Eastside gentrification threatens Black history and spaces in Austin, San Antonio

Black history has deep roots in Central Texas. From the historically marked landmarks and art to the preserved buildings and institutions, San Antonio and Austin’s eastside neighborhoods are more alike than you may think. 

The streets of East San Antonio and East Austin are home to the origins of Black history and community in each city. Although gentrification has made it harder to find the remnants hidden in plain sight, preservationists and social activists are trying to keep these relics alive.

Roughly 7% of San Antonio’s population is Black, while close to 8% of Austin’s population is Black, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Despite the single digit numbers, these communities have made huge impacts on each city, leading important issues on civil rights, displacement, and affordable housing.

“They accomplished a lot in this city and they were a powerful voting block,” said Logic Allah, co-founder of San Antonio Black History Tours. “Seeing the power of just a small population, but they held a lot of weight.”

Segregation led to African Americans forming communities on each city’s eastside. In the 1700s, Spanish and Black settlers arrived in San Antonio from the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa. But the Black, darker-skinned settlers were not treated equally among white Spaniards and were forced to live separately on the east side of the San Antonio River.

As slavery continued throughout Texas in the 1800s, St. Paul Square became the center of the Black community in East San Antonio. The first Historically Black churches in the city — St. Paul United Methodist in 1866 and Mt. Zion First Baptist in 1871 — were founded as safe havens for African Americans, while racial tensions remained high in the South before and during the Jim Crow era.

Just up the road from the Alamo City, Austin began to see similar changes. Although African Americans had already been around Austin since even before enslavement, by 1928 the City of Austin designated its eastside of downtown as the “Negro District.” African Americans were forced to relocate there despite establishing Freedmen’s Communities like Clarksville in Central Austin.

Over the years, East Austin grew tremendously with Black-owned stores, clubs, restaurants, and schools flourishing in the area. Meanwhile, I-35 was built and divided the city in half with people of color on the east side and white Austinites on the other.

It wasn’t until the 90s and early 2000s that things started to quickly and drastically change in East Austin, more than East San Antonio. Nelson Linder — elected president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, in 2000 — said East Austin still had a predominately Black community until the price of living increased in the city and wealthier, white people began moving to the Eastside.

“The city was changing. You had gentrification, displacement — so people were being gradually pushed out — and also higher taxes,” Linder told MySA. “There were a lot more changes taking place in terms of housing and Black folks being pushed further north, northeast, and south.”

“Austin for a long time has been sort of moving east,” Linder said. “For a lot of reasons, one it’s very convenient to property owners for their taxes, land, and jobs. So what happened is that it became very expensive and those cost factors pushed African Americans out and it opened up the whole East Austin to the greater population.”

Linder added that East Austin’s prime real estate for companies and new Austinites has impacted the large racial wealth gap in the city. That means people of color are getting paid less than their white counterparts, and it is harder for them to comfortably live in proximity to their occupations.

KUT reporting reveals that between 2011 and 2021, the median sales price of a home in Austin climbed from $234,000 to $565,000. Four decades ago, Black families made about 90% of East Austin. As of 2023, that number stands at roughly 30%.

Recently, the City of Austin has been building more affordable housing for its residents and offered monthly cash incentives for those in need. But Linder said the rising cost of living still continues to be a huge problem, which is one of the main differences between East Austin and East San Antonio. 

“Unlike San Antonio, where the cost of living is still manageable, the cost of living here is so high right now,” Linder said. “It’s very difficult to really balance Austin living because of housing costs, and also the income gap, because the truth is folks that are coming here, can afford to live here and we talk about trying to make a city more cost effective for everybody.”

Eastside San Antonians started experiencing gentrification in the mid-2000s. Esteban López Ochoa, an assistant professor in the UTSA School of Architecture and Planning, noted in his research to track national neighborhood trends that San Antonio’s position as a Sun Belt city has contributed to its rapid population and economic growth.

San Antonio’s external appeal poses a problem similar to Austin, which is that the city already lacks space for its own occupants. Ochoa points to the Dignowity Hill neighborhood as one of the fastest changing areas in the city.

In 2015, Dignowity Hill’s average median home value was estimated at $69,000, but in six years it increased to $271,000 in 2021. The neighborhood’s median income also jumped from $26,000 in 2015 to $55,000 in 2021.

New modern condominium homes have also become widely popular on the Eastside in recent years, while some older homes with Black families still remain. The thought of spreading gentrification, even as a possibility, is raising red flags in the community.

“East Austin, I feel like hasn’t fully happened yet,” said Cristal Mendez, San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum historian. “I feel like there’s not enough white people that have moved in yet, but if that’s the pattern, if that’s where we’re headed, it could very much start to look like East Austin, which is kind of terrifying to think about.”

San Antonio and Austin’s eastside neighborhoods are still full of Black history to this day. Both cities’ eastsides are home to Historically Black Colleges (HBCU) like St. Phillips College in San Antonio and Huston-Tillotson University in Austin. 

Black-owned businesses like Tony G’s soul kitchen on the Eastside of San Antonio are still thriving and “old Austin” restaurants like Sam’s Barbecue remain in operation, even after years of multi-million dollar property offers.

Organizations like Six Square cultural district in Austin were created to help preserve and celebrate the legacy of the once-thriving Black community in East Austin. The same is true with places like the SAAACAM that hosts events and visits San Antonio’s historically Black churches to record oral histories of Black elders and their family ties to the Alamo City.

“There’s also a lot of archival issues in documenting Black history,” Mendez said. “What’s so great about these churches is that they have been able to thrive and survive over the years [because] stories get passed down. So, that’s the history that we’re looking to capture is through talking to folks and seeing what they remember.”

In Austin, Black residents tend to now commute to the eastside for church or school, but Linder believes the loss of the Black community may never be fully restored in East Austin. He’s hopeful the city could help set land aside for the city’s historic Black institutions such as the Lions Municipal Golf course, the first desegregated municipal golf course, to make it easier for people to continue to learn about and enjoy what’s left for years to come.

However, the fight to preserve and secure these spaces has not been without struggle, and the future of these areas is still up in the air.

“When I see the country today, especially Austin, Texas. I don’t see East Austin coming back,” Linder said. “I think you have a few folks who are still here for various reasons for Black and brown, but in general, the city is everywhere and we’re running out of land and fight.”