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If you intend to bust myths, it’s wise to get the details right.
Three Texas writers two journalists, one a political operative aligned with the Democratic Party are out with a new book that is making heavy rotation in mainstream media articles. They’re benefiting from some solid promotion and should thank their publisher’s PR arm. It’s doing its job. Their book is being discussed and will likely sell a few copies.
In their quest to make a buck, it’s unfortunate that the writers who say they’re seeking to overturn “myths” about the Alamo are merely fostering new myths about it.
Stay focused on the front row.
Eleven women, all African American, parade down a wide street during the 1978 March on Washington for the Equal Rights Amendment. They look confident and self-possessed. All but one wears sensible shoes. This is not their first march.
Enlarged and posted at the entryway, this cadre of women welcomes guests to a sharply devised show, On With the Fight, at the newly reopened Briscoe Center for American History on the University of Texas campus. The exhibit, curated by Jill Morena and Sarah Sonner, originally opened in March 2020, timed to the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which broadly gave women the legal right to vote.
Despite a strain of political poison left over from the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson, as well as tensions on the University of Texas campus about the ongoing Vietnam War, the LBJ Presidential Library was dedicated in windy, muggy conditions at 11:30 a.m. May 22, 1971.
Friends and enemies alike, including President Richard Nixon, gathered 50 years ago on what was then the eastern edge of the UT campus to marvel at the monolithic, marble-clad tower that held the presidential papers, library and museum, and its long, low-lying companion building, Sid Richardson Hall, which housed what would become the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Briscoe Center for American History and Benson Latin American Collection.
As the LBJ Library Turns 50, the Man Who Planned Its Dedication Recalls a Few Surprises
Lyndon B. Johnson rehearsed his speech in the bathroom, the new fountain doused the guests, and the booze flowed freely.
May 22, 2021
President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson at the LBJ Library, in Austin, on March 15, 1971.
Frank Wolfe/LBJ Library
On May 22, 1971, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library at the University of Texas opened its doors for the first time. The library now welcomes more than 100,000 visitors per year, including researchers who travel from across the country to use the facility’s extensive archive. In addition to 45 million pages of historical documents and nearly seven hundred hours of the president’s recorded phone conversations, the trove includes the pen Johnson used to sign the Voting Rights Act into law and the pants he wore at his second inauguration. (History buffs will remember that LBJ was famously fastidious about his pants.)