Dallas Notes

Oct. 23–Nov. 5 1970 issue

Dallas Notes was a biweekly underground newspaper published in Dallas, Texas from 1967 to 1970, and edited by Stoney Burns (penname of Brent Lasalle Stein), whose father owned a printing company in Dallas. Initially founded by students at Southern Methodist University in March 1967, under the title Notes from the Underground, the first issues were run off after hours on a copy machine at Texas Instruments. With a blend of New Left political activism, hippie/drug counterculture, and underground comix and graphics, the paper developed a growing citywide and regional readership, and starting with vol. 1, no. 26 (Feb. 16-29, 1968) the paper changed its name to Dallas Notes.^[1] Eventually circulation peaked at 12,000 copies.

The paper's 85 issue run came to an end with the issue of Sept. 16-30, 1970. It was subsequently revived and carried forward under the name Hooka by J.R. Compton from late 1970 to 1972. During its existence Dallas Notes was subjected to repeated police raids and harassment, and in a widely publicized case former editor Burns was sentenced to prison in 1972 for 10 years and a day for possession of marijuana.^[2]

Notes

1. ^ About this Newspaper: Dallas notes. Chronicling America, Library of Congress, retrieved July 27, 2010.
2. ^ "Dallas activists in 1960s struggled against status quo in a time of tumult, change" by Roy Appleton, Dallas Morning News, October 25, 2008. Retrieved July 27, 2010.