The Roots of the Left

From, oh, about the Republic era until, oh, about last week, Austin citizens have made a habit of getting in the way of the local and state powers-that-be. But what we think of today as "Austin politics" -- that is, the Anglo progressive left -- dates most clearly back to the 1950s liberal heyday at Scholz Garten, then runs through 1960s student activism on civil rights and the Vietnam war, then in the 1970s focused on the environment and nuclear power, before setting its sights on City Hall in the 1980s and taking that edifice over in the 1990s. Many of your favorite Austin lefties have been part of some, or all, of this long story. Here are a few episodes of that tale.