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Ricardo Ainslie first went to Hempstead, Texas, in the fall of 1995, two years after a racially-charged incident pitted Hempstead's African American community against the Hempstead Independent School District. He visited Hempstead regularly over the following eighteen months in order to learn more about how the community's African American residents viewed the school district and their children's educational needs. Ainslie's efforts culminated in a fifty-five-minute documentary film and grew into the larger oral history initiative Parallel and Crossover Lives: Texas Before and After Desegregation. Read Ainslie's reflections on the origins of Parallel and Crossover Lives and view Crossover: A Story of Desegregation, the documentary film examining the impact of school desegregation on the community of Hempstead. More»

On October 22, 2014, Humanities Texas held a teacher professional development workshop on Abraham Lincoln in Austin. Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, discussed the topic of his recent Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. Jennifer L. Weber, associate professor of history at the University of Kansas, examined Lincoln as a politician and commander in chief. More»

Known as "Miss Amarillo," Laura V. Hamner devoted much of her life to recording and sharing the history of the Texas Panhandle. She became known for "prowling" the region, interviewing ranchers, cowboys, and pioneers—and once boldly facing gunfire to meet with a former outlaw. Hamner's books are now regarded as invaluable sources of Texas ranching history. More»

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