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Waller County, Texas, has had a complicated racial history since the days when it was a part of Mexico. At one of its first settlements, Bernardo Plantation, about 100 slaves grew cotton on  a large farm on the banks of the Brazos. Yet in the years before Texas fought Mexico for its independence, the area became a magnet for free blacks from elsewhere in the South who sought a welcoming home. 

The messy, confusing double legacy of that history has persisted to the present, most recently embo

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An exasperated Sandra Bland left what is now a haunting voicemail on her friend’s phone shortly after seeing a judge. 

“I’m still just at a loss for words honestly at this whole process,” Bland said on the message obtained byKTRK. “How did switching lanes with no signal turn into all of this, I don’t even know.”

The 22-second voicemail left July 11, is the latest piece of the puzzle that is still unclear as to how 28-year-old Sandra Bland went from being arrested during a traffic stop on J

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