Ryan Runcie<\/a> was the only artist who came to mind to paint the mural \u2014 largely due to his talent, but also because he wanted a Black artist to honor the shop\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\u201cWe still see people making decisions based on their identity,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cSo I thought his identity would be well-suited for the historical identity of a barbershop \u2014 a Black barbershop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Runcie, known for community-centered murals and vibrant multicolored portraits, said he worked closely with the Hill family to tell their stories. His mural will feature QR codes linked to his interviews with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully the stories help to extend the history beyond who [Leonard] was as a person,\u201d Runcie said.<\/p>\n
He also worked with the family to map the mural\u2019s layout. It features elements like barbers cutting hair, St. John Baptist Church and a baseball player \u2014 each symbolizing parts of Leonard Hill\u2019s character and legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a fun way to capture who he was and how he impacted the community,\u201d Runcie said.<\/p>\n
The mural centers a portrait of Leonard and his wife, Rosa Hill, painted in Runcie\u2019s signature polychromatic style.<\/p>\n
![\"Kendell](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763985115_598_\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Kendell Wallace and Cornell Hill pose for a photograph at Ideal Barber Shop earlier this month. Wallace’s father opened the shop in 1948.<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind every good man is a woman,\u201d Kendell Hill, one of the Hills\u2019 eight children, said. \u201cMy mother was part of the process; she helped that barbershop to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kendell’s older sister, Joycelyn Hill Catron, said they grew up in a segregated society, so her parents emphasized Black pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were always told that we were not better than anyone, but to be proud of who we were,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Leonard extended this mentality to his shop.<\/p>\n
Until 1966, Texans had to pay a tax to vote, which stood as a barrier for low-income residents and heavily impacted Black communities. But Kendell said her father valued civic engagement, so he registered his shop as a poll tax collection site. A Black-owned site was a less hostile alternative to paying at the county courthouse, Wallace said.<\/p>\n
To honor that initiative, the mural will feature a ballot box.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were not the ‘big civil rights leaders,\u2019\u201d Wallace said. \u201cNonetheless, they were still touching the lives and heads of all the people from every walk of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the mural focuses on the Hill family\u2019s story, Wallace said, it isn’t just about them. This is reflected in the text Runcie will incorporate in the work: \u201cAn East Side Story.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that there are many thousands of Black families in East Austin that have similar stories,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Cornell](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763985115_61_\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Cornell Hill keeps hair clippers and a brush passed down from his grandfather at the barbershop. <\/p>\n
Cornell Hill, who co-owns and runs the shop today, noted that he still keeps his grandfather\u2019s razor and the first set of clippers he gifted him. Like his grandfather, he welcomes everybody to his shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m open to anybody who wants to come in [for a] cut \u2014 straight hair, Afro hair,\u201d Hill said. \u201cBecause hair is hair. \u2026 We’re one nation under God, meaning we need to learn to deal with all walks of life \u2014 in hair textures and hairstyles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pink and orange hues set the backdrop of a mural featuring the couple who opened Ideal Barber Shop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,10533,2924,32923,32065,32924],"class_list":{"0":"post-62686","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-austin-tx","12":"tag-east-austin","13":"tag-gentrification","14":"tag-mural","15":"tag-ryan-runcie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62686","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=62686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}