Clarksville, TX

The town of Clarksville, TX was the first established "freed man" (former slave) community west of the Mississippi.  It originally was just outside the city of Austin, TX.  

The area was originally part of a 365-acre (148 ha) tract of land belonging to Texas Governor Elisha Pease, and in 1871 was sold to Charles Clark, a freedman who would start the community that now bears his name. Clark built a house on what is now West Tenth Street and subdivided the remainder of the land to other freedman. Just a mile west of Austin, Clarksville soon became a de facto part of the city, especially when the International-Great Northern Railroad laid tracks nearby in the 1870s. The Sweet Home Baptist Church, a cornerstone of the community to this day, was founded prior to 1882, and a school existed as early as the 1890s.  At least six communities of emancipated slaves existed around Austin including Wheatville (founded by celebrated Austin black leaderReverend Jacob Fontaine), Pleasant Hill, and Clarksville.^[3]

However, early in the twentieth century developers began to realize the land value of Clarksville, which lay near growing downtown Austin. Austin city policy aimed to concentrate the local black population in the east, and pressured black communities in west Austin, such as Clarksville and Wheatville, to move. In 1918 the Austin school board closed the Clarksville school. Clarksville residents were later forced to use city services in east Austin or none at all. The 1928 master plan of the city of Austin embraced Jim Crow and recommended "that all the facilities and conveniences be provided the Negroes in this district, as an incentive to draw the Negro population to this area." Most Clarksville residents endured the lack of services, however, and refused to move.^[4] In 1968 Clarksville residents unsuccessfully protested a state and local plan to build a highway along the Missouri Pacific Railroad, which extended along the western boundary of Clarksville. The completed Mopac Expressway sliced through the community, forcing 33 families to leave.