{"id":801,"date":"2018-12-31T14:03:48","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=801"},"modified":"2018-12-31T14:03:48","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:03:48","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=801","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>TEXAS HISTORY<\/p>\n

Max Krochmal<\/span><\/p>\n

Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Democratic Coalition in the Civil Rights Era<\/span><\/p>\n

University of North Carolina Press<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-1-4696-2675-8 (also available as an e-book), 552 pgs., $39.95<\/p>\n

November 14, 2016<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book is about the other Texas <\/span>\u2026 the hidden Lone Star tradition of community organizing, civil rights, trade unionism, and liberal, multiracial coalition building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does this Texas sound familiar to you? It doesn\u2019t sound familiar to most of us, but it should.<\/p>\n

In the 1930s, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, and inspired by the New Deal, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and mostly Anglo labor organizers and community activists in Texas began a decades-long journey toward each other. Each group began individually, in their several neighborhoods: the Mexican American pecan shellers striking in San Antonio; Anglo labor striking Ford in Dallas; Smith v. Allright<\/span>, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the white primary, was born in Houston. Eventually the separate groups reached tentatively across the color line and found they were stronger together. For most it wasn\u2019t about ideology, but about living conditions. This journey culminated in a multiracial coalition able to elect liberal politicians in support of a broad civil rights program.<\/p>\n

So, what happened?<\/p>\n

Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Democratic Coalition in the Civil Rights Era<\/span><\/a><\/span> by Texas Christian University assistant professor of history Max Krochmal<\/span> is the latest addition to the University of North Carolina Press\u2019s \u201cJustice, Power, and Politics\u201d series. Employing extensive archival sources and original interviews, Krochmal tells a fascinating story. He is under no illusions about the forces arrayed against further progress, nevertheless his style is infectiously hopeful and inspiring.<\/p>\n

Krochmal contends we can use history as a blueprint for moving forward, if only we knew the history. What did he learn? The coalition succeeded because it \u201cboth recognized and transcended racial difference \u2026 prioritized the needs of its most vulnerable partners. \u2026 its most privileged members \u2026 plunged headlong into the fight for black and brown civil rights. The whites backed up their words with action \u2026 The more liberal, the more explicitly integrationist, the more militant the tactics, the more effective the coalition became.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process was not smooth; the Cold War (Fun fact: San Antonio put red stamps on the \u201csubversive volumes\u201d in the public library) threw a wrench into the works and the assassination of JFK almost killed it off. The coalition fought corruption, political machines, bossism, big business, and a toxic white supremacist society which confused privileges and rights. Each step forward was met by the inevitable conservative backlash and breathtaking violence.<\/p>\n

Krochmal\u2019s report of \u201cKKK\u201d carved into the stomach of a protestor is horrifying; his relation of the desegregation of Crystal City schools is thrilling. As an academic work, Krochmal\u2019s tome is minutely detailed, dense with facts, figures, and acronyms. Blue Texas is not an easy read, but it is a fine accomplishment, and an important addition to our understanding of the struggle for the most basic Civil Rights in this state.<\/p>\n

We are not taught this history in our elementary or secondary schools. There are names we never learned, but should revere: Moses and Erma LeRoy, Albert Pe\u00f1a, G.J. Sutton, Hank Brown, Dr. Hector P. Garcia, B. T. Bonner, George and Latane Lambert, and Emma Tenayuca, to name a mere few. That\u2019s not just a shame, it\u2019s education malpractice. A history to be proud of, this information belongs in every school curriculum. Blue Texas<\/span> is a call to action.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}