Norris W. Cuney was my great-grandfather. I've only read part of this book, but just want to add that it's also useful because it's one of few published works about NWC. There is a good chapter on him in GALVESTON: A HISTORY OF THE ISLAND, by Gary Cartwright.

This book is useless as a piece of scholarship--it is overly laudtory and has little analysis, but it has extended quotes from Norris Wright Cuney. Anyone doing research on Texas history or the interplay between race and class in the 19th century or the growth of Jim Crow should read this book. Cuney is such an interesting figure because he was, like Booker T. Washington, one of the few black southerners who could move fairly wasily between the black and white communities. Moreover, he had extremely conservative poltical economic views which often put him at odds with his own constituents.