On Rosewood Avenue in Austin, Texas, just down the street from Kealing Middle School, the DeWitty Job Training and Employment Center sits, obscured by a few trees and its strange placement on a hill. It's easy enough to miss that despite living in East Austin for the first seventeen years of my life, I didn't know it existed until three days ago.
I found out about the center because of a summer job I got recently. On the bottom floor of the building, the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department operates some of its offices. I had to go in this week and fill out a new hire packet. This part of my trip was pretty unremarkable. What really caught my eye was what was on the second floor of the building, but before I get into that I want to talk about who the building was named after.
Arthur DeWitty
Arthur DeWitty is arguably the most important civil rights leader in Austin's history. In 1940, he became the first black person appointed to a Travis County Grand Jury. In 1949, DeWitty spoke to City Council on the issue of redlining and how minorities in East Austin found it impossible to receive federally backed loans for housing development. In 1955, only a few weeks after Rosa Parks' historic refusal to give her seat up, DeWitty filed a lawsuit on behalf of a woman told to move to the back of the bus. We’re talking about a guy who would go to City Council and talk about everything from the “lack of picnic areas at Oak Springs” to the need to continue urban renewal programs. According to a biography posted in the center, in 1945, he made efforts to increase minority participation in local elections. His efforts were so successful, he was nearly elected as Austin's first black city council member in 1951, a milestone that wasn't reached until two decades later with Berl Handcox.
In 1950, a woman who lived on 12th Street by the name of Rosa Mae Caldwell lost her baby because the doctor at the emergency room didn’t take her seriously - DeWitty went to City Council on her behalf and got the Mayor to launch a malpractice investigation.
DeWitty eventually came to head Austin's chapter of the NAACP, and in 1966, a year before he died, the chapter established the Annual Arthur DeWitty Freedom Award.
A short history describing the creation of the building and a portrait of Arthur DeWitty
One thing that really stood out to me was the location of the building. In 1928, the City of Austin crafted a plan to racially divide the city. Government services like public housing were only available to minorities who lived in certain regions of the city - East Austin. Very quickly, Austin went from a city with a naturally scattered black population to one that was carved up almost entirely by race. The building is directly on Rosewood Avenue, fewer than ten minutes from I-35. DeWitty went to high school a quarter mile from the center named in his honor. This building is in the heart of the community Arthur DeWitty dedicated his life to.
And the center itself is a reflection of that dedication. Upstairs, a charity by the name of Austin Free-Net operates five days a week from 9:00AM to 4:00PM. Beginning its relationship with Austin in 1995, Austin-Free Net has helped a poor, minority community navigate a world increasingly dominated by the internet. They help people send emails, search for jobs, create professional resumes, apply for government programs and help set up social media accounts. Now, to a lot of us, these things seem fairly self explanatory. But to kid who has never had a laptop at home or somebody recently released from prison? Services like this can be invaluable. Austin Free-Net also provides IT certification classes, courses that help older adults get caught up with technology and a program specifically tailored toward low-income women. They have locations all over Austin and they're heavily concentrated in low-income areas (East Austin, Goodwill Job Help Centers, homeless shelters, etc.)
Most of their locations in Austin
Austin Free-Net isn't aiming to reshape the world. And that's why I think it's so great. Its goals aren't lofty and over the top. It's helping a community in a very accessible way. You don't need to pass a background check or make an appointment to use a computer. There are no prerequisites or restrictions. You show up, fill out a sign-in form, and you're free to use the computer for just about anything you want.
This is what progress looks like to me. It's not glamorous or exciting, but there's no barrier to entry. You're not disqualified for mistakes in your past. The way you speak or dress doesn't hurt your ability to take advantage of the services. You don't need a good SAT score to gain access. A computer is available to anybody who wants to get online. The DeWitty Center doesn't pretend to be a solution to end inequality forever. It's very realistic in its mission. The DeWitty Center is a starting place. And for a community with a long history of disenfranchisement and oppression, this is exactly the kinda thing they need - starting places.
There isn't too much information about Arthur DeWitty out there. He has no Wikipedia page. I couldn't find any recorded interviews and there are only a few photos of him online. Even basic information about who he was is hard to find. For somebody so important to Austin's history, it's easy to not know this guy ever existed.
We don’t get to see Arthur DeWitty on any street signs and only a handful of people I’ve talked to even recognize his name, but at the very least, his legacy lives on through this incredible center.
The mural inside is badass.
DeWitty is pictured in the blue suit, surrounded by doves.
For more photos of my trip, click here: DeWitty Center Photo Gallery