March 1, 2024

The Latest

Hi, Reader

I have a story for you, and further down you can read more about my newest book plus the Texas history class I'll be teaching online through Rice University starting this month. So please scroll and read it all! But first, a confession. I'm a history nerd, and have been for a long time. I love researching deep into stories. I like being alone in an archive, whether it's dusty and tangible or a digital maze, and finding something that no one has thought about in decades. More and more things are being digitized, but you still have to leaf through old volumes and occasionally use clunky microfilm readers. That's how I always dug through one of the most interesting newspapers in Texas history.

Houston Informer

Clifton F. Richardson founded the Informer in 1919 after having written and edited other Black newspapers in Louisiana and Houston. He provided a voice for a group of people who were not listened to very often even though they made up more than 30% of Houston's population in those days. Eventually, the Informer hit a circulation of 45,000 and was read across the State of Texas. As often happens, investors decided they knew best, and Richardson was forced out in 1930. He started the Houston Defender, and other voices calling for civil rights and honest dialogue took over the Informer.

I first spent a lot of time reading the Informer when I was researching baseball history. The White papers in Texas didn't cover the Black Buffaloes even when they faced players like Satchel Paige. I revisited the Informer microfilm dozens of times, scrolling for school news in the days of Jim Crow, and finding little nuggets like a 1933 editorial about whether it was right to "go in the back way and come down the fire escape" at City Auditorium to see Cab Calloway in concert. There are many truths about a segregated nation that are not found on the pages of the big city White dailies, and I'm thankful there are other sources that allow me as a writer and historian to find and share the whole story.

The New Novel - Wingo

I sent a little quicky out mid-February just to let everyone know that Wingo: The Remarkable Story of an Unremarkable Man is now available via most of the big places books are sold. It is the first half of an historical fiction duology that will span the 20th century. You'll find a long life, love, loneliness, injustice, and lots of laughs and baseball. I hope you'll give it try. If you do, I would really appreciate you leaving a positive review on both Amazon and Goodreads. Those nice words help sell more books.

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Undertold Texas at Rice

My online class at Rice University starts on March 19. You can read all about it and sign up here. It's 8 weeks long for 90 minutes on Tuesday evenings, and you can learn from your own home wearing a bathrobe, eating pork rinds and drinking Lone Star Light, if that's your thing. The main thing is that I'll give you 64 little stories of Texas history that you probably didn't know. They're fun, rousing, heart-breaking, and inspiring. It's a good course.

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Thanks so very much for your support. As always, positive words you spread are most appreciated. Please use the buttons below to follow my social media. My podcast, Prick the Balloon can be reached through the Spotify button, or through my host, podbean, or at your favorite podcast platform. Find my books at Amazon or ask your favorite bookstore. Signed copies through my website store. Until next time, all things good to you and yours.