The Rag

The Rag
The Rag covers
TypeUnderground
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)Staff-owned and -published
Editor(Founding) Thorne Dreyer and Carol Neiman
FoundedOctober 10, 1966
Ceased publication1977
HeadquartersAustin, Texas
Sister newspapersMember: Underground Press Syndicate (UPS); Liberation News Service (LNS)
ISSN0033-8621
Free online archivesvoices.revealdigital.org
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The Rag was an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas from 1966–1977. The weekly paper covered political and cultural topics that the conventional press ignored, such as the growing antiwar movement, the sexual revolution, gay liberation, and drug culture. It encouraged these political constituencies and countercultural communities to coalesce into a significant political force in Austin.[1] As the sixth member of the Underground Press Syndicate and the first underground paper in the South, The Rag helped shape a flourishing national underground press.

According to historian and publisher Paul Buhle, The Rag was "one of the first, the most long-lasting and most influential" of the Sixties underground papers.[2] In his 1972 book, The Paper Revolutionaries, Laurence Leamer called The Rag "one of the few legendary undergrounds."[3]

  1. ^ Dreyer, Thorne; Embree, Alice; Croxdale, Richard (2016). Celebrating The Rag. Austin, Texas: The New Journalism Project. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-365-39054-8.
  2. ^ Buhle, Paul, introduction, On the Ground: An Illustrated Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S., edited by Sean Stewart (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2011)
  3. ^ Leamer, Laurence, The Paper Revolutionaries : The Rise of the Underground Press (New York : Simon and Schuster, 1972)