A parking dispute between a white homeowner couple and Black college students in Austin, Texas, has turned into a much bigger confrontation over race and gentrification. After a video of the argument went viral, students from Huston-Tillotson University, a historically Black institution, responded by organizing a cookout and protest outside the couple’s home.
A student named Bri posted footage of the encounter on Instagram. It reportedly put the spotlight on East 9th Street, just outside the university gates. Students say the couple had been giving professors and students trouble for weeks, allegedly leaving hostile notes on windshields and using their own vehicles to block parking spaces that university staff and students had long used.
