AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Justice Coalition (AJC) has recently been working to release a report on the "State of Black Austin," measuring the quality of life of Black residents over the past 16 years.
While the full study done by Measure has not yet been released to the public, an executive summary was released on February 29, 2024.
In it, Measure claims Black Austinites have faced discrimination in arts and culture, business and economics, education and employment, health and wellness and place and territory.
For example, one part of the summary states that in 2019, Black households made a median 54 cents to the dollar compared to white households.
Read the full summary here.
The Austin Justice Coalition (AJC) held a "State of Black Austin" address Feb. 21, which started at 3 p.m. at Stateside at The Paramount Theatre, located at 719 Congress Ave.
The address discussed issues faced by Black Austinites with the hope of making changes.
In 2008, the city of Austin's African American Quality of Life Initiative released a report on racial disparities. A Black-owned research organization called Measure looked at the report and analyzed the city's actions since then.
AJC Executive Director Chas Moore said the report details that not a lot of progress has been made since the study.
"None of those recommendations have been implemented. Not much has happened and things have gotten slightly worse," Moore said. "You know, that's 16 years ago. So, you know, just really want to take a moment to, like, say, 'Hey, yet again, the Black community often has not been heard.'"
The report also shows that as Austin has grown, the city's Black population has declined. It also found 80% of Black survey respondents did not feel a sense of belonging in Austin.
The address Wednesday highlighted different disparities in education, health care and economic opportunities for Black people in Austin. It also identified areas of improvement and policies that could make things better.
Moore said such changes are crucial.
"It's not been taken care of. And, you know, like, at some point, we have to do something about it or we won't be here. We just won't be here," he said.
Some potential changes, according to Moore, could include rights to return for Black people who have been forced out of neighborhoods by racist zoning laws or gentrification.
Other changes could involve more internships into major companies around Austin for Black students and investing in Black entrepreneurship and businesses.
A spokesperson for the city of Austin provided the following statement in response the State of Black Austin address:
“We haven’t had a chance to review the report nor were we involved in the research or reporting, so we are unable to offer a comment on it at this time.”
The full report is expected to be released soon.