Austin's Freedmen Communities & What Remains

Before there was a "Negro District," there were freedom colonies — neighborhoods built by formerly enslaved people all across Austin, anchored by churches and schools and the simple, radical act of owning land. Many were erased. Some you can still walk through today.

In the broader history of East Austin, I covered how the 1928 City Plan funneled Black residents east of the line that became I-35. This piece is about what came before that line — and what survived it.

What Was a Freedmen Community?

After Juneteenth and the end of slavery in Texas, formerly enslaved people traveled to Austin, where the regional Freedmen's Bureau helped them find housing and work. The city was hostile, so they did what communities do under pressure: they built their own. These freedom colonies emerged around the edges of town — often on land prone to flooding or otherwise undesirable to white residents — and were frequently denied basic city services.

They were small but self-sufficient, organized around family ties, shared faith, and self-help organizations. Above all, they were anchored by churches and schools. By 1870, Austin was roughly 37% Black, and more than a dozen of these communities dotted the city.

The Communities, One by One

Clarksville (1871) — West Austin

Founded after Governor E.M. Pease granted lots from his former plantation land, Clarksville is the freedom colony that most fully survives today. It remains a recognized historic neighborhood on the west side, still anchored by Sweet Home Baptist Church, founded in 1896. If you want to stand in a living freedmen community, this is where you go.

Wheatville (1867) — Near Present-Day UT

Named for founder James Wheat, Wheatville grew above Shoal Creek between roughly 24th and 26th Streets near Rio Grande. It had its own school (established 1881) and New Hope Baptist Church (1887), founded by the prominent Reverend Jacob Fontaine. Today the old Wheatville newspaper offices house Freedmen's Bar — a name that nods directly to the community's roots.

Masontown — East of Downtown

Begun by the Mason brothers — stone and brick contractors who were the area's first property owners — Masontown sat roughly between 3rd and 6th Streets near Chicon and Waller. Sam and Nancy Wilson opened a grocery at 1308 East 4th Street in 1871; that site is now the Scoot Inn. The community was bisected and ultimately broken up by railroad construction, an early example of infrastructure dismantling a Black neighborhood.

Robertson Hill — East of Downtown

Arguably a center of Black cultural life, Robertson Hill rose just east of downtown near 11th to 14th Streets. Its most enduring legacy: the West Texas Methodist Conference established Samuel Huston College here in 1876, the seed of what became Huston-Tillotson University — Austin's oldest institution of higher education, still operating today.

And Others

• Pleasant Hill — east of Waller Creek, among the earliest communities.
• Kincheonville — a farming community in what is now southwest Austin, near Brodie Lane.
• Burditt's Prairie / Montopolis, Belle Hill, and more — some leaving only a cemetery or a marker behind.

Why They Disappeared

Some freedom colonies faded through ordinary forces — the Great Depression, World War II, and migration. But many were actively dismantled: bisected by railroads, starved of city services, and ultimately emptied by the 1928 plan that concentrated Black life east of East Avenue. The story of these communities is inseparable from the story of how Austin chose to segregate itself.

The Living Thread

What moves me about this history is how much of it is still here, if you know where to look. The churches still hold services. The university still graduates students. The names still adorn neighborhoods and bars and streets. When I walk East Austin, I'm walking through the descendant geography of those colonies — and that continuity is a big part of why I chose to live here.