City Forum: Dr. Eric Tang, Associate Professor, African & African Diaspora Studies

Between 2000 and 2010, Austin had the distinction of being the only major-growing city in the United States to simultaneously see a loss in its Black population. No other city with over half a million people, and which experienced more than ten percent population growth during this decade saw any losses of Black residents. This statistic not only made Austin an outlier among its peers, but it also seemed to run counter to Austin's external reputation as a welcoming, progressive and diverse city. For many of the city's Black residents, the data affirmed what they had known for a long time: the Black population in Austin was vanishing, and it had much to do with the city's long history of segregation, which in recent decades has given way to gentrification.