10/13/2026
Huston-Tillotson University sits in East Austin, Texas. It’s a private HBCU with about 1,000 students and roots going back to the 1870s, and it’s the oldest institution of higher learning in the city. The surrounding neighborhood has deep history too. In 1928, a city plan pushed Black residents into East Austin, and for generations, it was the heart of Black life in Austin. Over the last couple of decades, home prices in the area have soared. And recently, a couple who bought a home directly across the street from the campus started having a problem with students parking out front.
Students say it started with notes left on their cars. Then, according to senior Bri Nunn, the couple used their trash can and recycling bin to block a Black professor’s car in so he couldn’t leave. People had been parking on that public street for years without complaints, she said. So when the woman came outside again, Nunn started recording.
“It’s legal to park here,” Nunn told her. The woman didn’t deny leaving the notes. She told Nunn, “We paid $1.5 million for this house,” and claimed the school’s graduation rate was 25 percent. When Nunn pointed out that this was a historically Black neighborhood, the woman shot back, “THIS IS OUR NEIGHBORHOOD.” She told Nunn to get off her property and threatened to call the police. Nunn was standing in the street. Her husband tried to calm things down and admitted that parking there was legal.
Nunn posted the video to Instagram, and it spread fast across TikTok and beyond. And students had thoughts.
According to an update shared on Reddit, they put out the call for everyone to come through for a party right outside her house. So they did, on the same public street she’d been trying to control.