Once Upon a Time in Texas

<p>Once upon a time in Texas...there were liberal activists of various stripes who sought to make the state more tolerant and more tolerable. David Richards was one of them. In this fast-paced often humorous memoir he remembers the players the strategy sessions the legal and political battles and the wins and losses that brought significant gains in civil rights voter rights labor law and civil liberties to the people of Texas from the 1950s to the 1990s.</p> <p>In his work as a lawyer Richards was involved in cases covering voters' rights school finance reform and a myriad of civil liberties and free speech cases. In telling these stories he vividly evokes the glory days of Austin liberalism when a who's who of Texas activists plotted strategy at watering holes such as Scholz Garden and the Armadillo World Headquarters. Likewise he offers vivid portraits of liberal politicians from Ralph Yarborough to Ann Richards (his former wife) progressive journalists such as Molly Ivins and the <i>Texas Observer</i> staff and the hippies hellraisers and musicians who all challenged Texas's conservative status quo.</p>