In 1921, the Black families of Hill Prairie, in Bastrop County, built a two-teacher schoolhouse. The Rosenwald Fund in Chicago sent $800—equivalent to $15,000 in today’s dollars. The county sent nothing. In total, the families raised $1,630 themselves, more than two-thirds of the cost, and deeded the finished building to the public school district that […]

The post Black Texans Built More Than 400 Schools When the State Would Not appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On September 24, a federal judge ruled that the University of Texas at Austin had acted within its rights when it canceled a pro-Palestinian protest in April 2024 and later suspended one of its student organizers. Twelve days later, on October 6, Fady Joudah’s Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza was named a […]

The post ‘After the Genocide, the Genocide’: A Houston Doctor’s Record of Gaza appeared first on The Texas Observer.

In a deeply personal 60-second ad aired in September ahead of the state’s midterm elections, Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa shares her tragic pregnancy loss story. More than two decades ago she and her husband were “overjoyed” expecting their first child until an “unimaginable diagnosis” of trisomy 18, a severe genetic condition, assured a […]

The post Why Aren’t Texas Democrats Talking About Abortion? appeared first on The Texas Observer.

This article is a collaboration between the San Antonio Express-News, El Pais, and Puente News Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom and funder dedicated to high-quality, fact-based news and information from the U.S.-Mexico border. EDINBURG — South Texas voters who embraced Don Trump two years ago have largely soured on the two-term president, and many of them are […]

The post Poll: Bobby Pulido Appears Poised to Flip the 15th Congressional District appeared first on The Texas Observer.

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Regulators in Texas did not stop processing permits for data center projects when Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a pause last month, according to an analysis of public records released […]

The post Texas Continued Permitting Data Centers After Abbott’s Pause, Report Finds  appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The call came at noon on a Friday from a number I did not recognize. It was my client’s brother. He had been trying to reach me for days, as I had been trying to reach my client for weeks through the jail’s messaging portal.  My client never replied.  “He is nonverbal,” is the first […]

The post In a Cash Bail System, Justice Depends on Your Bank Account appeared first on The Texas Observer.

This article originally appeared on October 18 at Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. This story was a collaboration between Inside Climate News and the San Antonio Express-News. SAN ANTONIO—In Texas, suburbs have sprung up where oil pump jacks once […]

The post Abandoned Oil Well Spreads Toxic Fumes, Dread Across San Antonio Subdivision appeared first on The Texas Observer.

An inflatable eagle swayed outside the Parq Social event center in Cedar Park in late September, welcoming people to the ninth annual Texas Faith Fest. Inside the main lobby, attendees clad in crisp suits and capped in red MAGA hats clustered around booths for Turning Point USA, Moms for Liberty, and local conservative talk radio […]

The post Is Brandon Gill the Future of MAGA in Texas?  appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The post Highways and Hunting, Parasites and Panopticons appeared first on The Texas Observer.

From 2020 to 2025, the number of confirmed overdose deaths in Texas prisons rose from just four to at least 131. Despite this surge in fatalities, however, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) did not request any additional funding to expand its drug rehabilitation programs in its recent proposed budget to the Texas Legislature […]

The post Despite Surge in Prison Overdoses, State Agency Requests No New Treatment Funding appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On the last Sunday of September, a dozen volunteers gathered on the South Side of San Antonio alongside Republican candidates Jorge Borrego and Carlos De La Cruz. “This is where our efforts matter the most,” said Borrego, who is running for Texas House District 118. “If we win this district, it’ll get us over the […]

The post School Vouchers Take Center Stage in Texas’ Most Flippable State House District appeared first on The Texas Observer.

There used to be a sense among Republicans that they needed to keep up some semblance of looking out for the public interest.  That’s all fallen by the wayside with our “weaving” president, who recently had a message for the nation as data center outrage grows: Sit back and “let Data Reign.” That probably isn’t […]

The post Jim Hightower’s Revenge? A Long-Shot Bid Could Restore Left Populism to the Agriculture Commissioner’s Office. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Introduction by Ivan Flores and Gus Bova: Half a century ago, as part of an oral history project, fine arts photographer Dee Azadian and hundreds of volunteer field researchers spent months interviewing and recording the senior residents of Caldwell County, long before an encroaching Austin swelled the population of that swath of Central Texas—today anchored […]

The post ‘Earth Has No Sorrow’: Visions of a Caldwell County Long Gone appeared first on The Texas Observer.

To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political reporting here.

The post Matters of Religion appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Already facing backlash for its decision to forgo reviewing critical post-Roe v. Wade pregnancy-related deaths, the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee (MMRC) is giving the public more reason to suspect political interference. Originally slated to be released on September 1, as it typically has been in previous years, state health officials now say […]

The post  A ‘Politically Motivated Cover-Up’: Why the State’s Maternal Death Report Was Pushed Until After Midterms appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Though exact counts vary, Department of Homeland Security agents have shot at about two dozen people in the United States since Donald Trump resumed the country’s highest office last year. Three of those shootings were by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Texas, most recently in North Austin, an area of the city where […]

The post What Will It Take to ‘Get ICE the Fuck Out of Austin’? appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Jamaal Howard and I are close. Wednesday, Jamaal and I will be in the execution chamber together in Huntsville. More than likely, only I will walk out alive. Jamaal’s execution will likely be the first one in the United States since the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee. As his spiritual advisor, I felt […]

The post The Distance Between Dying and Death appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Ten years after Donald Trump was first elected President, the Republican Party has placed its chips on a region that would have made little sense at any other time in the last century: South Texas. Yet, if current polling holds, the GOP may have already overplayed its hand. Congressional districts from San Antonio down to […]

The post South Texas Is Moving On from Trump appeared first on The Texas Observer.

I was 7 years old the first time I put on the vestments. White surplice over red cassock, the fabric stiff and foreign against skin that was more accustomed to sweat and South Texas dirt. I had been born on East Hackberry Avenue in the McAllen labor camps. I was delivered at home, not in […]

The post It’s Time for the Catholic Church to Distribute the Loaves appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Austinites who expected overwhelming turnout and chaos on Wednesday for the appearance of the leftist political streamer Hasan Piker at the University of Texas at Austin were met with a lackluster showing: more law enforcement than protesters, and an auditorium only three-quarters full. Despite efforts by both Democrats and Republicans to spread the message that […]

The post Hasan Piker’s UT Appearance Put Campus Protection Act to the Test appeared first on The Texas Observer.

When Angela Paxton spoke to a room of Republican women in Texas in September, she named her speech “The Elephant in the Room.” The elephant, of course, was her divorce from Ken Paxton, Texas’ attorney general and the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. Last summer, she filed for divorce on what she called “biblical […]

The post Angela Paxton’s Message: Elect the Elephant at All Costs appeared first on The Texas Observer.

In Texas’ most populous county, the judges who preside over the roughly 50 felony and misdemeanor criminal courts have been riding a political tiger for a decade now. Back in 2016, Republicans dominated these criminal judgeships, but starting with that year’s elections Democrats took control of most of the judicial positions that oversee the fates […]

The post A Blue Wave Could Sweep Greg Abbott’s Handpicked Houston Judges Out of Office appeared first on The Texas Observer.

This fall, Texas students are receiving a serious message: If you see or hear a threat, do not make it, do not share it and do not ignore it. Report it. The message comes from the Texas School Safety Center’s new “Threats Are No Joke” campaign, created for students in grades four through 12. It […]

The post Texas Tells Students to Report Threats. It Should Give Us a Seat at the Safety Table. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On an August day in Fort Worth, when the temperature will reach the high 90s before noon, Tiffany Burks is counting door hangers. Volunteers have gathered at Portico Coffee in the Northside neighborhood, and Burks, the Democratic candidate for Tarrant County District Attorney, is reviewing logistics before a block walk. Her choice of venue was […]

The post Inside Downballot Dems’ Effort to Flip Texas’ Key County Battleground appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The first thing you see when you walk in is a dark wooden dresser covered with a white lace cloth, dozens of family photographs lying among marigold flowers, a rosary, an old pair of glasses, and a small statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Some photos are black-and-white; others have faded with time. They are […]

The post Houston’s ‘Living Archive’ of Migration appeared first on The Texas Observer.

When they found Adrian Martinez in his room at Schofield Barracks, his things had already been packed in boxes. His trip to Houston—paid for with government funds—was booked: United Airlines Flight 252, scheduled to depart Honolulu two days later on October 18, 2024, and arrive the following morning at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. His parents […]

The post A Texas Soldier’s Death Casts Doubt on Federal Whistleblower Protections appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Heading into election season, leaders in Corpus Christi face a puzzling question: what to do with $235 million from the state of Texas for a seawater desalination […]

The post Corpus Christi Could Owe Texas $235M for Failed Desalination Plant appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Editor’s Note: This story is a collaboration between Truthdig and the Texas Observer. In the late spring of 2009, Andrew Collins learned that an oil and gas drilling waste landfarm, operated by a Cleburne company called Excel Environmental Services, was to be built right across the street from the home he shared with his wife […]

The post Did These North Texas Developers Have a Duty to Disclose Oil and Gas Waste History? appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Permian Basin Democrats Tim McDaniel and Eli Hilbert took to the road on a Saturday in late August to knock doors in the small towns of Crane and McCamey. On either side of remote stretches of U.S. Route 385, pumpjacks bent their necks in perpetual motion and wind turbines spun slowly in the distance. They […]

The post ‘Up Against a 500-Pound Gorilla’: Can Dems Make Inroads in Deep-Red West Texas? appeared first on The Texas Observer.

When she meets people who are visiting the Rio Grande Valley for the first time, Mollie Wallace—a 31-year-old occupational therapist in McAllen—usually asks whether they’ve gone to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge yet. The refuge is a point of pride for Wallace, who was raised in the Valley. She’s come there through multiple phases […]

The post Santa Ana’s Last Stand appeared first on The Texas Observer.