King-Tears Mortuary

William M. Tears wore a police badge before he buried anyone. One of Austin's first Black policemen, he served six years. He also helped found the Bethany Cemetery Company in 1893 and opened his funeral home in 1901. Black funeral homes like his and King's existed, a King-Tears staff member explained in 1997, because white morticians would not embalm or handle Black people, so families formed their own. Fuller-Sheffield and Rest Haven were named alongside it as Black-owned homes. King-Tears still stands on East 12th Street.

What the plaque says

King-Tears Mortuary King-Tears Mortuary In October 1901, William M. Tears opened the Tears Funeral Home at 614 E. 6th Street to provide mortuary services for African Americans in Austin and the surrounding area. Upon his death in 1923, his son William M. Tears, Jr. became manager of the firm. In 1933, Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. King opened King and Company (later King Funeral Home) at 1107 E. 6th Street. Tears relocated to this site in 1934, and King completed extensive remodeling in 1936. In 1955, these two historic East Austin establishments merged to form the King-Tears Funeral Home. Continuing to operate at this site with expanded services and charitable works in the community, King-Tears remains an important part of Austin's heritage. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George Washington Carver Museum — 0.2 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Cemetery — 0.4 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Texas State Capitol — 0.9 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Lewis and Carolyn Mitchell — steps away
• Texas Land Commissioner, Johann Jacob Groos — steps away
• John Crittenden Duval — steps away
• Susanna W. Dickinson — steps away