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When the United States purchased Louisiana in 1803, Spain declared that any enslaved person who crossed the Sabine River into Texas would be automatically freed. For a time, many enslaved ran away to Texas. Free blacks also emigrated to Texas. Most escapees joined friendly American Indian tribes, but others settled in the East Texas forests.When some French and Spanish slaveholders moved to Texas, they were allowed to retain their enslaved people -
Following Mexican Independence in 1821, the Mexican government adopted policies to gradually outlaw enslavement in the newly established country, but Anglo settlers actively worked to ensure slavery was preserved in Tejas. -
A number of enslaved African Americans arrived with Stephen F. Austin and his Anglo settlers in 1824. By the end of 1825, there were around 443 slaves in the colony —almost a quarter of its population. By the time that clashes with the Mexican government led to the Texas Revolution in 1835, more than 5,000 enslaved people lived in Texas. -
The Texas Constitution of 1836 gave more protection to slaveholders while further controlling the lives of enslaved people through new slave codes. The Texas Legislature passed increasingly restrictive laws governing the lives of free blacks, including a law banishing all free black people from the Republic of Texas. -
The Portal to Texas History, maintained by the University of North Texas Libraries, has a short biography of Mahala Murchison in its Texas History Collection. It reads, “Mahala Murchison, a ten year old mulatto girl, was the first Negro to appear in Austin. Four months after Austin was founded, Alexander Murchison arrived here to make his home on July 16, 1839. He was accompanied by his wife and maid, Mahala.” -
Texas's enslaved population grew rapidly: while there were 30,000 enslaved people in Texas in 1845, the census lists 58,161 enslaved African Americans in 1850. The number had increased to 182,566 by 1860. -
On February 1, 1861, Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union when a state convention votes 166 to 8 in favor of the measure. -
While the Emancipation Proclamation was passed in 1863, granting freedom to all enslaved Africans, news of it did not reach Texas until June 19, 1865, two months after the civil war ended. On that day, Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger read the proclamation aloud in Galveston. After that time, Austin became one of the many cities across Texas to participate in Juneteenth celebrations, where African Americans celebrated the abolition of slavery. -
By the late 19th century, Texas passed other Jim Crow laws. The system of school support was inadequate, and schools for racial minorities were seriously underfunded. -
The all-white, all-male, Austin City Council adopted the City Plan on March 22, 1928. Enforcement of the City Plan included termination of city utilities in order to force Black residents to leave neighborhoods like Clarksville, and move east. -
Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court with regard to voting rights and, by extension, racial desegregation. It overturned the Texas state law that authorized parties to set their internal rules, including the use of white primaries. -
Through organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), African Americans continued to work to regain their ability to exercise their civil and voting rights as citizens. The civil rights movement led to the U.S. Congress and President Lyndon Johnson passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protected the rights of all citizens to integrated public facilities and enforcement of voting rights. -
Eddie Bernice Johnson won a seat to the Texas House of Representatives in 1972, becoming the first Black woman ever elected to public office from Dallas and the first nurse elected to the Texas Congress. -
The Texas Legislative Black Caucus (TLBC) was created in 1973 by eight African Americans who were elected to the Texas House of Representatives. -
In 1979, Representative Al Edwards introduced a bill calling for Juneteenth to become an official state holiday. The act was signed into law in 1980. The first state-sponsored Juneteenth celebration took place that same year. -
Christia Adair, born in 1893, was a suffragist and civil rights advocate. After moving to Houston in 1925, she became active in the city’s NAACP branch, serving as its executive secretary for 12 years. She helped to desegregate much of Houston, including the public library, airport, veterans’ hospital, city buses, and department store dressing rooms. For her immense contributions to civil rights, Adair was inducted in the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1984.