OUTFOXING THE RIGHT

When attorney Jack Bryant and his wife began scouting the suburbs around Austin, Texas, in 1988, they wanted the best schools for their two sons. Eventually, they settled in Round Rock, a predominantly white, professional town whose system, Bryant says, "gave us the best bang for our buck." But in Bryant's view, that changed two years ago after Christian conservatives gained control of the school board and tied up meetings with debates over banning Maya Angelou's memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which some members described as pornographic. A dismayed Bryant convened a group of parents around his kitchen...