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Dr. Michael Phillips

@drmphillipsut.bsky.social
3.3K followers 4.7K following 1.5K posts

Historian, author of “White Metropolis” and co-author of the upcoming “The Purifying Knife: The Troubling History of Eugenics in Texas.”

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 5h
A political agenda I fully endorse.
A 1950s style poster that says “Save Earth! Send Billionaires to Mars Today!”
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hope you will join me for this important online discussion. More details are available at this link: humanrightsdallas.org/events/anti-...
humanrightsdallas.org
Anti Mexican Violence on the Texas Border: Then and Now (Zoom Event)
Zoom Meeting Links Start time: 7pm CDT, September 30, 2026 JOIN ZOOM MEETING JOIN MEETING CHAT Meeting ID: 377 393 1916Passcode: 035709 About This Event Human Rights Dallas will host an online disc…
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Betsy Friauf and I took part in a somber remembrance held by the Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response (CLEAR) of the shooting that took place at the ICE headquarters in Dallas, Texas slightly more than a year ago. We also rang a bell and read out the names of all murdered by ICE.
A minister prays at a memorial service at the Dallas ICE headquarters.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
And here’s the newsletter mentioned by @americanstudier.bsky.social drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/texas-sena...
drmphillips2001.substack.com
Texas Senator John Cornyn and “Respectable” Racism
A Departing Political Hack Finds A White Supremacist He Doesn’t Like
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I just wrote about how "respectable" political hacks in Texas like U.S. Sen. John Cornyn made the ascent of explicit white nationalists like GOP Railroad Commission nominee Bo French possible. drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/texas-sena...
drmphillips2001.substack.com
Texas Senator John Cornyn and “Respectable” Racism
A Departing Political Hack Finds A White Supremacist He Doesn’t Like
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I am honored to have been named an East Texas Historical Association Fellow. Here I am with Betsy Friauf when we won the ETHA's 2018 C.K. Chamberlain Award for Best Article of the Year in the East Texas Historical Journal.
Me standing next to Betsy Friauf.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Sunday, I was part of a panel discussion at the Museum of Asian Texans about Dallas City Hall as a place of protest & the I.M. Pei masterpiece's future. From the left are museum co-founder Stephanie Drenka, me, poet TYV Veronica, artist Nishtha Kapuria-Cardozo, and journalist James Russell.
A group shot of the panel at the Museum of Asian Texans.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Yesterday, I had a great conversation with Imam Yaseen Shaikh of the Islamic Association of Collin County at Haraz Yemini Coffee in Plano. We talked about our shared concerns about increased religious intolerance across the state and what we can do to counter that.
Me with Imam Yaseen Shaikh at a Plano coffee house.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I co-authored a piece with Dr. Rick Halperin of SMU and Hadi Jawad of Human Rights Dallas about how Gov. Abbott shields those engaged in right wing political violence from accountability and how this is sadly not unprecedented for Texas governors. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/greg...
dallasobserver.com
Greg Abbott keeps rewarding violence. Texas has seen this before
From Rittenhouse to Castro, Abbott’s defenses echo a long, dangerous history of leaders enabling mob violence.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Visit the Human Rights Dallas webpage for more detail about this virtual conversation I'll be having a 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 30 with Dr. Trinidad Gonzales, a scholar of Tejano history. We'll discuss border violence against Mexicans and Mexican Americans over the pst century.
The image is all text with a picture of clippers cutting barbed wire.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The experiments in placing the U.S. government and the Texas state government in the hands of the dumbest, most immoral and hateful people seems to not be working out. I think we have enough data now. We should shut down the study and publish the paper.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Last Friday, on September 11, a group of about 30 Islamophobes calling themselves the Texas Legionnaires gathered to harass worshippers at the Islamic Association of Collin County just north of Dallas. The Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response organized 70 of us who stood up to bigotry.
A group shot of supporters for Muslim rights at a Dallas mosque.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
On Thursday, I participated I participated in a "Flock Town Hall" organized by my friend Stephanie Drenka at the Texas Civil Rights Project in Dallas. I emphasized how Flock has intensified racist policing and violates 1st and 4th Amendment rights.
Stephanie Drenka and me at the Four Corners Brewery Company in Dallas for a town hall on the civil liberties dangers posed by Flock.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Yesterday, I had a great conversation with Will Evans, the founder of Deep Vellum Books in Dallas. We discussed Russian history & literature, censorship, how odd Dallas is as a city, and why many more books need to be written about it. I gave Will copies of a couple of my books
Me standing next to Will Evans at La Casita in Dallas.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I delivered a talk at Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Plano, Texas, about the parallels between the current, off-the wall Islamophobia in the state and the anti-Catholicism of an earlier era. More than 60 people attended and I got a standing ovation.
A photo of me at the pulpit of the Plano Unitarian Church delivering my message about the history of anti-Catholicism and Islamophobia in Texas.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Thanks for the share. Here's the Op-Ed @americanstudier.bsky.social mentioned in Scholar Sunday. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/demo...
dallasobserver.com
Demolishing City Hall would continue the city's erasure of its civil rights history
Dallas leaders might destroy a public square where history was made, injustices addressed and the powerful were warned.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I share the feeling.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Here I am with Betsy and my stepdaughter Sarah a couple of years ago around Christmas.
Sarah, Betsy, and me in a selfie from a couple of Christmas seasons ago.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I was interviewed by KERA, the Dallas public radio station, about whether George W. Bush still holds a major influence over Texas Republicans. The GOP is holding a fake midterm national convention in Dallas later this month. www.keranews.org/news/2026-09...
keranews.org
As Republicans plan to gather in Bush's backyard, his influence is largely absent from the party
Next week's Republican convention in Dallas takes place in the same city that helped give rise to the Bush political dynasty. But George W. Bush himself — and many policies he pushed 30 years ago — ar...
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
In this op-ed, co-authored by my colleagues at Human Rights Dallas, Hadi Jawad and Dr. Rick Halperin at SMU, I discuss the fate of Dallas City Hall & how its possible destruction would represent an erasure of much of the city's history of protest and dissent. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/demo...
dallasobserver.com
Demolishing City Hall would continue the city's erasure of its civil rights history
Dallas leaders might destroy a public square where history was made, injustices addressed and the powerful were warned.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
If I were in the U.S. House, I would introduce a resolution condemning predatory capitalism & place in The Congressional Record the name of every American who died because they were denied life-saving treatments by their insurance company & every worker who died on the job toiling for Amazon.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This Sunday, at 10:30 a.m., I will deliver a talk, "Once It Was Catholics, Now It’s Muslims: Religious Freedom and Intolerance in Texas" at the Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Plano. I'll compare religious bigotry in the early 1920s to today's Islamophobic panic.
Photo of me delivering a talk at the Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Plano, Texas.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
That’s a final straw for me. I’m boycotting @Google and will use @duckduckgo.com from now on. Google can suck up to tyrants on their own. Greedy cowards.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
A fun donut shop Dominic introduced Betsy Friauf and me to in South Korea when we visited in 2023.
Me standing in front of wall mural with a picture of a scowling baby and the slogan "Donut Worry Be Happy."
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I always liked this picture of Dominic.
A young Dominic practicing cello at his mom's house.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Nine years ago, I was a guest on the now-defunct Dallas radio station KHVN with the Rev. Michael W. Waters and the Rev. Gerald Britt explain why the city needed to take down its racist Confederate monuments.
Michael Waters, me, and Gerald Britt in a radio studio.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
It's always an honor to make the @ScholarSunday Thread by @americanstudier.bsky.social. Here's the op-ed that got us on the list: www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/trum...
dallasobserver.com
Trump is bulldozing the site of a Texas massacre. It’s time to remember Porvenir
Closer to home, the Texas Rangers continue to take part in the whitewashing and glorification of a violent, racist past
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This is from my talk August 14 with the young activists who have formed the Dallas Against the Trump Agenda Coalition. Later today, I'm going to be interviewed about the influence of the two Bush presidents on the Texas Republican Party and whether that still holds in the Trump era.
Group shot of me with young activists.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
If Trump administration plans for a border wall come through, they will not only damage Texas's Big Bend area environmentally, they will desecrate the site of one of the state's most horrifying human rights human rights atrocities: The Porvenir Massacre. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/trum...
dallasobserver.com
Trump is bulldozing the site of a Texas massacre. It’s time to remember Porvenir
Closer to home, the Texas Rangers continue to take part in the whitewashing and glorification of a violent, racist past
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
On Saturday, Human Rights Dallas sponsored that city's first-ever Human Rights Fair.. One participant was SMU professor & artist Willie Baronet who heads the group "We Are All Homeless." He buys signs from homeless people signs to provide them income. One says, "At least give me the finger."
Dr. Will Baronet and his collection of signs from homeless people.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Thanks again for the share. And here's the conclusion to my history of the movement to take down Confederate monuments in Dallas referenced in @americanstudier.bsky.social' s post. drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/what-do-yo...
drmphillips2001.substack.com
"What Do You Think Of Second Amendment Solutions?" Part VI
The Conclusion to a Saga and Its Aftermath
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
On Friday, August 14, I gave a talk at the "Teach-In On The 1984 Republican National Convention Protests" sponsored by the Dallas Coalition Against the Trump Agenda. The group plans demonstrations when the GOP holds a mid-term pseudo-convention in Dallas September 9-10.
Me with a group planning anti-Trump protests in Dallas next month.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I share the same exasperation and fear.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
If you are in Dallas tomorrow night, I will be at this event. I'll be talking broadly about the history of protest in Dallas with a focus on the demonstrators who flocked to Big D for the 1984 Republican Convention.
Image is mostly text with a picture of me and anti-Reagan protestors.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I want to invite you to the first Human Rights Fair ever held in Dallas, this Saturday from 11-3 at the downtown Central Library. More information is in the video.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Here's the conclusion to my history of the movement to take down Confederate monuments in Dallas and how the campaign altered the lives of some of the participants. This series will become a chapter in my planned memoir/history of censorship in Texas. drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/what-do-yo...
drmphillips2001.substack.com
"What Do You Think Of Second Amendment Solutions?" Part VI
The Conclusion to a Saga and Its Aftermath
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Human Rights Dallas hosts the city’s first-ever Human Rights Fair at the 6th floor of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library across from City Hall. Yesterday, we had a meeting planning the event. Below is pictured Hadi Jawad, the co-founder of HRD.
Hadi Jawad speaks about this Saturday's Human Rights Fair at the central library in Downtown Dallas.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
On August 5, I was interviewed by Dr. Rahman Mohammed, the host of the podcast "The Doctor's Couch." We talked about the history of racism in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and why the area has seen such an alarming spike in Islamophobia. I'll let you know when the episode drops.
Dr. Rahman Mohammed and me after we recorded a podcast.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
We'll find Michael Rockefeller and Jimmy Hoffa before we find a principled Republican.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Sunday, we gathered at the home of our good friend Janet Neff to remember Bill Neff. I first met Bill and Janet when I was a community college student at Eastfield College in Mesquite, Texas, in 1979-1980. At least 100-150 people paid their respects to a great nurse and professor.
My wife and co-author Betsy Friauf and my longtime friend Janet Neff at a remembrance for Janet's late husband Bill.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I’m calling it for El-Sayed.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Thanks for the share, @americanstudier.bsky.social. The conclusion of my series on the history of Confederate monument removal in Dallas will be posted later this week but here’s the newsletter that Ben included in Scholar Sunday: open.substack.com/pub/drmphill...
open.substack.com
"What Do You Think About Second Amendment Solutions," Part V
The Movement Against Confederate Monuments in Dallas
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
This is my next-to-last post on the history of Confederate Monument removal in Dallas. Here, I discuss the shocking opposition of three African Americans on the Dallas City Council to our efforts and how one of those politicians ended up in prison for corruption. open.substack.com/pub/drmphill...
open.substack.com
"What Do You Think About Second Amendment Solutions," Part V
The Movement Against Confederate Monuments in Dallas
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
@betsyfriauf.bsky.social and I celebrated the 18th anniversary of our first date by seeing The Odyssey and then having dinner at a local Greek restaurant. Nolan’s film is great, by the way.
Me standing behind Betsy and holding her shoulders at a restaurant.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Last night in Dallas an event, "Remembering Santos Rodriguez," honored a 12-year-old murdered by Dallas PD in 1973 & included a panel with journalist Dianne Solis, community leaders Eva Arreguin & Albert Valtierra, and longtime Dallas human rights leader and scholar Dr. Rick Halperin.
Photo of the panelists mentioned in the post.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Our friend Winnie Hinson (seen below sitting next to Betsy Friauf) invited us to speak to the Fahrenheit 451 Book Club in Richardson, Texas to discuss our book "The Purifying Knife: The Troubling History of Eugenics in Texas." The club focuses on banned books, but they made time for us anyway.
Michael and Betsy sitting with a book club in Richardson, Texas.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Saturday, we had some of our favorite people over for dinner. Pictured from the left is recently tenured University of North Texas labor historian Chad Pearson, his wife and Mexican labor historian Sandra Mendiola, my wife Betsy Friauf, and long time labor activist Les Cunningham.
A picture of the people mentioned in the post.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Thanks again @americanstudier.bsky.social for sharing our op-ed on the painful lessons we can learn from the 1973 murder of 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez by Dallas police. Here’s the essay: www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/sant...
dallasobserver.com
53 years later, Santos Rodriguez's murder still demands Dallas reckon with its past
The 1973 police murder of a 12-year-old changed Dallas forever, but activists say the city still has work to do to ensure his death is remembered, and never repeated.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
This is what Betsy looked like not too long before we first met in 1988. I love this photo because it captures the incredible warmth of her smile. You can see her eyes smile too. ClosI was in awe of her the first moment I saw her. The 18th anniversary of our first date in July 26.
Black and white closeup of the beautiful Betsy Friauf's face.
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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I co-authored an op-ed on the murder by Dallas police of a 12-year-old boy, Santos Rodriguez, how that slaying changed Dallas history, and how there are still lessons to learn from that atrocity. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/sant...
dallasobserver.com
53 years later, Santos Rodriguez's murder still demands Dallas reckon with its past
The 1973 police murder of a 12-year-old changed Dallas forever, but activists say the city still has work to do to ensure his death is remembered, and never repeated.
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