Juneteenth Social Ride biking 8.46-mile route to honor George Floyd

AUSTIN, Texas - The Juneteenth Social Ride hosted by Black History Bike Ride in Central East Austin is bringing cycling and history enthusiasts together.

On Saturday, June 19 at 10 a.m., participants will gather at the Texas African American Memorial, which is slightly west of 11th Street and Congress Avenue on the Texas Capitol grounds.

The ride guides participants on a historical tour of Black Central East Austin in an effort to preserve Austin’s history while pushing forward on the social justice movement sparked last year after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Stops include the Clarksville landmark Haskell House, the Barbara Jordan Statue, HBCU Huston-Tillotson University, and the historic Victory Grill.

"Really the hope for the ride on June 19th and for these rides, in general, is to create a conversation where one hadn’t been before. By helping educate people of all backgrounds in our community about Black history we are able to show that we still have a ways to go as a society in terms of bringing equity and inclusion to all spaces," says founder Talib Abdullahi.

Austin-resident Talib Abdullahi conceived the idea last year at a protest of Floyd’s death at the hands of police, he hoped that he could persuade a few dozen friends in the cycling community to join him on a personal journey to discover more of Black Austin’s much-forgotten history.

Abdullahi says, "As a Black man who has lived in Austin for over 12 years, I have noticed that there could be a lot more awareness about the local Black community history by a lot of residents generally in Austin. So my hope initially was just to take my personal friends out, and the word accidentally got out."

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Source: Tamir Kalifa

It exploded into 400 masked cyclists biking an 8.46-mile route to honor Floyd's memory while learning overlooked history about the Black community here at home.

"It turns out a lot of other people wanted to learn about these things and also do it on a bike. It was moving and also telling that we have much more work to do when it comes to reckoning with the history of racism both in the U.S. at large and in Austin," Abdullahi says.

Since last year, Black History Bike Ride has joined the umbrella of nonprofits under local cultural preservation nonprofit Six Square. The organization is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the historic legacy of the African-American community that once thrived in Central East Austin.

"Six Square’s help and ability to step up to the plate to provide a lot of help in terms of crafting a nonprofit has been invaluable. They are doing incredible work to protect and preserve the cultural legacy of East Austin, and at a time when a lot of it is being lost."

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