r/texashistory

Hanging directly above the school's entrance is an effigy of a lynched Black man.Protesters used this, along with explicit threat signs attached to the figure, to intimidate the students.Following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, a federal court ordered Mansfield High School to admit Black teenagers. However, an angry mob of several hundred white residents surrounded the school during registration days to block entry. Due to the violent backlash, lack of local law enforcement support, and the governor's alignment with the segregationists, the three Black plaintiffs were forced to remain segregated and ride public buses to an all-Black school in Fort Worth. The defiance successfully delayed integration at the school until 1965.

This is Luther Wharton, photographed in 1913 by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee.

Luther was twelve years old and worked as a delivery boy for Sommers Drug Store. His schedule was brutal: school during the day, then work from 4:00 PM until midnight. On Sundays, he worked half a day. He made $5 a week.

This story also connects to the broader history of labor struggles in San Antonio, including later movements such as the city’s famous Pecan Shellers’ Strike.

He also delivered medicines to “Red Light places” several times a day, and Hine described the job as a heavy physical and moral burden for a boy his age.

This was happening in San Antonio, where messenger and delivery boys were part of the street economy.

It’s hard to look at this and not think about how recent this kind of child labor really was. This wasn’t medieval history. This was only a few generations ago, in the United States, and it took photographs like Hine’s to help show the public what “normal work” looked like for a lot of children.

John Wesley Hardin became one of the most infamous gunfighters in Texas history. His reputation for violence, fast draw, and constant trouble with the law made him a legendary figure of the Wild West.

One of the craziest parts of his story? He reportedly escaped prison and custody 16 different times throughout his life.

From cattle trails and saloons to courtrooms and jail cells, Hardin’s life sounded more like a Hollywood western than real history. Whether viewed as an outlaw or a Wild West legend, his story remains one of the most talked-about tales in Texas history.

For more news and updates, visit our website James Bigley Ranches

This image shows Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross, governor of Texas from 1887 to 1891. Ross is one of those 19th-century Texas figures whose life reads like several careers stacked on top of each other: Texas Ranger, Confederate brigadier general, state senator, governor, and later president of what is now Texas A&M.

The image itself is almost as interesting as the man. It looks like an old photograph, but it’s actually a commercial color lithograph from around 1888. It came from W. Duke, Sons & Co.’s “Governors, Arms, Etc.” series, a set of tobacco trade cards featuring state governors and symbols. The Met lists this one as part of an unnumbered 48-card set.

These cards were basically 19th-century collectibles and ads rolled into one. Tobacco companies used small illustrated cards to promote brands, encourage repeat purchases, and get people collecting complete sets. This one promoted Honest Long Cut tobacco; another version of the same series promoted Duke’s cigarettes and related brands.

Ross’s public image at the time fit perfectly into this kind of advertising: a rugged, military, frontier-politics figure who could be packaged as a symbol of Texas. But his legacy is complicated. He was celebrated by many Texans for his Ranger service, Confederate service, governorship, and later work at Texas A&M, but his frontier career also included violence against Native communities, including the Pease River fight connected to the recapture of Cynthia Ann Parker.

So this little card is more than a portrait. It’s a tiny piece of late-1800s mass marketing: tobacco companies turning politicians, state pride, and frontier mythology into collectible advertising.

📐Design by: Trisha Wilson & Associates, Inc.

From 📚 'Stores of the Year, Vol. 2' ©1981

The original courageous Freedom Riders movement began in 1961.

The first group, organized by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), had 13 original Freedom Riders:
• 7 Black riders
• 6 white riders

They left Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961, riding interstate buses into the Deep South to challenge segregation in bus terminals after Supreme Court rulings had already declared it unconstitutional.

After brutal mob attacks in Alabama, including the firebombing of a bus in Anniston and savage beatings in Birmingham and Montgomery, more activists joined. The movement quickly expanded beyond the original 13.

By the end of 1961, more than 400 Freedom Riders had participated across the South. Many were arrested and sent to Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Prison.

Hezekiah Watkins
At just 13 years old, Watkins became the youngest Freedom Rider ever arrested. His involvement happened almost by accident when he went to the Jackson, Mississippi, Greyhound station to see the riders arrive. In the chaos, he was swept up by police and sent to the notorious Parchman State Penitentiary. Initially placed on death row to intimidate him, he spent several days in the prison before being released. This traumatic experience did not deter him; he went on to become a lifelong activist, dedicated to educating others about the struggle for justice in Mississippi.

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
A rare figure in the movement, Mulholland was a white woman from a privileged Southern background who turned her back on social expectations to fight for racial equality. By the time she joined the Freedom Rides, she was already a seasoned activist involved in sit-ins. In 1961, she was imprisoned in Parchman for over two months. She later became the first white student to enroll at Tougaloo College, a historically Black institution, and was a primary organizer for the 1963 March on Washington. She famously survived a near-lynching during the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in.

Ameen Tuunagane (Willie James)
Known during the movement as Willie James, Tuunagane was a relentless civil rights organizer and Freedom Rider. He was part of the waves of activists who traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge Jim Crow laws. His work extended far beyond the buses; he was deeply involved in voter registration drives and community organizing, often operating in high-risk areas where the threat of police and vigilante violence was constant. His commitment focused on the intersection of political power and basic human dignity.

Carol Ruth Silver
A recent law school graduate at the time, Silver joined the Freedom Rides to put her legal principles into practice. She was arrested in Jackson and, like many others, served time in Parchman Penitentiary. During her incarceration, she kept a secret diary on scraps of paper, documenting the harrowing conditions and the psychological tactics used by guards. Her later career was defined by this experience; she became a prominent lawyer and politician in San Francisco, continuing her advocacy for civil rights and educational reform for decades.

Kredelle Pettway
Pettway was a dedicated activist who participated in the movement during the height of the 1960s racial tensions. As a young woman, she joined the ranks of those demanding the desegregation of public facilities in Alabama and Mississippi. Her contribution highlights the essential role of local youth and women in maintaining the momentum of the movement. She faced the constant threat of the Ku Klux Klan and state-sanctioned violence, standing firm in the belief that the "separate but equal" doctrine was a moral and legal failure.

One overlooked detail about the Battle of the Alamo is that the defenders actually had several cannons inside the mission walls. The issue wasn’t a lack of weapons, it was a lack of trained artillerymen.

Operating cannons in the 1830s required experience, coordination, and proper timing under pressure. Many of the Alamo defenders were volunteers, settlers, and riflemen rather than experienced cannon crews.

Because of this, some of the artillery at the Alamo was never fully utilized during the siege.

It’s a fascinating reminder that in warfare, having powerful equipment means little without the training and manpower to use it effectively.

Remember the Alamo.

For more news and updates, visit our website James Bigley Ranches

This image is a 1907 postcard showing San Pedro Springs Park and Lake in San Antonio, Texas. It was published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, a major postcard publisher of the era, and is now part of the University of Houston Libraries Digital Collections.

San Pedro Springs Park is one of the most historically layered places in San Antonio. Long before it became a city park, the springs were a gathering place for Indigenous peoples, including the Payaya, whose village Yanaguana was located near the water. Spanish explorers later recognized the springs as a crucial water source, and the area became tied to the early development of San Antonio itself.

The park was set aside for public use under Spanish rule in the 18th century, and in 1852 San Antonio formally dedicated the area as a public square. Over the years it became a major leisure spot, with gardens, pavilions, ponds, a small zoo, concerts, boating, and later a swimming pool and theater.

What I like about this postcard is how it captures San Pedro Springs as both a natural landmark and a civic pleasure ground. The lake, walkways, trees, and figures in the scene make it feel like a turn-of-the-century travel souvenir, but the place itself goes back much further than the postcard era.

It is a small image, but it shows a site connected to Indigenous history, Spanish colonial settlement, early San Antonio, Victorian-era recreation, and Texas park history all at once.

This mural is “Texas Longhorn—A Vanishing Breed,” painted by Ila Turner McAfee in 1941 for the post office in Clifton, Texas.

It was part of the Treasury Department’s New Deal-era public art program, which put murals and sculptures in post offices across the country. The idea was simple but kind of beautiful: bring art into everyday public spaces, not just museums.

The scene shows longhorns grazing among cactus, bluebonnets, and open Texas country—a nostalgic image of a breed and landscape that were already being framed as disappearing. I love that it’s still hanging right there in the Clifton post office, quietly doing its job decades later.

📐Design by: Gerard R. Cugini Associates.