History group settles lawsuit
Two sides have settled a divisive legal showdown at the Texas State Historical Association that threatened to alter how Texas history is taught across the state.
The legal feud between Galveston billionaire J.P. Bryan and supporters of the Texas State Historical Association’s previous leadership centered on the organization’s bylaws and board makeup, particularly the balance between academic and nonacademic voices on the governing body.
Defendants had accused Bryan of orchestrating a coup against the organization, trying to use the courts to stop the board from meeting and to whitewash history, according to a legal filing. In particular, defendants accuse him of trying to “minimizing Anglo support for the spread of human slavery and the important roles that Indigenous people, Hispanics, African Americans, and women played in shaping Texas.” For his part, Bryan said that those at the association were trying to “diminish the teaching of Texas history.”
Eric Lipper, Bryan’s attorney, told the Chronicle that, as part of the settlement agreement, the organization’s previous president, Nancy Baker Jones, would resign along with one other board member and that their spots, combined with a third vacant seat, would be filled using a list provided by Bryan.
Ken Wise, a judge on the 14th U.S. Court of Appeals, will take over as president, Lipper said.
“From my perspective, we got 100 percent of what we asked for,” he said.
Attorneys for the defendants, the association and Jones, did not respond to a request for comment as of Friday afternoon.
The resolution comes months after Bryan filed the lawsuit, arguing the board was composed of a disparate number of academic and nonacademic members, 12 academic to eight nonacademic positions, which violated the organization’s bylaws.
But opponents said Bryan was using the lawsuit to take over the organization and install members more supportive of his perspective of history.
“This is about politics and ideology,” said a letter signed by 10 previous presidents of the organization. “Bryan, in a number of recent interviews, has echoed today’s far-right-wing talking points, setting his sights on what he thinks is the out-of-control wokeness of the Association.”
It’s not clear why the defendants agreed to the settlement, ahead of a trial set for later in September.
The Texas State Historical Association is a nonprofit organization that traces its roots back to Austin in the late 1890s, according to the group’s website. Bryan said the group is involved in myriad historical events across the state but remains best known for publishing the Handbook of Texas and the biennial Texas Almanac — both of which play major roles as hosts for historical writing about the state.
In the weeks after attorneys for Bryan filed the lawsuit, the Texas Attorney General’s Office filed a motion to intervene in the case, according to Galveston County court records.
After receiving word of the settlement, representatives for the attorney general’s office declined to intervene in the case, Lipper said.