<P> While residences of blacks had been widely scattered all across the city in 1880, by 1930 they were heavily concentrated in East Austin, a process encouraged by the 1928 City Plan, which recommended that East Austin be designated a "Negro district ." City officials implemented the plan successfully, and most blacks who had been living in the western half of the city were "relocated" back to the former plantation lands, on the other side of East Avenue (now Interstate 35). Municipal services like schools, sewers, and parks were made available to blacks in East Austin only . At mid-century Austin was still segregated in most respects--housing, restaurants, hotels, parks, hospitals, schools, public transportation--but African Americans had long fostered their own institutions, which included by the late 1940s some 150 small businesses, more than thirty churches, and two colleges, Tillotson College and Samuel Huston College . Between 1880 and 1940 the number of black residents grew from 3,587 to 14,861, but their proportion of the overall population declined from 33% to 17% . </P> <P> Austin's Hispanic residents, who in 1900 numbered about 335 and composed just 1.5% of the population, rose to 11% by 1940, when they numbered 9,693 . By the 1940s most Mexican - Americans lived in the rapidly expanding East Austin barrio south of East Eleventh Street, where increasing numbers owned homes . Hispanic - owned business were dominated by a thriving food industry . Though Mexican Americans encountered widespread discrimination--in employment, housing, education, city services, and other areas--it was by no means practiced as rigidly as it was toward African - Americans . </P> <P> Between the 1950s and 1980s ethnic relations in Austin were transformed . First came a sustained attack on segregation . Local black leaders and political - action groups waged campaigns to desegregate city schools and services . In 1956 the University of Texas became the first major university in the South to admit blacks as undergraduates . In the early 1960s students staged demonstrations against segregated lunch counters, restaurants, and movie theaters . Gradually the barriers receded, a process accelerated when the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations . Nevertheless, discrimination persisted in areas like employment and housing . Shut out of the town's political leadership since the 1880s, when two blacks had served on the city council, African - Americans regained a foothold by winning a school - board seat in 1968 and a city - council seat in 1971 . This political breakthrough was matched by Hispanics, whose numbers had reached 39,399 by 1970, or 16 percent of the population . Mexican - Americans won their first seats on the Austin school board in 1972 and the city council in 1975 . </P> <P> During the early and mid-1930s, Austin experienced the harsh effects of the Great Depression . Nevertheless, the town fared comparatively well, sustained by its twin foundations of government and education and by the political skills of Mayor Tom Miller, who took office in 1933, and United States Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson, who won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937 . Its population grew at a faster pace during the 1930s than in any other decade during the 20th century, increasing 66 percent from 53,120 to 87,930 . By 1936 the Public Works Administration had provided Austin with more funding for municipal construction projects than any other Texas city during the same period . UT nearly doubled its enrollment during the decade and undertook a massive construction program . In addition, the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport opened its doors for commercial air traffic in 1930 . </P>

Why was austin chosen as the capital of texas