People’s History in Texas Blog

Socialist Ghost Town

Socialist Ghost Town

Once this was Kristenbad Wrapped around the de Cordova bend in the Brazos River, just south of Granbury, Texas, lies the small gated community of Pecan Plantation.  Once upon a time, that site was originally the home of Kristenbad, which was often labeled as a Socialist Utopia. Established in 1928 by John Christensen, a Danish-American, it was envisioned as a […]

General Patrick Cleburne and Confederate Emancipation

General Patrick Cleburne and Confederate Emancipation

General Patrick Cleburne Random Meditations at Random Museums PHIT’s new project is to visit small Texas museums and tell stories of peculiar and little known episodes in Texas History.  It is modeled somewhat on the Mysteries of the Museum, but we don’t want to get sued, so we changed the name to Meditations at the Museum. The Johnson County Historical […]

Freedom Colonies

Freedom Colonies

There was a wonderful story in Austin American Statesman on Sunday about a Bastrop County Historical Museum project to document the freedom colonies in the Bastrop area. The Bastrop County Historical Museum is looking for oral history and documents and artifacts.  https://epaper.statesman.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=84fa79db-7a42-4bd9-bd22-386977d3dbe4&pbid=0bd3b62f-2574-4676-88da-58d1361460ab&utm_source=app.pagesuite&utm_medium=app-interaction&utm_campaign=pagesuite-epaper-html5_share-article Ten of the Bastrop County freedom colonies have been already been recorded by Andrea Roberts, Texas A&M professor […]

A Texas Tale of the Three Duval Brothers

A Texas Tale of the Three Duval Brothers

Texas Capitol circa 1870 In both Texas and Florida, the Duval name is scattered through  place names and history. Duval County in South Texas is named after Burr Duval.  Duval County in East Florida is named after his father, William Pope Duval.  There is a bit of controversy about the origin of the naming of Duval Road in Austin. Burr […]

Austin Law Commune  Interview with Brady Coleman

Austin Law Commune Interview with Brady Coleman

Brady Coleman People’s History in Texas interviewed Brady Coleman last week.  Brady Coleman was a member of the Austin Law Commune that practiced movement law in the 1970’s.  The movement law office  was started by Jim Simons and Cam Cunningham in 1969. Brady Coleman joined in the early 70’s.  The lawyers operated as a commune in that, the secretaries, legal […]

Eugene V. Debs  A Graphic  Biography

Eugene V. Debs A Graphic Biography

To be published in Sept. 2019 Paul Buhle, Steve Max, Dave Nance and Noah Van Sciver have produced a new and delightful biography of Eugene Victor Debs, the iconic American socialist, told in a comic book format, although these days, the proper term is graphic book.  For Debs, who created and constantly evolved new approaches to the battle against capital […]

Publishing Plans

Publishing Plans

New Journalism Project is collaborating with People’s History in Texas (PHIT) to re-publish two books.  As a new generation of activists take on gentrification and find inspiration in the history of women who organized before they were born, these books will find new audiences. Clarksville: Whose Community? by Jennifer Sharpe was first published in 1982 and chronicles an important fight against gentrification […]

Streetcars

The Austin History Center has a new photographic exhibit on streetcars in Austin. It is a lovely exhibit that presents gorgeous photos of both mule drawn cars and electric cars. Followers of People’s History in Texas should definitely get by to see it before it closes. One of the interesting aspects of the streetcar period is that it ended in […]

LBJ and Grassroots Federalism: Congressman Bob Poage, Race, and Change in Texas

by Robert H. Duke Grassroots Federalism is a neatly threaded tale of three interrelated stories. The author slyly notes the comparison of Lyndon Baines Johnson and Bob Pogue—both from Central Texas, both poor, both from political families, and both politically ambitious. One became President of the United States and the other the Chair of the powerful House Agricultural committee. It […]