Speakers, Organizations, Books, Films, and Digital Collections
Speakers
The underground press has information unlikely to be found in other media, in a voice that is authentic to participants in 60s and 70s social movements. The papers offer a glimpse into the politics, community, and culture of the 60s and 70s.
The Rag and Space City! continue to be of interest to students, teachers, and activists. New Journalism Project (NJP) has compiled a list of resources available in print, video, and online. NJP and another non-profit, People’s History in Texas (PHIT), can provide speakers for class and community presentations.
Contact: editor@newjournalismproject.org
New Journalism Project and People’s History in Texas
New Journalism Project (NJP) has published two books about Texas underground newspapers. Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper (2016) and Exploring Space City!: Houston’s Historic Underground Newspaper (2021) include original articles and contemporary essays. A third book, Notes From the Underground: 77 Articles That Bring the Past to Life (2025) is a compilation of writing by Thorne Dreyer. It includes articles from both The Rag and Space City! as well as writing from the Liberation News Service.
People’s History in Texas (PHIT), a non-profit, has a fifty-year track record collecting oral histories. PHIT was recorded Rag staffers’ recollections at a 2005 Rag reunion and produced a documentary about The Rag.
Books, Films, and Digital Collections
Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper
Celebrating The Rag tells the remarkable story of the legendary underground newspaper that sparked a political and cultural revolution and helped make Austin weird. The book features more than 100 articles from The Rag’s 11-year history plus contemporary essays and eye-popping vintage art and photography. This collection captures the radical politics and subversive humor that marked the pages of this upstart newspaper between 1966 and 1977.
The Rag: Austin Underground Press 1966-1977
The Rag: Austin Underground Press 1966-1977 is a three-part documentary (55 minutes total) produced by People’s History in Texas (PHIT).
Exploring Space City!: Houston’s Historic Underground Newspaper
Exploring Space City! brings the story of Houston’s historic underground newspaper back to life. The book features more than 100 articles from Space City!’s three-year history plus contemporary essays by original staffers and a prominent historian, and compelling vintage art and photography. This collection captures the radical politics and subversive humor that marked the pages of this historic newspaper between 1969 and 1972, helping to shape the diversity that Houston is known for today.
A three-minute promotional video for the Space City! book project produced by People’s History in Texas (PHIT).
Digital access to all 106 issues of Space City! provided by New Journalism Project on the Internet Archive. The site has had more than 20,000 views.
Independent Voices represents the largest digital collection of alternative press titles, with complete runs of more than 1,000 titles and 750,000 pages. The collection includes the complete runs of newspapers, magazines, and journals drawn from the special collections of source libraries.
Independent Voices is composed of ten series on the alternative press focusing on that transformative period of the 1960s to the 1980s.
The flood of publications from an alternative press in the late 1960s expressed the upsurge of dissent and of aspiration of American youth. Feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals and the New Left, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Latinos, and members of the LGBT communities all began to publish newspapers and periodicals.
Liberation News Service
Under the Ground: The Story of LIberation News Service is a 80-minute documentary produced in 2021 by Dorothy Dickie and aired by PBS.
Called the ‘AP of the underground press,’ Liberation News Service printed news from hundreds of underground papers in the ’60s and ’70s. LNS reporters were ‘soldiers of the revolution who happened to use typewriters’ providing news to a generation of readers ignored by the mainstream press. The film includes interviews with former staffers, journalists, and activists, as well as archival footage.
Notes From the Underground: 77 Articles That Bring the Past to Life
Notes from the Underground is a collection of author Thorne Dreyer’s writing from 1966 to the present. Earlier work is taken from the 60s and 70s underground press – The Rag in Austin, Liberation News Service, and Space City! in Houston. The articles demonstrate the power of participatory journalism.
A syndicated weekly radio show associated with The Rag Blog and New Journalism Project, is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM. With Host Thorne Dreyer and roots in the Sixties underground press, Rag Radio features hour-long in-depth interviews with public figures.
The Rag Blog is a digital-age rebirth of the pioneering underground newspaper, The Rag, published in Austin, Texas, from 1966-1977. The Rag Blog has published more than 10,000 articles since it began in 2006.
New Journalism Project 