This Land is Our Land | Austin's Freedom Towns

After emancipation, over 550 Black settlements emerged across Texas, offering safe havens for formerly enslaved folks seeking independence and liberation from oppression. Known as Freedom Towns or Freedom colonies, these intentional communities thrived, defying the perils of debt bondage, sharecropping, and racialized violence through self-sustainability and resilience from 1865-1930. But over the years, gentrification, cultural erasure, natural disasters, and land dispossession have threatened the very existence of these precious communities. Stephanie L. Lang, a descendant of the Clarksville neighborhood in Austin, Texas, takes us on a journey through this historic neighborhood to share the remarkable untold story of the Griffin family.

[@gl0bal7474]

Land stolen, labor stolen, history buried. Thank you for resurfacing this most important chapter in our history

[@LonnieJett]

Yes Love this Story

[@patdennis2586]

Thank you for sharing this American story.

[@LonnieJett]

I Love this Family tree.

[@ryanchatterjee]

As a born and raised Austinite this is such an interesting story. Amazing to see this family resist adversity and gentrification

[@LonnieJett]

I Love this Family tree.

[@florencejarmon1674]

God has truly bless our family. ❤

[@kathyrhambo5294]

My cousin's. I'm so glad she shared this with me. There were many other factors that led to remaing families moving from Clarksville that had been put into place to insure the lineages of the family founders would always remain in the area. This included the 1928 plan, board elections and voting exclusions. As well as help from city government.

[@cboxton7652]

Those are my Aunties! And part of my lineage

[@LonnieJett]

I Love this Family Tree