“Slavery never ended, it evolved-a brief history of involuntary servitude in Austin, TX”

When most people think of Austin, slavery and the oppression of black and brown people is not what comes to mind-but it is very much embedded into the fabric of the city, even in the Capital building. The remnants of this can be seen in our street signs, in our parks, schools, favorite swim holes and in our dwindled down 10% black population. The 1st black slaves were brought to Austin in 1839.(side note-Africans lived in Texas when it was Mexico under different rules since 1528), William Barton’s Slaves being some of the first. Williams Barton owned what is now called Barton Springs, a place where black people were forbidden from enjoying until the 1960s. Slave plantations decorated every part of the city-one of which was the Neil Cochran House. After emancipation, African Americans did well in Austin, establishing freedman communities in every corner of the city. This ended abruptly as the city, in an effort to segregate all black and brown people from whites, forced them East of the I35 freeway via the Koch and Fowler 1928 segregation plan. Also after emancipation, black codes and other Jim Crow laws created reasons for police to jail black people, in order to continue the tradition of free labor. Our Capital building was built by such convicts via convict leasing, by children as young as 12. This tradition of free labor, segregation and criminalization of black people has continued, taking different forms and adopting different names such as share cropping, debt servitude, convict leasing, penal labor, tough on crime policies and most recently the final shape shift of institutionalized racism, segregation and free labor through mass incarceration and surveillance programs. The common thread in all of these is the relegation of 2nd class citizenship and loss of freedom and property to a disproportionate amount of black and brown people justified by the clause in the 13th amendment that allows for slavery and involuntary servitude if convicted for a crime. The subject of my mural is Darwin Hamilton, a 5th generation Austinite, who’s family has been here since public legal slavery. At 19 He was arrested for possession of cocaine with intent to deliver and tax evasion for not having a personal use tax stamp affixed to the packaging. He went to jury trial and was sentenced to 22 1/2 years TDCJ. He worked for free in the fields, library, kitchen, electronics company and semi conductor company for state and private prisons for free and was released after 5 years. He is currently retired in Pflugerville after working in civil rights activism for many years. His family home, included in the mural was recently taken from him by the city under eminent domain(institutionalized land grabbing)-an all too common story for other black Austinites(ex. all of UT was black owned🫠) Everywhere you go in Austin, there are obvious, but well hidden remnants of this history…and all over the states, the desire for free labor, control and 2nd class citizenship of African Americans remains a central part of the American institution. The goal is remove the clause in the 13th amendment that still Allows for slavery so that we can end the one sided contractual agreement for forced free labor from African Americans in the US forever. Thank you to @abolishslaverytx @buildingpromises @grassrootsleadership @philadelphiamuralarts for trusting me with such a lofty and worthy cause and to @truthandjusticeleague for funding and creative freedom