),” Austin History Center via Austin Public Library.
“Origins of Clarksville,” Clarksville Community Development Corporation.
“A City Plan for Austin, Texas (PDF),” Koch and Fowler, Consulting Engineers, 1928, via The City of Austin.
Mears, Michelle. And Grace Will Lead Me Home: African-American Freedmen Communities of Austin, Texas, 1865-1928. (Texas Tech University Press, 2009).
Orton, Richard, “The Upshaws of County Line: An American Family.” (University of North Texas Press, 2014).
Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad, “Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow.” (University of Texas Press, 2005).
Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church, 1725 W. 11th St., Austin, Texas.
AROUND THE WEB THIS WEEK
Tonight! Join UTSOA and the Center of American Architecture and Design at 5 p.m. Central for “Sites of Black Agency at the Margins of the 40 Acres,” a dialogue between Dr. Tara Dudley and Dr. Ted Gordon about the Black Austinites who helped build the UT campus. (Can’t make it? Check the UTSOA lectures archive for videos of the event later this week.)
Acknowledge the Past This Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the UT Student ASLA Chapter would like to acknowledge the Indigenous lands our school occupies and the people who have been displaced. Learn more by reading about initiatives in Canada and First Nations communities to address the past through “nation-to-nation” dialogues.
Tune In On Día de Muertos (October 31), join the multidisciplinary graduate student organizers behind the (Re)claiming Memories project for The Necropolis Politic: Mourning, Reclamation & Preservation in BIPOC Sacred Spaces, a day-long symposium highlighting “scholarly and creative work that speaks to past and present knowledge of rituals for processing grief and loss, research on remembrance against acts of state-sponsored violence, and struggles for reclaiming historical memory.”
Get in Touch: We’d love to hear from you! Whether you have questions, comments, resources to share, or are looking to join our editorial team, send a note to Regrounding the Landscape at aslaaustinstudentchapter@gmail.com.