The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 705
741 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
ed two and a half weeks, established Huelga Enrichment Centers (strike schools),
picketed HISD, and witnessed a "mini-riot" by Chicano youth activists at a school
board meeting. These actions also included MAEC negotiations with the HISD
administration that brought the latter's acceptance of Chicanos as a recognizable
ethnic minority.
Little was settled, however, as MAEC and its barrio constituency had to boycott
HISD two more times in 1971-1972, over subsequent inequitable desegregation
pairing plans. Though these activists were often frustrated in their efforts, they
helped to bring about school reform for the Houston barrios and provided a need-
ed Mexican American perspective to Houston public education. With prodding
from these proponents, the author notes, school officials hired more Mexican
American teachers and administrators, established programs oriented to Chicano
children, and allocated better resources to Mexican American schools. Most im-
portant, San Miguel ably demonstrates that during the early 197os, Houston's
Mexican American educational activists came to adopt the culture, politics, and
social-changes strategies of the Chicano Movement, and eschewed the more timid
approach of the previous generation.
Though strong, this volume would benefit future scholarship even more if it in-
cluded an acknowledgments section and a bibliography. Brown, Not White is num-
ber three in the Mexican American studies series sponsored by the University of
Houston's Center for Mexican American Studies under Dr. Tatcho Mindiola Jr.
Richly documented by primary sources from the Houston Metropolitan Research
Center, the book is a solid examination of a crucial chapter in the emergence of
Mexican Americans on the Houston scene.
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Thomas H. Kreneck
Captain L. H. McNelly, Texas Ranger: The Life and Times of a Fighting Man. By Chuck
Parsons and Marianne E. Hall Little. (Austin: State House Press, 2001. Pp.
xv+366. Illustrations, foreword, preface, acknowledgments, endnotes, bibli-
ography, index. ISBN 1-880510-73-1. $35.95, cloth.)
In the historiography of the Texas Rangers this biography of the life and times
of Leander H. McNelly (1844-1877) will be cited as a classic work on the contro-
versial Texan. After researching various official records and newspaper collec-
tions, Chuck Parsons, well-known outlaw/lawman historical writer, and Marianne
Hall Little came to one conclusion: the enigmatic McNelly "was, in the simplest
terms, a lawman" (p. xi). The authors also showed that the leadership beliefs held
by McNelly resulted from his military experience in the American Civil War. Here
he learned to plan strategy, give simple orders, and join his first military com-
mander-Gen. Henry H. Sibley. The authors summed up McNelly as a person
thus: "Although considered puny, physically unimpressive and quiet spoken, he
was strong willed and forceful" (p. 2).
The career of L. H. McNelly can be approached from different vantage points:
Confederate soldier in the Civil War, captain in the Reconstruction State Police in
the Lone Star State, and the officer in charge of a ranging company in South2002
705
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002, periodical, 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101222/m1/761/?rotate=90: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.