Texas Originals Podcast
1) Henry B. González
Born in 1916, Henry B. González was the first Mexican American to represent Texas in Congress. An expert on the nation's banking system, he oversaw the 1989 savings and loan bailout, the worst financi...Show More
2) Walter Prescott Webb
Born in 1888, Walter Prescott Webb remains one of Texas's most significant and influential scholars. Webb taught at The University of Texas throughout his career. He served as director of the Texas St...Show More
3) James L. Farmer Jr.
Civil rights leader James Farmer was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1920. Though he originally planned to become a Methodist minister, the influence of legendary teacher Melvin Tolson—and segregation wit...Show More
4) Henry Allen Bullock
Henry Allen Bullock devoted his life to advancing African American education in Texas—and made history in the process. His history of African American education in the South earned him the Bancroft Pr...Show More
5) Américo Paredes
The scholar and writer Américo Paredes was born in Brownsville in 1915. Even as a youth, he saw that a distinct culture had emerged in the Rio Grande Valley—not just Mexican or American, but a blend o...Show More
6) Tomás Rivera
Tomás Rivera's career as a writer and educator was shaped by the struggles of his family, who spent much of their lives as farm laborers following the annual harvests from Texas to the Midwest. Rivera...Show More
7) Mody Coggin Boatright
Folklorist and oral history pioneer Mody Boatright was no stranger to the tall tale. Raised in a West Texas ranching family in the early twentieth century, he was descended from pioneers, cattlemen, a...Show More
8) Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis
Born in 1844, Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis was one of the most important Texas writers of the nineteenth century. Her novel The Wire-Cutters is set during the Texas fence-cutting wars of the 1880s, when ...Show More
9) Marion Koogler McNay
Once described as the "Gertrude Stein of San Antonio," Marion Koogler McNay created the first museum of modern art in Texas. Over the course of her life, she collected European and American art, and e...Show More
10) Bessie Coleman
Born to a sharecropping family in northeast Texas in 1892, Bessie Coleman became the world’s first female African American aviator. Her daredevil feats in air shows captivated crowds and earned her th...Show More