This October 1983 episode of the TBS educational television series Portrait of America, hosted by Hal Holbrook, focuses on the great state of Texas. Holbrook begins in West Texas with the mythic cowboy. Interviews with modern ranchers illuminate the history and challenges of the cowboy lifestyle. Over in East Texas, Holbrook interviews the Upshaw family, one of many Black families that bought land in the area after the Civil War. Part three of the episode focuses on boomtowns like Midland and Giddings. Holbrook then takes the viewer to the Alamo and San Antonio, where Mayor Henry Cisneros and local political activists talk about the city’s large Hispanic population. To demonstrate the state’s recent urban growth, Holbrook travels finally to Houston, the intersection of Texas past and Texas present.