I was elated to attend and document the Growing Your Roots 2020: The Inaugural African American Genealogy Conference. Kicking off Black History Month (January 30th to Feburary 2nd, 2020) , the conference was the first of its kind to grace Austin, let alone the state of Texas. Dozens gathered at the Austin Central Library over the weekend to partake in various panel discussions, workshops and tours. Thursday night’s opening reception was lead by Mr. Tommy Wyatt, Editor in Chief of the Villager, as he discussed the history of Austin’s community newspaper.
Day two of the conference was lead by keynote speaker Dr. Edmund T. Gordon, Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Anthropology of the African Diaspora at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Gordon gave an intriguing keynote about Jacob Fontaine and Austin’s census history.
Day three of the conference has been nothing short of amazing! From panels to workshops, attendees received insightful information about Austin’s Black History. I had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Alvin Blakes who attended the conference with his granddaughter all the way from Garland, TX. “I’ve been researching my family history for about twenty years, trying to get enough information and stories so that I can present them to my grandchildren,” he expressed. “Her being here is very significant. Twenty years from now when she sees this she’ll know she was at this conference and what the information meant to me for me to present to her.”
It’s no secret that Austin has fallen victim to gentrification over the last 10 or so years. Panelist actually touched on this briefly during the Legacy Families Panel. “You would be surprised how much or how less people have paid to take over those properties (in reference to homes owned by older or late loved ones). It’s just a trip to the tax office to find out how much back taxes are,” Tisha Christopher explains. “All they have to do is run an ad in the newspaper to show that they attempted to look for the owner, and if no one answers that ad they can go ahead and pay those back taxes and they own that property.” Ms. Christopher continued by urging attendees to all they can to keep property in the family. “One thing that we can do is to make sure that if know of properties that belong to families that no one is taking care of is to contact them. If you don’t personally have the money, put the money together and pay the taxes on those properties so that those are not just sitting ducks for some corporation to come in and take,” said Christopher.
Day four of the conference was definitely one for the books and one of my personal favorites as an artist. The day’s festivities included city-wide genealogy self guided tour and exhibition opening reception for distinguished photographer, Kris Graves’ “Testament Project.” Graves, a New York native, created the Testament Project to explore and reimagine the black experience in a contemporary America.
“To feel apart of a community that isn’t mine is so amazing.” Graves said. “I think it is really important to be apart of the community. I hope things like this [the genealogy conference] happen even more. This town [Austin] looks like it changed a lot over the last five years. And it doesn’t look like it changed for the better of black people or people of color. So it is very important to keep fighting what we consider inevitable. To be apart of this, all my work is about family, our lives. It’s extremely important,” Graves emphasized.
Graves’ exhibit was on display until February 29, 2020 at the Central Library Gallery.
I had the chance to sit down with Kymberly Keeton, the African American Community Archivist and Librarian for the Austin History Center Austin Public Library to get a better understanding on how the conference came to be. When asked how, Ms. Keeton said she was initially approached by Tisha Christopher who had items to donate to the Austin History Center, and how she wanted to to put together an event around them. The pair eventually decided to put together the conference and began the necessary work to create such an event roughly in June 2019. Six months of vigorous hard work eventually payed off. “The roots are just as important as the leaves,” Keeton said. “We need to remember from where we came. We’re always growing. Your history is important…Black History in Austin is Important.”
When asked that the future of the conference looks like, Keeton replied “I could see this happening every other year, because it take a lot of works to put something like this together for it to be free and making sure you have enough adequent space for everyone.”
If you would like to donate photographs, records, etc. to the Austin History Center to be archived, please contact Ms. kYmberly Keeton at kymberly.keeton@austintx.gov or via phone at (512)-974-7390 .
Written By Shalnora Worlds
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