Civil Rights and Wrongs for April 19, 2022

This week Michelle Manning-Scott, Associate Producer of the program, considers changes coming to Austin's historic Neill-Cochran House Museum.  The museum is steward to one of Austin’s oldest historic residences, and includes the city’s only remaining intact slave quarters building.  Guests Rowena Dasch, Executive Director of the museum and Tara Dudley, Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, talk about their collaborative project "Reckoning with the Past: The Untold Story of Race in Austin" that will reintroduce the slave quarters to the public through interpretation, restoration, and new programming on April 23 & 24.  Regular host, Bob Dailey, and Jim Harrington, retired founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, also join the discussion.

Later in the episode, once again we’ll hear from Austin Sanders, Staff Writer for the Austin Chronicle.  We’ll learn about wage negotiations between the City of Austin and the Austin EMS Association, the union that represents employees of Austin – Travis County Emergency Medical Services.  The city’s recent counteroffer which would raise hourly pay by 39 cents (for new hires) has been described as “heartbreaking.”  We’ll also hear about the future of the “Batcave” – that is, the former location of the Austin American-Statesman on South Congress at Lady Bird Lake.  A massive office-retail-housing development is being planned for the site.  How many units of affordable housing will be included?