Five stories that have North Texas talking: Texas immigrants to take part in nationwide protest; explore a database of historic black Texans; Dallas’ Top Ten Records is primed for a revival; and more.
Organizers in cities across the U.S. are telling immigrants to stay home from class, miss work and not patronize businesses Thursday. "A Day Without Immigrants" or "Un Día Sin Inmigrantes" is meant to show how critical they are to the U.S. economy and the country's way of life.
Actions are planned in several cities across the country, including Washington D.C. Restaurants in Austin posted notices on their doors earlier this week about closing Thursday. Similar action is being taken in Houston, including a rally this evening, according to The Houston Chronicle. Here's a list of restaurants in North Texas that will be closed.
#NoBanNoWall #DayWithoutImmigrants pic.twitter.com/1hh0THRbUZ
— morenita ✨ (@pie_olaa) February 11, 2017
The protest comes in response to President Donald Trump's administration. Trump has pledged to increase deportation of immigrants living in the country illegally, build a wall along the Mexican border and ban people from certain majority-Muslim countries from coming into the U.S. He has also blamed high unemployment on immigration.
Texas is home to 11 percent of the country’s immigrants and three metro areas with large population of undocumented immigrants. Major cities in Texas have faced recent immigration raids; 51 people were arrested in Austin over two days. And Gov. Greg Abbott has made banning so-called “sanctuary cities," an emergency item in the current state legislative session. [The Associated Press]
- The number of active hate groups in the U.S. rose from 2015 to 2016, but not in Texas. According to new data from the Southern Poverty Law Center published Wednesday, the number of national hate groups was 917 in 2016 — a jump from 892 in 2015. Two years ago, Texas was shown to have 84 of those groups, the most of any state, and 52 of those were Ku Klux Klan chapters. According to 2016 data, the total number of hate groups in the state dropped to 55; the reason is unclear. SPLC gathered the data from hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports. [Southern Poverty Law Center]
- Black Texans have made historic strides not only for the state but also our nation. Bessie Coleman, who grew up in Waxahachie, was the first African-American woman to get her pilot’s license. Barbara Jordan of Houston was the first African-American woman in Congress from a southern state. Alvin Ailey from Rogers, Texas was an influential dancer, choreographer and founder the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company. Juanita Craft was a monumental leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Texas. These historic figures have all passed, but black Texans continue to affect the political, cultural and social landscape. Explore this database. [Texas State Historical Association]
- Community efforts might give Dallas’ oldest record store a second life. Top Ten Records, located just a few storefronts down from the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, is perhaps best known as “the place where J.D. Tippit may have made a phone call before his fatal run-in with Lee Harvey Oswald,” according to D Magazine. Soon, the record store could become Dallas’ own nonprofit archive where analog lovers could buy and borrow Texas-based records, CDs, videos and more physical media. D Magazine reports: “With Top Ten’s longtime owner set to retire, two of the Texas Theatre boys hope to, with some help, operate the store in partnership with the city’s own archivist and SMU’s extensive film and video collection.” [D Magazine]
- After 16 years, Darren Woods is leaving his post as the director of Fort Worth Opera. His replacement will inherit an opera house that would have been unrecognizable before Woods, according to Art&Seek. “He first turned it into a festival, with its entire season of shows performed in just three whirlwind weeks. The company continued staging classics like ‘Carmen’ but now also presented edgier works like ‘Angels in America’ and the apocalyptic ‘Dog Days.’ Woods also committed Fort Worth Opera to a series of Spanish-language operas...Finally, the company gained national and international attention for Woods’ risk-taking and innovations. Woods has staged four world-premieres, including last season’s epic ‘JFK.” [Art&Seek]
