13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House; District 1 - Staff Report Part 2 — original pdf

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ART WORKS Art and community in Mart, Texas A SOCIAL WORK PRECURSOR Thelma Mitchell Elliott, MSSW '54 RENACER IN OAXACA Partnerships for maternal health THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN | STEVE HICKS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK FALL 2018 Art Works, p. 2 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House68 of 80"IN A SENSE, MY PARENTS WERE LUCKY THAT THEIR INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE WAS DISMISSED AS SOMETHING 'PUERTO RICANS DO.' DURING OUR COUNTRY'S PAINFUL PERIOD OF LEGALLY ENFORCED RACIAL SEGREGATION, OTHERS WERE NOT SO LUCKY." FROM THE DEAN I t was my father’s aspiration to forge a future for his children that led to his enlistment in the U.S. Army. In 1956, after the Korean War, his assignment took us from a small town in Puerto Rico to a new home in Richmond, Virginia. My father was a dark-skinned biracial Puerto Rican (white father, black mother), and my mother was white. Their interracial marriage was rather typical in the island, and I didn’t think much of it. Years later I understood that their marriage was rather remarkable in the mainland. I asked my mother one day about their arrival in Virginia, a state where “miscegenation” was actually a felony. She replied matter-of-factly, “Oh, as soon as people heard your father and me speaking Spanish, they brushed it off. To them we were foreigners, and they thought that’s what ‘they’ do.” In a sense, my parents were lucky that their interracial marriage was dismissed as something “Puerto Ricans do.” During our country’s painful period of legally enforced racial segregation, others were not so lucky. Many fought, in many ways, for the end of legalized segregation. I have shared in other communications that our building used to house a junior high school that led desegregation in Austin. This issue brings you the story of Thelma Mitchell Elliott, a graduate from our program and one of the Precursors, the first generation of black students that desegregated the university in the early 1950s. Despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation and discrimination against people of color and vulnerable populations persist — we see it in police shootings of African American men; detention and separation of asylum-seeking families; the consequences of eating, barbecuing or doing ordinary things “while black.” Social workers fight against these acts daily with our profession’s variegated skills and tools. Sometimes, as you will read in this issue, this fight involves using art and creativity to recover forgotten histories and build community. Other times, it involves crossing disciplinary and geographic borders to create positive change. I am proud that our faculty, students and alumni bring every skill to bear on making our world a more just one. Luis H. Zayas Dean and Robert Lee Sutherland Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy FROM YOU (ON “ALWAYS ON DUTY”) @nursingjobshcrs @phallv “Love stories like this!” “Good informative article.” @Aggie_GR “That’s awesome and a great reminder that Texas’ two largest research universities, TAMU and UT Austin, are jointly committed to supporting our veterans and their families!” @Galagator89 “One of the many reasons I am proud to be part of the @ UTSocialWork. The professors continue to teach the importance of research, how it can lead to creating interventions that can help individuals and the world. Thanks for sharing.” ALWAYS ON DUTYMilitary spouses tell their storiesHOPE AFTER TRAUMAIn Katrina’s and Harvey’s wakeON CAMERAProsecuting domestic violenceSPRING 2018THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN | STEVE HICKS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORKMilitary spouses tell their stories p. 213 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House69 of 80CONTENTS 2 ART WORKS How Paula Gerstenblatt used art as a tool for community building and change in Mart, Texas. 10 18 A SOCIAL WORK PRECURSOR Thelma Mitchell Elliott, desegregation at UT Austin, and the War on Poverty in Texas. RENACER IN OAXACA Building partnerships across borders for better maternal health. e h t utopian The Utopian is published for alumni and friends of The University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Steve Hicks School of Social Work Dean Luis H. Zayas Editor & Director of Communications Andrea Campetella Photography Lynda Gonzalez Art Direction & Design UT Marketing & Creative Services (Ryan Goeller, Christine Yang, Laurie O’Meara and Von Allen) This Issue’s Contributors Laura Turner Katherine Corley Fall 2018 | Vol. 18 No. 2 7 Ask the Expert Amy Thompson on migrant children 8 Without Borders Research from students in the dual degree with Latin American Studies 14 @socialwork Ideas, findings, people 20 Class Notes 22 First Person Finding oneself through hip hop 23 Community /UTSocialWork @UTSocialWork sites.utexas.edu/theutopian Please send comments, news items, suggestions and address changes to: The Utopian Editor Steve Hicks School of Social Work The University of Texas at Austin 1925 San Jacinto Blvd., Stop D3500 Austin, TX 78712-1405 Email: utopian@utlists.utexas.edu Phone: 512-471-1458 All submissions are subject to editing and are used at the editor’s discretion. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect official school and/or university policy. Articles might be reprinted in full or in part with written permission of the editor. Your comments are welcome. STE VE HICKS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK 1 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House70 of 80PHOTO AR-2007-017-046, AUSTIN HISTORY CENTER, AUSTIN PUBLIC LIBRARY 10 THE UNIVERSIT Y OF TE X AS AT AUSTIN 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House71 of 80 In September 1966, the Parents Club of the Booker T. Washington Terrace public housing organized a cleanup day. Thelma Mitchell Elliott, desegregation at UT Austin, and the War on Poverty in Texas In May of 1966, residents of Hergotz Lane in South East Austin celebrated the installation of a water spigot in their neighborhood. It was just a single, public spigot, but it meant that they no longer had to travel 10 miles to the nearest drinking water supply. In early June, “a task force of three men and a fogging machine,” as the Austin Statesman put it, descended on Montopolis to wage war on mosquitoes. Later that month, after a hard battle for access to public transportation, Montopolis families were able to board a bus that connected them to Austin bus lines. And in September, the newly minted Parents Club of the Booker T. Washington Terrace public housing organized a cleanup day. Parents and children cut down the high grass in the complex’s playground and removed trash, bottles and rocks. By Andrea Campetella / Photos Courtesy Austin History Center STE VE HICKS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK 11 a social work PRECURSOR13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House72 of 80[THELMA ELLIOTT] WAS AMONG THE PRECURSORS, THE FIRST GENERATION OF BLACK STUDENTS WHO DESEGREG- ATED THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN IN THE 1950s. This flurry of activity in mostly Mexican and African-American areas of Austin owed much to the late Thelma Mitchell Elliott (MSSW ’54). Elliott was the leader of ENABLE, one of the many programs through which the Lyndon B. Johnson administration waged the War on Poverty across the nation. Under Elliott’s leadership, ENABLE empowered diverse communities in Austin to tackle everything from living conditions to neighborhood safety and infrastructure. But even before Elliott was publicly recognized for this important work, she did something else that, at the time, went unrecorded. She was among the Precursors, the first generation of black students who desegregated The University of Texas at Austin in the 1950s. Integration at UT Austin As told in As We Saw It. The History of Integration at The University of Texas at Austin, the struggle to desegregate the university started only two years after it was founded, when in 1885 an African-American man (unnamed in the records) applied for admission. He was rejected on the basis that “admittance of negroes” was “not of standard practice.” The turning point was after World War II. In 1946, with the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Heman Marion Sweatt applied to the law school and was denied access on the basis of his race. The case (Sweatt v. Painter) went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1950 ruled in Sweatt’s favor. Amidst much media attention and demonstrations in favor and against desegregation, Sweatt started law school in the fall semester of that year. That same fall, the university’s newly minted graduate program in social work opened its doors to students. In its two first years, the program admitted the late Gus Swain — who in 1953 became the first African-American male graduate — and then Elliott, who in 1954 became the first African-American female graduate. In a speech Swain gave in 1982 he described going to campus with the threat of violence, at a time when buildings off the main drag were plastered with sayings like “Nigger go home.” But he also recalled that the school of social work felt like an “oasis” and a safe place during this time. Anita Swain, who was married to Gus Swain when he was in school, said in a phone conversation that “the school of social work was pretty liberal as far as race relations.” She also remembered her late husband as a fighter for equality. “He would not tolerate racial discrimination. He was a crusader. He was in the right field, always trying to make things better and help people move on. When we lived in Washington [after Swain graduated], we were marching every Saturday!" she recalled. I just kept my P h o t o A R - 2 0 0 7 - 0 1 7 - 0 4 5 , i A u s t i n H s t o r y C e n t e r , A u s t i n P u b l i i c L b r a r y 12 THE UNIVERSIT Y OF TE X AS AT AUSTIN 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House73 of 80 OPPOSITE PAGE Elliott at the Booker T. Washington Terrace public housing. LEFT Elliott (second from right, in green dress) with ENABLE team members. BOTTOM Hergotz Lane residents using the public water spigot. motivation, and the tools to get something done for a better life,” Elliott explained in a Statesman article of May 19, 1966. ENABLE soon expanded into “neighborhood group problem-solving” initiatives that engaged community members to tackle everything from unsanitary living conditions in rental units to neighborhood safety and infrastructure. Barely a year after it was launched, ENABLE Austin was considered one of the most successful of 60 such projects that existed across the nation. Because of the program’s positive impact in communities such as Montopolis, in October 1966 Elliott was asked to address a national conference of Head Start teachers. In true social work fashion, Elliott chose to emphasize self-awareness and strength-based perspectives during her address. As reported in the Statesman, she told Head Start teachers to be aware of their own insensitivities and blind spots when working with families, and make efforts to involve and empower parents. “We in ENABLE are also committed to involving the parents in the education of their children. We encourage parents to use their native talents and constitutional rights to make decisions affecting them, their children, and the neighborhood where they live,” Elliott told the teachers. ENABLE IS MEANT TO GIVE [MOTHERS] A MOTIVATION, AND THE TOOLS TO GET SOMETHING DONE FOR A BETTER LIFE. In late 1966, Elliott left ENABLE to join the Texas Office of Economic Opportunity, where she was tasked with developing resource materials, ideas and techniques to be used in community projects across the state. As the War on Poverty and its accompanying federal funding dwindled down in the context of escalation of the Vietnam War, Elliott continued her career in social services. She first joined the Austin/Travis County public health system and then the Texas Department of Human Services, from which she eventually retired. She died on July 21, 1998. “I tell people all the time that I have my mother’s sense of social justice,” daughter Ora Houston said. “She was not a rebel, she was not out there marching on the streets. But on her own quiet way, she made important changes.” ■ boots ready because whether it was cold, or snowy or wet, we were going to march!” The Swains knew Elliott as a neighbor and family friend. Anita Swain remembered her husband giving Elliot information about the newly opened social work program and encouraging her to apply. At the time, Elliott was married to O. H. Houston, then a business manager at Sam Huston College. They had a young daughter, Ora Houston, who is now Austin’s Council Member for District 1. She still lives in the house in East Austin where she grew up. At least as remembered by Ora Houston, Elliott was not the marching type. But she was a multifaceted community leader for whom the graduate social work program was a great match. “She was president of the PTA; she was very involved in the community; she was very involved in the church… and she had a very deep sense of social justice,” Houston said. Project ENABLE and Beyond After receiving her Master of Science in Social Work in 1954, Elliott worked as a probation officer for the Travis County Juvenile Court until 1966, when she was tapped to lead project ENABLE. ENABLE stood for Education and Neighborhood Action for Better Living Environment. It was sponsored by Child and Family Services and received funding through the new Office of Economic Opportunity, the federal agency responsible for administrating most of the War on Poverty programs. In Austin, ENABLE started by reaching out to mothers of children enrolled in Head Start — another War on Poverty program. “ENABLE is meant to give them [the mothers] a sense of self, purpose, confidence and power, something that will grow, a Photo AR-2007-017-033, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library; Photo AR-2007-017-069, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library STE VE HICKS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK 13 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House74 of 80DESEGREGATION at The University of Texas at Austin 1883 University opens its doors. 1885 First record of African American applicant (unnamed) denied admission. 1938 George L. Allen is able to register for a class but then his registration is canceled. 1946 Heman Sweatt is denied admission to the law school. Case (Sweatt v. Painter) goes to the Supreme Court. 1950 Supreme Court rules in Sweatt’s favor. UT becomes the first institution of higher education in the South required by law to admit African Americans to its graduate programs. 1956 First group of Black undergraduate students are admitted. 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House75 of 80Permitting and Development Center | 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Drive, Austin, TX 78752 | (512) 978-4000 Property Profile Report General Information Location: Parcel ID: Grid: 2207 E 22ND ST 0212100505 MK23 Planning & Zoning *Right click hyperlinks to open in a new window. Future Land Use (FLUM): Single Family, Transportation Regulating Plan: No Regulating Plan Zoning: Zoning Cases: Zoning Ordinances: Zoning Overlays: Neighborhood Plan: Infill Options: SF-3-NP C14-02-0057 C14H-2025-0122 020801-92 19990225-070b 20060406-051 Selected Sign Ordinances Residential Design Standards: LDC/25-2-Subchapter F ADU Approx Area Reduced Parking UPPER BOGGY CREEK: BLACKLAND Garage Placement Design Option, Parking Placement Imp Cover Design Option, Small Lot Amnesty Infill Option Zoning Map Neighborhood Restricted Parking Areas: -- Mobile Food Vendors: Historic Landmark: -- -- Urban Roadways: Yes Zoning Guide The Guide to Zoning provides a quick explanation of the above Zoning codes, however, the Land Use Assistance provides general zoning assistance and can advise you on the type of development allowed on a property. Visit Zoning for the description of each Base Zoning District. For official verification of the zoning of a property, please request a Zoning Verification Letter. General information on the Neighborhood Planning Areas is available from Neighborhood Planning. Imagery Map Environmental Fully Developed Floodplain: FEMA Floodplain: No No Austin Watershed Regulation Areas: URBAN Watershed Boundaries: Boggy Creek Creek Buffers: Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone: Edwards Aquifer Recharge Verification Zone: Erosion Hazard Zone Review Buffer: Political Boundaries No No No No Jurisdiction: AUSTIN FULL PURPOSE Council District: 1 County: TRAVIS School District: Austin ISD Community Registry: Austin Independent School District, Austin Neighborhoods Council, Blackland Neighborhood Assn., Del Valle Community Coalition, East Austin Conservancy, Friends of Austin Neighborhoods, Homeless Neighborhood Association, Overton Family Committee , Preservation Austin, Upper Boggy Creek Neighborhood Planning Team Vicinity Map The Information on this report has been produced by the City of Austin as a working document and is not warranted for any other use. No warranty is made by the City regarding its accuracy or completeness. Date created: 1/22/2026 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House76 of 80February 4, 2026 RE: Dr. O.H. and Thelma Elliott House Historic Landmark Designation Dear Chair Heimsath, Vice Chair Evans, and Members of the Historic Landmark Commission Preservation Austin exists to empower Austinites to shape a more inclusive, resilient, and meaningful community culture through preservation. We write in support of the proposed historic landmark designation of the Dr. O.H. and Thelma Elliott House for architecture and historic associations. Built in 1954, the Elliot House is a testament to the lives of two remarkable educators and civic leaders, Dr. Ora Herman Elliott and Thelma Mitchell Elliott. The Elliots were leaders in the communities of segregated East Austin and in the state and nationwide Civil Rights movement. Dr. O.H. Elliot served as business manager and Interim President of Samuel Houston College, and was instrumental in the merger of the college with Tillotson College in 1952, forming Houston-Tillotson University. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Elliot led efforts to seek Black representation in elections within the Democratic Party in the 1940s, was a director of the City’s Rights Agency tasked with implementation of the Civil Rights Law of 1964, and played a significant role in the founding of Austin Community College in 1973 through his work with the Coordinating Board of Texas Colleges and Universities. Through his decades of political involvement, Dr. Elliot cultivated close relationships with President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governors John Connally, Preston Smith, and Dolph Briscoe, and U.S. Representative Jake Pickle. Thelma Mitchell Elliot was one of the first students to desegregate the University of Texas in the 1950s and was the first Black woman to graduate and obtain her degree from UT’s School of Social Work. She was the first Black female probation officer for the Travis County Juvenile Court, serving in this role for 10 years. In 1966, Mrs. Elliot was recruited to lead the ENABLE (Education and Neighborhood Action for Better Living Environment) program, part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, which tackled initiatives from unsanitary living conditions in rental units to neighborhood safety and infrastructure. Her efforts under ENABLE Austin were recognized as one of the most successful initiatives of its kind nationwide. Homeowner and daughter, Ms. Ora Houston, carries on her parents’ legacy of civic leadership, notably during her time as representative of District 1 on Austin City Council from 2015 to 2019. A committed preservationist, we congratulate Ms. Houston on her efforts to preserve her family’s history and the history of East Austin. Sincerely, Miriam Conner, President 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House77 of 80 13 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House78 of 8013 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House79 of 8013 C14H-2025-0122 - O.H. and Thelma Mitchell Elliott House80 of 80