The Climate in Texas: Cloudy and Murderous

Columnist Macarena Hernández of The Dallas Morning News and I chatted breezily prior to a radio show on which we recently shared our views.

That same week in Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb, the city council unanimously approved levying fines on landlords who rented to undocumented immigrants and imposed English as the town's official language.

Macarena said she understood Houston, 240 miles southeast of Dallas, was a welcoming city. I explained Houston's reputation mainly came from civic efforts to accommodate Hurricane Katrina evacuees. All segments of the city came together for that.

Similarly, Houston community leaders closed ranks when a local Republican-led petition drive, falsely claiming Houston was a “sanctuary” city and was letting immigrant criminals run loose, was expected to have a huge disruptive effect.

The initiative was stopped in its tracks by a broad-based community coalition. The alliance, spearheaded by City Councilmember Carol Alvarado, has now sent out an e-mail, warning that Farmers Branch-like ordinances “fuel hate and promote discrimination. These are certainly not policies we should embrace.”

A call went out for Project Houston members to report if similar proposals arise among area municipalities and school districts, not to get caught by surprise.

The Dallas-Houston differences, if indeed they remain that way, are noteworthy because both were among the last major cities in the nation to suspend “witch hunt” activities that began in the 1950s. Groups such as the White Citizens Council, John Birch Society and the Minute Women were the most prominent. Alleging the nation was falling victim to an enemy within, they encouraged extraordinary measures, mostly around curbing civil rights, to counter the threat.

Back then, the external enemy was Communism. Internally, it was portrayed as desegregation and social change. In November 1963, the virulent superstition was like a fever.

That month, President John F. Kennedy visited a Houston League of United Latin American Citizens gathering in his honor before attending a Democratic Party function. The next day he was murdered in Dallas.

Two years ago, I asked a docent at the museum at the former Texas Book Depository Building in Dealey Plaza, whether he knew of any reports of cheering over news that the President was shot. The docent told me CBS News reporter Dan Rather had reported something like that.

That too was what I witnessed that ...