[2] In 1983, the Blackland Community Development Corporation was formed to build, purchase and maintain housing for low-income families and special populations.
[3] Blackland was originally a farming community founded and organized in the 1800s by Swedish immigrants who settled in the area due to the rich, dark soil that was good for growing crops.
Additionally, many neighborhoods in North and West Austin adopted restrictive covenants that prevented home sales to non-whites.
In the 1950s, blues musician Robert Shaw moved to the neighborhood and opened a grocery store and barbershop called the "Stop and Swat".
In the Spring of 1965, the university began buying individual parcels of land to the north, south, and east of the existing campus, including in the Blackland neighborhood, in hopes of using the land to relocate the university's intramural fields, baseball field, tennis courts, and parking lots.