After my first day of first grade, I asked my parents if I could dye my hair blonde. For the first time, I realized that my black Vietnamese hair stood out at the most prestigious Baptist school in

My uncle told me this story, and now I’ll try to share it with you in his own words... When I was fifteen, my mother bought me a truck so I could drive myself to work. The state of Texas issued me a d...

Of all the images that shape our idea of Texas, one particular type of person remains among the most vivid and enduring. Second only to the cowboy, perhaps, is the hardheaded oilman leading a rugged l...

The map of Texas draws inspiration from more cultures than almost any other American state. There are Czech names: Praha, Moravia, Dubina. German ones: Breslau, New Baden, New Ulm, or New Braunfels, t...

Early on July 31, 1981, State Representative Mike Martin arrived at the East Austin apartment complex where he lived during sessions of the Texas Legislature. He stepped out of his car and was struck...

My uncle once came across a TV show that good-naturedly poked fun at Ann Richards in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1992. To him, it seemed like a scene from a completely different era. At the time, the presi...

“We were hunted like outlaw wolves,” Sam Houston declared in his inaugural address as the first elected president of the Republic of Texas. “Our little band was driven from one hiding place to another

Two hundred years ago, it was common to find abandoned homes and businesses across the American South with a note on the door: “Gone to Texas.” People often fled bad luck or the law.

Fort Worth got its first purpose-built movie theater in 1910. It was the Odeon at 1004 Main, where silent one-reel films were shown. Admission was five cents. Within just a few

Air conditioning arrived in Texas in the 1920s. One of the twentieth century’s greatest inventions is as Texan as Dr Pepper and Blue Bell ice cream. And just like you

Fort Worth had always been racially divided, but sharp and uncompromising boundaries between people emerged with the rise of the so-called Jim Crow era in the late 19th century. The term “Jim Crow” re...

It was 1950, and the modern civil rights movement was still some four or five years away. The tragic events that unfolded on both banks of the Trinity River foreshadowed what was yet to come.