Author: Juniper

UWSA is working within a multi-racial collaboration to ensure Austin organizers can participate in local, in-person trainings by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. You can make those trainings available to organizers regardless of their circumstances by making an online donation here.

Prefer to use a check? Make it out to Alliance of Community Trainers and mail it to 
1405 Hillmont Street
Austin, Texas 78704

Alliance of Community Trainers is a 501(c)3 organization. Your donations are tax-deductible!

Questions? Interested in participating in a People’s Institute training? You can email us at undoingwhitesupremacy@gmail.com.

The following letter to Austin City Council and Manager has been signed by more than 200 UWSA members

To: Austin City Council and Manager
From: Undoing White Supremacy Austin Organizers (215 names below)

Subject: Trump’s Department of Justice Investigation of Austin’s Equity Division

If we’ve heard of Austin’s 1928 Master Plan of forced racial segregation, it’s probably because of the work of the City’s Equity Division (formerly the Austin Equity Office). If we participated in the George Floyd uprising in June 2020, we were safer because the Equity Division intervened on the APD proposal to implement a curfew and to crack down on protestors. We, or someone we know, or someone who matters to us were able to pay rent, buy school supplies, or keep the lights on because Austin was the first city in Texas to implement a Family Stabilization grant. That was also because of the efforts of the Equity Division.

Since 2018, the Equity Division has supported grassroots and volunteer-led efforts tackling significant challenges in our community, including COVID-19 recovery efforts, public safety, homelessness response, and immigrant inclusion. They have funded computer access for Latina girls, mentoring for African immigrants, and health resources and access to practitioners for Queer People of Color. These are just a few of thousands of ways that the Equity Division has made the lives of Austin residents safer and more just.

Given the transformative power of their work, it is no surprise that Trump’s Department of Justice has announced an investigation of Austin’s Equity Division. Charges leveled against the Equity Division in a September 2025 letter from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to Mayor Kirk Watson include their efforts to:

• Delineate clear racial equity expectations

• Minimize bias

• Identify gaps in representation

• Develop specific targets for eliminating gaps using national best practices

Even as we watch the gross miscarriage of justice under the Trump administration across the country, it is still a gut punch when it lands in Austin. When it specifically targets our City’s Equity Division.

This power house for racial equity in the City of Austin was not the brain-child of Council Members. In 2014, while Austin was widely listed as one of the most desirable cities in the country, a UT study documented it as simultaneously the most economically segregated city in the nation. While every other major city with an expanding population also had a growing number of Black residents, the number of Black Austin residents was declining. Families with multi-generational roots in Austin were leaving for communities with better schools. For neighborhoods without pothole-ridden streets and dangerous floods. And the City of Austin was complicit in the exodus.

For decades, the City forced segregation of Austin’s Black and Brown communities into neighborhoods east of IH 35. They encouraged the construction of dangerous gasoline tank farms, electrical power stations, wastewater treatment, and solid waste facilities within those neighborhoods. Rather than generous setbacks to protect natural streams in west Austin, east Austin creeks were lined with concrete. Measures of maternal health, education outcomes, wealth, and life expectancy across the City showed a consistent pattern: positive outcomes in Austin’s west and predominantly white neighborhoods; worse outcomes in the zip codes occupied mostly by people of color.

In response to this disturbing reality for Austin’s Black and People of Color residents, Communities of Color United for Racial Justice, a coalition of BIPOC organizations, demanded that the City of Austin evaluate how its policies and programs contributed to the struggles of their communities. They asked for an equity assessment tool. What they got was an office.

It was probably supposed to be a token gesture. Brion Oaks, the Equity Office’s first director, was planted in the City’s real estate division. But Brion hired Kellee Coleman. Kellee was born and raised in Austin, Texas and she understood the power of her community. Brion and Kellee worked together to ground the work of the Equity Office in a multi-racial, community-based organizing process.

It is their basis in community organizing that has made Austin’s Equity Division effective. Now, as the Trump administration comes to take it apart, community organizers are asking you, our Council Members and City Manager, to step up to defend what we value. Protect what we need. Protect what we love.

Austin: The only major fast-growing city with a declining Black Population:

https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/items/67535bb2-810d-4b3d-a87c-89706e98d28f

Austin: the Nation’s Most Economically Segregated City:

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/23/austin-most-economically-segregated-metro-area/

https://news.utexas.edu/2015/06/30/underbelly-of-the-u-s-s-most-economically-segregated-city/

https://rogerlmartin.com/mpi/content/insight-segregated-city/index.html

Petition Signers

Abbi Miller

Adam Thompson

Adrienne Sneed

AJ Juraska

Alana Carpentermoore

Alejandro Chinchilla

Alex Barron

Amanda Afifi

Amelia Turner

Amenity Applewhite

Andrea Black

Andrew Katz

Andy Coco

ann armstrong

Ann McY

Ann Locasio

Anna Whitney

Anna Weeks

Ashley Blackwell

Barbara Schutz

Ben Hamill

Benjamin  Ramirez

Beth Bond

Bethany Carson

Beverly Lazar

Bonnie Cullum

Brandy Nichols

Bryce Laake

Caitlin  Macklin

Camael Novy

Carl Webb

Carmen Llanes

Carol Goodwin

Carolyn  Dower

Casey Smith

Cassie Sodergren

Catherine Martinez

Celine Rendon

Charley Rejsek

Cheyenne Weaver

Christel Erickson-Collins

Christi Stevens

Cynthia Vasquez

Danielle Moccia

David Heroy

David Davis

Dean  Weihnacht

Deanna Williamson

Deborah Norris

Diana Damer

Donna Marschner

Donna Hoffman

Doris Adams

Dorothy Garretson

EG Clark

Eileen McGinnis

eli cortez

Elisha Scott

Elizabeth A Kubala

Elizabeth  Taylor

Ellie Erickson

Elliott Trahan

Ely Doyle

Eric Paulus

Erika Slaymaker

Erika  Bodoin

Erin Hannan

ezza valdez

Faith Sanders

Fatima Alquaiti

Frances Manning

Frederick they-them

Frederick Higgins

Gaby Benitez

Gaby Reyes

Gina  Jamison

Halima Foster

Hannah Gilbreath

Heather Abbott

Helen Parish

Isaac Dill

Ishrat Kundawala

Izzy Poehlmann

jae lin

Jaime Foley

James Casey

Jan Reed

Jana Douglass

Jane Lee

Janet Cook

Jaynell Nicholson

Jen Cregar

Jennifer Skiffington

Jennifer Hecker

Jennifer Xia

Jim Summers

Joan Grace

Joan B Wells

John Rudzki

John Gutierrez

Jonathan Scott

Jonathan Scott

Jonathan  Collet

Jordan Bellquist

Jose Lozano

Josefina Castillo

Judy  Baskin

Julia Von Alexander

Julia Austin

Julia Hill

Julia Marenghi

Juniper Lauren Ross

K Suzanne Carroll

Karen Jambon

Karin westdyk

Kate Taylor

Katherine Shriver

Kathleen Reeves

Kathrine Snelling

Kathy Goodwin

Katy Koonce

Kecia Prince

Ken McKenzie-Grant

Kendall Kibby-Deck

Kenneth Hayes

Kim Barker

Krista Del Gallo

Krista Kelly

Kristina Puerto

L S

Laura Fuller

Lauren Hicks

Lee Ann Rathbun

Liana Petruzzi

Linda Elford

Lindsay Hutchens

Lindsey Sikes

Lindsey Davis

Lisa McGiffert

Loreni Garcia

Lynn Cowles

Lynnette Tyer

Lyra Seaborn

Magdalene Wilber

Maggy  McGiffert

Maria Fushille

Marta  McDougle

Maura Kinney

Maya Guevara

Maya Pilgrim

Mayuri Raja

McLean Carrington

Meghan Hein

Melinda Chow

Melinda Belles

Michelle Manning-Scott

Michelle Adler

Misael Ramos

Morgan Kim

Mossman David

Muhammad Shabazz

Nancy Mossman

Nancy Lehmann

Natalie Houchins

Nick Hart Hart

Nicole Meitzen

Niki Paul

Nora Redfern

Olivia Scott

Olivia Caminiti

Olivia Rodriguez

Olivia Rose McCain

Pablo Munoz Evers

Paige Schilt

Parke Ballantine

Patricia Wappner

P D Wadler

Peggy Morton

rachael shannon

Rainey Fraser

Rebecca Tulis

Richard Heyman

Robin  Schneider

Sam Tedford

Sam Potasznik

Samuel Grimes

Samuel Echevarria-Cruz

Sandra Molinari

Sandra White

Sarah Hay

Sarah Hogestyn

Sarah Saltwick

Sarah Boban

sarah cheatham

Savannah  Cornett

Shannon Grounds

Shelly  Baldwin

Sol Praxis

Stacie Freasier

stephanie  velasco

Stephen Guzman

Susan Lippman

Susan Whittington

Tamara Mayfield

Tammy Conrad

Terrie Lynn Bach

Theresa Snow

Travis  Meitzen

Tyler Espino

Ucha

Valoneecia Tolbert

Yasmine Anderson

Yvette Castro

Yvonne Oaks

Undoing White Supremacy Austin (UWSA) has worked over years to promote equitable city budgets. This year, we endorsed the Community Investment Budget (CIB). We advocated for fully funding the Equity Division (formerly the Equity Office); to resume Undoing Racism trainings; and to preserve and expand the Family Stabilization Grants (a Guaranteed Basic Income program).

UWSA supported Family Stabilization Grants beneficiaries to provide public hearing testimony. Beneficiaries described the differences grant funds made in their lives. Rent made. School books bought. Medicine that became available. They made strong cases for continuing, and increasing, those grants. UWSA organizers also witnessed other CIB groups’ compelling testimony to support harm reduction, violence prevention and other vital support services.

Responding to public testimony and community demands, City Council members changed the City Manager’s proposed budget. They voted to fund many CIB priorities. Undoing Racism training funds, for example, were largely preserved. Unfortunately, at past Council Meetings over the last year or so, City Council also approved a bloated police contract and other debts that tie up funds that could and should be spent to meet essential human needs. 

State and federal policies have also placed extreme constraints on government spending. White supremacy has weakened our social safety net. Racism has undercut broad support for social and public health programs that  benefit all of us. Proposition Q is essential to save lives. The Austin Harm Reduction Alliance, for example, puts naloxone in the hands of people who have and will prevent overdose deaths. To preserve and expand our budget organizing victories, Austin voters must approve Proposition Q.

Austin renters and homeowners would pay the Proposition Q taxes. But the tax increases would be much less than what opponents such as Save Austin Now are saying. A homeowner under age 65, with an average priced Austin home ($500,000), will pay $200 – $300 more each year – or $17 to $25 more each month. If that homeowner is 65 or older, or has a disability, the tax increase would be only $22 a year (yes, a year). Furthermore, if voters approve raising the homestead exemption in November, a proposition expected to pass, the exemptions for seniors will increase from $100,000 to $140,000  and from $100,000 to $192,000 for owners with disabilities. These Texas state government proposed exemptions would reduce tax bills, but also limit funds that could be used for good, such as public education.

UWSA is interested in working with others who share our concern for equity but may have a different view of Proposition Q. If you would like to talk with us about this, or any other issue, please email us at undoingwhitesupremacy@gmail.com. 

Pledge to Protect and Resist!

” I pledge to show up to protect the safety and dignity of all people in our community and to resist all anti-democratic and authoritarian policies and actions.”

Since the US Presidential inauguration, our community has seen unprecedented threats to our immigrant, undocumented, and queer families, friends, and communities. Threats to the folks serving school lunches. Cleaning hospital rooms. Making us laugh.

In Texas, Greg Abbott’s $11.3 billion Operation Lone Star has laid a particularly deadly  infrastructure for brutal federal actions. That’s why Undoing White Supremacy Austin, in solidarity with Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) is asking you to pledge to resist deportation and oppression in our communities.

Will you join us by signing the pledge?

Want more info? Check out SURJ’s GearUp national training and action program.