Politics & Policy
December 7, 2023
The Texas Historical Commission Removed Books on Racism and Slavery From Plantation Gift Shops
An agency spokesperson claimed that the move had nothing to do with politics. Internal emails show otherwise.
Slavery
Texas History
May 18, 2023
The Story We’ve Been Told About Juneteenth Is Wrong
The real history is much messier—and more inspiring.
Texas Country Reporter
March 31, 2023
A Group of Singing Quilters Shares the History of the Underground Railroad
From the rural East Texas community of Pleasant Hill, a group of women depicts the sights and sounds that guided people to freedom.
Texas Country Reporter
February 27, 2023
Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival Is More Than an Event. It’s the Story of Shankleville, One of the State’s Early Freedom Colonies.
Texas Country Reporter visits Lareatha Clay & Phillip White, organizers of the festival in Shankleville and descendants of the community's founders.
Film & TV
January 31, 2023
The Year’s Most Fascinating Documentary Won’t Be at the Oscars
Margaret Brown’s remarkable ‘Descendant’ deserved to take its case for reparations to an audience of millions.
Being Texan
December 6, 2021
An East Texas Freedom Colony Looks to the Future—and Reckons With Its Losses
The Upshaw family has preserved their history and traditions since the 1870s. Now, amid deaths and other departures, family members worry for their land’s legacy.
Books
June 15, 2021
Set After the Civil War, ‘The Sweetness of Water’ Is Eerily Relevant
Austin author Nathan Harris dazzles in his first novel, which explores racial violence, family, and identity.
Texas History
November 6, 2020
Slavery Was Integral to Texas’s Transition From Republic to Statehood, but This Textbook Doesn’t Tell the Full Story
The version of Texas history taught in school is often anglicized and sanitized. We examine how one textbook falls short.
Texas History
June 19, 2019
Why This Mexican Village Celebrates Juneteenth
Descendants of slaves who escaped across the southern border observe Texas’s emancipation holiday with their own unique traditions.
True Crime
May 30, 2018
Stolen Youth: Modern-Day Slavery in Texas
When Given Kachepa first arrived from Zambia as a young boy, he expected to sing in a choir and gain an education. Instead he was forced into servitude.
Politics & Policy
May 2, 2018
One Day in Texas, Two Different Responses to Our Confederate Legacy
As Austin honored a former slave, Panola County celebrated the Confederacy and ignored his brother.
Texas History
April 20, 2016
The Opera of Emeline
How one woman’s fight for freedom inspired Houston’s lawyers and artists more than a century and a half later.
Arts & Entertainment
February 12, 2015
The White Stuff
The secret history of cotton, the crop that transformed the global economy—and kept Texans in poverty for generations.
Books
June 5, 2014
Race and Relations
Journalist Chris Tomlinson delves into the parallel histories of two Texas families with the same last name—one black, one white.
Texas History
March 4, 2014
Sallie Tate’s Emancipation Dress
A rare relic of slavery in Texas—and one woman’s freedom.
Texas History
January 21, 2013
A Q&A With Michael Hall
The senior editor on following the paper trail of Texas history, learning about Jack Johnson sparring with “Chrysanthemum Joe” Choynski, and researching his own family roots.
Texas History
January 21, 2013
The Paper Chase
Houston attorney Bill Kroger and state Supreme Court chief justice Wallace Jefferson are on a mission to rescue thousands of crumbling, fading, and fascinating legal documents from district and county clerks’ offices all over the state. Can they save Texas history before it’s too late?
Texas History
January 21, 2013
A Q&A With Katy Vine
The senior editor on attending a Civil War reenactment, preserving history, and standing inside the Globe of Death.
Texas History
April 1, 1998
Forget the Alamo
Sorry, T. R. Fehrenbach: the new Texas historians don’t care about Davy Crockett or other old icons. To them, the real heroes are women, blacks, and yes, Mexican Americans.