♪ (dramatic music) ♪
- We wrote the report, there are parts
where we talk about, look who's not present here.
So, when I think about the origins
of "The Eyes of Texas," or our football team
being all white until 1969,
or the band playing in minstrel shows, it's demeaning.
It says so many things about the status
and the roles of African-Americans at that time
as perceived by white people, right.
It is part of the story, irrevocably.
- University of Texas was, to put it bluntly,
a Jim Crow university in a Jim Crow state.
Anything that emerged from that background
could be said to have racist origins.
One thing about songs is that in a certain way
they're new every time somebody sings it.
It's not like a building.
A song is performed,
and with each generation that performs the song,
the song means something to them
that might be entirely different,
independent from what it meant at the very beginning.
- In 1905, when President Prather dies,
John Lang Sinclair and Louis Johnson
are asked to sing the song at his funeral.
Both of them kind of had this moment
and were like, oh my gosh, this is not the school joke
we did at a minstrel show, this is a hymn.
One thing that's interesting to me
about The Eyes of Texas is that it never
sort of stayed static.
It evolved, it changed.
- It wasn't a song that the Board of Regents hired
a song writer to write an official anthem
for the University of Texas at Austin.
You know, it really is from the roots up.
You know, it started with the students
and it evolved over time.
But, it was not handed down.
It's not a proclaimed you know, official song.
- Finding out about the uses of the song
by other institutions, other schools,
in media, as a protest song, as a song of loyalty.
All those different pieces I think
made me think, this means a lot to people.
- The two most serious uses of the song
for protest reasons was when James Ferguson,
Governor Ferguson, vetoed the university's
entire budget because they wouldn't,
they wouldn't fire some of the faculty
and administrators who had opposed
his re-election in 1916.
A band of co-eds marched past the governor's office window,
no air conditioning in those days
so it was wide open, and he was standing there.
They sang "The Eyes of Texas" at him
and then went home.
When Rainey was dismissed by the Board of Regents
in 1944 as the University of Texas president,
largely for racist reasons.
The regents were afraid that he was going
to push for racial desegregation of the campus.
The students went down to the Capitol
and again, sang "The Eyes of Texas"
as a protest song to the legislature
and to the regents.
Those activities were nearly 30 years apart.
These were two different generations of students.
Obviously, the students felt that that song had a use.
- Our colleagues in the History Department
found a poster that says,
"Women, the eyes of Texas are upon you.
"Have you paid your poll tax?"
A poll tax is a method of disenfranchisement
for African Americans and for women.
Students used that to sort of exhort
people in power to do the right thing.
- This song has a past.
The past tracks the past of this university.
The university is what it is today
in large part, because of its past.
And there are aspects of the past
that don't make us proud.
There are aspects of the past
that should make us proud.
- One of the moments that is probably most impactful for me
is Barbara Smith Conrad in the 2000 Commencement
singing "The Eyes of Texas."
I understand Barbara Smith Conrad's story,
that experience of being one of the first
Black students here and having the opportunity
to be in the opera taken from her
because of people in the state legislature
who felt that she should not perform
opposite a white man.
Having her come back in 2000
and singing that song
is so incredibly powerful to me,
what this can mean.
To quote Barbara, "This is my state.
"This is mine, as well.
"I'm claiming this because I put in the work.
"I contributed, I am a part of this community."
- As it would remind everyone as we play the song,
that it is an opportunity to reflect critically
on the history of our institution,
and not only our institution, but certainly
the history of this state and this country.
The context has changed dramatically
in the last century.
The future of "The Eyes of Texas"
in the way that it's performed and used
can be an example for us about how we,
this institution is holding itself accountable,
and in so doing, recognizing the kind of power dynamics
that have existed here.
You know, that should serve as an example
for other entities where those sorts of sordid traditions
or cultural norms might exist.
- And so, the United States is a work in progress.
The state of Texas is a work in progress.
It's still a work in progress.
And in that context I would say
that the song, "The Eyes of Texas,"
is a work in progress as well.
- There's so many facets of how
"The Eyes of Texas" is performed
and played and received and heard
that you know, the setting, the context is everything.
The way that it is performed now, the context
in which it's used is often about invoking
a sense of community pride, pageantry
and affinity for the university.
- The thing that's really exciting is
that this school song, this part
of our historical record goes
throughout the history of the University of Texas.
It starts almost at the university's inception
and it goes to the present day.
So, you can tell a story about the University of Texas
through the story of the song.