Patricia Bernstein

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Patricia Bernstein
Patricia Bernstein
Born
Patricia Jane Hoffman

1944 (age 79–80)
El Paso, Texas
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSmith College
OccupationWriter · public relations expert
Years active1974–present
Notable workThe First Waco Horror: the Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP
SpouseAlan Bernstein
Websitepatriciabernstein.com

Patricia Bernstein (née Hoffman; born in 1944) is an American writer and public relations expert. She is best known for her books Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan, The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP, and debut novel, A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower.

Biography[edit]

A native Texan, Patricia Bernstein was born in El Paso and grew up in Dallas. She graduated from Smith College with a Degree of Distinction in American studies, having studied with such prominent academics as historian Arthur Mann, Cervantes authority Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce, and literary scholar Daniel Aaron. She was named to Phi Beta Kappa during her junior year at Smith. Most of her college education was supported by a generous scholarship from Procter & Gamble. She subsequently audited courses at Rice University in Latin and medieval history.

Bernstein started her own public relations firm in Houston in 1983. The firm has now been in business for over 40 years.[1]

She is also a writer and historian, who has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles in media as diverse as Smithsonian,[2] Texas Monthly and Cosmopolitan. She has published four books. Her first book, Having a Baby: Mothers Tell Their Stories, a collection of first-person childbirth experiences from the 1890s to the 1990s, was published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

In 2005, Bernstein's second book, The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP, was published by Texas A&M University Press. The book tells the story of the lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco in 1916, how the lynching affected the growth of the fledgling National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and how a young women's suffrage activist was drafted by the NAACP to go to Waco and investigate the lynching.

The book was covered by dozens of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.[3][4] In 2012, Bernstein was asked to do an interview about the lynching of Jesse Washington and the early years of the NAACP for the NAACP Archives.

Bernstein's third book, Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan, was published in 2017 by Texas A&M University Press. Ten Dollars to Hate was a finalist for the Ramirez Family Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and was named twice by the Austin American-Statesman[5][6] as one of the 53 best books ever written about Texas.

The book tells the story of the only mass-movement version of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the 1920s Klan, which had between three and five million members across the entire U.S., not just in the Deep South. Revived in 1915 by a failed preacher and vigorously promoted by two Atlanta publicists, the 1920s KKK seized municipal government and law enforcement in many communities, indulged in extravagant violence against whites and blacks alike, and actually elected Klan governors and sent Klan senators to Washington.

The book's hero is a 29-year-old Texas district attorney Dan Moody who, in a series of dramatic trials in Georgetown, Texas, in 1923, was the first prosecutor to succeed in convicting several Klansmen for a vicious assault and getting them serious prison time. He became a national sensation overnight, was elected Texas' youngest governor ever in 1926, and was considered for the vice-presidential spot on a national ticket with Franklin Roosevelt.

Bernstein’s third book was widely reviewed by regional and national outlets including NPR’s Morning Edition,[7] the Austin American-Statesman[8] and Texas Monthly.[9]

In 2023, Patricia Bernstein published her first novel with History Through Fiction, a traditional, small press. The novel, A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower, is based on the true story of Winifred Maxwell, Countess of Nithsdale, a persecuted Catholic noblewoman who, in 1716, rescued her husband from the Tower of London the night before his scheduled execution with the help of a small group of devoted women friends. A Noble Cunning debuted as the #1 Amazon bestseller in Scottish Historical Fiction and was also a bestseller in other historical fiction categories. The novel has been covered in Texas publications,[10][11][12] a Scottish newspaper, [13] and the Smith College Alumnae Quarterly.[14]

Personal life[edit]

Ms. Bernstein is married to Alan Bernstein and has three daughters. Alan Bernstein was a newspaper reporter and editor for 33 years and is now a public relations specialist.

Bibliography[edit]

  • —— (1993). Having a Baby: Mothers Tell Their Stories. Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0-671-72614-0.
  • —— (2006). The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-58544-544-8.[15]
  • —— (2017). Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-62349-529-9.
  • —— (2023). A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower. History Through Fiction. ISBN 978-1-73649-906-1.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Who We Are". Bernstein & Associates, Inc. – Public Relations Strategy – Houston Marketing Consultant. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  2. ^ Bernstein, Patricia (June 30, 1999). "Terror in A.D. 1000?". Smithsonian. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  3. ^ Blumenthal, Ralph (May 1, 2005). "Fresh Outrage in Waco at Grisly Lynching of 1916". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  4. ^ Lanham, Fritz (February 20, 2005). "The First Waco Horror by Patricia Bernstein". The Houston Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  5. ^ Barnes, Michael (March 1, 2019). "Texas Independence Week: 53 of the best books about Texas". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  6. ^ Barnes, Michael (November 26, 2020). "American-Statesman at 150: At turn of 19th century, Texas and Austin's newspaper began to grow up". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  7. ^ Goodwyn, Wade (June 5, 2017). "Texas Town 'Balances' Confederate Statue With One Of Lawyer Who Fought KKK". NPR Morning Edition. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  8. ^ Barnes, Michael (August 17, 2017). "When the Ku Klux Klan gripped Austin and the nation. Author Patricia Bernstein revives story of Dan Moody, who won the first big cases against the Klan". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  9. ^ Nova Lomax, John (March 2017). "The One-Question Interview: Patricia Bernstein". Texas Monthly. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  10. ^ Rouner, Jef (March 3, 2023). "Houston author Patricia Bernstein tackles a failed coup against the British crown in new novel". Houston Chronicle. Hearst Communications, Inc. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  11. ^ Dansby, Andrew (December 21, 2022). "A year in books: from music to politics, from troublemakers to problem solvers". Houston Chronicle. Hearst Communications, Inc. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  12. ^ Aguilar, Charlotte (March 2023). "Bellaire author's love of history takes a new form". The Essentials. Houston, Texas: Essentials Magazines. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  13. ^ Truscott, Isabelle (March 23, 2023). "Traquair: the story of Winifred Maxwell brought to life in new book". Peeblesshire News. United Kingdom: Peeblesshire News. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  14. ^ Bernstein, Patricia (Spring 2023). "A Tale of Derring-Do". Smith Alumnae Quarterly. Northampton, MA: Smith College. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  15. ^ Faingold, Scott (February 17, 2005). "The Brutal Truth". Houston Press. Retrieved September 20, 2016.

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Sources[edit]

[2]

[3]

External links[edit]

  1. ^ Barnes, Michael (November 26, 2020). "American-Statesman at 150: At turn of 19th century, Texas and Austin's newspaper began to grow up". Austin American-Statesman. Gannett Media Corp. Retrieved December 1, 2020. Anti-Klan The election in 1922 of Earle Bradford Mayfield from Tyler to the U.S. Senate was a signal achievement for the second coming of the Klan. Originally meant to intimidate freed slaves after the Civil War, the group later also directed its terror against Catholics, Jews, immigrants and those who opposed Prohibition. (The book to read is "Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan" by Patricia Bernstein.)
  2. ^ Sloan, Stephen (May 6, 2016). "Radio Documentary Marking the 100th Anniversary of Waco Lynching to Air on KWBU Beginning May 9". Baylor University Media and Public Relations. Waco, TX: Baylor University. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  3. ^ Barnes, Michael. "Texas Independence Week: 53 of the best books about Texas". www.statesman.com. Austin American Statesman. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
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