Tucked in Chapter 662 of Texas’ Government Code is a stunning three-word phrase: Confederate Heroes Day. The phrase is so outlandish that when a 13-year-old Austinite named Jacob Hale saw it on a digital Texas state calendar six years ago, he assumed it was a mistake....
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Shelby County v. Holder: Seven years later, its wreckage persists
As President Donald Trump continues to propagate groundless conspiracy theories about alleged voter fraud, let’s turn our attention towards the real conspiracy: voter suppression. Seven years ago today, on June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued one of the most...
Trump reveals his folly and callousness in renewing challenge to DACA
Anti-immigrant rhetoric has been a cornerstone of Donald Trump’s presidency. From calling Mexicans rapists and drug-smugglers to using words like “invaders” and “animals” to describe asylum-seekers, Trump’s incendiary comments have repeatedly dehumanized vulnerable...
From slavery to police brutality, chronicling Texas’ history of racial oppression
Over the past week, protests and calls for racial justice have swept the nation. While the proximate cause of this nationwide unrest is the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police officers last week, pleading “I...
As coronavirus spreads among inmates, advocates call for release
Some Texans spent Memorial Day weekend tanning at the beach; others, namely dozens of family members of Texas prisoners, spent it protesting outside of Gov. Greg Abbott’s mansion in Austin. Carrying signs with phrases like “Inmates’ Lives Matter,” the family...
Frontline DACA recipients anxiously await Supreme Court decision
In the Highly Infectious Disease Unit of Houston’s flagship Methodist Hospital, Javier Quiroz Castro enters the isolation room of a COVID-19 patient. The 29-year-old nurse is suited up in full personal protective equipment – a respirator, a gown, gloves – to protect...
In Texas, marijuana arrests remain racially targeted
After serving eight years in prison and 12 on parole, Lewis Conway Jr. was not about to go back. The 6-foot-6 Austin native had served his time and turned his life around. Where more than three decades earlier he was involved in gang activity and arrested for a...