Black Austin Tours<\/a> leads walking tours through historically Black neighborhoods, highlighting churches, homes, murals and businesses that shaped East Austin and beyond. This month, the company is also spotlighting other Austinites who have spent decades preserving the city\u2019s Black history \u2014 work found Javier Wallace says has long been happening behind the scenes.<\/p>\n\u201cPeople have been doing this work for decades,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On a Tuesday morning, a Road Scholar tour group gathered along East 11th Street, listening as their guide pointed out landmarks and shared stories tied to the area\u2019s past.<\/p>\n
The tour stops included historic churches like Ebenezer Baptist Church, once a cornerstone of the community, and Victory Grill \u2014 a former juke joint where legendary Black musicians, including Tina Turner and James Brown, performed during segregation.<\/p>\n
Along the way, participants also met people who continue to shape Austin\u2019s Black community today, including longtime civil rights leader Nelson Linder of the Austin NAACP.<\/p>\n
The tours don\u2019t shy away from conversations about change. Guides encourage dialogue about gentrification and what\u2019s been lost \u2014 and what remains \u2014 in East Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome things change. Others remain the same,\u201d tour guide Julia Norwood told the group.<\/p>\n
Norwood is the operations manager for Black Austin Tours. She said research is at the core of every tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go to the Austin History Center, the Harry Ransom Center, all the different museums around and gather as much information as we can,\u201d Norwood said. \u201cThere\u2019s lots of reading and research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallace is a native Austinite whose family history in the city dates back to the 1820s. He now teaches at Duke University, but his passion for Austin history led him to start giving tours while pursuing his PhD at the University of Texas in 2017.<\/p>\n
At first, those tours were offered through Airbnb Experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re taking 20 percent commission every time somebody comes,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s not gonna happen anymore. Let me do this for real.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Read the full story at our news partner KVUE.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Black History Month, one Austin company is working to preserve the history of the city\u2019s African American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,9713,542,354,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-163957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-dating","12":"tag-reports","13":"tag-restaurants","14":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}