Enslaved Couples Faced Wrenching Separations, or Even Choosing Family Over Freedom Loved ones could be sold away at any time. Here's how married couples coped. Photo: Soldier and Companion, c.1861-65 (tintype with brass mat & leather case), American Photographer, (19th century)/Detroit Institute of Arts, USA/Founders Society Purchase, DeRoy Photographic Acquisition Endowment Fund and Coville [...]
The Complexities of Slavery in the Nation's Capital Image: In this drawing from around 1815, the enslaved pass the United States Capitol wearing shackles and chains. (Library of Congress) (The White House Historical Association) For the first seventy-two years of its existence, the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., harbored one of America’s most difficult historical [...]
How Dorie Miller’s bravery helped fight bigotry in the Navy Image: Doris Miller was an African-American Sailor who earned the Navy Cross for bravery during the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II. (Navy) (Navy Times) Among the pantheon of America’s heroes, none might seem more improbable than the black son of Texas [...]
Bass Reeves Finally Gets His Hollywood Moment in HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ The legend of the former Texas marshal figures prominently in Damon Lindelof’s new series. Photo credit: ilbusca/Getty, Public Domain (Texas Monthly) The series premiere of HBO’s Watchmen opens with a black-hooded figure in hot pursuit of a lawman; he quickly finds himself lassoed in [...]
The Long Story of East 11th and 12th Streets Takes a Turn Austin's historically black neighborhood continues to stand at the crossroads of growth Photo: Harold McMillan and Greg Smith at Kenny Dorham's Backyard (Photo by David Brendan Hall) (Austin Chronicle) Dr. Charles Urdy, at 86, can still remember the names of long-gone nightclubs [...]
They were once America’s cruelest, richest slave traders. Why does no one know their names? Isaac Franklin and John Armfield committed atrocities they appeared to relish Photo: The exterior of the Franklin and Armfield Slave Office, today the Freedom House Museum, in Alexandria. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post ) (The Washington Post) The two most [...]
The Battle to Rewrite Texas History While a new generation of scholars is correcting the historical record, supporters of the traditional narratives are fighting to keep their grip on the public imagination. Illustration by David Palumbo (Texas Monthly) On the mild, cloudy day of April 14, 2015, exactly 150 years and five days after [...]
In rural Texas, black students’ fight for voting access conjures a painful past Photo: Even after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the ratification six years later of the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age to 18, Prairie View students faced barriers, including a “residency questionnaire” in the 1970s and [...]
A Secret 1950s Strategy to Keep Out Black Students Long-hidden documents reveal the University of Texas’s blueprint for slowing integration during the civil-rights era. Photo: Heman Sweatt (right) at the University of Texas (Joseph Scherschel / Getty) (The Atlantic) In the summer of 1955, administrators at the University of Texas at Austin had a [...]
Restoring Black Cowboys to the Range At the Black Cowboy Museum in a storefront near Houston, one man celebrates the lives of African-Americans in the West’s most iconic role. Photo: Mr. Callies used his life savings to open the museum in 2017. (Credit: Michael Starghill Jr. for The New York Times) (New York Times) [...]
