Summary (Review)

◼ World War II (and related federal spending) not only ended the Great Depression in the United States, but also catapulted Texas toward an urban, industrial, metropolitan, and modern future.

◼ The United States Armed Forces built and expanded dozens of military bases across Texas, and the federal government poured millions of dollars into the state’s economy. In doing so, millions of Americans relocated to Texas to work in a rapidly growing and diversifying economy, all premised on the maintenance of American military and geopolitical strength.

◼ The transition away from the politics of economic recovery, toward the politics of war and international containment, also destabilized the political status quo, including in Texas.

Race and theFight for Equality

© Sean P. Cunningham, Ph.D.

Overview◼ Sad Reality = racism common in Texas

◼ history of significant discrimination (often violent)

◼ Discriminated Minorities:◼ African Americans: de jure (“Jim Crow”)

◼ Mexican Americans: de facto (“Juan Crow’)

◼ legal status = “white”

◼ social status = “second-class”

◼ World War II = major turning point◼ “Double Victory”

◼ 1945-70: Civil Rights Movement◼ goals: desegregation, legal equality, economic equality, political access

School Desegregation

◼ 1946:◼ Heman Sweatt

◼ NAACP

◼ challenges UT Law School

◼ TX position = “separate, but equal”

◼ “Texas Southern University for Negroes”

◼ Sweatt v. Painter (1950):◼ TSU and/or other options = not equal

◼ UT must integrate

School Desegregation

◼ Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

◼ Integration in TX:◼ East, Central = slow, stubborn

◼ West, South = faster, more compliant

◼ 1954: Friona =

◼ first school to integrate in TX

◼ quiet successes:

◼ El Paso, San Angelo, San Antonio, Harlingen

School Desegregation

◼ Stereotype = “Massive Resistance”◼ White Citizens Councils

◼ Ku Klux Klan

◼ violence, intimidation

◼ 1954: “Pink Cadillac” Campaign◼ Shivers vs. Yarborough

◼ 1955:◼ Texarkana Junior College

School Desegregation

◼ 1956:◼ “Southern Manifesto”

◼ Mansfield High School

◼ Governor Allan Shivers

◼ 1957:◼ “Little Rock Nine” (Arkansas)

◼ TX Democratic Referendums (all pass 4:1)

◼ “Interposition”

◼ exemptions from attending integrated schools

◼ ban on interracial marriage

School Desegregation

◼ Moderation / Accommodation:◼ relative to South = greater

◼ LBJ, Yarborough, Rayburn

◼ 1956-63: pace of integration remains slow

◼ 1964:◼ federal govt begins to withdraw funding from segregated schools

◼ increases pace of integration

◼ solution (?) = “forced busing”

◼ Rice University

School Desegregation◼ Athletics:

◼ late 1950s:

◼ North Texas State College (UNT)

◼ Texas A&I (Kingsville)

◼ 1965: SWC - Jerry LeVias (SMU)

◼ 1966: Texas Western (UTEP)

◼ NCAA MBB National Championship

◼ 1967: TTU - Danny Hardaway

◼ football / basketball

◼ 1970: UT - Julius Whittier

Political & Economic Rights

◼ Nixon v. Herndon (1927)◼ Dr. Lawrence Nixon (El Paso)

◼ state legislature cannot “require” white primary …

◼ … but may “permit”

◼ Smith v. Allwright (1944)◼ outlaws “white primary”

◼ lessens impact of Voting Rights Act of 1965 (in TX)

Political & Economic Rights

◼ 1960: Greensboro (NC) Sit-Ins◼ Marshall, TX:

◼ Bishop College, Wiley College

◼ Prairie View A&M

◼ Texas Southern University

◼ Congress of Racial Equality (CORE):◼ James Farmer (Marshall)

Political & Economic Rights

◼ Extending the Franchise:◼ 1964: “One Man, One Vote”

◼ ends “at large” elections (in Houston)

◼ 1966: poll tax outlawed in state and local elections

◼ already outlawed in federal elections

◼ Barbara Jordan (Houston)◼ first black woman elected:

◼ to TX State Senate (1966)

◼ first black (male or female) since 1881

◼ to US House from South (1972)

Tejano Activism

◼ Contradictory Status:◼ legally = “white”

◼ socially = “second-class”

◼ example: jury trials (jury of “peers”)

◼ “whites” vs. Anglos

◼ Internal Debate:◼ struggle for “whiteness”?

◼ prejudice vs. blacks = common

◼ struggle for “equal protection” as a discriminated against minority?

Tejano Activism◼ Hernandez v. State of Texas (1954)

◼ decision:

◼ Mexican Americans = “minorities”

◼ deserve “equal protection” under

14th Amendment

◼ 1950s:◼ heightened ethnic awareness / pride

◼ increased activism, political participation

◼ limited to urban settings

◼ rural reality:

◼ workers isolated

◼ “political bosses” continue to dominate (South Texas)

Tejano Activism◼ Henry B. González (San Antonio)

◼ first Tejano to win seat in:

◼ TX Senate (1956)

◼ US House (1961)

◼ 1960:◼ “Viva Kennedy”

◼ 6 Tejanos elected to TX Legislature

◼ Strategy:◼ mirrors black civil rights

◼ through 1964-65 – “nonviolent passive resistance”

◼ post-1965-66 = increased militancy

Tejano Activism

◼ 1966: “Minimum Wage March”◼ 1929: League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

◼ 1948: American GI Forum

◼ 1960: Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations (PASO)

◼ 1967: Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO)◼ Jose Angel Gutiérrez

◼ 1969: La Raza Unida Party (Crystal City, TX)

◼ “Chicano”

Tejano Activism◼ 1972:

◼ Mexican American Republicans of Texas (MART)

◼ “Tejanos por Tower”

◼ social issues

◼ tax-exemption for parochial schools

◼ abortion

◼ gay rights

◼ economic issues

◼ Post-1972:◼ TX GOP works for Tejano vote

◼ ignores African-American vote

Summary

◼ Racism has long been common in Texas, just as it has been common across the South, common throughout the nation, and common in various ways all over the world.

◼ In Texas, the struggle for civil rights was somewhat unique in that it unfolded not with the context of a black/white binary, but along far more diverse lines, particularly among the state’s Mexican-American community.

◼ The fight for civil rights and political equality accelerated in Texas during the years immediately following World War II. The first major front was fought in the realm of school desegregation, but extended to other areas during the 1960s and 1970s.