Texas Historical Society Board Members Resign, Averting Court Trial Amid Dispute Over How State History Is Taught

An instructor leads a classroom discussion in Houston, Texas, on Aug. 23, 2021. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) has avoided a potential court trial after its president and secretary agreed to resign following a dispute over the ideological balance of board members.

The board, which was founded in 1897 and was previously made up of 12 academics and eight non-academics with one vacancy, describes itself as a nonprofit educational organization, “dedicated to documenting the history of Texas.”

It plays an important role in how state history is taught in schools across Texas, determining what will be published in works such as the “Handbook of Texas,” the “Southern Quarterly” and the “Texas Almanac,” which are often cited in classrooms.

However, the board has been at the center of a long-running legal battle since its executive director, retired oilman J.P. Bryan, filed a lawsuit (pdf) and injunction against Nancy Baker Jones, acting in her capacity as president of THSA, citing concerns that some academics on the board want to vilify Texas’s traditional heroes and push the viewpoint that the state has a white supremacist history.

The lawsuit argued that the board was in violation of its bylaws when selecting board members, noting that it should be “balanced substantially“ with an equal number of academics (typically full-time or retired history professors with doctorates) and non-academic members, and alleged that Ms. Jones was trying to oust Mr. Bryan.

Supporters of TSHA academics with differing viewpoints to Mr. Bryan launched a website, ConcernedTSHAmembers.com, urging people to sign a petition against the lawsuit filed by Mr. Bryan, arguing that the TSHA is “being wrested away from the board and its members.”

‘Hostile Takeover’

Meanwhile, the association accused Mr. Bryan of attempting to orchestrate a “hostile takeover“ of the THSA with his lawsuit.

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“Appointed to the TSHA staff under the guise of helping to improve the Association’s finances, he has instead made the TSHA the latest front in the culture wars, a development that few in the organization wanted and that threatens the very survival of the TSHA as we know it,” the organization’s former presidents wrote in an open letter to current board members.

“Plaintiff JP Bryan is attempting a coup of the TSHA to whitewash its publications, events, and products to comport with his pro-Anglo ideology of Texas history,” they wrote in one court motion, the Houston Chronicle reported. “His ideology valorizes Anglo efforts in settling the western part of the United States for the purpose of spreading freedoms for all, while minimizing Anglo support for the spread of human slavery and the important roles that Indigenous people, Hispanics, African Americans, and women played in shaping Texas.”

Despite the growing opposition toward Mr. Bryan, the 10th District Court in Galveston in May granted his request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Ms. Jones.

‘The Right Thing to Do’

It also barred the board from meeting to discuss firing Mr. Bryan, the former CEO of Texas-based Torch Energy Advisors, until a trial that was scheduled to take place in September.

During an Aug. 23 meeting, the association’s president, Ms. Jones, and Secretary Stephanie Cole agreed to resign and be replaced by two non-academics, THSA officials confirmed with The Epoch Times.

A third vacancy will also be filled by a non-academic, to balance the board, according to the publication,

Following their resignation, Mr. Bryan told Fox News Digital he has now dropped his lawsuit against Ms. Jones, meaning a trial will no longer go ahead.

“This is not anything that we’re boasting or gloating about,” he said. “It’s something that we just believe was the right thing to do because it doesn’t take a lawyer or an expert to see that we have always had a board that was properly balanced between academics and non-academics. So, we’re just returning, trying to do business like it was always envisioned.”

Mr. Bryan noted he will put forward three nominations to fill the vacant board seats.

“I’m confident we’ll get some very qualified individuals this week and have something to submit to the board for their approval next week,” he said.

Separately, he told Galveston County Daily News that TSHA’s vice president Ken Wise, a justice on the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston and adjunct professor at Houston Baptist University, will assume the role of president for the remainder of Ms. Jones’s unexpired term and the next term.

THSA said in a memo to members shared with The Epoch Times: “A settlement was reached to avoid a trial and rebalance the board between academics and non-academics. We thank you for your patience and understanding as the TSHA leadership worked through these important business and legal matters over the past six months.”