Here is Brian Lopez at The Texas Tribune: A group of Texas educators have proposed to the Texas State Board of Education that slavery should be taught as “involuntary relocation” during second grade social studies instruction, but board members have...
Texas
The GOP is in a dark place right now
This letter was sent to Adam Kinzinger’s home. He is a veteran and a GOP member of the House January 6th Select Committee. The letter was addressed to his wife: This is not the first time Kinzinger has released a...
Watch Ted Cruz spin
Watch: Cruz seems to be on the ropes here, but then the reporter mentions “American exceptionalism.” Ah! There it is! Cruz pounces. You can almost see the light bulb (or perhaps the trigger) go off in his head. He now...
Why does an image of the lynching of a Black man in Texas appear in a family photo album with vacation and wedding photos?
I will let historian Jeffrey Littlejohn explain. Here is a taste of his piece at The Conversation: As a historian and director of the Lynching in Texas project, which has documented more than 600 racial terror lynchings, I receive regular emails from journalists, scholars...
What Beto did
In case you missed it, yesterday Texas gubernatorial candidate (and U.S. Senate candidate and presidential candidate and former Congressman) Beto O’Rourke disrupted Texas governor Greg Abbott’s press conference on the school shooting in Ulvade: Watch: In addition to Abbott, Lieutenant...
The Author’s Corner with Thomas Alter
Thomas Alter is Assistant Professor of History at Texas State University. This interview is based on his new book, Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas (University of Illinois Press, 2022). JF: What led you...
Is the Texas abortion law really stopping abortions?
Here is Axios: The number of Texas residents who traveled out-of-state to access abortion care increased dramatically after the most restrictive abortion ban in the U.S. went into effect in the state in September. Driving the news: Newly released data shows that Planned Parenthood health centers...
The Author’s Corner with Sean P. Cunningham
Sean P. Cunningham is Associate Professor of History at Texas Tech University. This interview is based on his new book, Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR (University Press of Kansas, 2022). JF: What led you to...
Abortions drop 60% in Texas under new law
Here is Paul Weber of the Associated Press: Abortions in Texas fell by 60% in the first month under the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S. in decades, according to new figures that for the first time reveal a...
The editors of The Christian Century ask: “Why do we need to teach history?”
The Christian Century tackles a Texas bill that forbids the teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 Project. Here is a taste of its editorial: How should the story of our country be told? It says that schools should...
Evangelical roundup: Texas Heartbeat Act edition
What are evangelical Christians saying about the Texas Heartbeat Act? Here’s a bonus addition of the roundup. And it’s not behind the Current paywall! 🙂 James Dobson on Facebook: Just before midnight last night, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a...
Making sense of the Texas Heartbeat Act
Read Texas Senate Bill 8 here. Some highlights: The bill says that Texas “never repealed, either expressly or by implication, the state statues enacted before the ruling in Rove v. Wade…that prohibit and criminalize abortion unless the mother’s life is...
Texas effectively bans abortion
Here is Adam Liptak at The New York Times: The Supreme Court did not take action early Wednesday on a request to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, allowing the most restrictive abortion...
Election fraud “expert” testifies at Texas State Senate hearing. Quotes 2 Peter 1:10 on “election.”
Watch: The woman speaking in this video is Dr. Laura Pressley. She is testifying on election fraud before the Texas State Senate Committee on State Affairs. You can watch her entire testimony at the 12:28:20 mark of this video. What...
A new Battle of the Alamo?
Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson and Jason Stanford recently published Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth. It has a provocative title and an even more provocative argument: Every nation needs its creation myth, and since Texas...
Supreme Court upholds Obamacare (7-2) and religious liberty (9-0)
Here is Politico on the Texas challenge to the Affordable Care Act: The Supreme Court on Thursdaythrew out a lawsuit threatening the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, finding that Republican-led states behind the case did not have legal ground...
Texas is trying to whitewash its history
One of these days I will try to put together a list of state education boards trying to change their history curriculums so that students do not come face to face with the many sins of America’s past. Texas will...
Will Hurd has his work cut out for him
Former Texas representative Will Hurd wants to make the GOP more moderate. Good luck. Here is a taste of his interview with Emma Green at The Atlantic: Green: Are you frustrated that the oxygen gets sucked up by people like Lauren...
A Texas state representative defends the phrase “purity of the ballot box.” It does not go well.
Watch: The Washington Post has it covered: Early on in a contentious night of debate over a bill that would create newvoting restrictions in Texas, state Rep. Rafael Anchía (D) zeroed in on what he called a “peculiar term.” The bill said...
The Author’s Corner with Allison Schottenstein
Allison Schottenstein is Annual Adjunct Assistant Professor of History at University of Cincinnati’s Blue Ash College. This interview is based on her new book, Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era (University of North Texas Press,...