Pink and orange hues set the backdrop of a mural featuring the couple who opened Ideal Barber Shop in East Austin in 1948. On the other side of that wall, the couple’s grandson now works the chair his grandfather once claimed.
Leonard F. Hill’s shop is the oldest Black-owned barbershop still operating in Austin. It was a place for congregation amid racial segregation; somewhere civil rights discussions took place, but also somewhere to simply gather. To honor its history, another grandson — Javier Wallace — commissioned the mural.
Wallace, the founder of Black Austin Tours, said that as East Austin has become a more desirable area, property values have risen, making it difficult for local businesses like his grandfather’s barbershop to stay afloat.
“[I hope the mural brings] a renewed economic engine and light into this area to see how best we can mitigate some of the historical and contemporary losses that Black people have with property,” he said…