Texas Cowboy Pavilion

The Texas Cowboys' Pavilion was erected to commemorate and celebrate one of the University’s premier service organizations—the Texas Cowboys. This stop explores the Cowboys use of minstrelsy as well as the use of racial imagery over the years in school pride at UT. It sheds light on how race marks the physical as well as the social landscape of campus life.

Supplemental Essay Revised (March 2021)

Questions about “The Eyes of Texas”

This essay updates my earlier account of “The Eyes of Texas” spirit song (see below) as well as amends the tour segment “The Texas Cowboy Pavilion.” In this past year, UT’s beloved melodic alma mater was the center of much controversy and its fate thrown up in the air. The implication of my historical work in these debates compels me to present on this site additional historical materials on the subject. I have written a more in-depth analysis of the song regarding its minstrel origins and the broader socio-political context of Texas elsewhere (forthcoming). In this essay, I use my ongoing archival research to clarify historical gaps in the public account.

Research for me is an ongoing process and like any good science it benefits from revision based on critique and with deeper knowledge. The walking Racial Geography Tour, since its founding, has been an ongoing intellectual and pedagogical project. Years of research went into its creation and the tour reflects continuous augmentations and revisions paying attention to gaps in the history and responding to participant-inspired questions. The walking tour is not and was never intended to be a fixed narrative. However, with a digital tour, the dialogical method simply is not possible, which is one of the serious limitations of this on-line form. The most available means for updates on the site is writing.

With this in mind, this essay addresses in greater depth two points of inquiry regarding my previous account. The first question I take up is whether the famed song was debuted in blackface. The second is whether the song’s title finds its factual origins in Robert E. Lee’s words. In other words, did Robert E. Lee utter “The Eyes of the South are upon you,” and was it those words, passed through President Prather and John Sinclair, that led to the lyrics of “The Eyes of Texas”? I use this order to aid those less familiar with the popular history of the song to help establish a narrative of its origins.

Blackface and Minstrel Shows

The first question pertains to whether “The Eyes of Texas” spirit song debuted in blackface. It is well-documented in oral histories and newspapers that the song was written by UT student John Sinclair for student run minstrel show.[i] Minstrel shows typically included performers in blackface, the racial caricatures of black people by white actors in black facial makeup.[ii] This minstrel show was a fundraiser held on May 12, 1903 at the old Hancock Opera house, formerly located at 112 West 6th Street (“Varsity Minstrels” Program 1903). A review of the show written up in The Austin Statesman recounts a typical variety of entertainments, performed by UT students or others associated with UT [Varsity was short for University] (“Varsity Minstrel Show Surpassed Expectation,” May 13, 1903, 8). The musical line-up included the University Glee club, the Mandolin Club, and the Varsity Band (“Varsity Minstrel Show”). The Varsity Quartet (a subset of the Glee Club) made up of students Jim Kivlehen, Ralph Porter, Bill Smith and Jim Cannon debuted the song (Taylor 1938, 233). It is probable that President Prather and members of his family were sitting in the audience (Darden 1926, 3; Anderson 1967, 23).

In the newspaper and other accounts of the time there is no photo of the Varsity Quartet performing or any other description that provides direct proof that “The Eyes of Texas” was first performed in blackface. However, blackface was so closely associated with minstrelsy that to specify that performers appeared in blackface would have been unnecessary. Articles of the era documenting minstrel shows at UT, refer to shows where at least some, but probably not all, performers blackened their faces.

“Students in Black Face,” The San Antonio Daily Express, May 26 1907

For example, a 1907 article entitled “Students in Black Face” documents the practice in student-led minstrel shows on campus (The San Antonio Daily Express, May 26 1907). In 1911, the Cactus Yearbook’s formal photo of the student Varsity Minstrels was subtitled “blackface artists.” Decades after the debut of “The Eyes of Texas” John Sinclair—its author and an end man in the show—remembered being on the stage in blackface during the performance, though he was not a member of the group that sang it (Telfer 1931, 2). According to Gailey (2013), the comedic end men were invariably in blackface and the interlocutors (straight men) in whiteface.

Accordingly, it is likely that some and perhaps all of the original performers of “The Eyes of Texas” were in blackface. Further indication of this likelihood comes from President Prather’s daughter, Mary Lu Prather Darden. In her May 23, 1926 remembrance of the original performance written in The Dallas Morning News, she states that it was introduced with a skit in which an end man[iii] portraying a “seedy looking individual … wearing an A&M sweater and carrying a dilapidated old valise” is confronted by the interlocutor (or emcee). She then describes an interaction using some words in dialect. Darden’s account helps affirm the use of blackface in this opening performance of the famed song. However, we can never know for certain.

Whether the singers or the whole cast performed in blackface does not diminish the significance of the racial history and context of its first performance in a minstrel show. These shows were acts of racial parody that originated in the 1830s in the U.S. Northeast. Fundamental to the comedic sensibilities of the time in both the U.S. North and South was the ridicule, mockery, and denigration of black people. White actors, dancers, and musicians distorted and exaggerated as they mimicked Black bodies, language, dress, comportment, music, and spirituality for the pleasure and entertainment of white audiences. One of the formula’s most striking features was the use of darkening make-up by white actors—blackface—to lampoon blackness.

UT blackface performers, Cactus Yearbook 1911, pg. 236

By the 1840s, this form of popular entertainment was widespread, attracting audiences across the South and West. University students enjoyed viewing and performing in minstrel shows dating back into the 19th century and continuing well into the 20th century (Saxton 1975). The form declined in popularity following the Civil War, but nonetheless continued to be enjoyed on college campuses including UT’s until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Pictured to the right are UT students costumed for blackface performance in 1911, the decade of the first performance of “The Eyes of Texas.”

Blackface dramatized the racial character of the performance and was ubiquitous in minstrel shows—whether one performer was made-up or the whole cast. The song and minstrel show’s proximity to pernicious racial stereotype and denigration of black people are pertinent, regardless of whether all the singers in the original performance of “The Eyes of Texas” used blackface. The significance of the racial content and reception of minstrelsy at UT suggest how such racialized practices easily fit within the racial sensibilities of UT’s sociality.

The musical inspiration for “The Eyes of Texas” is based in the caricaturing of black people and life, and connected to minstrel music itself a parody of black genres. The song’s melody was taken from “I’ve been Working on the Railroad,” a song already popular in UT minstrel shows (Hall 1952, 7) and derived from the minstrel tune “Levee Song.” Published in 1894 in The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University’s) Carmina Princetonia The University Song Book, the Levee Song’s lyrics parodied black dialect and enslaved black labor building levees across the South. The Dinah in the song is a generic name for an enslaved black woman found in other minstrel songs as well as Aunt Dinah[iv], the disorderly enslaved cook in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). Both songs were performed widely in minstrel shows during this era.

Dean T. U. Taylor who taught Civil Engineering for fifty years at UT and who was a contemporary of Prather had this to say about “The Eyes of Texas” tune in his remembrance of its origins.

The original tune and the original words were chanted by the big buck negroes working on the levies above New Orleans. Few of these buckaroos would write his name. While working “all de lib long day” was finally wedded by the course of human event to the sentiment uttered on the night the song was sung (Taylor 1938, 234).

Minstrelsy as black parody is also the probable source of at least one of the key phrases of the song. One feature of minstrel songs is shared lyrics across the genre. “Way down south in …” “was firmly established in minstrel songs” since the 1850s (Nathan 1962, 260). Sinclair’s first line is “I once did know a President, a way down South, in Texas.” Whether he was explicitly aware that the phrase was common in minstrel songs, Sinclair produced lyrics in the minstrel tradition in “The Eyes of Texas” that would have seemed familiar to Texan audiences of the day.

The original presentation of “The Eyes of Texas,” in which black parody is a central element of the performance, fit firmly into the comic sensibilities of the times. At the University this was manifested in numerous ways. For example, The Cactus Yearbooks, which during this era had a strong satirical and comical bent, regularly included graphic caricatures of black people. The racial context that saturated the environment of the song’s origins makes moot questions about whether the specific use of blackface by its first performers alters the racial significance of the song’s debut in a minstrel show.

B Hall Cooks, Cactus Yearbook 1909, pg. 317

The racial parody of blackface minstrelsy remained popular among students with regular performances on campus through the first half of the 20th century. This form of entertainment was so uncontroversial at UT that in the 1940s even some of the most respected members of the University community participated. In one such show at UT’s Hogg auditorium in 1941, UT Deans of Students, a ROTC commandant, and a Longhorn Band director among others participated in such a show (Rasor, 17 Feb. 1941, 9). Even folklorist and radio personality John Henry Faulk, renowned for his progressive politics and support of civil rights, played a role in the minstrel show, as reported by The Austin Statesman (Rasor, 1941).

Although Blackface minstrelsy had died out in the country in the 1930s, it finally disappeared on the UT campus in the mid 1960s under the pressure of protest and with the changed national context brought on by the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. It was during this era of heightened racial sensibilities that The Austin Statesman reported on the song’s origins in “blackface” (Wightman, 9 Jan. 1964, 1). Nevertheless, the song endured almost without challenge, until this past year.

Robert E. Lee’s Words—Myth or Truth?

The popularly told account surrounding “The Eyes of Texas” spirit song, as I and many have heard it, is that the song’s vernacular origins come from the Commander of the Confederate States Army, Robert E. Lee’s famed words “The eyes of the South are upon you.” As the story goes, this saying arrived at UT via President William L. Prather, the third president of UT, who reportedly fondly recalled Lee’s words from his time as a student at Washington College (later named Washington and Lee University) in Virginia (Battle, n.d.). While Prather was an undergraduate, Lee was president of the College and made a lasting impression on Prather. The story loosely told goes on to say that Prather in his introductory speech to the UT community adapted Lee’s words to provide an inspiring cautionary to UT students whereby inspiring the lyrics to the song. This is certainly not the only telling of the song’s origins, but it is likely familiar to many and it is the song’s connection to Lee that has come under historical scrutiny.

My first intention is to unpack the veracity of the saying behind the song’s title and its association with Lee. What we do find evidence for is that 1) Lee was influential to Prather and 2) Prather spoke these words. I substantiated these claims while addressing what remains less clear and cannot be confirmed archivally.

Oral accounts cited in newspapers attest to Lee’s influence on Prather. Quoted in The Austin Statesman, one of Prather’s classmates, speaking on the occasion of his funeral memorial, proclaimed that Prather’s “great admiration for Robert E. Lee…was one of the guiding forces of his life” (“The Prather Memorial Service” 1905, 9). Prather was reported as saying of Lee: “We all loved honored and respected him … He still lives through those who had the good fortune to be associated with him … Patriotism was one of the indexes to his soul, and this is breathed by his old comrades in gray and his associates of younger years” (“Prather is Dead,” The Galveston Daily News, July 25, 1905). At the time of his death, Prather was remembered in The Austin Statesman as having “enjoyed the affectionate friendship of that great man” during his college days (“University Notes,” August 6, 1905, 12). Correspondingly, Prather himself recalled in an interview reported by The Galveston Daily News that he served as one of Lee’s pallbearers [in 1870] (“Prather is Dead,” July 25, 1905). The fact that Prather found in Lee a mentor of sorts suggests that Lee in word and character likely had meaning to him.

At the same time, research confirms that the signature line of “The Eyes of Texas” draws from statements made by President Prather to students at the University of Texas. Thomas Charlton Hall (1952), a classmate, fraternity brother[v], and collaborator in managing a Glee Club show with Lewis Johnson, the Glee club manager, a Band member, and Texan reporter, provided an account of the precise relationship between Prather’s statements and the writing of the song. According to Hall, sitting in Lewis’ room in B Hall, John Sinclair with the help of Johnson and Hall came up with the comical song. Hall claims the words they wrote were inspired by events surrounding a campus visit by prohibitionist Carrie Nation who was famous for her fiery militancy and particularly for breaking down bars with an axe. Hall quotes Prather admonishing students to remember that “the Eyes of Texas are upon you” after they egged on Nation during a confrontational campus interchange with the UT president. Evidently Nation, informed by students, had been publicly condemning key members of the UT faculty including President Prather for their alcohol consumption (Anderson 1967, 15). The 1903 Cactus yearbook memorialized the event that same year in a cartoon spoof depiction of Prather confronting Nation (253). Interestingly, even in the cartoon depiction of the event the only words portrayed are those of the student onlookers: “Stay with him Carrie” (Hall 1952, 23). “The Eyes of Texas” had not yet gained the significance it has today.

President William L. Prather, Cactus Yearbook 1903, pg. 253

According to Hall, Sinclair also rewrote his original version of the song with urging from Johnson (Hall 1952, 23). It is the chorus of this second version that became the school’s song (Hall 1952, 23). There are a large number of other loosely similar accounts of the song-writing process and the precise timing and origin of its versions (for contemporary examples see Berry (1975) 1992; Nicar 2015).

In returning to Prather, it is established that the President originally spoke the phrase in his inaugural address to UT students (Darden 1926, 3). He also demonstrated his awareness of the use by students of his words in the parody song of the same name. In his 1903 commencement address, reported on by The Austin Statesman, Prather alluded to Sinclair as he pronounced the lyric. Concluding his speech, he stated “I bid you an affectionate adieu, and in the language of your own University poet my last injunction to you is, ‘Remember that the eyes of Texas are upon you” (“Closing Day of Session of the University of Texas,” June 11, 1903, 5).

However, the relationship of this key phrase to the paraphrasing of an earlier articulation by Robert E. Lee is less clear. Dean Taylor claims in 1938 that Prather told him a quarter of a century earlier that:

…he had paraphrased the words of General Robert E. Lee … [who] was in the habit of closing all his addresses to the student body of Washington College with the words, ‘Remember that the eyes of the South are upon you.’ These words coming from the venerable lips of Robert E. Lee made a profound impression on the student, William L. Prather and when he was elected President of the University of Texas, he followed largely the example of General Robert E. Lee (1938, 232).

That said, there are conflicting accounts regarding when and where Lee himself uttered the “The Eyes of the South are upon you” phrase, whether he originated it, or if he actually ever said it. While there are numerous instances of the use of the term “the eyes of the South,” the earliest reported account of the exact phrase located thus far dates from 1874, four years after Lee’s death. Referencing the southern nationalism and struggles of the Civil War and its aftermath, it is not however associated directly with Lee:

But if this initial enterprise is permitted to droop and fail, all the high hopes of commercial independence will be postponed, and the northern operators will dictate their own terms after our failure and surrender. The eyes of the South are upon you, gentlemen of the direction, and all appeal to you to act up to the high expectations of a suffering people (“Direct Trade,” The Atlanta Constitution, April 3, 1874, 2).

In addition to this citation, there are a few other reported usages of the phrase in newspaper accounts from the southern states in the 1890s, none connected to Lee.[vi] A 1892 article in The Galveston Daily News, years before Prather became president of UT, reports on a politician, Mr. T. Ballinger, in Galveston urging members of the white Democrats to vote: “The eyes of Texas are upon you: the eyes of the South are upon you, to see if tomorrow you are found wanting” (“The Grosham Rally,” November 8, 1892, 8). These articles, the earliest dating from the 1870s and the others many years after the Civil War and Lee’s death, suggest that the phrase may have been a part of the southern nationalist Redeemer politics[vii] and Lost Cause mythology and ideology rather than a statement made during the War or by Lee in its immediate aftermath.

Even Prather’s daughter claimed after her father’s death that it was not Lee who spoke the words, but another Confederate officer. Mary Lu Prather Darden expressed that her father had paraphrased the officer who used the phrase while bracing Texas troops for a review by General Lee. (Darden 1926, 3; Wheelock 1985, 23). Those associated with the University of Texas clearly connected Lee with Prather and through Prather with the state of Texas during the latter’s lifetime. The Cactus Yearbook memorialized Prather following his death in June 1905:

The prosperity of the State [Texas], achieved through the worthy deeds of her children [UT students], was the dream of his [Prather’s] ambition. By tradition and birth of the South, a pupil of Robert Edmund Lee – nomen preclarum et venerable! – lofty and pure in character, he was a fit guardian and ensample for the youth of Texas” (Cactus Yearbook 1906, formatter).

However, there are no accounts, in the immediate years surrounding the time of the song’s creation that link its words directly to Lee. The association between Lee’s and Prather’s words seems to have sprung up later. By the 1920s, well after Prather’s death, this assertion was common place. Accounts in newspapers in Texas and other states since the 1920s, with peaks in the 1920 – 30s, 1950s, 1970s and 1990s, reported that when President Lee addressed students at Washington College, he often ended his speeches by invoking the maxim: “Remember, the eyes of the South are upon you.” In these many accounts Lee’s words are declared to be the inspiration for Prather’s famous phrase. These reports provide no sources for these assertions and the widely accepted account is probably apocryphal. [viii]

To date and in sum, I have found no primary evidence that Lee said this famous phrase and no substantiation, other than Taylor’s account, that Prather claimed he was directly paraphrasing Lee. This includes an inquiry with the Lee Family Digital Archive, that received no reply, and current communication with archivists at Washington and Lee University Special Collections and Archives to explore their robust records on Lee.

Despite the lack of archival evidence, the widespread popular connection of “The Eyes of Texas” to Robert E. Lee from the 1920’s onward is import. The song did not immediately become the school song. In fact, its author was not aware that it had assumed that level of importance until almost two decades later. Archival evidence indicates that as the song gained in popularity and significance its link to Lee was assimilated into the tradition. As the song became a source and ritual of unifying identity its association with Lee strengthened the sense of belonging to an institution that was a symbol of Texas and of a vibrant southern national tradition.

Robert E. Lee, William Prather and John Lang Sinclair, n.d., Prints and Photographs Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Endnotes

[i] For accounts on Sinclair and the drafting of the song, see Cactus Yearbook 1903; Darden 1926, 3; Johnson 1928, 6; Taylor 1938, 232; Anderson 1967, 10).

[ii] For more on minstrel shows see Eric Lott, Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: Oxford University Press, [2013]). For Minstrelsy and racial politics see Alexander Saxton “Blackface Minstrelsy and Jacksonian Ideology” (American Quarterly. 27:1 pp 3-28)

[iii] From the program and descriptions of the show this was probably Frank Lanham, one of two featured end men for this portion of the show (“Varsity Minstrels” Program 1903; Everybody Laughed 1903, 4).

[iv] For a literary analysis of this character see Brown, Gillian. “Getting in the Kitchen with Dinah: Domestic Politics in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” American Quarterly 36, no. 4 (1984): 503-23. Accessed November 10, 2020. doi:10.2307/2712748.

[v] Both Hall and Lewis Johnson were members of the Southern Kapa Alpha Fraternity originated at Washington College while General Lee was president. Throughout its history it has been strongly linked to Lost Cause ideology and by some to the Klu Klux Klan. “Southern in its loves, it took Jackson and Lee as its favorite types of the perfect Knight. Caucasian in its sympathies, it excluded the African from membership (Chick et. al. 1891, xxiv).

[vi] See for example “Who Are Watching Us,” The Commonwealth, November 3, 1898, 2.

[vii] Redeemers are those white elites, organized through the white Democratic Party of the South, who undermined Reconstruction and then through a combination of political, economic, and legal means reimposed white supremist control over the region (Saxton 1990, 258; Gates 2019, 29).

[viii] A search for “the eyes of the South are upon you” in Newspapers.com during the time frame of 1900 to 2020 brought up 66 hits from newspapers in Texas during that period. All cited this Lee quote as having been paraphrased by Prather in his “Eyes of Texas” saying and referenced the song.

Bibliography

Anderson, James. “The University of Texas as John Lang Sinclair Knew It (Sinclair Was the Author of the Eyes Of Texas),” 1967. 2J134, Sinclair, (John Lang) Papers, 1900 – 1967). Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

Battle, William James. “Prather, William Lambdin.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed November 9, 2020. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/prather-william-lambdin.

Berry, Margaret Catherine. UT Austin: Traditions and Nostalgia. Eakin Press, 1992.

Darden, Mary Lu Prather. “The True Story of ‘The Eyes of Texas.’” The Dallas Morning News, May 23, 1926, sec. 7.

Gailey, Vickey L. “Minstrel Show.” In Encyclopedia of American Literature, by Inc. Manly. Facts on File, 2013. https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/content/entry/fofl/minstrel_show/0?institutionId=4864.

Hall, Thomas Charlton. “Collaborator Tells the History of ‘The Eyes of Texas.’” The Austin Statesman, December 22, 1952.

Johnson, Lewis. “My Dear Dr. Pennick and Dr. Schoch:,” December 7, 1928. 2W70b Special Songs Files, Eyes of Texas Texas Composers Collection. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

Nathan, Hans. Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy. [1st ed.]. Norman, 1962. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015038928209.

Nicar, Jim. “Remembering Old B. Hall at 125.” The UT History Corner (blog), December 1, 2015. https://jimnicar.com/2015/12/01/remembering-old-b-hall-at-125/.

Rasor, Mac Roy. “‘Black Face Cowboys’ Revive Old ‘Who Was That Lady’ Minstrel Gags and Southern Tuneds at Hogg at 8.” The Austin Statesman, February 17, 1941.

Sacks, Howard L., and Judith Rose Sacks. Way Up North in Dixie: A Black Family’s Claim to the Confederate Anthem. University of Illinois Press, 2003.

Saxton, Alexander. “Blackface Minstrelsy and Jacksonian Ideology.” American Quarterly 27, no. 1 (March 1975): 3–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711892.

Taylor, T. U. Fifty Years on Forty Acres. Austin, TX: Alec Book Co., 1938.

Telfer, Muriel. “‘Eyes of Texas’ Had Humble Origin in Black-Face Act.” The Daily Texan, December 3, 1931.

“Varsity Minstrel Show Surpassed Expectation.” The Austin Statesman, May 13, 1903.

“‘Varsity Minstrels’ Program,” May 12, 1903. Eyes of Texas – UT a Vertical file. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

Wheelock, Ernestine. “The Eyes of Texas the Whole Story.” Alcalde, August 1985.

Wightman, Marj. “Can ‘The Eyes of Texas’ Escape Us?” The Austin Statesman (1921 – 1973), January 9, 1964.

Supplemental Essay (May 2019)

Texas Cowboys and Racial Imagery

The invocation of racial imagery in the cultivation of school pride and enthusiasm has a history at the University of Texas at Austin. As addressed in the video, the Texas Cowboys are a key prestigious social group on campus, recognizable for their chaps, boots and hats, evocative of their name, and for shooting the canon at football games. They have a long history of school spirit, charity, and a more sordid past of problematic racial practices and hazing, including a death of an initiate (“New Man”) that led to a five-year suspension (1995-2000) from the University.

Texas Cowboys in Blackface at their fall minstrel show fundraiser, UT Austin, November 1964, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

The Cowboys, as one of the oldest student organizations on campus, dates back to 1922 when two UT students transformed their dedication to the University into an organization. Their mission statement reads:

“To serve the University of Texas at Austin by promoting the spirit and high ideals of the Texas Cowboys, fostering positive relationships among all members of the University community, and assisting in the guidance of the campus Cowboy organization.”[1]

Born as a spirit and service institution, they resemble a fraternity creating tight bonds between its members, who during its earlier years, were hand selected by members. Their membership is now by application. As a service organization, they also held annual fundraisers in support of their partnership with The Arc of Texas and their 2003 funding of the Texas Pavilion.[2] They run the Torchlight Parade—a tradition at the university created by the Texas Exes in 1916 to rally school spirit in advance, originally, of the Texas A&M game, now a game with the University of Oklahoma.[3]

Texas Cowboys in Blackface at their fall minstrel show fundraiser UT Austin, November 1964, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

An annual minstrel show was part of this event until 1965.[4] Students protested the Cowboy’s use of blackface and derogatory racial content in 1957 and 1960, and called for the end of the “damage[ing]” content of the shows. The Cowboys responded by calling it entertainment with no intent to offend.[5] After further protests in 1964, the Cowboys stopped using blackface in their 1965 fall event.[6]

The Cowboys also have participated in the fall festivities of Roundup, including acting as escorts for women visitors to the University during the 1950s and an incidence of homophobic violence, discussed below. They run a spring Barbeque and in the past are cited as hosting a spring minstrel show in Gregory Gym,[7] as a fundraiser for their partnership with the Arc of Texas, and which presumably also may have changed content following the 1965 protests.

Minstrelsy and the Eyes of Texas

Student Protests following the Cowboy blackface minstrel show UT Austin, 1964, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

The display of racial imagery as part of University school spirit extends beyond the Texas Cowboys. Blackface minstrel shows were a form of entertainment for University students dating back into the 19^th century and continuing well into the 20^th century. Minstrel shows came about in the 1830s in the Northeast and by the 1840s, were a widespread and popular art form for audiences across the South and West. They consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that mocked specifically people of African descent. The form declined following the Civil War, nonetheless continued through the 20th century until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Levee Song from the Carmina Princetonia (1894), Mudd Manuscript Library Blog, Princeton University

The origins and first performance of the UT spirit song “Eyes of Texas” are found in minstrelsy. The musical inspiration for the spirit song comes from “I’ve been Working on the Railroad,” which is derived from the “Levee Song,” drawn from the College of New Jersey (Princeton)’s 1894 songbook, Carmina Princetonia. According to a Princeton University archivist, the Levee song “may date back as early as the 1830s and 1840s, and it refers to the use of African American labor to construct levees across the South.” Dinah was a generic name for an enslaved black woman. These songs were performed in minstrel shows held at Princeton and elsewhere.

The University of Texas Community Song Book, Compiled by Alexander Caswell Ellis, 1918, The University of Texas Bulletin

UT student, John Lang Sinclair wrote the lyrics to “The Eyes of Texas” prompted by fellow student Lewis Johnson. The song was a satire of President William Prather’s words “The eyes of Texas are upon you.” (See supplemental information in Robert E. Lee video). The song made its debut at the Hancock Opera House, located on West 6^th street in Austin, as part of a minstrel show on May 12, 1903. The proceeds from the show went to support the University Track team’s attendance at the All South Track and Field Competition.[8] The Varsity Quartet — Jim Kivlehen, Ralph Porter, Bill Smith and Jim Cannon — sang Sinclair’s words to the popular tune of “I’ve been Working on the Railroad” as John Sinclair accompanied them on the banjo. In minstrel shows of the era performers wore blackface, although this detail is not specifically recorded in accounts of the Hancock show. The Varsity Band immediately learned the song, which was set to the popular tune of “I Been Working on the Railroad,” and the following evening included “The Eyes of Texas” in its weekly Promenade Concert around the campus. In 1918, the song was published in The University of Texas Community Songbook.

Hancock Opera House, circa 1900, Austin Public Library Website

The Hancock Opera House opened in 1896 (1898) on 112-14 West 6^th street. Architect Frederick Ernst Ruffini designed the Hancock as well as the Millet Opera House on East 9^th Street (still standing). He also designed other commercial buildings and courthouses in Texas, as well as the Old Main Building of the University of Texas. In 1935, the Hancock Opera House became the Capitol Theater, changing ownership over the years until it closed in 1963 and later was demolished.

Continued Racial Imagery at UT

The tradition of minstrelsy had slowly died out as a national form of entertainment by the early 20^th century. However, as we have seen, the form survived in amateur performances, including on college campuses like UT. Though minstrelsy ended on UT’s campus in 1964, it was survived by the use of blackface and other racial tropes on display at University events.

Racial epithets on a car at the Delta Tau Delta house and paraded in the Roundup 1990, Daily Texan

The annual spring event Round-up has been the site of several known displays of blackface, racist imagery, and homophobia. Initiated in 1930, Round-up joins alumni and students in celebration of the University. Historically, it centered on an annual parade made-up primarily of fraternities, sororities, and student organizations. Groups paraded with elaborate floats down Guadelupe Street, which lines the campus to the west. Film from a 1949 Roundup captured a white student from the fraternity Delta Tau Delta dressed in blackface as well as other students on a float dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb.[9] At the 1985 Roundup, the Gay Lesbian Student Association participated in the parade for the first time and were met with hurled bottles and cans by onlookers and members of the Texas Cowboys who the crowd cheered on.[10] During the April 1990 Roundup, racial slurs and imagery drew attention to fraternity behavior and ideology during this event. A car with racist inscriptions associated with the Delta Tau Delta house rode in the parade and Phi Gamma Deltas (the Fijis) distributed t-shirts with a Minstrelsy Sambo head on a black basketball player’s body.

Students and UT President Cunningham speaking to the media in the wake of the fraternity’s racist imagery, 1990, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

These fraternity-associated events incited leaders of color to confront University officials and demonstrate in front of the offending fraternities. Student protests drew the attention of then President William Cunningham who gave a speech to frustrated crowds a week later, and suspended the fraternities for a year. Later that year, Cunningham announced that the University would not longer recognize Roundup as an official event having also encouraged the Texas Exes, the UT Alumni group to withdraw its support, which it did.

Endnotes

[1] “Our Mission,” Texas Cowboys, http://www.texascowboys.org/

[2] Tim Taliaferro, “When the Smoke Cleared The Rise and Fall of the Texas Cowboys.” Alcalde (Sep-Oct. 2008): 31-37.

[3] Lisa Dreher, “UT Celebrates 30th Torchlight Parade, pep rally before Texas-OU game,” The Daily Texan, October 6, 2016, http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2016/10/06/ut-celebrates-30th-torchlight-parade-pep-rally-before-texas-ou-game

[4] Dwonna Goldstone. Integrating the 40 Acres: The Fifty-Year Struggle for Racial Equality at the University of Texas (Athens: GA. University of Georgia Press, 2012), 66.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Almetris Duren. Overcoming: A History of Black Integration at the University of Texas at Austin (Austin: TX. University of Texas Press, 1979), 14.

[7] Taliferro, “When the Smoke,” 33.

[8] T.U. Taylor. Fifty Years on Forty Acres (University Station, Austin, TX: Alec Book Company, 1938), 232

[9] “The History of Roundup Explained,” The Daily Texan, March 28, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kojvrZmpDI

[10] Michael Barnes. “25 Years of Pride,”Austin American-Statesman, August 27, 2015, http://specials.mystatesman.com/25-years-austin-pride-parade/; Sean Massey, “The Extremes of Queer Life,” Medium, June 16, 2016, https://medium.com/@seanmassey/this-past-weekend-i-witnessed-the-extremes-of-queer-life-e5cfaf880fb7

For more on the origins of the Eyes of Texas song see:

Vick, Frances B. and Jim Nicar. “Our Song,” The Alcalde, 91, no. 4 (March/April 2003): 28–35.

Ellis, Alexander Caswell. The University of Texas Community Song Book. Austin, TX: The University, 1918.

For more information on blackface and Minstrel shows:

https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/blackface-birth-american-stereotype

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/links/essays/comer.htm

Sample of the coverage of minstrelsy at UT:

Levin, Matt. “UT Austin Frat now could face sanctions for racist parties,” Houston Chronicle, April 16, 2015, https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/University-of-Texas-says-no-more-pimps-and-hos-6201879.php

Sanders, Ahsika, “Racial conflicts tarnish history of Roundup,” The Daily Texan, April 13, 2011, http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2011/04/13/racial-conflicts-tarnish-history-of-roundup

Sherman, Ben. “UT-Austin Fraternity Keeps the Hateful Party Train Rolling,” Burnt Orange Report, February 10, 2015, http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/29587/ut-austin-fraternity-keeps-hateful-party-train-rolling

Smothers, Hannah. “A UT Fraternity Threw Another Hateful Party,” Texas Monthly, February 10, 2015, https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/a-ut-fraternity-threw-another-racist-party

Wells, Kaitlyn, “Longhorns Troubled by School’s Song Past,” ABC News, March 25, 2009, https://abcnews.go.com/OnCampus/story?id=7160813&page=1

Suggested readings on minstrelsy:

Barnes, Rhae Lynn. “Darkology: The Hidden History of Amateur Blackface Minstrelsy and the Making of Modern America, 1860-1970,” PhD diss., Harvard University, 2016.

Bean, Annemarie, James V. Hatch, and Brooks McNamara, eds. Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1996.

Lott, Eric. Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, 20^th edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Images appearing in 360 video:

“Cowboy Minstrels” folder, TSP 3Z139, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

“Hook Em Sign,” True Blue, 18 Aug. 2011. https://truebluechicago.wordpress.com/tag/kansas/

“Robert E. Lee,” History Channel. https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history

“UT – Texas Cowboys” PPC, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

“William Prather,” Wikipedia, 22 Mar. 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Williamlambdinprather.jpg#/media/File:Williamlambdinprather.jpg

So this here is the Texas Cowboy Pavilion. Texas Cowboys are one of the premiere spirit groups here on campus and have been for many, many years.
Under your feet you can see the inscriptions and tiles for folks who gave money to build this pavilion. And they have inscribed there the names and the dates upon which they became New Men, or were initiated into the spirit group.
One of the things that’s interesting about the Texas Cowboys is that they were a key social group on campus for many, many years. And they ran one of the key social events every year, which was in association with roundup every spring. They did a variety show, which they ran, and which actually was run in the format of a minstrel show.
Somewhere between 50 and 60 Texas Cowboys every year put on blackface and did minstrelsy, a kinda satirical and comical variety show that they put on every year in blackface. This minstrel tradition was very strong at the University of Texas and it’s actually the origins of another key aspect of Texas heritage.
If you remember, we said that Robert E. Lee, when he talked to his students, at the Washington and Lee University, would end each one of his presentations by sayin’ “The eyes of the South are upon you.” Well there was a president of the University of Texas who adapted that to Texas, and at the end of all his presentations to faculty and staff would say, “That the eyes of Texas are upon you.” And contemporarily we use the hook’em horns and sing a song called The Eyes of Texas are upon you.
Students developed a satirical rendition of “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad”, or to the tune of “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad”, to satirize the president and other aspects of the University of Texas, and therefore that’s how you get ♪ The eyes of Texas are upon you ♪ So the eyes of Texas are upon you are a take on Robert E. Lee’s famous words of the eyes of the South are upon you. And this is a satirical song which was sung originally, and for many, many years as part of minstrel shows. So it’s a minstrel song that was sung in blackface by folks.
So it’s another key part of Texas history, racial history, which is kinda embedded in the architecture and geography of this place, particularly here in the pavilion, in which you can see here the names of these folks who were Texas Cowboys and the dates when they became New Men. Anybody who was a New Man before 1964 would have participated in these kinds of blackface celebrations.

By the 1920’s, most discussions of “The Eyes of Texas” mentioned its roots in Prather’s paraphrasing of Lee’s quote. However, research indicates that Lee did not use it in speeches at Washington College. This common association most likely extended from a desire to associate The University of Texas with Lee and the southern nationalism he represented. Public memory is not always supported by historical fact.

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16. Simkins and Creekside Residence Halls

1933 architectural planning map of the University of Texas rendered by Paul Philippe Cret, with the location of Simpkins/Creekside Residence Hall Buildings marked.