My fellow Texans,
The only way I know how to respond to moments like these is by trusting my heart.
I should write how I feel: angry, frustrated, unsafe. But I’ve felt that way for a long time in Texas. I'm not naïve to the challenges ahead. And neither are you.
Governor Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and the state legislature will feel even more emboldened to peddle hate and flout the constitution. The dangerous policies that we have faced for so long in Texas – family separations, abortion bans, anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination, crackdowns on free speech – will now become the blueprint for the rest of the country.
Yet, I refuse to give in to the politics of fear. No matter how hard they try to divide us, we will not abandon each other. We’ve come too far.
In school, I learned that the success of the Civil Rights Movement came largely from court wins now etched into our history books. But my family and mentors who lived through Jim Crow taught me a different strategy: building power among the people. They raised leaders from within the community, shared stories and sang songs that activated people across the country to join them, then solidified the work with judicial power.
This is what we’ve been doing in Texas. We, along with our partners, will continue to train leaders, educate communities, uplift stories, shape policies, and litigate in the courts to protect civil rights and civil liberties for the long haul – not months, but years.
The principles we share are not always popular, but they endure for a reason.
Together, we’ll keep working for a Texas where each of us can have an equal say in our democracy, make personal decisions about our own bodies, read and protest freely, go about our lives without discrimination, and welcome people seeking safety and a better life.
Let’s show our state and our country what the people of Texas can do together.
Onward,
Oni K. Blair
Executive Director, ACLU of Texas
