blackaustintours

One of the reasons I wanted involved in Gone to Texas project was because of his ability to wrestle with questions of identity, belonging, memory, and what it means to move through the world as a Black man.

While in Brixton, Edward shared this poem for the first time.

LGone to Texas centers the life of Hemsley Coursey, a 17-year-old Black teenager who was sold from Maryland to New Orleans in 1835 and eventually forced to Texas through the domestic slave trade. Through his story we want to talk about the hundreds of thousands of enslaved Black folks forced to Texas and the result of their stolen labor - primarily cotton production. Yet this project has never been solely about the past.

It is also about the lives that emerged from that history.

It is about the ways Black people continue to navigate questions of identity, movement, place, and humanity across generations and across oceans.

That is why Edward’s voice is so important to this project.

His work helps us think about the connections between the young Black man whose life was forever altered in 1835 and the Black people of various nationalities who continue to make meaning of their lives in the present.

Listen closely.

is creating the sculpture for this project and is architecting how it will come together!

Part of this project is funded by the Elevate Grant from

What does Brixton, England have to do with Texas? Quite a lot, actually.

Gone to Texas (GTT), which is the story of slavery, cotton, and forced migration cannot be contained within a single state or even a single country.

That’s why I was excited to spend time in Brixton with , a South London essayist, poet, artist, grower, and researcher whose work explores identity, humanity, migration, memory, and anti-colonial thought.

I first encountered Edward’s work through a mutual connection and was immediately drawn to the ways he thinks about place, land, belonging, and the histories that shape who we become. His work documenting overlooked Black histories in England, including recovering the story of one of the first known Black gardeners in England, resonated deeply with what we’re trying to do through GTT.

Edward will contribute a series of original poems that engage the history of the domestic slave trade, the cotton economy, and the movement of people across the African Diaspora. His work will help us think through the connections between a young Black man in 1835 who was forced from Maryland to New Orleans and eventually Texas, and the global systems that connected those experiences to places like England.

The poems will accompany the sculpture that is creating for the project.
Because the cotton cultivated by enslaved people in the United States helped fuel Britain’s textile industry. Because migration stories continue to shape families and communities across generations. Because the consequences of these histories are still with us today.

Gone to Texas is not simply a story about Texas. Welcome to the project, Edward.

Part of this project is supported by the Elevate Grant of

When many people think of Black Austin, they think of East Austin. But Black history in Austin has never been confined to one side of town.

Clarksville, founded by formerly enslaved people in 1871, remains one of Austin’s most significant Freedom Colonies. Its history is also connected to nearby and the Pease family, whose wealth and landholdings were built in part through the labor of enslaved people. Some of those enslaved families and their descendants became part of the broader Clarksville community after emancipation.

While the 1928 City Plan concentrated many Black Austinites into East Austin, it’s important to remember that historic Black communities existed across the city. Clarksville residents fought to preserve their neighborhood through decades of displacement pressures, including urban renewal projects and the construction of MoPac.

Understanding Black Austin means understanding all of these stories.

🎥 Learn more on a tour with Black Austin Tours.

👕 And don’t forget to grab your limited-edition Juneteenth shirt before they’re gone. Link in bio!!

As a student at the I first encountered the phrase “Gone to Texas” as a celebration—a welcome event marking new beginnings, opportunities, and the start of a new journey.

But the more I studied Texas history, the more complicated that phrase became.

In the 1820s and 1830s, “Gone to Texas” was commonly associated with Anglo-American settlers moving into Mexican Texas. Many were attracted by the promise of land, wealth, and opportunity. For some, that opportunity depended on trafficking enslaved Africans and their descendants into Texas

As a Black Texan, this history forced me to think differently about a phrase I had once experienced as welcoming. Welcoming for whom? Opportunity for whom? And at what cost?

These questions are part of what makes Juneteenth so important. To understand the significance of emancipation in Texas, we must also understand how race-based slavery expanded into Texas in the first place. Freedom cannot be fully understood without confronting the systems of unfreedom that preceded it.

In this project, and through the work of artist , we engage the story of Hemsley Coursey, my 5th great grandfather, and others whose lives were shaped by this history. Their stories remind us that Texas was not simply settled—it was built through contested struggles over land, labor, race, and freedom. Jaiden, his 6th great grandson honored him in the sculpture.

Juneteenth is not just about the end of slavery. It is also about understanding how slavery came to Texas, how people survived it, and how their descendants continue to shape the story of this place today.

It’s June y’all. Juneteenth is loading. We are telling our stories all month. Also, we have our custom Juneteenth t-shirts for y’all!

These shirts have deep meaning and pull from the legacy of Black statement tees rooted in Juneteenth history.

LINK IN BIO!!!!

One thing about Black Austin Tours: we’re fortunate to work with young people who care deeply about their communities and civic engagement.

Here, , one of our tour guides and Tour Operations Manager, reflects on the importance of young people getting involved and shaping the future. Austin’s history reminds us that change often begins with youth willing to challenge the status quo.

During the 1940s and beyond, young Black Austinites and allies helped push back against segregation in public spaces through organizing, demonstrations, and direct action. Their efforts on Congress Avenue, at the Paramount Theatre, and throughout downtown helped lay the groundwork for a more inclusive city.

Austin did not change overnight, and it did not change on its own. It changed because ordinary people—many of them young people—decided to act.

These are some of the stories we explore on our Downtown Black History Tour, where we examine the vital role Black Austinites played in shaping the city we know today, including the foundations of the Live Music Capital of the World.

John Fisher, the artist behind Voices of East Austin on the exterior wall of the George Washington Carver Museum & Library, is truly an artistic genius. Many people see the mural, but don’t fully realize the depth of what they’re looking at.

Here, John explains the meaning behind the figure looking upward in the mural, a Blacksmith figure inspired by Dogon cosmology and beliefs about the world. He shares how the blacksmith represents the use of natural elements to create life force, transformation, and meaning.

What also makes this mural so important is the lineage behind it. Many people don’t know that while studying at Texas Southern University under legendary African American artists John T. Biggers and Alvia Wardlaw, John Fisher also received a fellowship from the Ford Foundation that allowed him to travel to West Africa to study different Indigenous artistic traditions and practices. Those experiences deeply influenced his artistic vision and can still be seen throughout his work here in Austin.

John Fisher is an Austinite, and this is one of the most important murals in the city of Austin. Sometimes on tour we get lucky enough to run into him while he’s restoring the mural and hear directly from the artist himself about the layers of history, culture, spirituality, and Black artistic tradition embedded into the work.

This is why public art matters. 🎨

One of the central questions behind Gone to Texas is how we tell truthful stories about slavery while centering the humanity of the people who lived through it and the descendants who carry those stories forward.

Too often, narratives about slavery focus on enslavers, traders, and systems of power. Their names fill the archives. Yet people like Hemsley Coursey, who was trafficked through the domestic slave trade and ultimately forced to Texas, are too often reduced to a line in a ledger, a census record, or a bill of sale.

Gone to Texas asks a different question: What happens when we place the lives, humanity, and legacies of the enslaved at the center of the story?

That question guides every aspect of this project. We want to tell a truthful story about violence, displacement, and loss without allowing those realities to eclipse the humanity, resilience, and enduring presence of the people who survived. More than 190 years after Hemsley Coursey was sold south, his descendants are still here.

That is one reason working with and his team felt so important. Stephen’s commitment to incorporating live models transforms public art into something more than a static monument. It creates a living connection between past and present, ancestor and descendant, history and memory.

Gone to Texas is not simply about what happened. It is about who it happened to, who survived, and how their stories continue to live through us.

There’s no better artist for Gone to Texas than .

intentionally approached Stephen because of his belief that art should continue telling stories long after its creation. As Stephen often says, he loves working with live models because they carry a lineage. Their families and descendants will one day be able to point to the work and say: “I know that person. That’s my family.”

That vision is central to Gone to Texas.

For this project, Jaiden honors his 6th great-grandfather, Hemsley Coursey, who was trafficked from Maryland, sold in New Orleans in 1835 at 17 years old, and ultimately forced into Texas through the domestic slave trade.

This is a glimpse into Stephen Hayes’ artistic process and the descendant-centered storytelling shaping this work. We are also working to involve additional descendants connected to these histories.

Big announcements are coming soon for those interested in participating.

Funded in part by the City of Austin Elevate Grant.