African Americans in Central Texas History ― From Slavery to Civil Rights

Bruce A. Glasrud and Deborah M. Liles have gathered over thirty years of scholarship—articles, book excerpts, and new, original essays—to offer for the first time an overview of the history of African Americans in Central Texas. From slavery and agriculture in the nineteenth century to entrepreneurship and the struggle for civil rights in the twentieth century, African Americans in Central Texas History: From Slavery to Civil Rights fills in the critical missing pieces of an often-overlooked region in the state’s history.

African Americans first entered Central Texas with Spanish explorers, but few remained. White slave holders later brought black residents—as slaves—to this region. With the end of the Civil War, slavery may have ended but the brutalities of racial prejudice persisted. During Reconstruction, new attempts to ensure civil and political rights were resisted through terror, racial violence, and systemic denial of justice.
Well into the twentieth century, segregation persisted, but years of individual and mobilized protest finally led to significant reform. Organizations such as the NAACP provided vital support. Before efforts to disenfranchise the black vote became successful, some politicians even courted black voters to further their own political agendas.

African Americans in Central Texas History is a rare source that sheds light on the African American experience in the heart of the state.

BRUCE A. GLASRUD is professor emeritus of history at California State University and retired dean of the college of arts and sciences at Sul Ross State University. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than thirty books, including Southern Black Women in the Modern Civil Rights Movement, winner of the Liz Carpenter Award for Research on the History of Women. He resides in San Antonio. DEBORAH M. LILES holds the W. K. Gordon Endowed Chair in Texas Industrial History at Tarleton State University. She is the coeditor of Women in Civil War Texas: Diversity and Dissidence in the Trans-Mississippi, winner of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women, and Texas Women and Ranching: On the Range, at the Rodeo, in Their Communities. She resides in Weatherford, Texas.