AUSTIN, Texas — There are Black freedom communities throughout many cities across Texas, like Austin, Dallas and Houston. These communities were formed by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War.
The history of Austin’s Black freedom communities are stories that have often been overlooked as the neighborhoods continue to transform. People with a passion for preserving that history are doing everything they can to shed light on it.
“Oftentimes in these communities and colonies, you saw churches, schools and homes, and oftentimes the churches were really the cornerstone of the community,” said Funmi Ogunro, a film editor from Austin.
Stephanie L. Lang grew up in East Austin, and her family’s ties to the area stretch back several generations.
“My great-grandmother lived here, and my grandmother was born just down this street,” said Lang as she drove Spectrum News through the streets of East Austin.
Lang explains the significance of Robertson Hill, a neighborhood she grew up around and one of Austin’s many historic Black freedom communities.
“This neighborhood, I would say arguably, is the core of East Austin,” Lang said. “The first kind of freedom community where a lot of these other communities came from.”
She and Ogunro share a passion for explaining the importance of these communities and have been working on a documentary called “Rise” to bring Austin’s Black history to the forefront and preserve it.
“It started off as a documentary where we were interviewing descendants from these different communities, and then it evolved into not only a film but also a community archive,” Ogunro said.
Given the current political landscape and many historians’ concerns about the erasure of Black history, the filmmaking duo feels it’s an important time to continue educating people.
“It’s even more important for us to claim it, reclaim it, take it back, contextualize it ourselves, and we can’t stop,” Lang said. “We can’t stop doing it.”