and i'll remind you that the end so i am deborah omar. while a german i'm with the san antonio community archive and museum and. it is my pleasure to be in community with dr. benjamin heber, the author of powerful new book texas an american. this book challenges us to look beyond the familiar myths of texas. beyond the alamo, beyond the oil wells, the cowboy boots, and to listen to the full complicated course of voices that have shaped this place and that includes black texans, whose stories has been are central to understanding not just texas, but america itself. so, ben you open the book by literally burying or steven austin. so let me start there. why this book and why now? and and. well, okay. okay, so start with that. so yes, i'm obviously not the first person to write a history of texas from way back when up to the present. and i'm certainly benefit from the existence of a rich of literature and lots of institutions like say camp that are devoted to telling our past and all of its in all of its many aspects. one of the things that's

and i'll remind you that the end so i am deborah omar. while a german i'm with the san antonio community archive and museum and. it is my pleasure to be in community with dr. benjamin heber, the author of powerful new book texas an american. this book challenges us to look beyond the familiar myths of texas. beyond the alamo, beyond the oil wells, the cowboy boots, and to listen to the full complicated course of voices that have shaped this place and that includes black texans, whose stories has been are central to understanding not just texas, but america itself. so, ben you open the book by literally burying or steven austin. so let me start there. why this book and why now? and and. well, okay. okay, so start with that. so yes, i'm obviously not the first person to write a history of texas from way back when up to the present. and i'm certainly benefit from the existence of a rich of literature and lots of institutions like say camp that are devoted to telling our past and all of its in all of its many aspects. one of the things that's