History of black enclave detailed

Book tells of Austin neighborhood and forces that shaped it. Souvenir sheet of forever stamps has her official portrait, 5 that commemorate legacy.

Almost 50 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, blacks in Austin organized their own, lesser-known civil rights protest.

African-Americans in Austin could not board public streetcars from the front door or sit up front. A 1906 city ordinance prohibited it.

Blacks were outraged, and when the city refused to revoke the ordinance, they began a boycott similar to the one by African-Americans decades later in Montgomery, Ala., after Parks’ arrest. In Austin, owners of horses and wagons offered rides to those who had depended on the trolleys to get to their jobs. The boycott gained traction, and a year later, city leaders rescinded the ordinance.

“We were just amazed. It was a part of Austin history we did not know,” says Gilbert Rivera, who, with his wife, Jane, opened that window to the past in research for their new pictorial book on Austin’s historical Rosewood neighborhood.

Stocked with about 250 photos, the majority from Gilbert Rivera’s private collection, “Images of America: Austin’s Rosewood Neighborhood,” tells the story of the evolution of one of the city’s oldest black enclaves, from the late 1870s to its current incarnation as a diverse, dynamic neighborhood feeling the effects of gentrification

By Marques G. Harper

Just weeks before the Dec. 22 centennial of Lady Bird Johnson’s birth, her life and work are being honored with a new postage stamp.

On Friday, Mrs. Johnson’s daughters, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb, helped unveil the stamp before about 300 people at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

The Lady Bird Johnson souvenir sheet has six forever stamps — one shows her official White House portrait, by Elizabeth Shoumatoff, and the five others use images of 1960s stamps that commemorate Mrs. Johnson’s legacy: her efforts to beautify America. Also included is a quotation from the former first lady and a black-andwhite image of Mrs. Johnson taken from a 1963 family photograph.

“We’re here in force today to make sure these stamps are a popular sellout,” said Thurgood Marshall Jr., chairman of the board of governors of the U.S. Postal Service and son of the former U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Also in attendance was Shirley James, the former first lady’s executive assistant from 1991 until Mrs. Johnson’s death in 2007. James is credited with getting support for the stamp.