On July 29, 1910, white mobs marched through the southeastern part of Anderson County and the northeastern portion of Houston County in East Texas, slaughtering African Americans at will. Hundreds perished, thousands fled and the state of Texas turned a blind eye. As black families ran for their lives, the white perpetrators covered their tracks. The story was covered up for over a century, and, today, the victims are still piled up in unmarked mass graves. Here is the story of the Slocum Massacre in riveting detail-as told by its victims.

Ghosts of Slocum

History

Bills, E.R.

Hollie-Jawaid, Constance

Americas

E. R. Bills

In the bizarro, comic book version of the Lone Star State, Red numbskulls run things, and "Captain Texas"--Greg Abbott--is their current leader. He inspires no one, but, for a smarmy, vacuous climber, he's hell on wheels. And Abbott follows on the heels of Rick Perry and George W. Bush. Together they comprise a successive triumvirate of blind ambition and mindless greed. They loaded the wrong wagons from the beginning, and we'll be paying for their lies and general ineptitude for a long time to come.

Fear and Loathing in the Lone Star State

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

The San Marcos 10: An Antiwar Protest in Texas

On November 13, 1969, ten students at Texas State University were suspended for participating in a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War. They had kept vigil in front of the Huntington Mustangs, bearing signs that read, "Vietnam Is an Edsel" and "44,000 U.S. Dead, For What?" while an increasingly hostile anti-protest crowd chanted, "Love it or leave it!" and "Let's string 'em up!" It was a day after news of the My Lai massacre broke. Part of a coordinated, nationwide Vietnam Moratorium effort that confounded and infuriated the Nixon White House, the "San Marcos 10" challenged their suspension, taking their case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Author E.R. Bills offers this fascinating glimpse into the 1960s antiwar movement in Texas, the extraordinary measures to quell it and the broader social activism in which it participated.

The History Press

Texas Oblivion: Mysterious Disappearances, Escapes and Cover-Ups

On February 2, 1963, a tanker with thirty-nine men aboard departed Beaumont and never returned. In the mid-spring of 1882, Billy the Kid's friend, foe and equal escaped Huntsville Penitentiary and vanished. On December 9, 1961, a young boy in Wichita Falls disappeared without a trace. On November 18, 1936, a father and son were swallowed by a Walled Kingdom. On December 23, 1974, three girls went to a Fort Worth mall and were never seen or heard from again. This collection explores twenty baffling disappearances that investigators have studied for decades, to no avail. Homicide, patricide, filicide, genocide, devil worship, the Devil's Triangle, the Devil's River, the assassination of JFK, UFO abductions, legal limbo, literal limbo--oblivion. Award-winning author E.R. Bills drags the facts of these mystifying cases back from the void.

Tell-Tale Texas: Investigations in Infamous History (The History Press)

Texas Obscurities: Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional & Nefarious

Some of these quirky true stories might surprise even the most proud Texan. Austin sat the first all-woman state supreme court in the nation in 1925. A utopian colony thrived in Kristenstad during the Great Depression. Bats taken from the Bracken and Ney Caves and Devil's Sinkhole were developed as a secret weapon that vied with the Manhattan Project to shorten World War II. In Slaton in 1922, German priest Joseph M. Keller was kidnapped, tarred and feathered amid anti-German fervor following World War I. Author E.R. Bills offers this collection of trials, tribulations and intrigue that is sure to enrich one's understanding of the biggest state in the Lower Forty-eight.

History Press Library Editions

In late July 1910, a shocking number of African Americans in Texas were slaughtered by white mobs in the Slocum area of Anderson County and the Percilla-Augusta region of neighboring Houston County. The number of dead surpassed the casualties of the Rosewood Massacre in Florida and rivaled those of the Tulsa Riots in Oklahoma, but the incident--one of the largest mass murders of blacks in American history--is now largely forgotten. Investigate the facts behind this harrowing act of genocide in E.R. Bills's compelling inquiry into the Slocum Massacre.

The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas

The sheer volume of remarkable Texan exploits creates a dizzying tally for the proudest of its citizens. So it happens that inexplicable marvels slip past an entire state of storytellers and world-famous legends live as anonymous neighbors. Ever hear the story about the escaped ape in the Big Thicket? Or the "Interplanetary Capital of the Universe" that sat on the Gulf Coast? Does the cowboy hat that warmed U.S.-China relations ring a bell? From the Staked Plain Quakers to the Kaiser Burnout, E.R. Bills delves into some of the most fascinating chapters of overlooked Texas lore.

Texas Far and Wide: The Tornado with Eyes, Gettysburg's Last Casualty, the Celestial Skipping Stone and Other Tales

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Product Description On November 13, 1969, ten students at Texas State University were suspended for participating in a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War. They had kept vigil in front of the Huntington Mustangs, bearing signs that read, "Vietnam Is an Edsel" and "44,000 U.S. Dead, For What?" while an increasingly hostile anti-protest crowd chanted, "Love it or leave it!" and "Let's string 'em up!" It was a day after news of the My Lai massacre broke. Part of a coordinated, nationwide Vietnam Moratorium effort that confounded and infuriated the Nixon White House, the "San Marcos 10" challenged their suspension, taking their case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Author E.R. Bills offers this fascinating glimpse into the 1960s antiwar movement in Texas, the extraordinary measures to quell it and the broader social activism in which it participated. About the Author E.R. Bills graduated from Texas State University with a BA in journalism in 1990. He is the author of Texas Obscurities: Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional and Nefarious (The History Press, 2013); The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas (The History Press, 2014); Black Holocaust: The Paris Horror and a Legacy of Texas Terror (Eakin Press, 2015); Texas Far & Wide: The Tornado with Eyes, Gettysburg's Last Casualty, the Celestial Skipping Stone and Other Tales (The History Press, 2017); and 100 Things to Do in Texas Before You Die (Reedy Press, 2018). Bills has also written for publications around the state, including Texas Co-Op Power magazine, Fort Worth Weekly, Fort Worth, TX magazine, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Austin-American Statesman. He currently lives in North Texas with his wife, Stacie.

Uncover the suppressed testimony of the Lone Star State's uncomfortable past. 
Tinseltown almost always gets Texas wrong. The "Searchers" never did that much searching, the "Giants" were hardly ever big in terms of character, and The Last Picture Show was just the beginning of a disturbing reveal. As acclaimed writer Stephen Harrigan suggests, the Lone Star state was not exactly a Big, Wonderful Thing, and, for too many Texans, nothing was ever "Awright, Awright, Awright." A Black civil rights champion was assassinated in 1976 and the incident was buried. A Cowtown Catcher in the Rye was published in 1940, and the country club made it disappear. And the war machines of Hitler and Mussolini were perfected with Texas oil during the Spanish Civil War. Author E.R. Bills challenges his proud neighbors, earnestly asking them to take a hard look at their history and it's repercussions, and challenge their own historical amnesia, cultural fragility and fierce denial.

Tell-Tale Texas: Investigations in Infamous History

History PR

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bills, E.R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bills, E.R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bills, E.R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Ghosts of Slocum

Fear and Loathing in the Lone Star State

The San Marcos 10: An Antiwar Protest in Texas

Texas Oblivion: Mysterious Disappearances, Escapes and Cover-Ups

Tell-Tale Texas: Investigations in Infamous History (The History Press)

Texas Obscurities: Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional & Nefarious

The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas

Texas Far and Wide: The Tornado with Eyes, Gettysburg's Last Casualty, the Celestial Skipping Stone and Other Tales

The San Marcos 10: An Antiwar Protest in Texas

Tell-Tale Texas: Investigations in Infamous History