Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Travis County. Austin is the 11th-largest city in the United States, and the 4th-largest in Texas. Its population in 2020 was 961,855. The University of Texas at Austin is located there. Austin is frequently called the "Live Music Capital of the World". Several Fortune 500 companies have their main offices (also known as the headquarters) and regional offices in Austin. History Austin was first called Waterloo in 1835. In 1839, it was chosen to be the capital city of The Republic of Texas and named for Stephen F. Austin. The University of Texas at Austin was founded in 1883. In March 2018, a series of bombings occurred in Austin killing two people. Confederate monuments Many Confederate monuments and buildings have been removed or renamed. Children of the Confederacy plaque, installed in 1959 inside the State Capitol, bore the words that "the War Between the States was not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery." The plaque was removed between January 11 and 13, 2019 after a unanimous vote by the Texas State Preservation Board, chaired by Governor Greg Abbott. Calls for its removal started in 2017 by then-House Speaker Joe Straus, in a letter to the State Preservation Board that oversees the Capitol grounds, in which he was joined by 40 other lawmakers. The Texas Confederate Museum closed in 1988. Opened in 1903 in a room on the first floor of the Capital, it moved in 1920 to the adjacent Old Land Office Building, where it remained until 1998, much longer than the building had been used by the Land Office. When the building was vacated for renovation, the Museum was not permitted to return. (The building is now the Capital Visitors Center.) It never reopened as it never found another home. Its collections are now divided between the Haley Memorial Library and History Center in Midland and the Texas Civil War Museum in White Settlement, a suburb of Fort Worth. Robert E. Lee Elementary School (1939) was renamed for local photographer Russell Lee in 2016. He was a prominent photographer with the Farm Security Administration and the first Professor of Photography at the University of Texas. Johnston High School: Named for Albert Sidney Johnston, Confederate general killed in the Battle of Shiloh. The school closed in 2008; the Liberal Arts and Science Academy is now (2021) at that location. Jeff Davis Avenue. The Austin City Council voted unanimously to rename the street for William Holland, born a slave, an educator who served one term in the Texas Legislature and became a Travis County commissioner. Robert E. Lee Road. The Austin City Council voted unanimously to rename the street, whose signs had been defaced, for Azie Morton, the only African American to hold the office of Treasurer of the United States. University of Texas In May 2015, the student government at the University of Texas at Austin voted almost unanimously to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis that had been erected on the campus's South Mall. Beginning shortly after the Charleston church shooting of June 2015, "Black Lives Matter" was written repeatedly in bold red letters on the base of the statue. Previous messages had included "Davis must fall" and "Liberate U.T." (the University of Texas). The University of Texas officials convened a task force to determine whether to honor the students' petition for removal of the statue. Acting on the strong recommendation of the task force, UT's President Gregory L. Fenves announced on August 13, 2015, that the statue would be moved to serve as an educational exhibit in the university's Dolph Briscoe Center for American History museum. He said: "it is not in the university's best interest to continue commemorating him [Davis] on our Main Mall." Legal action by the Sons of Confederate Veterans was unsuccessful. The statue was removed on August 30, 2015. After the removal of the Jefferson Davis statue in 2015, there were four remaining Confederate statues left on the South Mall at the University of Texas, portraying Generals Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, and Confederate Postmaster John H. Reagan. They were dedicated in 1933. On August 20–21, 2017, the university removed the three Confederate statues from the Austin campus grounds and moved them to a museum. The decision was inspired by the Unite the Right rally on August 10–11 in Charlottesville. At the same time, a statue of Texas Governor Jim Hogg was also removed, although he had no direct link with the Confederacy. In 2018, it was announced that it would be reinstalled at a different location. IDEA Allan School, a charter school, was renamed IDEA Montopolis in 2018. It had been named for Confederate Army officer John T. Allan. Four other related properties in Austin are being similarly renamed. In 2019, Lanier High School was renamed Navarro High School to honor 2007 graduate Juan Navarro, a U.S. Army officer killed in Afghanistan. Sidney Lanier, the "poet of the Confederacy", served as a private in the CSA. Climate Austin has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa in the Koeppen climate classification) with hot summers and mild winters. The city rarely gets snow at all and frosts are infrequent. Government The current mayor of Austin is Steve Adler. Austin also has a city council with ten district representatives plus the mayor. Business Many businesses have their main offices in or near Austin, including AMD, Dell, Freescale Semiconductors, PayPal, and Whole Foods. Famous Destinations -6th Street (Also known as Pecan Street): Known for various bars, including old fashioned saloons, dive bars, gay bars, etc. Most of these bars host live music. -Mount Bonnell: The highest point in Austin, TX. Come here for romantic moments and beautiful nature in front of scenic vistas. -Capitol Building: Taller than the U.S. Capitol. -Congress Ave.: One of the main streets of the city. Famous for the bat bridge which hosts millions of Mexican Free-Tail Bats. South Congress Ave. (Aka SOCO) is a famous tourist district with unique and odd shops, trailer park eats, and more live music. Sports The sports team of the University of Texas at Austin is known as the Texas Longhorns. Austin is the largest city in the United States without a major-league professional sports team. Formula One has made an agreement with the city of Austin to host the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in the city. A new racetrack was built to host the race. The United States Grand Prix began taking place in Austin since 2012. References Notes