Today in Texas History – August 31

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From the Annals of Our Poor Idiot Governors –   In 1871 James Edward “Pa” Ferguson was born in Salado.  Ferguson was City Attorney and a banker in Belton as well as a political player when he decided to run for governor in 1914.  He won election as an anti-prohibitionist Democrat but almost immediately got in trouble.  Ferguson engaged in a personal vendetta against University of Texas professors who he believed should be fired.   When UT refused to act, he vetoed the appropriations bill for the university with the ultimate result of him being impeached, convicted and removed from office.  Ferguson was not done with politics as he later ran for the U.S. Senate and President as a minor third party candidate.  He was able to secure the election of his wife Miriam “Ma” Ferguson who was the first woman elected governor of a U.S. State.

Red regards Pa Ferguson as one of a long line of worthless inhabitants of the Governor’s Mansion along with such notables as  Pappy O’Daniel, Preston Smith, Dolph Briscoe, John Connally, Bill Clements, George W. Bush, Rick Perry and our current poor idiot governor Greg Abbott.  Really, where do they get these guys?

Today in Texas History – August 30

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From the Annals of the Bigots  – In 1956, an angry white mob surrounded Mansfield High School to prevent the enrollment of three African-American students.  Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Texas Federal District Judge Joe Estes ordered the Mansfield ISD to desegregate.  Mansfield was the first Texas school district to be directly affected by the Brown ruling.  The school board approved a measure desegregating Mansfield High School.  Mayor William Arnold “Bud” Halbert and Police Chief C.G. Harwell refused to comply with the school board’s decision and were instrumental in stirring up opposition.

And the opposition came.   The white mob of about 400 people surrounded Mansfield High  to prevent the enrollment of three African American students.  Just in case their intentions were not clear, the good people of Mansfield hanged the three black high school students in effigy.  They also attacked reporters and observers.  Sheriff Harlan Wright attempted to confront the mob but was himself threatened.

Up to this point, African-American high school students in Mansfield were required to ride a bus into nearby Fort Worth and then walk twenty blocks to the all-black I.M. Terrell High School.  Spineless Texas Governor R. Allan Shivers, doing his best imitation of a staunch segregationist, called out the Texas Rangers at Mansfield to prevent any black students from entering the public school.  Shivers openly defied the federal court order for integration and authorized Mansfield ISD to continue to send its black students to Fort Worth.  Mansfield did not integrate its schools until 1965.

Photo from newsone.com

Red’s Texas College Football Game of the Week

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Red travels to the greater Midland-Odessa area (Odessa really) for this week’s match-up between the Sul Ross State Lobos and the Falcons of UT-Permian Basin.  Okay, Red has to ‘fess up.  He didn’t even know that UTPB had a football program until last week, but ever since figuring that out he has been especially anxious to feature the Falcons squad in this season’s first of Red’s Texas College Football GOTW.

The SRSU football program has been mired in controversy in recent years. In 2014, the entire football staff was fired over allegations of abuse, misconduct and general naughtiness.  Red doesn’t make light of this at all as there were claims that female students were being coerced into more than friendly relations with recruits.   The program has taken a few years to recover going 2-8 in 2015 and 3-7 last season.  This season 4-6 might be in reach.  Reach for the stars boys – or at least reach for the chance of finishing in the middle of the conference pack.

Red might be forgiven for his ignorance of Falcon football as this is the school’s first season.  And the Falcons have a first time head coach in Justin Carrigan who does have experience at Midwestern State and Tarleton.  The Falcons may have built in rivals in Angelo State, West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico all of which are a reasonable road trip away from Odessa.  Unfortunately, Red’s insider knowledge of the program is somewhat hindered – mostly by the fact that the Falcon’s website is down – not that Red could have garnered much from that anyway.  But Red is pleased to honor Texas’ newest college football program in the first GOTW this season.

Red is hard-pressed to really make an intelligent call on this one, but when has that ever stopped him.   SRSU 27 UTPB 13.

 

Today in Texas History – August 29

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From the Annals of the Big Storms –  In 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a category 3 hurricane.  The storm’s direct impact was directed most famously at New Orleans, but much of the Gulf Coast from  Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle was effected.  The storm killed more than 1,800 and caused over $115 billion in damage.  The indirect impact on Texas was the outmigration of people from Louisiana many of whom have stayed in Houston and other cities.  The devastation wrought by Katrina was also instrumental in triggering the mass evacuation from the Houston area in advance of Hurricane Rita which resulted in several deaths.

When Dildos are Outlawed only Outlaws will have Dildos

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Thousands of UT-Austin students openly carried dildos and other sex toys to class this week in an hilarious protest against Texas’ law requiring public universities to allow open carry of weapons on campus.  Some believed that it might have been the largest anti-gun protest in Texas history.   The open display of the faux penises disturbed some. But as one protestor, Rosie Zander, put it, If you’re uncomfortable with dildos, how do you think I feel about your gun?” And just where did the students get all of the fake phalluses –  it turns out they were donated by purveyors of sex toys ranging from local sellers in Austin all the way to Singapore.

Red wonders what Ted Cruz – once a prominent supporter of Texas Anti-Dildo Law thinks about all this.

Today in Texas History – August 26

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From the Annals of All the Way with LBJ –  In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson was nominated to as the Democratic candidate for president at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, NJ.   LBJ had of course been elevated to the presidency upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy the previous November.  Shortly before his nomination, the seeds of trouble had been planted when LBJ began the escalation of the Vietnam War based on the now discredited Gulf of Tonkin incident.  Vietnam and the domestic unrest that it unleashed would be the undoing of Johnson’s presidency and he would decline to run again in 1968.

Today in Texas History

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From the Annals of Extremely Partisan Politics –   In 1860,  7 defendants were  found guilty of killing 3 men that were taken from the Marion County Jail in Jefferson on the night of October 24, 1868. The 7 defendants along with 17 others who were acquitted were accused of dragging 5 men out of the jail and killing 3 of them. The jailed men were Republicans who had been arrested the night before after a gun fight with local Democrats.

Trump Tackles Texas for Love and Most Importantly Money

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GOP nominee Donald Trump will be in Texas today at fund raisers in Fort Worth and Austin. After fund raising in Cowtown and the Capital, Trump will hold a prime-time rally at the facility east of Austin where the Travis County Rodeo is held every Winter.  It’s an odd choice for the event, but the timing is even odder.   Raising money is normal, what is unusual is the GOP candidate holding a rally in reliably red Texas this late in the campaign.  The Dallas Morning News points out that the last presidential candidate to stage an event this late in the fall campaign in Texas was Bob Dole in 1996.

Trump’s quick Texas swing is motivated by cash needs. The campaign hopes to haul in more than $3 million from Texas donors, and the rally is an afterthought – but one that is sure to draw attention and TV coverage.

Racist Lives Matter

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A small group demonstrated outside the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s offices in Houston on Sunday.  The alleged message of White Lives Matter may have been lost in the display of Confederate Flags and assault rifles by the 20 or so demonstrators.  Ken Reed a spokesman for the group who sported a Trump ’16 cap was quoted as saying:

“We came out here to protest against the NAACP and their failure in speaking out against the atrocities that organizations like Black Lives Matter and other pro-black organizations have caused the attack and killing of white police officers, the burning down of cities and things of that nature. If they’re going to be a civil rights organization and defend their people, they also need to hold their people accountable.”

Reality and Mr. Reed are not well acquainted it seems as the NAACP has c0ndemned the killings of police officers as it moves forward with attempts to stop the rampant killing of citizens by police in the U.S.   And a tip from Red.  If you want to be taken seriously and not as a caricature of a racist, leave the Rebel flags and assault rifles at home.