Texas Talks - Dr. Julia Brookins, "The Collision of Race and Nationalism in early Texas: The Veramendi Case of New Braunfels"

Dr Julia Brookins presents,  

“The Collision of Race and Nationalism in early Texas: The Veramendi Case of New Braunfels.”

Dr. Julia Brookins will offer the Texas Talks presentation March 17 at 7:00 P.M. via zoom which will be jointly sponsored with the German Texan Heritage Society and Dallas Goethe Center. In her presentation “The Collision of Race and Nationalism in early Texas: The Veramendi Case of New Braunfels,” she will discuss how race, nativism, and U.S. expansion affected a lawsuit over a property dispute as the norms of Anglos, Germans, and Tejanos collided in antebellum Texas.

Due to the Adelsverein buying property without clear title for German immigrants after establishment of New Braunfels and then becoming insolvent, lawsuits followed. Decided by the Texas Supreme Court in favor of the New Braunfels citizens, the Court’s opinion in 1879 went beyond issues of law relying on the German pioneers’ contributions to the economic development of the region. Resolving decades of complex litigation, the Court’s decision reflected the role cultural norms played in affirming America’s integration of both new lands and new people.

After graduating from Harvard Dr. Brookins was a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität, Berlin, and earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago. She is an education program analyst for the American Historical Association.