I’m calling it for El-Sayed.

Thanks for the share, @americanstudier.bsky.social. The conclusion of my series on the history of Confederate monument removal in Dallas will be posted later this week but here’s the newsletter that Ben included in Scholar Sunday: open.substack.com/pub/drmphill...

"What Do You Think About Second Amendment Solutions," Part V

The Movement Against Confederate Monuments in Dallas

open.substack.com

Ben Railton@americanstudier.bsky.social · 3d ago

Once more before Sunday ends, here’s today’s 287th thread of great public scholarship from the past week. Please share as widely as you’re able to get all this great work to all the folks, & thanks! 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

This is my next-to-last post on the history of Confederate Monument removal in Dallas. Here, I discuss the shocking opposition of three African Americans on the Dallas City Council to our efforts and how one of those politicians ended up in prison for corruption. open.substack.com/pub/drmphill...

"What Do You Think About Second Amendment Solutions," Part V

The Movement Against Confederate Monuments in Dallas

open.substack.com

@betsyfriauf.bsky.social and I celebrated the 18th anniversary of our first date by seeing The Odyssey and then having dinner at a local Greek restaurant. Nolan’s film is great, by the way.

Last night in Dallas an event, "Remembering Santos Rodriguez," honored a 12-year-old murdered by Dallas PD in 1973 & included a panel with journalist Dianne Solis, community leaders Eva Arreguin & Albert Valtierra, and longtime Dallas human rights leader and scholar Dr. Rick Halperin.

Our friend Winnie Hinson (seen below sitting next to Betsy Friauf) invited us to speak to the Fahrenheit 451 Book Club in Richardson, Texas to discuss our book "The Purifying Knife: The Troubling History of Eugenics in Texas." The club focuses on banned books, but they made time for us anyway.

Saturday, we had some of our favorite people over for dinner. Pictured from the left is recently tenured University of North Texas labor historian Chad Pearson, his wife and Mexican labor historian Sandra Mendiola, my wife Betsy Friauf, and long time labor activist Les Cunningham.

Thanks again @americanstudier.bsky.social for sharing our op-ed on the painful lessons we can learn from the 1973 murder of 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez by Dallas police. Here’s the essay: www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/sant...

53 years later, Santos Rodriguez's murder still demands Dallas reckon with its past

The 1973 police murder of a 12-year-old changed Dallas forever, but activists say the city still has work to do to ensure his death is remembered, and never repeated.

dallasobserver.com

Ben Railton@americanstudier.bsky.social · 3w ago

Here it is, my 285th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

This is what Betsy looked like not too long before we first met in 1988. I love this photo because it captures the incredible warmth of her smile. You can see her eyes smile too. ClosI was in awe of her the first moment I saw her. The 18th anniversary of our first date in July 26.

I co-authored an op-ed on the murder by Dallas police of a 12-year-old boy, Santos Rodriguez, how that slaying changed Dallas history, and how there are still lessons to learn from that atrocity. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/sant...

53 years later, Santos Rodriguez's murder still demands Dallas reckon with its past

The 1973 police murder of a 12-year-old changed Dallas forever, but activists say the city still has work to do to ensure his death is remembered, and never repeated.

dallasobserver.com

Hadi Jawad of Human Rights Dallas and I were interviewed on KERA, the Dallas public radio station about the cancellation of a Muslim pool party in Grand Prairie, a suburb, and what that says about Islamophobia here. www.keranews.org/news/2026-07...

A Muslim celebration was canceled because of a new Texas law. Organizers say they were targeted

Organizers and local leaders say other private religious events have been held at publicly owned venues without issue — and that the canceled event at Epic Waters in Grand Prairie was targeted by poli...

keranews.org

Abolish ICE. It's a bloodthirsty, racist, government-subsidized criminal gang. If you choose to work for them, you have blood on your hands. No job is worth complicity in murder.

@betsyfriauf.bsky.social and I had a great time watching the touring company of "Spamalot" at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas yesterday.

@americanstudier.bsky.social does a terrific service to the history profession by sharing this each week. Glad to make the list again. I hope to turn this series into a book. Here's the newsletter he's referring to: drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/what-do-yo...

“What Do You Think of Second Amendment Solutions?” Part IV

The Battle Over Confederate Monuments and Its Aftermath

drmphillips2001.substack.com

Ben Railton@americanstudier.bsky.social · 4w ago

+ @ideasroadshow.bsky.social @moneyontheleft.bsky.social @nearleft.bsky.social @brightwalldarkroom.com @dodgyboffin.com @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social & many more. Add more below, please share the whole thread widely, & enjoy, all! blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

I'm glad Platner's out. Now I want single-payer, trillionaires & billionaires taxed out of existence, no more support for genocide, no more imperialism, an overhaul of SCOTUS, and a restoration of voting rights. We'll see if Dems actually understand why Platner won in the first place.

I spoke w/ Mitch McConnell on the phone for 20 minutes today. He apologized for Republicans embracing racism, said that Obama had the right to have his Supreme Court nominee voted on, & said he shouldn't have spent his whole career screwing the poor. He said, "Free Palestine," before hanging up.

These two things can be true at the same time: Platner’s behavior disqualifies him and his anti-elite, anti-war, economic populist message resonated and Democrats would be stupid to replace him with the type of neoliberal hack Schumer loves.

On Sunday at the Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Plano we heard human rights crusader Bill Holston ask us to honestly confront whether this country has ever lived up to its stated ideals and how we can come closer to them in the future.

Let's put the Platner nomination to bed. It's over. Let's replace him with a young candidate who represents the progressive, anti-genocide, pro-economic equality policies he won the primary with and not some neoliberal fossil Schumer wants to foist on an exasperated public.

This photo from 2013 came up on Facebook memories. My son Dominic, who was very interested in his Jewish roots on his mother's side and was about to go to an Orthodox synagogue, stands next to my stepdaughter Sarah. They were smart, beautiful kids and have grown up to be great adults.

I continue my history of the Confederate monument removal movement in Dallas. I discuss who opposed us, the tragic death of a truck driver when the city tried to remove its giant Robert E. Lee statue, and the price I paid at my college for my activism. drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/what-do-yo...

“What Do You Think of Second Amendment Solutions?” Part IV

The Battle Over Confederate Monuments and Its Aftermath

drmphillips2001.substack.com

"The . . . 4th of July, as a national holiday is a thing of the past. That men are 'created equal' is denounced . . . only plutocrats are happy as they behold the power of government exerted to protect . . . their piracies and spoliations." -- Eugene V. Debs

Rock’n’roll was a conspiracy to promote “race mixing” according to segregationists.

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · last mo.

The premise here, repeated throughout American history, is that only some kind of mental manipulation could make white people enjoy art by black people. You start acknowledging black cultural contributions as valuable it’s a slippery slope to seeing black people as people bsky.app/profile/left...

Remembering when I used to date Michelle Johnston, who earned a Grammy nomination for best new artist under the name Michelle Shocked. She's was a difficult person and later had a terrible homophobic outburst on stage. We became estranged. Here, she's to my left in Kerrville, Texas.

Here, I tell the story of how a small band of activists pushed Dallas to remove Confederate monuments and the school district to remove the names of traitors and enslavers from their campuses. open.substack.com/pub/drmphill...

"What Do You Think of Second Amendment Solutions?" Part III

The Battle Over Confederate Monuments in Dallas and its Aftermath

open.substack.com

We should have listened to Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford.

I hope trans-exclusionary "radical feminists" realize that when rightwing courts start narrowly defining gender they will ultimately decide that cisgender women are not biologically equipped to hold a wide variety of jobs and that discrimination against women in those fields will be constitutional.

Once again, thanks @americanstudier.bsky.social for the share. Here again is the latest installment of my series on the movement to take down Confederate monuments in Dallas. open.substack.com/pub/drmphill...

“What Do You Think of Second Amendment Solutions?” Part II

The Battle Over Confederate Monuments in Dallas and Its Aftermath

open.substack.com

Ben Railton@americanstudier.bsky.social · last mo.

+ @lilacb.bsky.social @willbunch.bsky.social @jennmjacksonphd.bsky.social @hystericalblkns.bsky.social @charlotteclymer.bsky.social @andreascoseriakatz.bsky.social @drmphillipsut.bsky.social @vtfeminist.bsky.social @markehlers.bsky.social @pdtoler.bsky.social @inpursuitusa.bsky.social +

I hope this is the future of American politics and not the feckless neoliberal dullards who form the Democratic Party establishment or the terrifying white nationalist theocratic fascists in the GOP.

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · last mo.

It might be hot outside but the rent is freezing.

On June 16, Betsy and I got to spend a little time with Kathleen Thompson of @progresstexas.bsky.social, it was an energizing event. They are an important group in the fight against Lone Star fascism.