On one East Austin corner, Bobby Mitchell operates Ideal Soul Mart, Ideal Beauty Salon, and Swamp Daddy’s Cajun food truck. Inches away, Charles Carver operates a law office from an Airstream in the parking lot. The convergence of these varied services is emblematic of the new businesses moving into the neighborhood.
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12th & Chicon: Honoring Austin Blacks in Baseball
The Black Senators, Austin’s black baseball team in the first part of the 20th century, played at Downs Field in East Austin. The field is now home to the Huston-Tillotson University Rams. Houston artist Reginald Adams and members of the East Austin senior center are commemorating the players by crafting murals.
12th & Chicon: Saving Emancipation Park
A parcel of land in the Chestnut neighborhood of East Austin was once home to the city’s annual Juneteenth celebration. Now, it’s the proposed site of a new development that neighbors say would undermine its historical significance.
12th & Chicon: What a New Business Owner Sees
Executive Chef and Owner of Big Easy Bar & Grill Darold Gordon, has brought a taste of his hometown of New Orleans to the neighborhood. He opened his restaurant in 2013, about eight years after Hurricane Katrina forced him to move to Central Texas. His restaurant is where the old Club 40 used to be in East Austin.
12th & Chicon: ‘Shepherd’ of East Austin Funerals
Barry J.W. Franklin of King Tears Mortuary has been in the funeral business since he was in high school. King Tears Mortuary, located at 12th and San Bernard streets in East Austin.
12th & Chicon: Charlie’s Playhouse
Charlie’s Playhouse was a blues club entertaining the predominantly black neighborhood in east Austin when it opened in the late 1950s. Within a decade the audience integration was pushing the regulars out, and in 1971 Charlie’s closed. The community is working so history doesn’t repeat itself, on the same block.
12th & Chicon: Businesses Adapting
A drug market intervention by the Austin Police Department in 2012 changed the activities previously common to 12th & Chicon. Despite the positives from this effort, there have been downsides too. Several of the long-standing businesses in the area are learning to adapt to the new 12th & Chicon.
12th & Chicon: By the Light of the Moon
A handful of new bars and nightclubs have cropped up recently near 12th and Chicon streets. To some it’s a resurgence from decades ago, except the clientele has become much more mixed.
12th & Chicon: Braces for Change
Neighbors and business owners on 12th & Chicon’s Southeast Corner in East Austin know it’s just a matter of time before change will come and impact them. A few of these residents shared their insight and history with us.
12th & Chicon: Staying Put
Many of longtime neighbors have opted to sell their property and move away from East Austin, but Brian Mays, one of the owners of Sam’s BBQ, is staying put. Mays talks about how the community around him has changed over the past few years.
A Tribute to Shirley Chisholm (Ep. 51, 2015)
IBA presents a tribute to the late Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, former congresswoman from New York’s 12th congressional district and the first African-American woman elected to Congress.
Education with Dr. John B. Diamond (Ep. 48, 2015)
Dr. John B. Diamond, co-author of “Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools,” shares his thoughts on race, class and education in society, now and in our country’s past.
Television history with Dr. Gayle Wald, Pt. 2 (Ep. 46, 2015)
The conclusion of our conversation with Dr. Gayle Wald, professor of English and American studies at George Washington University and author of “It’s Been Beautiful: Soul! And Black Power Television.”
A Tribute to the late John Hope Franklin (Ep. 3, 2014)
An examination of the career and legacy of John Hope Franklin, distinguished and prolific scholar and historian of African American history.