Out of print for more than 30 years, local publishing house Deep Vellum will issue new copies of “The Accommodation” by longtime neighborhood political writer Jim Schutze.
The book details the city’s violent history of race relations in Dallas from slavery through the civil rights movement and examines the city’s desegregation efforts in the 1950s and ’60s.
Schutze, currently a writer at D Magazine, wrote the book in the mid-1980s while working at the Dallas Times Herald. Taylor Publishing Company was supposed to publish the book in 1986 but abruptly dropped it. A year later, Citadel Press released a small number of copies before Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price purchased the rights.
The title has seen waves of interest among Dallasites, but copies are hard find and can cost hundreds of dollars on Amazon.
“As a work, it’s a great book. It’s the holy grail of Dallas stories,” Deep Vellum Executive Director Will Evans said. “We’re able to use that as a launching stone to find more stories in all different communities of Dallas so residents and leaders can learn more about who we are and how we got here and build a better city going forward. Dallas is a great place for some people, but it could be a lot better for others. The book fits that vibe.”
Publication is set for September 2021.
The book is $30 and can be pre-ordered here.
