Dr. Max Krochmal will present his most recent book, "Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Democratic Coalition in the Civil Rights Era."
Beginning in the 1930’s, Dr. Krochmal tells the story of the decades-long struggle for democracy in Texas, when African American, Mexican American and white labor and community activists gradually came together to empower the state’s marginalized minorities. Their efforts gave rise to the Democratic Coalition of the 1960s, a militant, multiracial alliance that would take on and eventually overthrow both Jim Crow and Juan Crow. Using rare archival sources and original oral history interviews, Dr. Krochmal reveals the often-overlooked democratic foundations and liberal tradition of one of our nation’s most conservative states. Blue Texas remembers the many forgotten activists who, by crossing racial lines and building coalitions, democratized their cities and state to a degree that would have been unimaginable just a decade earlier–and it shows why their story still matters today.