Author Reading: ER Bills, “Black Holocaust”

From 1891 to 1922, Texans burned an average of one person of color at the stake a year for three decades. These burning typically featured carnival atmospheres with thousand in attendance, including men, women and children who later described the spectacles as jovial “barbecues” or “roasts,” and commemorated the events with “lynching” postcards. It was a period when many white Texans- previously enraged by Reconstruction—reasserted white primacy and terrorized black Texans with impunity. Join author E.R. Bills in this recounting of an African American holocaust.

About E.R. Bills: Born in Fort Worth and raised in Aledo, Texas, E.R. Bills received his degree in journalism from Texas State University. He does freelance historical, editorial and travel writing for publications around the state and is the author of Texas Obscurities: Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional and Nefarious and The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas, the latter of which led to a much-contested but successful effort to erect a state historical marker commemorating the victims of the Slocum Massacre.