- Major funding for this program was made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And by Chamois Buttr.

For more information and the full list of funders, please visit us at blackhistorybikeride.com (lighthearted music) - What do you do when you see your city change before your eyes?

What do you do when the streets you bike to school on no longer feel like home?

In the summer of 2020, while the world was crying out for justice, I stood among thousands after a rally in Huston-Tillotson University.

The energy was electric that day.

The pain was raw.

And the question burning in everyone's mind was, what's gonna happen after all these protests end?

How do we channel this energy into something that's positive, that builds, that teaches, something that we can use to heal?

That night, I sat with my laptop open and Google map of Austin.

I started marking points on the map, places where a lot of Black history had lived, where our community had fought, and where our stories needed to be told.

I thought about how many of my friends who'd lived in Austin their whole lives, like, didn't know about Clarksville's origins or about the forced migration from West Austin to East Austin, about the 1928 master plan that shaped segregation in our city.

I realized that in a city changing as fast as Austin, we weren't just losing buildings and neighborhoods, we were losing stories about people who looked like me.

(curious music) Then it hit me.

What if we can merge the energy of the protests with the joy of cycling?

What if we can create a space where learning about our history felt less like a lecture and more like an adventure?

- Whoo!

- So, I put out, you know, on my personal Instagram, "Hey, I'm gonna lead a Black History Bike Ride," I just made a post.

Someone said, "I'm gonna, like, create a flyer."

And I said, "Cool."

I have no RSVP, I have no way to figure out how many people are coming.

I thought, you know, just, like, a couple dozen people would show up.

(bright music) When we had 400 cyclists arrive, like, I knew we weren't just starting a ride.

We were really, really starting a movement.

(relaxing music) Black History Bike Ride isn't just about cycling, it's about visibility, it's about education, it's about reclamation.

Every pedal stroke is an act of remembrance, every stop is a chapter in our story, and every rider becomes a keeper, an arbiter of our history.

When we get together, we're not just riding through neighborhoods, we're reading their histories written in every building, every street corner, and every face we meet.

(car honking) From that first ride of 400 people to today's growing movement, we've seen something magical happen.

People who never knew about Clarksville's origins now understand its legacy as one of the oldest freedman's towns in Texas.

This was actually a Black people town.

Cyclists who passed by Huston-Tillotson University countless times now stop to learn and share its stories with other riders they're with.

Every route we ride traces the footsteps of those who built the city, those who fought for justice and civil rights, those who dreamed of a better tomorrow, and just, like, everyday Black people who are living their normal lives as best as they could despite everything going on.

People do sometimes ask, why bikes?

And to me, it's because bikes really break down barriers.

They slow us down enough to see what we've been missing, yet they speed us up in a powerful way to tell stories in a linear path.

We can truly connect a timeline between different locations together on a bike.

What we do with Black History Bike Ride is we try to create really fun experiences that you can do on any bike.

Some people come on rented bikes, some people use, like, the city bikes.

I hope that by getting groups of people that care about history that we're also showing to those that have been interested.

It's like, hey, like, there are supportive groups that are having fun getting out and cycling around the city.

It doesn't matter, like, what bike you have or whatever, we'll go out and we'll a have fun time.

(tire screeching) (cyclist laughing) That's what's up!

Today we're filming behind the Neill-Cochran House Museum, inside of Austin's only intact slave quarters.

When we bring our bike rides here, we're not just visiting a museum.

We're standing in a place right now where enslaved hands laid each limestone brick, where they heated water in the kettle right behind me, where they climbed ladders between the floors at night.

In 1860, like a third of Austin's population was enslaved people of color.

This building's one of the last physical reminders of that truth.

The last place where we can touch these walls and say, "This happened here in our city and our streets."

(pensive music) Learning about Black history can be kinda tough.

So, for the past at least three or four years, we've had a big kind of cookout and hang and a kickback just in the park.

We do this in Rosewood Park, which is the same park where the city's annual Juneteenth celebration happens.

One of the true highlights is that our friend Amanda Turner, who's a phenomenal chef, volunteers her time, and her and her friends come out to cook us a beautiful, delicious meal.

So, yeah, we try to make sure that at the end of every ride we have some way for us to join in community and to celebrate together, and what better way to do that with food and maybe drink?

- Juneteenth is Freedom Day, right?

It's about liberation.

And I don't think there's anything more freeing than riding your bike.

- As a person of color, I have a hard time finding my tribe sometimes, but coming on this ride, I've been able to find my community, to build my network, and most of all, actually enjoy myself in a safe space, so thank you.

(pensive music) - [Photographer] Three, two, one!

- [Cyclists] Juneteenth!

(cheers) - [Talib] The goal of Black History Bike Ride has never been about preserving the pain.

It's about reclaiming our power, to tell our own stories.

(cyclists cheering) It's all rooted in Black joy.

Every time we share these histories, we're doing what our ancestors couldn't.

We're speaking their truth out loud, in the open air, in our own terms.

And we travel between locations in a giant group of people.

We're visibly very much showing that we really care about Black history and that we're gonna go learn about it, and we're gonna go talk about it.

- Whoo!

- What started as a simple Instagram post has grown into something that's bigger than any of us could imagine.

From Austin to Chicago, Atlanta to Detroit, and DC to Los Angeles, communities are getting on bikes to reclaim their histories.

Each route is more than just a journey through the streets.

It's a journey through time, through struggle, and through triumph.

And with every person who joins us and every story we share, with every mile we ride, we're proving that our history isn't just in the past.

It's alive, it's moving, and it's powerful enough to change the future.

(relaxing music) When you see your city changing, you have two options.

You can watch it happen or you can lead the change.

We chose to lead in our own simple way: on two wheels, one story at a time.

♪ Special effect ♪ Special effect ♪ Special effect (no audio) (relaxing music) - [Talib] We wanna talk about Black history because it's the truth.

♪ Back then I remember tryna find my way ♪ ♪ I went lookin' for my truth ♪ Found my passion on the page ♪ With all the (censored) I couldn't say ♪ ♪ And the futures I couldn't save ♪ ♪ I right the wrongs ♪ And now it's no other way - [Marco] You can't talk about American history if you don't talk about Black history, right?

We've been here since the inception of this country.

And I think that at the middle of all of that, we need to be truth seekers and truth tellers.

- We're the founders of Black History Bike Ride.

We're gonna be riding from the Texas capital to Galveston in the next couple days to learn more about Black history in Texas but also about who we are and how we fit in as Black cyclists in Texas.

- And, to bigger picture, talk about the story of Juneteenth.

- This four-day journey takes us from Austin to Lake Somerville in Lee County, Prairie View A&M, San Felipe, West Columbia in Brazoria County, before reaching the Gulf Coast and arriving in Galveston, at the site where Juneteenth began.

One of my favorite figures on the Texas African American History Memorial is Mustafa Azemmouri, also known as Estevanico.

He is known as the first great Black man to explore North America.

He arrived in Texas in 1528 with a Spanish expedition.

Mustafa's legacy reminds us that Black people have always been present in Texas, even before the darkest times of slavery.

His epic story inspired our bike ride to explore the route to emancipation across the region he once traveled.

All right, we'll see y'all.

- [Ariel] Bye-bye now.

(relaxing music) (truck whooshes) - [Talib] I first invited people to join me on a Black History Bike Ride around Juneteenth of 2020 amidst the protests in the wake of George Floyd's murder when there was an incredible outpouring of anger and emotion in the streets.

I sought to create an experience that would be uplifting and enlightening.

I thought a couple dozen folks would show up to that first ride and was amazed when over 400 people came out to learn about Black history in Austin.

Since that day, we've led over 40 rides, the biggest ones on Juneteenth, which marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas were finally granted their freedom, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Right after emancipation, formerly enslaved folks formed Freedom Colonies, which became spaces of autonomy, cultural expression, and economic empowerment.

There were over 550 of them in Texas between 1866 and 1930.

Freedom Colonies like Moab community were sanctuaries where African Americans could build their lives free from the constraints of oppression and discrimination.

♪ Get right ♪ Get right ♪ Get free through the radio ♪ Get right ♪ Get right, get right, get right ♪ ♪ We'll laugh, we'll sing ♪ We dance to the song we know ♪ Oh - [Brandon] I want like a thousand calories of something, and that's it.

- Oh my God!

(Brandon laughing) - You want this open?

- Yes, please.

(people chattering) - (snorts) Yeah.

- Is that bubble gum ice cream?

- Yep.

- I swear, I don't know how anyone can live off as much candy as you do.

- It's 'cause of lack of gluten.

- Sugar and chaos, Baby.

- (chuckles) Sugar and chaos.

(warm music) - [Talib] To walk in the footsteps of the people who formed Freedom Colonies here, we visited Antioch Baptist Church, which was organized in 1877 and served as a social hub of the largest Black community in Lee County.

It was humbling to visit a place where so many community members lived and died.

- [Gladys] How are you all?

- [Talib] No rain today, which is nice.

- Yeah.

- As of now.

- Yeah.

- As of now, yeah.

- Well, I've been here all my life as far as attending church here.

- [Talib] A lifelong language arts teacher, Ms. Gladys started her career when schools were racially segregated and taught through school integration, which began in the 1960s.

- I mean, you teach the kids as if they were a kid, not a color, and that's the way I saw it.

- Our whole project is that we wanna talk about Black history because it's the truth.

- And I think that's wonderful.

You know, our textbooks don't give you an awful lot either.

If our kids are gonna rely on the history, a lot of it has to be handed down.

The kids need to know where they came from, the history of it, in order to be successful where they're going.

Gracious Lord, please bless these gentlemen.

Guide them and lead them as you would have them to go.

Amen.

(bell ringing) (Ariel laughing) - [Talib] Riding a bike far out in the Texas countryside is beautiful, and, if you're a Black person, can be a little unsettling.

We were all really glad that the three of us were together for safety as well as comradery.

We were definitely happy to get to our camp at Lake Somerville.

The gravel roads, with their loose, chunky red dirt, were absolutely incredible to ride on, but it was a hot and challenging day.

That night, after a 90-mile ride, it really sunk in that we were on a long journey and we were extremely lucky to have each other on this trip.

(Brandon laughing) (warm music) (bright music) On day two, we had another 90-mile route ahead of us.

We left Lake Somerville and crossed the Brazos River on our way to Prairie View A&M.

Founded in 1876, Prairie View was the first state-supported college in Texas for African Americans.

This portion of the ride was the hilliest of the whole journey, although you know we were out there getting it.

Dr. Robinson, how are you doing?

- [Marco] What's going on, Bro?

- Good to see you, Bro.

- Welcome to the Hill.

This is Prairie View A&M University.

This is formerly the Alta Vista Plantation, which was owned by Jared Kirby.

He had family members that were originally a part of the first 300 families that came to Texas.

Where we're located at right now is where the former slave cabins and where the fields were.

And so we've been putting the whole story together, similar to the work that y'all are doing in Austin, making sure that people are informed but they know the whole story and not just half pieces of it so that they can make informed decisions about our direction as American citizens.

- Prairie View A&M University has a long legacy of educating and empowering generations of Black students, including recognizable names such as Megan Thee Stallion, Mr. T, and Sandra Bland.

Why is it important that educators teach about Black history and teach about the American experience?

- You can't talk about American history if you don't talk about Black history, right?

We've been here since the inception of this country.

And I think that at the middle of all of that, we need to be truth seekers and truth tellers.

- Yeah.

- Mm-hmm.

Sandra Bland, a civil rights activist, died in jail in 2015, sparking outrage against police misconduct.

A memorial near campus marks the spot where she was arrested for a traffic violation.

What are some of, like, the centers of, like, Black joy on campus?

- The whole space is a center of Black joy.

I mean, and I wanna say that emphatically because as we orientate our students coming onto those grounds, you undeniably know what this used to be.

- Yeah.

- All right?

This was a place of your foremothers' and forefathers' degradation.

But we want you to understand that this place has been transformed to an educational mecca, to where now leaders in our communities are being trained to go out to impact, you know, the world.

Sike!

Thank y'all for joining us today, guys, and I root you on as you travel forward and to expose the history to all of us.

- We appreciate it, Man.

- Word.

- Thank you so much.

- [Talib] After Prairie View, we rode to San Felipe, Texas, the location where Stephen F. Austin brought his first 300 settlers in 1821 under an agreement with the Mexican government.

They claimed land used by Indigenous groups like the Caddo, Apache, Wichita, and Tonkawa.

About a third of those settlers brought enslaved people to Texas despite the Mexican government's opposition to slavery.

About a quarter of the population of Texas before the Civil War were enslaved, but free African Americans and Mexicans were present too.

Austin granted land to at least three free Black men who received full citizenship under Mexican law.

(bright music) - [Brandon] Chicken chipotle melt.

- Okay.

- I mean, I'm just putting whatever's out here.

(Ariel burps) - How'd y'all feel today?

- You know, there was definitely moments where it was kind of getting to me out there.

I mean, headwind, when you have a whole bunch of stuff on your bike, it's real annoying.

(chuckles) - Yeah.

- How do you guys feel after talking with Dr. Marco?

- I thought it was great, like, toward the end, I guess, we talked about further connecting and, like, a lot of the things that he's doing have overlaps with what, you know, what we're trying to do in Austin, or, like, people that he knows in places that he is, like, there's a lot of over overlap and, like, possibilities for, like, more things in the future, like, just furthering relationships.

I think that was, like, kinda one of my favorite things, - Right, yeah.

I feel like we're like social historians in a way, where it's like we understand and we're interested in these things, and it's really nice talking to someone who's also as passionate but also has, like, a PhD- - (chuckles) Yeah.

- (chuckles) In these, you know, in this work, because they really, like, bring it back and have all these extra layers of, like, context and analysis and a lot of depth to add.

It's really awesome to get to talk to him.

(thunder rumbling) As soon as we left camp on day three, it began dumping rain.

At this point, our bodies were in go mode, where the only thing we really knew how to do was to ride.

We rode 65 miles and crossed into Brazoria County, the county where I went to high school.

We met with the mayor of West Columbia, the town that served as the first capital of the Republic of Texas and where Stephen F. Austin ultimately died.

Visiting this replica of the first capitol inspired many of the same feelings of uneasy curiosity we experienced while in San Felipe.

In many ways, this building represents the beginning of the Antebellum period in Texas, which was one of the darkest times in the state's history.

After Texas became its own country in 1836, slavery was enshrined in the Constitution.

In the 30 years between the establishment of the Republic of Texas and the end of the Civil War, the enslaved population in Texas increased from 5,000 to 250,000 people.

Most were forced laborers on plantation sites, where they endured harsh conditions while producing cotton and sugar that made huge profits for their enslavers.

(lighthearted music) William, Talib, nice to meet you.

- Kennedy.

- Kennedy, Talib.

Yeah, nice to meet y'all.

- Ariel.

- Hey, nice meetin' you.

- Yeah.

- Good to meet you.

- So can y'all tell us a little bit about the Levi Jordan plantation?

- Definitely.

This area alone had the largest African-born population of enslaved people in America, so.

- You gotta remember, people who came into Texas came from the Eastern part of the United States into this area.

So, where did these African-born people come?

Because they're already two, three generations in.

They were smuggled up the Brazos River.

With any other good, if you make it domestically, it costs more, but if you import it, it's cheaper.

- We're turning this space into a restorative site of justice.

We're gonna do public archeology, and we're looking at using all those artifacts to help tell a tangible story of our culture.

We're trying to just use this as a way to show people that Black history is more than just a verbal, oral history, it's actually things we left to tell this story, so.

- Do you know what it was like right here on June 19th in 1865, or around the time?

Because we talk about emancipation and freedom of enslaved peoples a lot, and we're going to the site where General Order No.

3 was read in Galveston tomorrow.

- We have a letter from the Grand Wizard, he sent the letter right directly to Levi Jordan, saying that, "We've sent you ammunition for your newfound problem down in the South."

And Levi Jordan's correspondence was, "It wasn't an empty tree in Brazoria County," so.

- In your opinion, what would be the reason for them to kill these enslaved people that had been freed?

- I just, to me, it's just mainly anger and frustration.

A lot of people get confused, they think that the wealth is in the land.

The majority of the wealth is in the people.

- You know, the people are worth more than everything on your property.

- Yeah.

So your wealth is in the people.

From the enslaver perspective, this is my whole financial- - They lost everything.

- They lost everything financially.

In their eyes, they lost everything.

Just because I understand it doesn't mean I agree with it.

- Right.

- But I understand why they may have been angry and why it woulda went down that way.

- And if we can just be honest, they have a genocidal history, so.

- Well, I mean, yeah.

So it wouldn't- (all laughing) It would not have bothered them to say, "Well, if I can't control these people in the future, I'm gonna control right now."

- Definitely.

- I, like, really appreciate that y'all are here.

One, to have the space for us, but, like, here in general, like, doing this kinda work.

- Hey, we just look at it this way, if we weren't here, you know, who would be in our spaces?

So, we just grateful to be here, able to tell these stories, so.

- [Talib] Speaking with Kennedy and Will on the grounds of a historic plantation was a powerful experience.

We were moved by the work these two young Black folks are doing to teach the history of the people held on Varner-Hogg and Levi Jordan, just 2 of the more than 60 plantation sites in Brazoria County.

♪ Texas, my heart ♪ Shinin' through the dark ♪ Texas is my friend ♪ Texas is my friend (relaxing rock music) - [Talib] Day four was our shortest and flattest day.

There's something magical about riding your bike all day and then realizing that you're breathing in the dense, humid ocean air.

Finally seeing the Gulf Coast after days of riding from the Hill Country of Central Texas almost makes you wanna cry with joy.

About 10 miles from the finish, it started raining again, and by the time we got to Galveston, the streets were actually flooding.

- Cheers, cheers.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Cheers!

Cheers.

- [Talib] Despite the downpour, we made it to the birthplace of Juneteenth.

(pensive music) (Talib laughing) How do you feel when you think of the word Juneteenth?

- [Tommie] It's a story that African Americans have been trying to share for a long, long time.

This is an American story.

It needs to be told.

- How do you feel about Juneteenth being a federal holiday?

- I think in the last two years, we probably have shared more information than we've shared in the last 400 years.

I'm happy that the world knows about Juneteenth and know about Galveston.

(pensive music) - [Talib] What is the significance of where we are standing?

- It's where it all began, right?

This site is believed to be the most likely site that the General Order No.

3 was actually read.

It really serves as a reminder of our resilience regardless of man's inhumanity toward man.

It helps to send the message that we have come a long way, but we still have so much further to go.

- [Talib] After riding 350 miles across Texas to learn about Black history, standing in the actual location where Juneteenth began was incredibly impactful.

Along the route to emancipation, we pedaled through history, feeling the weight of the past and the resilience of those who came before us.

Our journey across Texas was a tapestry of stories, woven with threads of struggle, triumph, and untold narratives.

(all laughing) The freedom communities, universities, and civil rights leaders that rose from the ashes of slavery remind us of the ongoing fight for justice.

In a way, the heavy rain on this ride reminded us that no matter how hard we work, we have to work harder against the forces we can't control to make the dream of equality a reality.

Only with an awareness of our history can we build a better future together.

That's why we ride bikes and talk about Black history.

(waves sloshing) (waves sloshing continues) ♪ Are we angels broken ♪ I'm already chosen ♪ I can't be hopeless ♪ My shoulders can't hold up the weight of my wings ♪ ♪ That's how I know why the caged bird sing ♪ ♪ The cost of speaking your mind ♪ It still ain't cheap ♪ ♪ We outreach to fly and we still ain't free ♪ ♪ Exiled from the skies that we still can't reach ♪ ♪ And daydream 'cause we still ain't sleeping ♪ ♪ We in these classrooms teachers still don't teach in ♪ ♪ Or on a corner, a quick trip to the precinct ♪ ♪ Are you listening or is to the choir I'm preaching ♪ ♪ Here's the reason - Major funding for this program was made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And by Chamois Buttr.

For more information and the full list of funders, please visit us at blackhistorybikeride.com