Libations
September 19, 2023
Black Winery Owners in Texas Hope to Leave a Legacy for Future Generations
Fewer than one percent of the country’s wineries are Black-owned, but these entrepreneurs are hoping to change the statistic.
Black History
Books
September 7, 2023
How “America’s Best University President” Rose From the Cotton Fields of East Texas
In her new memoir, ‘Up Home,’ Ruth J. Simmons details how she defied the constraints of her segregated childhood and turned her humble origins into the key to her success.
Style & Design
August 9, 2023
The Latest Victory for Natural Hair in Texas Can Be Traced Back to Isis Brantley’s Arrest Three Decades Ago
The Dallas braider, whose loyal customers include Erykah Badu, examines her hard-fought legacy as the CROWN Act, which bans discrimination against Black hairstyles at work and school, goes into effect September 1.
Texas History
July 28, 2023
The Myths and Melodies of Forgotten Bluesman Texas Alexander
The early blues singer helped define the genre and achieved major success—until a story of murder tainted his legacy.
Texas History
May 18, 2023
The Story We’ve Been Told About Juneteenth Is Wrong
The real history is much messier—and more inspiring.
Sports
April 14, 2023
The Undertold Story of Jackie Robinson’s College Hoops Coaching Days
Before he began his pro baseball career, Jackie Robinson spent a season on the hardwood for Austin HBCU Samuel Huston College.
Best Thing in Texas
April 12, 2023
The First HBCU to Win the D1 Cheerleading Nationals Is From Houston
Texas Southern University's cheer team went to the competition confident they'd come home champions. Mission accomplished.
Art
April 6, 2023
Renowned Houston Photographer Earlie Hudnall Jr. Always Has His Camera In Hand
Famous for portraits of Houston’s Black community, Hudnall's work is recognized around the world while his subject matter remains distinctly local.
Texas History
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 History
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.
Sports
February 1, 2023
Rodeo Fans Should Grow Up Learning About This Legendary Black Rider
A writer looks back on his 2018 cover story on Myrtis Dightman Sr., “the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo,” who broke the sport’s color line.
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.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Myrtis Dightman Is the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo
The Hall of Fame bull rider is the subject of an upcoming documentary and a Hollywood biopic—but if you ask him he’s “just a cowboy.”
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
A Letter to My Fellow Black Texans About Juneteenth
The day commemorating the emancipation of slaves in Texas says as much about our future as our past.
Texas History
January 10, 2023
The Black Cowboy Museum, in Rosenberg, Fills an Important Gap
Former roper and country music singer Larry Callies was always a cowboy at heart, but when he was growing up, he rarely saw any representations of Black cowboys, despite a rich history. So in 2017, he founded the Black Cowboy Museum, which features a collection of
Books
September 6, 2022
Is Everyone Welcome in Texas?
Three new books remind us that some of the issues roiling the state have been with us for a very long time.
Books
July 14, 2022
Has Texas Finally Found Its William Faulkner?
With her stunning debut novel, ‘Perish,’ LaToya Watkins draws on her family’s deep roots in West Texas.
Sports
April 15, 2022
The 1950s Louisiana Law That Stalled Racial Progress in Texas Baseball
A decade after Jackie Robinson integrated MLB, Black Texas League players found themselves banned from competing at road games in Shreveport.
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.
By Cat Cardenas![Cat Cardenas's Profile Photo]()
Film & TV
November 3, 2021
‘The Harder They Fall’ Is a Fun, Stylish Revisionist Western
Dallas-raised actor Jonathan Majors leads a star-studded cast as outlaw Nat Love seeking revenge.
Texas History
October 29, 2021
Houston’s First Black Cemetery Was Neglected For Decades. One Group Is Leading Its Rejuvenation.
Olivewood Cemetery is the resting ground of many Houston trailblazers and an important piece of the history of the African diaspora.
Sports
September 14, 2021
For Texas’s Black Roller Skaters, Life Is Good on the Wood
Joining a tradition with roots in the 1960s, today’s skaters blend styles from across the U.S.—and have a lot of fun doing it.
Music
September 14, 2021
Houston’s Legendary SugarHill Recording Studios Turns Eighty
The oldest studio in Texas has recorded everyone from Lightnin’ Hopkins and George Jones to Beyoncé and Travis Scott—and it’s still making hits.
Books
August 26, 2021
An Incendiary History of Civil Rights in Dallas Gets a Timely Reissue
First published in 1987, ‘The Accommodation’ still resonates today.
Books
August 25, 2021
A Joyful New Read Celebrates Galveston’s Bygone Black-Owned Restaurants
Part historical text, part recipe book, ‘Lost Restaurants’ memorializes the self-made entrepreneurs who uplifted the island during its years of segregation.
Art
July 15, 2021
Houston Artist Jamal Cyrus’s Playful, Subversive Vision of Black History
His works incorporate redacted FBI documents, vintage records, and a saxophone deep-fried like a chicken wing.
Film & TV
July 3, 2021
‘The Harder They Fall’ Is About to Bring New Excitement to the Old-school Western
Starring North Texas's Jonathan Majors and featuring folk hero Bass Reeves, the film promises to let Black cowboys have fun for once.
Texas History
June 22, 2021
The Resurrection of Bass Reeves
His almost superhuman exploits made him one of the West's most feared lawmen. Today, the legendary deputy U.S. marshal is widely believed to be the real Lone Ranger. But his true legacy is even greater.
Books
May 11, 2021
Annette Gordon-Reed Explores the Tangled Meaning of Juneteenth
In her new book ‘On Juneteenth,’ the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian takes on the Texas holiday that has gone national.
Style & Design
March 18, 2021
John S. Chase’s Extraordinary Modernist Home Helped Shape Houston’s Political and Architectural History
The trailblazing architect designed, among many other buildings, a fabulous house where he and his family hosted the likes of Muhammad Ali and Ann Richards.
Texas History
October 22, 2020
How One State History Textbook Erases the Stories of Black and Hispanic Texans
The version of Texas history I learned in school was woefully incomplete. And, according to two historians, this 2016 textbook is, too.
Sports
July 28, 2020
Thirty Years Ago, UT Student Athletes Fought for Racial Justice
In 1990, Longhorn student athletes marched through campus united against racism. Their movement continues through players still calling for change today.
Being Texan
June 18, 2020
Essay: Celebrating Juneteenth in 2020 Is an Act of Resistance
I’ve always observed Juneteenth, but this year the stakes feel higher than ever.
Texas History
February 29, 2020
In Praise of Bessie Coleman, Trailblazing Black Texan Pilot
Coleman’s extraordinary life and career deserves to be celebrated in the canon of U.S. history.
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.
By Wes Ferguson![Wes Ferguson's Profile Photo]()
Music
March 13, 2019
Solange’s ‘When I Get Home’ Pays Homage to the Black Rural South
The album honors black culture in Houston, but also looks beyond it to the traditions of rural Texas.
Art
January 29, 2019
Telling the Story of a Texas Freedom Colony Through Decades of Photos
‘The Upshaws of County Line,’ a new book and exhibit currently at the Museum of the Big Bend, chronicles a safe haven established by African American Texans.
By Cat Cardenas![Cat Cardenas's Profile Photo]()
Texas History
January 20, 2013
Mance Lipscomb
What was so special about Mance Lipscomb’s dentures?
Music
December 1, 2010
The Soul of a Man
For nearly sixty years, a succession of obsessed blues and gospel fans have trekked across Texas, trying to unearth the story of one of the greatest, and most mysterious, musicians of the twentieth century. But the more they find, the less they seem to know.
By Michael Hall![Michael Hall's Profile Photo]()
Texas History
May 31, 1997
The First Protester
How a man named Eldrewey Stearns began the fight for civil rights in Houston.
Art
May 31, 1997
Captions and Comments
Left: Untitled, 1993. Right: Beware, 1994. The old stereotypes have only been repackaged, Charles says. Right: Clockwise from top left, four paintings from the Liberty Bros. Permanent Daily Circus series: Blue Period, 1995, Oop’s, 1995, Desperados Leap for Life, 1996, and Smiles, 1996. “I’m trying to be as honest
Texas History
February 1, 1997
Bill Pickett
What was Bill Pickett’s nickname, and how did he wrestle steers to the ground?
Politics & Policy
February 1, 1997
Fratricidal Black Politics
The Houston mayoral election doesn’t occur until November, but the race to succeed Bob Lanier is already the talk of the town. Three blacks would like to be Houston’s first black mayor, and many blacks—among them Houston Chronicle editorial writer James T. Campbell—think that’s two too many. Former top cop
Being Texan
April 30, 1994
Black Like Them
During the days of segregation, a young graduate of all-white Rice University managed to become a professor at all-black Texas Southern University.
Politics & Policy
July 1, 1980
Why I Turned In Lee Otis Johnson
When black militant Lee Otis Johnson got out of prison his old friends welcomed him with open arms. Later, some of them wished they hadn’t.
Politics & Policy
September 30, 1976
The Making of Barbara Jordan
From poor black girl to presidential possibility, in ten not-so-easy lessons.