Nefertitti Jackmon
Six Square
Nefertitti Jackmon is the executive Director for Six Square and has
worked for more than 20 years to build the cultural capacity of African
American communities and organizations. Nefertitti was born in Fresno,
California but moved to Houston in 1995. She began her career
working for various non-profits and started searching for opportunities
outside of Houston. She then landed a dream opportunity with Six
Square in Austin. As the executive director of Six Square, she works
to preserve and celebrate the historic legacy of the African American
community that lived and thrived in Central East Austin. They
accomplish this by offering tours of the district so that visitors
can learn of the history of the people, places and stories that
have contributed to the cultural diversity of Austin. They also
produce events and exhibits that celebrate the various genres
of African American culture: visual arts, music, food, spoken word
and much more. She loves engaging in work that she’s most
passionate about. Her background in African American studies
was the tool that helped her finally decide what type of nonprofit
organization she desired to work with.
“I firmly believe that as people learn their roots and dig deeper
into understanding where they came from, they have a greater
capacity to stand tall, to have pride, to love themselves and to
find purpose and meaning in their lives. That is what I’m here to
do, and the story of Black Austin, is the story of Black America.
To help unearth that powerful story of resilience is a powerful honor
that I will never consider work. I have been energized by Austin and
the great opportunities that exist to show the world how we can learn
from our past mistakes and build better futures for our children. The
systems responsible for creating the area that we now refer to as Six
Square, must be completely, and permanently destroyed. There are
intelligent, passionate people in Austin who are leading the
conversations and the actions needed to create better futures,
and my hope is more equitable opportunities for all citizens.
That’s what’s most inspiring about Austin.”
Photographed at Downs Field.
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