Max Krochmal. Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Coalition in the Civil Rights Era.

Extract

In this ambitious comparative history of racial, ethnic, and labor-based politics and activism in Texas, Max Krochmal explores in great detail the uneven yet sustained development of what might be termed progressive or “liberal” race-based and ethnicity-based politics in Houston and San Antonio (and to a lesser degree Austin and Dallas), with particular attention to African American, Mexican American, and labor activist coalition efforts. Highlighting the role played by several key Anglo, African American, and Mexican American labor and political leaders, Krochmal makes the case in Blue Texas for a long history of cross-ethnic and cross-racial “liberal” activism in the state’s urban areas and in rural South Texas. While the historical cases of activism detailed here are well known to scholars of African American and Mexican American history in Texas, the value of considering these movements in tandem with one another and with related Anglo liberal and labor activism is the book’s central accomplishment. The long historical view of the pre-1960s development of cross-racial and cross-ethnic activism and related labor activism marks an important contribution to Texas history.