Andrew Weber, KUT, March 4, 2021
The Austin City Council has formally apologized for its role in perpetuating racist policies that contributed to historical equity, health and wealth gaps that persist for Black Austinites.
A resolution, which passed unanimously Thursday, also directs the city to quantify the impact of systemic racism in real dollars and invest in an effort to build a Black “embassy” in East Austin, which would serve as a resource center for Black residents.
Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison, who led the effort on council to pass the resolution, said the measure is symbolic but it’s also an important step in addressing the city’s racist past. Shortly before the vote, Harper-Madison said she hopes the resolution will more tangibly address what she called a “chasm of inequality, of inequity” between Black and White Austinites.
Rapper, activist and East Austin native Nook Turner at a press conference announcing the creation of the Black Austin Coalition, a group that s called on the city to formally address systemic racism in its historical policies – and invest more intentionally in Black Austin communities.
The Austin City Council has formally apologized for its role in perpetuating racist policies that contributed to historical equity, health and wealth gaps that persist for Black Austinites.
The resolution, which passed unanimously, also directs the city to quantify the impact of systemic racism in real dollars and invest in an effort to build a Black embassy in East Austin, which would serve as a resource center for Black residents.
City of Austin apologizes for role in disenfranchising Black people fox7austin.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from fox7austin.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Austin
City Council has officially apologized for the role the city has played and may still be playing to disenfranchise
Black Austinites – from the city’s founding in 1839, when the local economy depended on slave labor, through today as disparities between Black and white Austinites persist.
As in all Texas cities, Austin’s early economy relied on the labor of enslaved people, working in agriculture around Central Texas and to haul those goods to market. After Emancipation (commemorated in Texas with the observance of
Juneteenth), freedom settlements of Black men and women grew in places on all sides of the 19th-century urban core – such as
City Council meets Thursday, March 4, to take up additional relief measures for people impacted financially by
Winter Storm Uri. These include $5 million to both
Austin Water and
Austin Energy to fund the
Plus-One payment assistance programs at each utility, which provide bill relief to customers experiencing financial hardship. Council expanded the program in April 2020 in response to the unfolding
COVID-19 pandemic.
Another proposal from Austin Energy would waive its $20 service initiation fee for new customers, so that those forced to relocate due to storm damage can avoid the fee. That ordinance would also waive a $10 service charge on February bills for all customers. Together, those relief measures will cost the utility about $4.7 million and will be in effect until at least April 3. Austin Water will also adjust its billing, using historical averages for customers water usage instead of actual data from February to offset days of dripping faucets. The fee for emerg