Editing Tulia, Texas (section)

==History==
Its site was originally on the acreage of the Tule Ranch division of the [[JA Ranch]]. In 1887, a post office was established in [[James A. Parrish]]'s dugout on Middle Tule Draw, {{convert|9|mi}} west of what is now the site of Tulia. Evidently, the name Tule, after the nearby creek, had been selected for this post office, but at some point a clerk's error changed the name to Tulia. By 1900, Tulia was prospering as a stopping point for freight-wagon traffic en route to the railheads of [[Colorado City, Texas|Colorado City]] and [[Amarillo, Texas|Amarillo]]. A booming new era began with the extension of the Santa Fe line to Tulia in December 1906; with it came more settlers. In the mid-1980s, local industrial plants manufactured products such as clothing and farm implements, and four large cattle-feeding enterprises were nearby.<ref>{{Handbook of Texas|id=hft01|name=Tulia, Texas}}</ref>

===1999 drug arrest scandal===
{{Main|1999 Tulia drug arrests}}

In July 1999, the town of Tulia gained national attention due to its involvement in the controversial [[war on drugs]]. Undercover Officer Tom Coleman conducted a [[sting operation]] that led to forty-seven{{efn|name=FortySeven|Although the book titled ''Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town'' by [[Nate  Blakeslee]] quotes the number of arrested as forty-seven (with names given),<ref name="Blakeslee" /> there are other books that quote the number at forty-six (without names).<ref>{{cite book |first=Radley |last=Balko |author-link=Radley Balko |title=The Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces |date=June 2021 |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |access-date=October 9, 2023 |isbn=978-1-61039-212-9 |via=[[Archive.org]] |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofwarriorcop0000balk_z4a9/page/245/mode/2up |location=[[New York, New York]]}}</ref>}} citizens accused of dealing [[cocaine]], equating to ten to twenty percent of the [[African American]] population being [[incarcerated]].<ref name="Johnson">{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Kevin R. |date=2007 |title=Taking the 'Garbage' out in Tulia, Texas: The Taboo on Black-White Romance and Racial Profiling in the 'War on Drugs' |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/wlr2007&div=17 |journal=[[Wisconsin Law Review]] |volume=2007 |issue=2 |page=284 |issn=0043-650X |access-date=October 9, 2023 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="Blakeslee">{{cite book |last=Blakeslee |first=Nate |author-link=Nate Blakeslee |date=2005 |title=Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town |isbn=978-1-58648-219-0 |location=[[New York (state)|New York]] |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |edition=1st |pages=410–117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RyFaHp0L3uMC |access-date=October 9, 2023 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Despite being tried, convicted, and sentenced to decades in prison, a group of [[Lawyer|attorneys]] led by [[Amarillo, Texas|Amarillo]] civil rights attorney Jeff Blackburn and [[Vanita Gupta]] from the [[NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund]], ultimately succeeded in having the defendants released. In 2003 Texas [[Governor (United States)|Governor]] [[Rick Perry]] granted full [[pardons]] to thirty-five of the Tulia defendants.<ref name="Johnson" />  In 2005, Coleman was convicted of [[perjury]] and sentenced to 10 years' probation and a {{currency|7,500|US$}} fine.<ref>{{cite book |first=Radley |last=Balko |author-link=Radley Balko |title=The Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces |date=June 2021 |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |access-date=October 9, 2023 |isbn=978-1-61039-212-9 |via=[[Archive.org]] |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofwarriorcop0000balk_z4a9/page/245/mode/2up |location=[[New York, New York]]}}</ref>