The Texas Civil Rights Project

Jim Harrington founded the Texas Civil Rights Project and served as its director from 1990 to 2015. Previously, he led the South Texas Project, served as the Texas Civil Liberties Union's lawyer, and taught at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.

Foreword by Lora J. Livingston Introduction: Past as Prologue-Justice on the Horizon? 1. The Early Years: From Michigan's Strawberry Fields to South Texas 2. South Texas in the 1960s and 1970s: Upheaval, Resistance, and the Origin of the South Texas Project 3. Police Brutality, Act I: McAllen's C-Shift Animals 4. Texas Grand Jury Reform: Sidelining the Good Old Boys 5. Farmworkers and Colonias on the Move 6. The Texas ERA Comes to the Rescue of Farmworkers and Minority Voters 7. Untethering from the Texas Civil Liberties Union: Birth of the Texas Civil Rights Project 8. Convincing Texas Businesses and Government to Respect People with Disabilities 9. The People Push Back: Free Speech and Assembly 10. Police Brutality, Act II: The More Cops Change?.?.?. 11. Violence against Women and Sexual Bullying 12. Privacy: AIDS, Lie Detectors, and the Case of the Purloined Baby Blood 13. Daring to Sue the Supreme Court of Texas on Behalf of Low-Income Texans 14. Continuing the Good Fight: Other Fronts 15. International Human Rights: Solidarity 16. What Made TCRP Unique? 17. Final Thoughts: Keeping the Marathon Going Afterword by Greg Casar Acknowledgments Resources Index

"The Texas Civil Rights Project makes you feel you are there, with Jim, reliving the experiences, learning as he was, and gaining the motivation to follow his footsteps into activism. Jim's life story gives us so many examples of faith in action and belief in one's own power. This book is an inspiration and a blueprint for all who believe in justice." - Dolores Huerta "The Texas Civil Rights Project's contribution to social justice is a wonder to behold! Jim Harrington's chronicle about TCRP is a must-read for anyone committed to making ours a more just world. In a time when uncertainty is shaking our hope for tomorrow, Jim reminds us of yesterday's darkest days and restores our hope that as long as we have the faith, the will, and the energy, there is hope that one day again "we shall overcome!" - Luci Baines Johnson "Harrington has recorded an indispensable legal history of the ongoing fights for civil and human rights in Texas." - (Austin Chronicle) "A life's work of 50 years as the founder and leader of the Texas Civil Rights Project is revealed in this combination of memoir, tactics of law and manual for community organizers. The Texas Civil Rights Project is filled with stories of success and failure, and the knowledge that change comes slowly. But persistence is necessary to bend the arc toward justice. Written with a storyteller's grace and good humor, it is a book that can appeal widely." - (Denton Record-Chronicle) "A celebration of the grassroots organizers and groups in the struggle for human rights in Texas over the last half century. It is less memoir than chronicle of an indefatigable force who pushed the Texas justice system to live up to its ideals. The book not only informs, but inspires." - (Texas Supreme Court Historical Society Journal)