Texas’ ugly history the same old song

When the University of Texas Press approached Bill Minutaglio about writing a book on the history of Texas politics, he was hesitant.

“Who really will read another big book of Texas history and politics?” Minutaglio thought to himself.

It was a legitimate question by the native New Yorker who, since moving to Texas in 1978, has immersed himself in the state’s history, politics, culture, character and characters, establishing himself as one of Texas’ best journalists and writers. Minutaglio is one of the greatest living prose stylists in the land, including lands outside Texas.

The former reporter for the Express-News, Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning-News has written several critically acclaimed books, including biographies of George W. Bush and Molly Ivins; “Dallas 1963” (cowritten with Steve Davis) about the events leading up to JFK’s assassination; and an amazing collection of his journalism titled “In Search of the Blues: A Journey

to the Soul of Black Texas.”

What makes Minutaglio’s latest book, “A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles: A History of Politics and Race in Texas,” different from previous books about Texas is in the title.

Starting in 1870 and working up to the present, Minutaglio has produced the best book about the intersection of race and politics throughout Texas history. In the prologue, he writes, “No Texas political history can be considered complete unless one weighs the lingering, brutal impact of slavery — and then the subsequent ways state leaders wrote and enforced laws deliberately designed to keep minorities segregated and forcibly excluded from the democratic process.”

Nor can the history be told, Minutaglio reminds us, by ignoring the Black and brown bodies victimized by the violence of lynch mobs and Texas Rangers.

“Even before George Floyd entered our national consciousness, I wanted to include ‘race’ in the title,” Minutaglio told me. “You can connect the dots easily between politics and race. You can’t write about one without the other. I wanted to include people in the book who many haven’t read about before. Women or people of color who were written out of history. People who were discouraged, sometimes violently, from participating in the political process.”

Minutaglio referred to a Willie Nelson song, “Delete and Fast Forward,” to illustrate the rinseand-repeat nature of Texas politics, which fascinates and worries him.

“Delete and fast-forward, my son

The elections are over and nobody won

You think it’s all endin’ but it’s just settin’ in

So delete and fastforward, my friend.”

Minutaglio said that if you remove vehicles, and the modern look of clothes and today’s urban centers, 2021 could be 1870.

“Some themes still resonate,” he said. “There are certain patterns happening again. White supremacy, patriarchy, control of the voting booth, control of women’s bodies, control of minorities, control of the border.”

Referring to Texas’ abortion bill, which allows strangers to collect $10,000 for snitching on someone who may have helped a woman get an abortion, Minutaglio said, “The language and words like ‘deputize’ and ‘bounty’ are deeply negative through Texas’ history and national history. There were rewards for returning runaway slaves. It’s the same language used during the Civil War period. The battle really hasn’t ended.”

I asked if Gov. Greg Abbott reminds him of any previous Texas governors. He quickly named Wilbert Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, the flour salesmanturned-demagogic-governor-andU.S. senator.

“O’Daniel contributed to who we are today,” Minutaglio said. “He was smart enough to play to people’s fears, animosities and concerns, and he used the mythology of Texas to sell it. Abbott does the same thing.”

In the last verse of Nelson’s song, he sings:

“Had a chance to be brilliant and we blew it again

So delete and fast-forward, my friend

Delete and fast-forward again .” I asked Minutaglio what can be done to change the course.

“There are so many amazing, wonderful things about Texas, including San Antonio, a glorious, multicultural city,” he said. “Texas can be a greater and healthier place if, through critical self-examination, we learn and grow from the things we don’t want to replicate.”