[HBO] Ann Richards: Gov Richards of the Lone Star State

Her and Molly.

 

i was just a kid when she was in office, so i didn't remember much about her. was this pretty accurate, or anything that this doc omitted or embellished?

 

Lots of stories about how she appointed people who weren't straight white guys and the amount of work and political capital it took to make it happen. They spent some time on the Insurance Commission and the black female judge, but there were many more stories: first female Texas Ranger, first black on the UT Board of Regents... but a big one was a gay guy to the Funeral Commission. That was tough because it was in the middle of the AIDS outbreak and a lot of Texas funeral homes, particularly those in East Texas were refusing to bury gay guys, causing lots of hardship and heartbreak to families. Richards broke the good ol' boy hold on the commission and pushed through requirements that funeral homes could not discriminate. It was absolutely the right thing to do and it absolutely played into Rove's whisper campaign against her.