The teaching of race and history at colleges and universities has seen massive shakeups since the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 37 last year.
The law gives appointed governing boards at university systems and community college districts the power to evaluate and cut courses as they see fit.
Since then, universities across the state are consolidating departments dedicated to race or gender or eliminating them all together. Critics of the law have voiced concern that these regulations are stifling conversations of race, culture, and inequality in the classroom.
The nonprofit PEN America responded to these policies by bringing together a group of prominent authors and activists to rally at Texas A&M San Antonio in February 2026.
Jonathan Friedman, PEN America’s managing director of U.S. Free Expressions Programs, said academic freedom is at risk.
“It’s really the assault on the universities that has continued to change and pick up steam,” he said, “You have this perfect storm where I just keep telling people, ‘We need to talk about Texas because education is in grave danger.'"
Independent filmmaker Soco Aguilar captured the rally in the short documentary, Censorship at Texas A&M.
Aguilar said she hoped the documentary — and the larger implications about the continued censorship — will reach larger audiences.
“This is the beauty about a film: It can tell you that you are powerful, that you can do something about it,” she said. “You’re seeing the story passing by your eyes.”
See a teaser below from Soco Aguilar’s forthcoming documentary, Sandra Cisneros: Uncensored:
