Waxahachie TX

In 1988, the area around Waxahachie was chosen as the site for the Superconducting Super Collider, which was to be the world’s largest and most energetic particle accelerator, with a planned ring circumference of 54.1 miles (87.1 km). Seventeen shafts were sunk and 14.6 miles (23.5 km) of tunnel were bored before the project was cancelled by Congress in 1993.

Waxahachie has a history of segregation and racism that came into the national spotlight in 2020, when County Judge Todd Little banished the county’s only elected African American, Constable Curtis Polk, Jr., to the basement of the courthouse and forced him to office under a stairwell next to a segregation-era sign that read “Negros”. Facing the national spotlight, Little, a Republican, did an about-face and agreed to move Polk, a Democrat, and to remove the sign. He is now facing criminal charges for vandalism.