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In some ways state-level politics in Texas resembles national politics, but in other ways Texas’s political culture is quite distinctive.

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W HY TEXAS’S POLITICAL CULTURE MATTERS In his Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck once described Texas as “a state of mind . . . a mystique closely approxi­ mating a religion.” Americans passionately loved or hated Texas. Steinbeck believed that Texas, de­ spite its vast space, its varying topography, its many cultures and ways of life, had a cohesiveness that may be stronger than in any other part of America. He wrote, “Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city,

country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans.” Certain myths define the obsession that is Texas—and Texans—in the popular imagination. The cow ­

boy who challenges both Native American and Mexican rule, the rancher and farmer who cherish their eco­ nomic independence, the wildcatter who is willing to risk everything for one more roll of the dice, and the independent entrepreneur who fears the needless intrusion of government into his life—such are the myths about Texans.

These myths extend far into the popular imagination when we think about various politicians who have led the state since its founding: the visionary Stephen F. Austin locked in a Mexican jail after presenting Texas’s grievances to the authorities, the military hero Sam Houston who wins the Battle of San Jacinto but is thrown out of office because of his rejection of secession, the irrepressible Ma and Pa Ferguson who both served as governors, and the larger­than­life Lyndon Baines Johnson who began his career as a schoolteacher in Cotulla, Texas, and completed it as a champion of civil rights and the poor.

The reality of Texas today, its people and its leaders, is much more complicated than the Texas of pop­ ular myths. Texas is not only the second­largest state in the Union, comprising more than 261,000 square miles; it is also the second most populous. In 2015, Texas is estimated to have a population of almost 27.5 million people, and that population is rapidly growing and becoming more and more diverse. Whites consti­ tute 43.5 percent of the population, while Latinos constitute more than 38.6 percent. Approximately 12.5 per ­ cent of the population are African American, and 4.5 percent are Asian. Eighty­five percent of Texans live in urban areas, with many involved in an economy driven by high­tech industry and globalization. More than 27 per ­ cent of the population has a bachelor’s degree. On the whole, Texans are young, with 26.4 percent under the age of 18 and 10.3 percent over the age of 65.

Throughout this text, we will examine how Texas is changing and creating new myths about the people, politics, and politicians found in the state. We should be careful before we fully accept

The Political Culture, People, and Economy of Texas

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any of these myths. As in the past, the reality of Texas—its people and its poli ­ tics—is much more complex than the myths we spin about it. Conservative Re­ publicans may control today’s political agenda, but their long­term dominance in politics and government is not certain. Increasing racial and ethnic diversity points to a new Texas, one that looks sharply different from the one in the his ­ tory books and one that appears to favor Democrats (the party preferred today by most Latinos, African Americans, and recent immigrants). The future of the state and its people will be determined in large part by the strug gle be tween an assertive Republican majority and a Democratic minority trying to regain power as both parties try to address the various political, economic, and demographic challenges facing the state. Moving our understanding of governance and poli­ tics beyond the myths about Texas is the goal of this chapter and the book.

CHAPTERGOALS

• Describe the defining characteristics of political culture in Texas (pp. 5–7)

• Explain how Texas’s geography has influenced its political culture (pp. 7–10)

• Trace the evolution of Texas’s economy (pp. 11–22)

• Explain how the population of Texas has changed over time (pp. 22–30)

• Describe Texas’s shift from a rural society to an urban one (pp. 30–38)

political culture broadly shared values, beliefs, and attitudes about how the government should function and politics should operate; American political culture emphasizes the values of liberty, equality, and democracy

moralistic political culture the belief that government should be active in promoting the public good and that citizens should participate in politics and civic activities to ensure that good

individualistic political culture the belief that government should limit its role to provid ­ ing order in society, so that citizens can pursue their economic self­interest

traditionalistic political culture the belief that govern ­ ment should be dominated by political elites and guided by tradition

elite a small group of people that dominates the political process

Texas Political Culture

Studies of Texas politics often begin with a discussion of Texas’s political culture. Though the concept is somewhat open ended, states do often exhibit a distinctive cul- ture that is the “product of their entire history.” Presumably the political culture of a state has an effect on how people participate in politics and how individuals and insti- tutions interact.1 Political scientist Daniel Elazar has created a classification scheme for state political cultures that is used widely. He uses the concepts of moralistic, in- dividualistic, and traditionalistic to describe such cultures. These three state political cultures are contemporary manifestations of the ethnic, socioreligious, and socioeco- nomic differences that existed among America’s original thirteen colonies.2

According to Elazar, moralistic political cultures were rooted in New England, where Puritans and other religious groups sought to create the Good Society. In such a culture, politics is the concern of everyone, and government is expected to take ac- tion to promote the public good and advance the public welfare. Citizen participation in politics is viewed as positive; people are encouraged to pursue the public good in civic activities.

Individualistic political cultures, on the other hand, originated in the middle states, where Americans sought material wealth and personal freedom through com- mercial activities. A state with an individualistic political culture generally places a low value on citizen participation in politics. Politics is a matter for professionals rather than for citizens, and the role of government is strictly limited. Government’s role is to ensure stability so that individuals can pursue their own interests.

Traditionalistic political culture developed initially in the South, reflecting the values of the slave plantation economy (pre-1865) and its successor, the Jim Crow era (1876–1965). Rooted in preindustrial values that emphasize social hierarchy and close interpersonal, often familial, relations among people, traditional culture is con- cerned with the preservation of tradition and the existing social order. In such states, public participation is limited and government is run by an established elite. Public policies disproportionately benefit the interests of those elites.

States can, of course, have cultures that combine these concepts. One book classi- fied California as having a “moralistic individualistic” political culture and New York an “individualistic moralistic” culture. Often, Texas is categorized as having a “tradi- tionalistic individualistic” political culture.3 Taxes are kept low, and social services are minimized. Political elites, such as business leaders, have a major voice in how the state is run. In spite of the difficulty in measuring the concept of political culture in any empirical way, it is a concept widely regarded as useful in explaining fundamental beliefs about the state and the role of state government.

When considering the political culture of a state, one must recognize that it is not a stagnant thing. Political culture can change over time. Texas is undergoing dramatic changes, including some change in its political culture. It is also difficult to classify the political culture of a state as large and as diverse as Texas in any one category. The liberal cultural norms of urban areas like Houston, Dallas, and Austin often stand in sharp contrast to those found in the conservative suburban and exurban areas of

Describe the defining characteristics of political culture in Texas

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these cities. These, too, differ from the political cultures found in south Texas along the border or in the rural Panhandle of west Texas. In fact, Texas has many different political cultures or subcultures within its borders.4

To understand the complexity of political culture in Texas today, it is useful to consider three long-lasting patterns in Texas politics and the changes that they are undergoing: the one-party state, the idea of provincialism, and business dominance. We examine these elements of Texas political culture below.

The One-Party State Persists

For over 100 years, Texas was dominated by the Democratic Party. Winning the Demo- cratic Party primary was tantamount to winning the general election. As we will see in later chapters, this pattern no longer holds. During the 1990s substantial competi - tion  emerged between the parties for control of the state legislature. Following re- districting in 2002 the Republicans secured a 7-vote majority in the state Senate and a 24-vote majority in the state House. Between 2002 and 2016 all major statewide elected offices were controlled by Republicans. One Court of Criminal Appeals justice switched to the Democratic Party in December 2013 after being elected as a Republi- can, but was defeated in the November 2016 general elections. The question today is not whether the political culture of Texas will continue to be defined by a powerful Democratic Party, but how that culture will be redefined by two forces: a powerful Republican Party in most suburban, exurban, and rural areas that is growing increas- ingly conservative and a Democratic Party that controls Texas’s most urban areas.

Provincialism Is Declining

A second pattern that once defined Texas political culture is provincialism, a narrow view of the world that is often associated with rural values and notions of limited gov- ernment. The result often was an intolerance of diversity and a notion of the public interest that dismissed social services and expenditures for education. Some of the more popular politicians in Texas have stressed cornpone—a rural rejection of modern urban lifestyles—intolerance, and a narrow worldview rather than policies that might

offer advantages to the state as it competes with other states and with other nations. Like the one-party Demo- cratic state, Texas provincialism has faded as a defining feature of the political culture. The growing influence of minorities, women, and gays in state politics, increasing urbanization, and Texas’s relevance in the global econ- omy have all undercut Texas’s traditional provincialism.

Business Dominance Continues

A third, continuing pattern that has helped define Texas’s political culture is its longtime dominance by business.

The seal of Texas reflects the state’s individualistic political culture.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

• Do you agree with the popular myth that Texas is overly provincial—that is, intolerant, narrow minded, and overly critical of government? Why or why not?

• Do you think Texas needs to be more welcoming of outside interests and ideas? If so, what do you think government and the people could do to foster more open­mindedness in Texas?

provincialism a narrow, lim ­ ited, and self­interested view of the world often associated with rural values and notions of limited government

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Labor unions are rare in Texas except in the oil-refinery areas around Beaumont–Port Arthur. Other groups that might offer an alternative to a business perspective, such as consumer interests, are poorly organized and poorly funded. Business groups are major players in Texas politics, in terms of campaign contributions, organized inter- est groups, and lobbyists.

This chapter will investigate the economic, social, and demographic changes that transformed Texas’s political culture during the twentieth century. These changes shook Texas government and politics in the 1990s and have continued to shape them in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

The Land

Much of Texas’s history and political life has been shaped by the relationship forged between its people and the land. When Texas became a republic in 1836, it claimed 216,000,000 acres (approximately 350,000 square miles) of unappropriated land as its own. At its founding, Texas was land rich but money poor, having only $55.68 in its treasury. Texas was the only state, other than the original 13 colonies, to keep control of its public lands when it entered the Union in 1845. Privatizing these public lands was probably the most important ongoing public policy pursued by the state through the Land Office in the nineteenth century. Although Texas turned a large portion of its public lands over to private ownership, it retained ownership of the minerals under

Ties between business and politics have always been close in Texas. Here, Governor Greg Abbott signs a bill prohibiting local government attempts to ban fracking as a way to continue to get oil and natural gas out of the ground.

Explain how Texas’s geography has influenced its political culture

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some of this land, including land containing oil and natural gas. Privatization of pub- lic property established the property rules and regulations under which economic de- velopment would take place in the state. It also gave the state an ownership of mineral rights that would provide funding for elementary and secondary education as well as higher education for the next 160 years.

Privatization was not the only political issue surrounding land in Texas in the nineteenth century. The exact boundaries of Texas were contentious throughout the 1840s and 1850s. Following the Mexican American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hi- dalgo in 1848 established the Rio Grande as the southern border of the state. Follow- ing a threat by Texas to use military force to reassert its land claims in the west, the Compromise of 1850 established Texas’s current western borders. In exchange for $10 million in federal bonds, Texas gave up claims to 67,000,000 acres of land in what are now New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The Compromise of 1850 enabled Texas to pay off the public debts incurred during the Republic and to retain 98,000,000 acres in public lands.5

Today, Texas is the second-largest state in size, next to Alaska. To understand the dynamics of political life and governance in Texas demands an appreciation of the vast spaces and topography that define the state.

Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of Texas’s geography is its size. The longest straight-line distance across the state from north to south is 801 miles; the longest east–west distance is 773 miles. To put this into perspective, the north–south distance between New York City and Charleston, South Car olina, is 763 miles, cutting across six different states. The east–west distance from New York City to Chicago is 821 miles, cutting across five different states.

Distances alone do not tell the whole story of the diverse geography found in Texas. There are four distinct physical regions in Texas (Figure 1.1).6 Their distinctive features have shaped politics in Texas in a number of important ways.

The Gulf Coastal Plains

The Gulf Coastal Plains extend from the Louisiana border and the Gulf of Mexico, along the Rio Grande up to Del Rio, and northward to the line of the Balcones Fault and Escarpment. As one moves westward, the climate becomes increasingly dry. For- ests become less frequent as post oak trees dominate the landscape until they too are replaced by the prairies and brushlands of central Texas.

The eastern portion of the Gulf Coastal Plains—so-called east Texas—is charac- terized by hilly surfaces covered by forests of pine and hardwoods. Almost all of Tex- as’s timber production takes place here. It is also the home of some of Texas’s most famous oilfields. To the west is the Blackland Belt. A rolling prairie soil made the Blackland Belt a prime farming area during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was a major center of cotton production in Texas. Today, it is the most densely populated area of the state and has a diversified manufacturing base.

The Coastal Prairies around Houston and Beaumont were the center for the post–World War II industrial boom, particularly in the petrochemical industry. Winter vegetable and fruit production plays a major role in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, while livestock is important in the Rio Grande Plain, an area that receives less than

privatization of public property the act(s) by which Texas gave public land owned by the state over to private individuals for cultivation and development

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24 inches of rainfall on average every year and during the summer months experi- ences rapid evaporation.

Texas’s political life grew out of the Gulf Coastal Plains. The land grants made available to Americans willing to come to Texas in the first half of the nineteenth cen- tury were located here. This region was the foundation of plantation life during the antebellum period when slavery flourished in the state. East Texas was the home of the first oil booms in Texas in the early decades of the twentieth century. The Dallas– Fort Worth area is located in the northwestern part of this region, once a bastion of a small Republican Party. A union movement grew out of the industrialized areas along the coast, providing support to a liberal wing of the Democratic Party. For the most part, though, the Gulf Coastal Plains were dominated by rural conservative values, be they located in the Democratic Party (from 1876 to the early 1990s) or in the Repub- lican Party (from the 1990s to today). Urbanization and suburbanization in Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth have added new dimensions to the political life of this region. Urban areas have become increasingly Democratic, while suburban areas have be- come more Republican.

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The Physical Regions of Texas SOURCE: Dallas Morning News, Texas Almanac 2000–2001 (Dallas: Dallas Morning News, 1999), p. 55.

FIGURE 1.1

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The Interior Lowlands

The Interior Lowlands are an extension of the interior lowlands that run down from Canada. They are bordered by the Balcones Escarpment on the east and south and the Caprock Escarpment on the west. Beginning to the west of Fort Worth, the eastern edge of the Interior Lowlands has predominantly an agricultural economy and a rural population. The western portion, meanwhile, rises from 750 to 2,000 feet in elevation. The West Texas Rolling Plains contain much level, cultivable land and are home to a large cattle-raising industry. Many of the state’s largest ranches are located here. Like other rural areas of Texas today that have abandoned liberalism and the Democratic Party, this region is dominated by conservative politics and the Republican Party.

The Great Plains

Pushing down into northwest Texas from the Rocky Mountains to the Balcones Fault, the Great Plains define the terrain in much of   western Texas, rising from 2,700 feet in the east to more than 4,000 feet along the New Mexico border. The major city on the northern plains is Amarillo. Ranching and petroleum production dominate the econ- omy. The southern plains economy centers on agriculture and cotton production, with Lubbock as the major city. Large-scale irrigation from underwater reservoirs, particularly the Ogallala Aquifer, has played a major role in the economic develop- ment of this region. A major concern of policy makers is that pumping out of the aqui- fer exceeds replenishment, raising questions of the viability of basing future growth on the irrigation practices of the past. We will return to a discussion of the problem of aquifer depletion in Chapter 12.

As in east Texas, conservative political values have a home in the Interior Low- lands and the Great Plains. While representatives from this area have played a major role in the political life of the state over the last 100 years, their power has been ebbing in the face of the population pressures of Texas’s expanding urban areas elsewhere.

The Basin and Range Province

The fourth geographic region in Texas is the Basin and Range Province. Here one finds Texas’s mountains in the Guadalupe Range along the border with New Mexico, which includes Guadalupe Peak (8,749 feet) and El Capitan (8,085 feet). To the southeast is Big Bend country, so named because the Rio Grande surrounds it on three sides as the river makes its southward swing. Rainfall and population are sparse in this region.

The area running from the Basin and Range Province to the Lower Rio Grande has always had a distinctive political culture, heavily dominated by the fact that Texas and Mexico have been joined at the hip economically and demographically. The popu- lation in this region is overwhelmingly Latino. In the late twentieth and early twenty- first centuries, the Border region, including El Paso, McAllen, and Brownsville, has remained a Democratic Party bastion.

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Economic Change in Texas

The famous twentieth-century economist Joseph Schumpeter characterized the capi- talist economic system as being a process of “creative destruction.”7 By this he meant that capitalism was an economic system that underwent periodic waves of transfor- mation fueled by technological innovations in production and distribution. These waves of technological transformation were put into place by entrepreneurs who had visions of new ways to produce and distribute goods and services and who were willing to act on those visions. The capitalist process of creative destruction not only creates a new economic and social world; it destroys old ones. The world of railroads, steam, and steel transformed American economic and social life by nationalizing the market and making new opportunities available to businesses and individuals during the late nineteenth century. It also destroyed the local markets that had defined rural Ameri- can communities since the Founding. The technological innovation tied to gasoline combustion engines, electricity, and radio restructured the American economy again in the 1920s, leaving in its wake a society and an economy that would never be the same.

Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction provides a useful way to think about the economic changes that have shaped and reshaped the Texas economy. Three great waves of technological change have helped define and redefine the Texas political economy over the last 150 years. The first centered on the production of cotton and cattle and their distribution by an extensive railroad system. The second grew out of the oil industry. The third and most recent is tied to the development of the high-tech digital economy.

Cotton

Cotton is one of the oldest crops grown in Texas.8 Missions in San Antonio in the eighteenth century are reported to have produced several thousand pounds of cotton annually, which were spun and woven by local artisans. Serious cultivation of cotton began in 1821 with the arrival of white Americans. Political independence, statehood, and the ongoing removal of the Native American “threat” in the years before the Civil War promoted the development of the cotton industry. By the mid-nineteenth cen- tury, cotton production in Texas soared, placing Texas eighth among the top cotton- producing states in the Union. Although production fell in the years following the Civil War, by 1869 it had begun to pick up again. By 1880, Texas led all states in the pro - duction of cotton in most years.

A number of technological breakthroughs further stimulated the cotton industry in Texas. First, in the 1870s barbed wire was introduced, enabling farmers to cordon off their lands and protect their cash crop from grazing cattle. Second, the building of railroads brought Texas farmers into a national market. Finally, a newly designed

Trace the evolution of Texas’s economy

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plow made it easier to dig up the prairie soil and significantly in- crease farm productivity.

Throughout the 1870s immigrants from the Deep South and Europe flooded the prairies of Texas to farm cotton. Most of these newly arrived Texans became tenant farmers or sharecroppers. Tenants lived on farms owned by landowners, providing their own animals, tools, and seed. They generally received two-thirds of the final value of the cotton grown on the farm, while the landlords received the other third. Another form of tenant farming is share- cropping. Sharecroppers furnished only their labor but received only one-half of the value of the final product. Almost half of the state farmers were tenants by the turn of the century.9

Two important consequences resulted from the tenant and sharecropping sys tem. First, it condemned many rural Texans to lives of social and economic depen dency. The notorious “crop- lien” system was developed by land lords and merchants to extend credit to farmers who did not own their land. Under this system,

farmers profited from their work only after their debts had been paid or new loans had been made to pay off old debts. The result often was to trap farmers in a debt cycle from which they could not escape. Second, the tenant and sharecropping system helped fuel radical political discontent in rural areas, sparking both the Grange and Populist movements. These movements played a major role in  de fining the style of Texas politics throughout much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Cotton production cycled up and down as farmers experienced a series of crises and opportunities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ranging from destructive boll weevils to an increased demand brought on by World War I to a collapse in prices following the war. The general decline of the cotton culture con- tinued after World War II. The 1930 Census reported that 61 percent of all farmers in Texas were tenant farmers. One-third of these farmers were sharecroppers. These numbers fell throughout the Great Depression and beyond. By 1987 only 12 percent of all farmers were tenants.10

Cattle

The history of ranching and the cattle industry parallels that of cotton in many ways.11 The origins of ranching and the cattle industry extend back to the late seventeenth century, when the Spanish brought livestock to the region to feed their missionaries, soldiers, and civilians. Ranching offered immigrants an attractive alternative to farm- ing during the periods of Mexican and Republic of  Texas rule. In the 1830s traffic in cattle was limited to local areas. This began to change as cattle drives and railroads be - gan opening up new markets in the east.

Following the Civil War, the cattle industry took off, expanding throughout the state. As with cotton, the invention of barbed wire helped close off the lands used for grazing. By the end of the nineteenth century, ranch lands had been transformed from open range to fenced pasturing. As a result, conflicts over land often broke out be- tween large and small ranchers, as well as between ranchers and farmers. As cattle raising became a more specialized and efficient business, periodic conflicts broke

During the late nineteenth century, in most years Texas produced more cotton than any other state. But although one- quarter of the cotton produced in the United States still comes from Texas, the importance of the cotton industry to the state’s economy has declined since the 1920s. This photo shows land and machinery used to farm cotton.

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out between employers and employees. Throughout the twentieth century, ranching remained a cyclical industry, struggling when national and international prices col- lapsed and thriving during upturns in the economy.

Ranching and cotton production remain important industries in the state, al- though increasingly dominated by big agribusiness companies. Today, Texas normally leads the nation in livestock production. Similarly, it normally leads all other states in cotton production. About 40 percent of the total cotton production in the United States comes from Texas. In 2014 the annual cotton crop was over 6.2 million bales, valued at over $2.1 billion. Most of this production is exported to such places as China, Turkey, and Mexico. Production has fluctuated over the last decade because of the severe drought that plagued parts of the state.12

Today, neither cotton production nor ranching drives the Texas political econ- omy. The number of people making a living from agriculture has dropped signifi- cantly over the last 50 years as agribusiness has pushed out the family farm and ranch. In 1940, 23 percent of the population worked on farms and ranches. Another 17 per- cent were suppliers to farms and ranches or helped assemble, process, or distribute agricultural products. Currently, less than 2 percent of the population lives on farms and ranches, with an additional 15 percent of the population providing support, pro- cessing, or distribution services to agriculture in Texas.13

A new set of technological breakthroughs challenged the nineteenth-century dominance of cotton and cattle in the early twentieth century. These breakthroughs focused not on what grew on the land, but on what lay beneath it.

Oil

Oil was first sighted in the mid-seventeenth century by Spanish explorers.14 There was no market or demand for the product, and nothing was done to develop this natu- ral resource. Over a century later, encouraged by a growing demand for petroleum products following the Civil War, a scattering of entrepreneurs dug wells, although they were not commercially viable. The first economically significant oil discovery

Cattle ranching is another of Texas’s dominant industries. The most famous ranch in Texas is the King Ranch, shown here in 1950. Currently covering almost 1,300 square miles, it is larger than the state of  Rhode Island.

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in Texas was in 1894 in Navarro County near Corsicana. By 1898 the state’s first oil re - finery was operating at the site. Oil production had become economically viable.

What catapulted Texas into the era of oil and gas was the discovery at Spindle- top on January 10, 1901. Located three miles south of Beaumont along the Gulf Coast, the Spindletop discovery produced Texas’s first oil boom. The success of Spindletop encouraged large numbers of speculators and entrepreneurs to try their luck in the new business. Within three years, three major oilfields had been discovered within 150 miles of Spindletop.

Oil fever spread throughout Texas over the next decade. In north central Texas, major discoveries took place at Brownwood, Petrolia, and Wichita Falls. In the teens major discoveries were made in Wichita County, Limestone County near Mexia, and once again in Navarro County. In 1921 oil was found in the Panhandle, and by the end of the decade major oilfields were being developed all across the state. The biggest oil- field in the state was found in October 1930 in east Texas. As journalist Mary G. Ramos notes, “By the time the East Texas field was developed, Texas’s economy was powered not by agriculture, but by petroleum.”15

The oil and gas industry transformed the social and economic fabric of Texas in a number of important ways. By providing cheap oil and gas, the industry made pos- sible a new industrial revolution in twentieth-century America that was fueled by hydrocarbons. Cheap oil provided a new fuel for transportation and manufacturing. Railroads and steamships were able to convert from coal to oil. Manufacturing plants and farms were able to operate more efficiently with a new, cheap source of energy, encouraging individuals to migrate to cities away from farms. Automobile production was encouraged, as was the building of roads. The Interstate Highway System that was built during the 1950s and 1960s changed fundamentally the transportation patterns that shaped the movements of people and goods in Texas. The triangle formed by I-35 from San Antonio to Dallas–Fort Worth, I-45 from Dallas–Fort Worth to Houston, and I-10 from Houston to San Antonio became the heartland of the Texas economy and the location of an increasing percentage of the state’s population.

The oil and gas industry also sparked a rapid industrialization of the Gulf Coast region. Among the companies developing the Gulf Coast oilfields were Gulf Oil, Sun Oil, Magnolia Petroleum, the Texas Company (then Texaco, now Chevron), and Hum- ble Oil (which later became Esso, then Exxon, and finally ExxonMobil). The refineries, pipelines, and export facilities laid the foundations for the large-scale industrial- ization that would take place along the Gulf Coast in the Houston–Beaumont–Port Arthur region. By 1929 in Harris County, for example, 27 percent of all manufactur- ing employees worked in refineries. By 1940 the capacity of all the refineries had in- creased fourfold.16 The petrochemical industry continued to flourish throughout the 1960s, when demand for its products grew at the rate of 10 percent a year.

One important effect of the oil and gas boom in Texas was the development of a new rhythm to economic life in the state. There had been a natural pace to the econ- omy when it was tied to the production of cotton and cattle. Prices of products could rise and fall, bringing prosperity or gloom to local economies. But there was a bond be- tween the land and the people and the communities that formed around them. Oil and gas, on the other hand, introduced a boom-and-bust mentality that carried over into the communities that sprang up around oil and gas discoveries. Rural areas were of- ten unprepared for the population explosion that followed the discovery of oil or gas. Housing was often inadequate or nonexistent. Schools quickly became overcrowded.

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General living conditions were poor as people sought to “make it big.” The irony of the oil and gas business was that a major discovery that brought large amounts of new oil and gas to market could lead to a sudden collapse in prices. Prosperous economic times could quickly turn into local depressions. And when particular fields were tapped out, boom towns could quickly become ghost towns.

The oil and gas industry also transformed government and the role that it played in the economy. Following the Civil War, a series of attempts to regulate the railroads had largely failed. In 1890, after considerable controversy fueled by Populist anti- railroad sentiment, a constitutional amendment was passed to create an agency to regulate the railroads, the Texas Railroad Commission. This regulatory agency’s pow- ers were extended in 1917 to regulate energy. The Railroad Commission was empow- ered to see that petroleum pipelines were “common carriers” (that they transported all producers’ oil and gas) and to promote well-spacing rules. In an attempt to bring stability to fluctuations in world oil prices brought on by the glut of oil on world mar- kets in the 1930s and to avoid wasteful oil production, the commission won the au- thority to prorate oil and determine how much every oil well in Texas might produce. Through the late 1960s the Texas Railroad Commission was one of the most impor- tant regulatory bodies in the nation. It was also one of the few democratically elected regulatory agencies.

Helping to expand the power of state government in the economy through the Railroad Commission was only one effect of the oil and gas industry in Texas. The oil and gas industry also had an important fiscal effect on state government. Beginning in 1905 the state collected oil production taxes. These rose from $101,403 in 1906 to over $1 million in 1919 and almost $6 million in 1929. For the 2016–17 biennium, it was estimated that oil production taxes, or severance taxes, would contribute $3.9 billion to the state budget, down from $6.75 billion in 2014–15, a decrease of 42.1 percent. Natural gas production taxes in 2016–17 added another $1.9 billion to the state bud- get, down from $3.18 billion or down 39.8 percent in 2014–15.17 These numbers have fluctuated in recent years as the price of oil and gasoline has collapsed and then re- covered. As we will see in Chapter 11 on public finance in Texas, oil and natural gas production has returned to play an increasingly important role in the state’s finances through the severance tax.

Much like the state coffers, higher education in Texas has benefited from the oil and gas industry. What many thought was worthless land at the time had been set aside by the state constitution of 1876 and the state legislature in 1883 to support higher education (the Permanent University Fund). As luck would have it, oil was discovered in the West Texas Permian Basin in 1923 on university land. Soon, 17 wells were pro- ducing oil on that land, sparking a building boom at the University of Texas. In 1931 the income of the Permanent University Fund was split between the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, with the former receiving two-thirds and the latter one-third. In 1984 the income was opened up to all University of Texas and Texas A&M schools. Along with the royalties from other natural resources on univer- sity land, oil and gas royalties created one of the largest university endowments in the world. Today, the Permanent University Fund holds title to 2.1 million acres located in 24 counties, primarily in west Texas. In August 2015 the market value of the Perma- nent University Fund was calculated to be $17.4 billion.18

The oil and gas industry had one other effect on life in Texas that is worth not- ing. Fortunes were made in the industry, and those fortunes paved the way for an

16 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

expansion of private philanthropy that would have a major influence in shaping Texas’s culture. Among the most famous examples of this private philanthropy were the Meadows Foundations, established in 1948 to promote programs in health, education, visual arts, social services, and historical preservation. The Sid W. Richardson Foun- dation was founded in 1947 and supported health and education programs, as well as the development of the arts in Fort Worth. The Bass Performance Hall, which opened in May 1998, was funded by the Bass brothers, grandnephews of the independent oil- man Sid Richardson.

The movement out of the era of oil and gas and into that of high tech was not an easy one. World oil prices rose in 1981 to almost $35 per barrel. At the time, oil-related businesses accounted for 26 percent of the gross state product. From 1971 to 1981 the average rate of economic growth was 4.4 percent. Fueled by a booming oil-based econ- omy and a rapidly increasing population, real estate prices shot up in urban areas such as Houston and Dallas. Projections were made that as oil prices rose, perhaps to $70 or $80 per barrel on the world market, future prosperity was inevitable. Indeed, there was some talk that Texas’s oil-driven economy had become recession-proof. Such talk proved to be premature, to say the least.

World oil prices began to collapse in 1982, bottoming out on March 31, 1986, at $10 per barrel. Other sectors of the economy began to suffer as the price of oil fell. Real estate deals fell through, and construction projects slowed and then shut down. Speculators defaulted on their loans, and banks began to fail. Throughout the 1980s, 370 banks went under in Texas. At the same time, the state went through two major recessions, one in 1982 and another in 1986–87. The average annual economic growth slowed to 1.7 percent, the worst since World War II.

Texas emerged from the economic malaise of the 1980s with a transformed state economy. Though remaining an important sector in the economy, the oil and gas busi- ness was no longer the primary driving force. By 1992 production of oil had fallen to 642 million barrels worth $11.8 billion. Production continued to fall until 2000 to just under 349 million barrels worth a little over $10 billion. Over 146,000 jobs had been lost in the oil industry throughout the 1980s. By the early 1990s oil accounted for only about 12 percent of the gross state product.

One can trace the rise and decline and rise again of the oil and gas industry in Texas through production figures (see Figure 1.2). Oil production in Texas seemed to peak in 1972, and there were decades of decline in the state’s production. New technologies such as horizontal drilling and fracking led to a new boom era of oil and gas production in Texas beginning in 2008 and carrying through 2016. Through March 2016, more than 1.39 million barrels of that daily production came from the Permian Basin region in west Texas. This oilfield may be the second largest in the world. The result of this new oil boom is that today oil (and gas) emerged again as a mainstay of the Texas economy, although it is an economy that is far more diversified than in any earlier era. With the new Texas oil boom came greater resources for the Texas budget. Additionally, with the boom came new demands for vast water supplies—an essential component of the new drilling technology—and new concerns over the effects that those new technolo- gies will have on the environment.19

By 2015 there were some dark clouds on the horizon of the oil industry. After hovering around $100 per barrel through mid-2014, the price of oil began a steady de- cline to around $50 per barrel in mid-2015 before falling below $28 per barrel in early 2016. Not surprising, as the price fell through the second half of 2015, production of oil in Texas went into decline as well. However, by late May 2016, prices began to re-

17E C O N O M I C C H A N G E I N T E X A S

cover, topping $50.00. Whether prices will rise or fall in 2016 and 2017 is uncertain at the time of publication. The long-term impact of the fluctuation of the price of oil and of oil production on the state’s economy and budget also is anyone’s guess.20

High-Tech Industries

By the last decade of the twentieth century, new industries and technologies not based in extraction from the land assumed significant roles in plotting the state’s economic future. Among the most important of these was the burgeoning high-tech industry. In contrast to the 1980s, the 1990s were a period of rapid growth. In the 1990s, unlike

Oil Production in Texas NOTE: Data refer to onshore production in Texas.

SOURCE: Texas Railroad Commission; “Historical Crude Oil Prices,” InflationData.com; Texas Almanac 2015.

FIGURE 1.2

0

150

300

450

600

750

900

1,050

1,200

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

$100

1915 1955 1972 1975 1995 2005 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Annual production (millions of barrels, left axis)

Average price per barrel ($, right axis)

PRICEPRODUCTION

1,350

1,500

18 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

in early periods of speculative booms such as the 1970s, the economy’s growth was grounded in a rapidly diversifying economy. At the heart of this boom was a fast- growing manufacturing sector tied to high tech. In the 1990s, Texas went from sev- enth in the nation in total manufacturing employment to second. By 2013, 15 percent of the state’s gross domestic product came from manufacturing. Eight percent of the workforce was employed in manufacturing.21

Two metropolitan areas stand out as national centers for the rapidly evolving high-tech industry. The Austin–San Marcos metropolitan area is the home of the computer giant Dell and has become a production center for computer chips, per- sonal computers, and related computer hardware with such companies as Google, Facebook, Flextronics, Apple, Oracle, and IBM. Seven of the area’s largest employers are part of the computer or semiconductor industry. The Dallas metropolitan area, particularly north of the city, is the home of a number of important electronic and electronic-equipment companies, including Texas Instruments. Houston has become known worldwide for its medical center and expanding research facilities in the medi- cal field. A 2014 study released by the TechAmerica Foundation found that Texas was the leading tech export state with $45.1 billion in exports in 2012, up 7.3 percent from 2011. Approximately 331,000 jobs in Texas were supported by these tech exports.22

NAFTA and the International Economy

Texas’s place in national and international markets has been shaped by its central location, its border with Mexico, and its sophisticated transportation infrastructure. There are 306,404 miles of highways in Texas (the most in the nation) along with 45 railroads operating on 10,405 rail miles (the most in the nation). There are 12 deep- water ports in Texas, including the Port of Houston, which was ranked 2nd nationally for total trade and 13th globally for total cargo volume. The Dallas–Fort Worth Inter- national Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston ranked high on the list of the world’s busiest airports and were major hubs for both national and international travel. Over 6.5 million trucks, 47.8 million personal vehicles, and 22.9 mil- lion people crossed the Texas–Mexico border in 2013.23

In the 1990s, Texas emerged as a leader in high-tech industries. Here, a Texas Instruments employee oversees the production of silicon wafers in the company’s Dallas semiconductor plant.

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North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trade treaty among the United States, Canada, and Mexico to lower and eliminate tariffs among the three countries

One defining feature of the Texas economy in the 1990s and 2000s was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Signed on December 17, 1992, by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico, and President George H. W. Bush of the United States, NAFTA sought to create a free- trade zone—an area free of customs duties—in North America that was the largest of its kind in the world. Considerable controversy surrounded the passage of NAFTA, with many groups arguing that free trade would hurt U.S. workers and companies be- cause of the cheap labor available in Mexico. An important milestone in the agreement was reached on October 19, 2001, when Mexican trucks were finally allowed to cross over into the United States with goods for U.S. markets. Despite NAFTA provisions, Mexican trucks had been banned in the United States for almost 20 years because of strong labor union opposition and concerns over safety.

Today, NAFTA links approximately 450 million consumers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico with a combined gross domestic product of $19.6 trillion. Ac- cording to a recent Standard and Poor’s study, Mexico has benefited the most from the agreement. But Texas has benefited enormously as well. NAFTA was not the only cause of the diversification of the Texas economy since the 1980s, but it has acceler- ated that diversification. Along the border, NAFTA has clearly had an impact in stim- ulating trade and transport across the state and stimulating the production of jobs. For example, Laredo, Texas—the port of entry for 40 percent of U.S.–Mexico truck transport trade—has seen its labor force increase 48 percent between 1994 and 2014, far above the 35 percent state average. International toll bridges alone accounted for 23 percent of Laredo’s general fund revenue in 2012.24

After more than 20 years, it appears that the trade agreement has had both neg- ative and positive impacts on Texas. A 2011 study by the Economic Policy Institute calculated that almost 683,000 jobs had been lost in the United States because of NAFTA. The study estimated that three-fifths of these jobs were in the manufacturing sector. Over 55,000 of these displaced jobs came from Texas.25 U.S. workers generally lost their jobs because of the stiffer competition from low-wage businesses in Mexico or because plants had been relocated to Mexico. (Under federal law such workers are entitled to additional unemployment compensation.)

Although there were some losers in the movement toward free trade with Mexico and Canada, there were also big winners. The following statistics from 2013 put the importance of Texas’s international trade, par- ticularly with Mexico and Canada, into perspective:26

• Texas exports totaled $279.7 billion, up from $207 billion in 2012. Texas exports were 17.7 percent of all U.S. exports.

• The North American market (Mexico and Canada) was the destination for 45.4 percent of these exports.

• Mexico was the top importer of Texas exports at almost $101 billion in 2013, up from $72.7 billion in 2012.

• Canada’s imports from Texas totaled $25.9 billion in 2013, up from $18.8 billion in 2010.

The pressing national debate over terrorism and border security has added a new dimension to the debate over NAFTA and global trade in Texas. Most Texas policy makers continue to accept the idea that

The signing of NAFTA in 1992 created a free-trade zone in North America. Although many Texas workers were adversely affected by the availability of cheaper labor in Mexico, NAFTA appears to have had a beneficial effect on the state’s economy as a whole. Here, President George H. W. Bush stands between President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of   Canada at the signing ceremony.

20 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

expanding trade with Mexico and other countries is a good thing. The issue of having a free flow of people across the border, however, is another issue. An increasing num- ber of people, particularly conservative Republicans, now question the benefits to Texas of a porous border. Large numbers of undocumented workers staying in Texas were viewed during the primary campaign and the general election by Donald Trump and other leading Republicans as a burden upon the state’s social services. Moreover, fears of Islamic terrorists accompanying Mexicans and other Latin Americans who are seeking work have led to calls for building walls and fences that will make illegal immigration a thing of the past. Conceding that immigration is a national, not a state, issue, numerous Texas politicians have called for a stricter policing of the border by state authorities. It is hard to imagine a new stricter border policy not having negative effects on the trade that has followed from NAFTA and expanding global trade.

For the past 20 years, the information age and the global economy have trans- formed the Texas economic landscape. It is impossible to say exactly how these forces will continue to change Texas over the next 20 years, or which companies will become the Chevron or ExxonMobils of the information age. We can say, however, that it will be an economy as different from that of the oil and gas era as the oil and gas era was from the era of cotton and cattle.

The Military in Texas

Since annexation, Texas economic development has been closely tied to the establish- ment of military bases. As population pressures pushed westward, a series of federal forts were built to protect Texans from the Indians. Seizing the federal forts for the Confederacy was one of the first and most important acts of the Texas government following secession. And Texas provided a major military training center during both world wars. Strong leadership in Congress from individuals like Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson in the 1940s brought much-needed jobs and money into the state through the building of one military installation after another (see Figure 1.3).

Today, military installations continue to be important to the economic well-being of certain parts of the state. There are over 173,000 active military, reserve military, and civilian individuals directly employed by the U.S. military living in Texas in 2014. The military, along with the many businesses that help provide consumer services to military members, is big business in Texas. An expanding military stimulates eco- nomic growth and employment in Texas. A contracting military does not.

The Great Recession and the “Texas Miracle”

In December 2007 the nation entered what some have called “the Great Recession,” a time of chronic economic problems that drew analogies to the Great Depression of the 1930s. A speculative bubble in the housing market fueled by cheap credit and poor business practices culminated in a credit crisis that brought some of America’s largest banks and investment houses to their knees. Only the massive intrusion of the Federal Reserve System into credit markets in the fall of 2008 prevented the banking system

21E C O N O M I C C H A N G E I N T E X A S

from melting down. The Federal Reserve reported that between November 2007 and March 2009, 86 percent of American industries cut back production. The GNP (gross national product, the total amount of all goods produced in the United States) dropped 1.7 percent, and household net worth fell $11 trillion or 18 percent during the recession.27

Texas was one of the last states to enter the Great Recession and was one of the first to exit. Prior to the recession, Texas employment had peaked at 10.6 million in August 2008. From late 2008 through 2009, 427,600 jobs were lost in Texas to the Great Recession. By November 2011 employment had recovered to prerecession lev- els. By April 2014 another 829,000 jobs had been added to the Texas economy. The story at the national level was not so rosy. By the summer of 2014 job numbers were only beginning to approach pre–Great Recession levels. Meanwhile the unemploy- ment rate in Texas rose to 8.2 percent and hovered there throughout most of 2010. Unemployment rates began falling in early 2011 and continued to fall for the next two years, dropping from 6.4 percent in March 2013 to 5.2 percent in April 2014.28

Many Texas politicians sought to take credit for Texas’s performance during and after the Great Recession. Some referred to the “Texas economic miracle.” Compar- isons were made with big-government, high-tax states like California that suffered severely. Low taxes and low services, pro-business and free market government, an entrepreneurial spirit—all were given credit for the “Texas economic miracle.”29 But the factors that may have helped Texas get by relatively unscathed were likely more straightforward. The housing market declined much less severely in Texas than in the rest of the nation. Prior to the Great Recession, Texas did not experience the

Major U.S. Military Bases in Texas *In October 2010, Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, and Randolph Air Force Base were merged into U.S. Air Force 502nd Air Base Wing, Air Education and Training Command.

FIGURE 1.3

Civilian: 2,992 Reserve: 111 Active: 14 Date opened: 1941 Red River Army Depot

Civilian: 1,129 Reserve: 138 Active: 4,617

Date opened: 1941 Sheppard Air Force Base

Civilian: 396 Reserve: 329 Active: 4,402

Date opened: 1942 Dyess Air Force Base

Civilian: 705 Active: 11,811 Date opened: 1994

Naval Air Station Fort Worth

Civilian: 613 Reserve: 55

Active: 3,108 Date opened: 1940

Goodfellow Air Force Base

Civilian: 853 Reserve: 166 Active: 1,434

Date opened: 1942 Laughlin Air Force Base

Civilian: 8,491 Reserve: 3,126 Active: 19,403

Date opened: 1942 Lackland Air Force Base*

Civilian: 129 Reserve: 212

Active: 364 Date opened: 1942

Naval Air Station Kingsville

Civilian: 705 Reserve: 472 Active: 1,249 Date opened: 1941

Naval Air Station Corpus Christi

Civilian: 8,687 Reserve: 946 Active: 11,623 Date opened: 1878 Fort Sam Houston*Civilian: 4,543

Reserve: 350 Active: 2,440 Date opened: 1930 Randolph Air Force Base*

Civilian: 5,337 Reserve: 803 Active: 42,001 Date opened: 1942 Fort Hood

Civilian: 4,125 Reserve: 200 Active: 25,577 Date opened: 1849 Fort Bliss

22 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

surge in real estate values found in other states like California, Ne- vada, Florida, and Arizona. While foreclosure rates throughout the country increased sixfold between 2005 and 2009, in Texas they rose only marginally. Texas’s banking industry also appeared to have weathered the storm better than its counterparts in other states. Article 16 of the Texas Constitution, as amended in 1997, forbids consumers from using home-equity loans for credit that exceeds 80 percent of the mortgage, and this probably provided a cushion against the credit crunch. Two of the most important factors that may have helped Texas escape the worst of the Great Recession were discussed above: an increasingly diversified economy lubricated by international trade and a resurgent oil and gas industry.30 A global recession coupled to a prolonged decline in oil and gas prices could

undercut the forces that made the “Texas miracle” possible and minimized the impact of the Great Recession in Texas.

The People of Texas

The population of Texas has grown rapidly in the last 165 years. In 1850 the popula- tion stood at a little more than 210,000 people, more than one-quarter of whom were African American slaves. Texas in 1850 also was an overwhelmingly rural state. Only 4 percent of the population lived in urban areas. By 1900 the population had increased to more than 3 million people, with 83 percent continuing to live in rural areas. The 1980s began as boom years for population growth, with increases running between 2.9 percent and 1.6 percent per year from 1980 through 1986. With the collapse of oil prices, however, population growth slowed significantly between 1987 and 1989 to less than 1 percent.31 Then, with a recovering economy, population growth surged in the 1990s (see Figure 1.4).

Three factors account for the population growth in Texas: natural increase as a result of the difference between births and deaths; international immigration, par- ticularly from Mexico; and domestic immigration from other states. The makeup of the growth in population shifted in significant ways over the course of the decade. In 1991 almost two-thirds of population growth was accounted for by natural increases. A little more than 20 percent was a result of international immigration, while less than 14 percent resulted from domestic immigration. By 2013 natural increases ac- counted for only 54 percent of population growth, while international immigration accounted for about 16.8 percent and domestic immigration for about 29.7 percent.32 In the early decades of the twenty-first century, Texas was being redefined not by native-born Texans but by individuals coming to Texas to share in and contribute to the state’s diversified economy. For a deeper understanding of the role that changing demographics have played in Texas’s culture and politics, we must look closer at the major racial and ethnic groups that have constituted the population over time.

Explain how the population of Texas has changed over time

Texas was not hit as hard as other states by the recession that started in 2007 and deepened in 2008. However, some Texans—including these Tea Party protesters—were alarmed by the massive spending involved in the national government’s stimulus efforts.

23T H E P E O P L E O F T E X A S

Whites

For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the largest ethnic group was non- Hispanic whites. Whites in Texas comprise a wide range of European ethnic groups, including English, Germans, Scots, Irish, Czechs, and European Jews. The first wave of whites came to Texas before the break with Mexico. Encouraged by empresarios such as Moses Austin and his son Stephen F. Austin, who were authorized by the Span- ish and later the Mexican leaders to bring people to Texas, these newcomers sought inexpensive land. But they brought along a new set of individualistic attitudes and val- ues about democratic government that paved the way for the Texas Revolution. Fol- lowing the revolution, a new surge of white immigrants came from the Deep South. Like their predecessors, they sought cheap land. But they brought with them new cul- tural baggage: slavery. By the time of the American Civil War, this group had come to dominate the political culture of the state. Although most Texas farmers did not own slaves themselves, the vast majority supported the institution as well as seces- sion from the Union.

Defeat in the Civil War shattered temporarily the dominance of the traditional white power structure in the state. By the end of Reconstruction, however, it had reas- serted itself, establishing the three patterns that defined Texas politics for the next hundred years: the one-party Democratic state, provincialism, and business dominance.

empresario Spanish word for an individual who promotes, organizes, or helps to finance a particular endeavor

The Changing Face of Texas, 1850–2015 *Latinos were not counted as a separate group until 1990 and were included in the white census count. **Data for 2015 are estimated based on 2010 census. Percentages are from 2014 estimates.

SOURCES: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1994 (Washington, DC: U.S. Depar tment of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1994); see also Texas Almanac 2014–15 (Denton: Texas State Historical Association, 2014), 15; 2010 U.S. Census. Other editions of the Texas Almanac also consulted. These are available online.

FIGURE 1.4

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1850 1900 1950 1990 2015**

White African American Latino Asian American

White

Latino African American

Asian American

24 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Whites continued to dominate and define Texas’s political culture throughout much of the twentieth century, but by the end of that century much had changed. As a per- centage of the population, white population peaked at 74 percent in 1950. This per- centage began to fall, reaching 43.5 percent in 2015, and will likely continue to fall (see Figure 1.5).

Numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Whites living in Texas at the end of the twentieth century were not cut from the same cloth as those who had preceded them. A new wave of white immigration into Texas over the past 40 years has redefined the political culture of white Texans. No longer can one assume that a white Texan lives on a farm, holds culturally conservative values, and is firmly tied to the Democratic Party. On the contrary, he or she may be an urbanite or suburbanite who wasn’t born in Texas and who votes Republican.

Latinos

The use of the terms Hispanic and Latino can be confusing. The terms are often used interchangeably to refer to people of Spanish descent or people from Latin America. The U.S. Census generally uses the term Hispanic in its databases. We will generally use the term Latino to refer to people of Spanish decent or people from Latin America.

Most Latinos in Texas are people of Mexican descent.33 Prior to independence from Spain, this included people born of Iberian (Spanish) parents as well as mestizos (people of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry). In the early nineteenth cen- tury, approximately 5,000 people of Mexican descent were living in Texas. Although

White Population in Texas Counties, 2014 SOURCE: QuickFacts, www.census.gov (accessed 6/21/16).

FIGURE 1.5

nnnnnstAustAusstAAAusA sA tA nnnstoHous oooousstsou ttssH tontH

edoreedLareLa eeedoredo

oononttontontAnSaSa AAn ASSannSa otoS AnttAASS Aa A otSSSS A

Paso E asoE PasE PasoE

asDaDaaD aDaDDDDD sDDD aa saasasssDhhortWot W FortFF WortoooF rr orthoFortFF t W tt hhhhW tFF

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

3–24.9%

25–49.9%

50–69.9%

70% and above

25T H E P E O P L E O F T E X A S

this number fluctuated considerably over the years, by 1850 it was estimated that 14,000 Texans were of Mexican origin. Texas became for many a refuge from the po- litical and economic instability that troubled Mexico from the late 1850s to the 1920s. Despite periodic attempts to curtail the growth of the Mexican American population in Texas, it grew from an estimated 700,000 in 1930 to 1,400,000 in 1960. The 2000 census counted 5.1 million Mexican Americans living in Texas. In 2015 there were 10.6 million Latinos residing in Texas. Texas Latinos constituted over 19 percent of all Latinos in the United States.34

Until 1900, Latinos were concentrated in south Texas, constituting a majority along the border with Mexico and in certain border counties of west Texas. During the first few decades of the twentieth century, Latinos migrated to northwest Texas and the Panhandle to work as laborers in the newly emergent cotton economy. Labor segregation limited the opportunities available to many Latinos before World War II. After World War II, however, many Latinos left agricultural work and took jobs in the rapidly growing urban areas of Texas. By the end of the century, Latinos constituted majorities in the cities of San Antonio and El Paso and sizable minorities in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth (see Figure 1.6).

The political status of Latinos in Texas has changed considerably over the past hundred years. In the nineteenth century, numerous obstacles limited their partici- pation in the political life of the state. Voting, particularly among the lower economic classes, was discouraged or tightly controlled. The white-only primary and the poll tax actively discouraged voting by Latinos. Only after World War II were Latino poli - ticians able to escape some of the strictures that had been imposed on them by the dominant white political culture of the time. A more tolerant atmosphere in the

poll tax a state­imposed tax on voters as a prerequisite for voting; poll taxes were rendered unconstitutional in national elections by the Twenty­Fourth Amendment, and in state elections by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966

Latino Population in Texas Counties, 2014 SOURCE: QuickFacts, www.census.gov (accessed 6/21/16).

FIGURE 1.6

edoedo

hhortWot W FortFF WortoooF r rthFortFF t ortoWt thhhW tFF

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

1–19.9%

20–39.9%

40–64.9%

65% and above

26 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

growing urban areas enabled Latino politicians to assume positions of importance in the local political community. In 1956, Henry B. Gonzalez became the first Mexican American to be elected to the Texas Senate in modern times. In the mid-1960s a po- litical movement emerged in the La Raza Unida Party, which sought to confront many of the discriminatory practices that isolated Texas Latinos from the political and eco- nomic mainstream. By the 1980s, Latino political leaders were playing a growing role in state politics, and Latino voters were courted heavily by both political parties. The number of Latinos elected to public office rose from 1,466 in 1986 to 2,521 in 2011. In 2013 the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials reported that 1 Latino served in the U.S. Senate from Texas, 6 Latinos represented Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, 7 Latinos were in the Texas State Senate, and 40 Latinos were elected to the state legislature. In addition, the association reported that 2,477 Latinos served as local officials in Texas.35

African Americans

People of African descent were among the earliest explorers of Texas.36 Most African Americans, however, entered Texas as slaves. Whites from the upper and lower South brought slaves with them to Texas. At first, antislavery attitudes among Spanish and Mexican authorities kept the slave population down. However, independence from Mexico lifted the restrictions on slavery, creating an incentive for southerners to ex- pand the system of slavery westward. The number of slaves in Texas rose from 5,000 to 58,000 in 1850. By the Civil War (1861–65), over 182,000 slaves lived in Texas, ap- proximately one-third of the state’s entire population.

Emancipation for African Americans living in Texas came on June 19, 1865. Eman - cipation, however, did not bring anything approaching equality. Between 1865 and 1868 a series of Black Codes were passed by the state legislature and various cities that sought to restrict the rights of former slaves. Military occupation and congres- sional reconstruction opened up new opportunities for former slaves, who supported

Most Latinos in Texas are Mex- ican American. During the first half of the twentieth century, Mexicans immigrated to Texas to work in the emerging cotton industry. Today, Latinos like actor Eva Longoria (center) and Representative Joaquin Castro (right) are influential in politics and important leaders in their chosen professions. Here, they participate in the launch of the Latino Victory Project PAC,  founded by Henry R. Muñoz III ( left), which sup - ports Latino candidates for public office across the country.

27T H E P E O P L E O F T E X A S

the radical wing of the Republican Party. Ten African American delegates helped write the Texas Constitution of 1869. Forty-three served as members of the state legislature between 1868 and 1900. The end of Reconstruction and the return to power of the Democratic Party in the mid-1870s reversed much of the progress made by former slaves in the state. In 1900 over 100,000 African Americans voted in Texas elections. By 1903 the number had fallen to under 5,000, largely because of the imposition of the poll tax in 1902 and the passage of an early version of the white-primary law in 1903. In 1923 the legislature explicitly banned blacks from voting in the Democratic pri- mary. Segregation of the races became a guiding principle of public policy, backed by the police power of the state and reinforced by lynching and race riots against African Americans. For all intents and purposes, African Americans had become second-class citizens, disenfranchised by the political system and marginalized by the political culture.

Federal court cases in the 1940s and 1950s offered some hope of relief to Afri- can Americans living in Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Allwright (1944) outlawed the white primary. Sweatt v. Painter (1950) guaranteed African Amer- icans admission to Texas’s graduate and professional schools. Finally, Brown v. Board of Education (1954) outlawed the segregation of public schools.

Political progress was much slower. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped to open up the political system in Texas to African Ameri- cans. In 1966 a small number of African American candidates actually began to win political office in the state. In 1972, Barbara Jordan became the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas.

Today, the African American population is concentrated in east Texas, where the southern plantation and sharecropping systems were dominant during the nine- teenth century. Large numbers of African Americans had also migrated to form sizable minorities in the urban and suburban areas of Houston and Dallas (see Figure 1.7). African American political leaders have come to play major roles in these areas as

As in most former slave states, there was initial resistance to the civil rights movement in Texas. These signs appeared in Fort Worth’s Riverside section in September 1956 during a protest over a black family’s moving into a previously all-white block of  homes.

28 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

members of Congress, the state legislature, and city councils. African Americans were also elected mayors of Houston and Dallas in the late 1990s. The political influence of African Americans in Texas has not been extended to west Texas, where few African Americans live.

Asians

Although considerably smaller than other groups, the Asian population has grown in Texas in recent years. Asians include individuals from a variety of countries, but par- ticularly India, Vietnam, China, Pakistan, Korea, and Japan. In 2015 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that approximately 1 million Asians resided in Texas, or about 4.5 percent of the state’s population.37 Asians tend to be concentrated in certain urban areas, particularly in west Houston and Fort Bend County, the western and northern suburbs of Dallas, Arlington, and Travis County. Sizable pockets of Asians are also found scattered along the Gulf Coast.38

Age

When compared with the rest of the nation, the population of Texas is relatively young. In 2015, 27.3 percent of the population was estimated to be under 18 years old, compared with 24.0 percent nationally. In addition, only 11.5 percent of the popula- tion in Texas was 65 years of age or older, compared with 14.5 percent nationally.39

African Amer ican Population in Texas Counties, 2014 SOURCE: QuickFacts, www.census.gov (accessed 6/21/16).

FIGURE 1.7

edoedo

hhortWot W FortFF WortooF r rthFortFF t ortoWt thhhW tFF

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

0–4.9%

5–9.9%

10–14.9%

15% and above

29T H E P E O P L E O F T E X A S

Having a relatively young population compared with those of other states presents Texas with a variety of problems and opportunities, as we shall see in later chapters.

Poverty and Wealth

Younger populations tend to be poorer, as income and poverty statistics bear out. As noted above, even taking into account the Great Recession (2008–09), the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries were a period of rapid economic growth in Texas. Despite this growth, Texas continued to lag behind the nation as a whole (see Table 1.1). Per capita income in Texas, however, rose from $17,421 in 1990 to $45,669 in 2014 (see Figure 1.8). Per capita income in Texas metropolitan areas was consider- ably higher ($41,035 in 2011) when compared with Texas rural areas ($33,621 in 2011).

TABLE 1.1

Per Capita Personal Income in Texas and the United States, 1990–2014 (Nominal Nonadjusted Dollars)

1990 1995 2006 2014

United States $19,477 $23,076 $36,276 $46,049

Texas $17,421 $21,033 $34,257 $45,669

SOURCE: U.S. Depar tment of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Per Capita Income in Texas Counties, 2014 SOURCE: QuickFacts, www.census.gov (accessed 6/21/16).

FIGURE 1.8

nnnnnstAustAusstAAAusA sA tA nnnstoHous oooousstsou ttssH tontH

edoreedLareLa eeedoredo

oononttontontAnSaSa AAn ASSannSa otoS AnttAASSS Aa A otSSSS A

Paso E asoE PasE PasoE

asDaDaaD aDaDDDDD sDDD aa saasasssDhhortWot W FortFF WortoooF rr orthoFortFF t W tt hhhhW tFF

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

$10,000–$16,999

$17,000–$22,999

$23,000–$29,999

$30,000–$50,000

30 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Interestingly, Sutton County, a lightly populated rural county in southwest Texas, had the highest per capita income of $79,103. This seeming anomaly is explained by the fact that it is rich in oil and natural gas. Starr County, in the southeast corner of the state along the Rio Grande, had the lowest at $19,235. Texas ranked 25th among the states in per capita income, up from 32nd in 1990.

The percentage of the population in Texas living below the poverty level—a level established by the federal government—fell from 15.7 percent to 14.9 percent between 1990 and 2004, rose to 16.9 percent in 2006, and rose to 17.2 percent in 2014. During the same period, the national poverty rate fell from 13.5 percent to 11.7 per- cent, rose to 13.3 percent in 2006, and rose to 14.8 percent in 2014.40

Urbanization

Urbanization is the process by which people move from rural to urban areas. Subur- banization is the process by which people move out of central city areas to surround- ing suburban areas. Much of Texas’s history is linked to ongoing urbanization. By the first decade of the twenty-first century, this process was largely complete, as 85 per- cent of the population now reside in urban areas (see Figure 1.9). Suburbanization, however, continues as city populations spill over into surrounding suburban areas.41

urbanization the process by which people move from rural areas to cities

Describe Texas’s shift from a rural society to an urban one

Urbanization in Texas, 1850–2010 SOURCE: Statistical Abstracts of the United States: 1994 (Washington, DC: U.S. Depar tment of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1994); Dallas Morning News, Texas Almanac 2001–2002 (Dallas: Dallas Morning News, 2001); U.S. Depar tment of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, U.S. Census Bureau, “Texas: 2010, Population and Housing Unit Cour ts, 2010 Census of Population and Housing” (September 2012), p. 16.

FIGURE 1.9

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1850 1900 1950 2010

Rural Urban

SOURCES: Texas Demographic Center, demographics.texas.gov; (accessed 6/15/16).

NOTE: Numbers do not always add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

projections of how the Texas population will change over the next 30 years. The state’s population will continue to grow quickly, especially as the number of Latino Texans increases. Further, most of the population growth in the state will happen in metropolitan areas—Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.

How Is the Texas Population Changing?

25,145,56114,229,191Total population = 41,311,221

San Antonio

El Paso

Houston

Dallas–Fort Worth

Brownsville

Austin

McAllen

2,142,508

804,123

6,426,214

5,920,416

406,220

1,716,289

774,769

2,481,286

929,478

7,445,492

6,934,564

478,974

2,090,278

953,069

3,445,603

1,301,438

11,147,784

10,273,617

729,461

3,338,673

1,589,783

+16%

+16%

+16%

+17%

+18%

+22%

+23%

+61%

+62%

+73%

+74%

+80%

+95%

+105%

Area 2010 2020 2050

66%

12% 21%

1%

2010

45%

12% 38%

6%

2050

28%

10% 54%

8%

(projected population growth from the year 2010, by metropolitan area)

= 250,000 people African American

LatinoWhite Other African

American

LatinoWhite Other African

American

LatinoWhite Other

Geography

Race and Total Population

• Based on your reading of the data, how many Latinos were added to the state population between 1980 and 2010? How many whites? How is the projected 2050 population different from the population in 2010?

• Given the metropolitan population projections for 2020 and 2050, how might the balance of political power shift over the next 40 years?

QUANTITATIVE REASONING

1980

WHO ARE TEXANS?

32 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Most Texas cities are the result of American settle- ment and culture.42 The Spanish influence on urban life in Texas grew out of efforts to extend territorial control northward out of Mexico through a series of presidios (gar risons), missions (churches), and pueblos (towns). The physical organization and planning of the towns reflected this imperial mission. For example, the larg- est Spanish settlement was San Antonio. It was initially established as a supply depot to missions in east Texas. Later it expanded as missions were established to con- vert local Native Americans to Christianity and farms were cultivated to feed the local population. By the early nineteenth century, San Antonio’s population had reached 2,500. Other smaller settlements were located in east Texas, along the border with French and, later, American territory.

White American influence began with the arrival of Moses Austin in 1820 in San Antonio. Soon, his son Stephen F. Austin followed. The Spanish offered the Austins and other impresarios grants of land to encourage the in- flow of Americans into underpopulated regions of Texas. Small towns emerged as ad- ministrative units for impre sario grants. There were considerably more freedom and dynamism in American urban areas than in Spanish ones. Americans brought with them a host of new interests and ideas that would transform urban life in Texas, in- cluding a new language, slavery, Protestantism, and a commitment to free enterprise and democracy. The courthouse became a central feature of many American towns, often located in the center of the town surrounded by shops.

Urbanization has transformed Texas political life. From Reconstruction through the first 50 years of the twentieth century, Texas’s political life grew out of its rural- based economy centered on cotton, cattle, oil, and natural gas. Today, urbanization and accompanying suburbanization are the forces driving politics in the state.

The expansion of Texas’s urban life initially began along the Gulf Coast and grad- ually expanded west, particularly along rivers. New technologies transformed the ur- ban landscape of Texas. Dredging technologies helped to stimulate the growth of port cities such as Houston, Galveston, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville. Railroad con- struction in the second half of the nineteenth century opened up new lands to urban development. In 1880 there were only 11 towns of 4,000 or more people in all of Texas. Following the rapid expansion of the railroads in the 1880s and 1890s, the number rose to 36. By 1910, when the railroad network of 13,110 miles was completed, Texas had 49 towns with a population of 4,000 or more. By 1920, 5 cities—Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio—had populations of more than 50,000. Later technological breakthroughs in transportation, such as cars and air travel, would re- inforce the population grid laid out by the railroads.

The Urban Political Economy

Understanding the complexity of the government and politics in Texas today demands having some sense of how Texas’s three major metropolitan areas compare with each other (see Table 1.2).

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: GET INVOLVED

• Based on the population growth, urbanization, and economic change of the last two decades, what do the next two decades hold for Texas? Which areas will grow in population, and will government be ready for that growth?

• If you wrote a letter to the governor or your state legislators, what advice would you give them to strengthen the Texas economy? Would you want them to focus on supporting rural or urban communities? Why?

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts 2014, www.census.gov; demography.cpc.unc.edu.

NOTE: Numbers do not always add up to 100 percent. Black Latinos may be counted in both categories.

Percent Change in Population, 2000-2010

Data not available

50% +

25.1 to 49%

9.7 to 25%

0 to 9.6%

Loss

9.7%: overall U.S. change

Gain

-10 to -0.1%

-50 to -10.1%

Racial Diversity

White

Black

Latino

Asian

44%

13%

39%

4%

White

Black

Latino

Asian

80%

13%

4%

2%

White

Black

Latino

Asian

39%

7%

39%

14%

White

Black

Latino

Asian

56%

17%

24%

3%

White

Black

Latino

Asian

57%

18%

19%

9%

Texas OhioCalifornia Florida New York

Texas is more diverse than many states in the country, which has important implications for the future of the state's politics. Also, the Texas population has increased dramatically, while some states are not growing as fast. In fact many states in the Midwest such as Ohio and Pennsylvania have seen population declines in recent years.

How Does Texas’s Population Compare to Other Major States’?

TEXAS AND THE NATION

In what ways are California and Texas similar in terms of demographic makeup? How are they different?

In what ways will Texas politics change in the future based on its racial and ethnic makeup?

CRITICAL THINKING

•

•

34 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Houston Houston, located in Harris County, is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest city in the United States—with a population of 2.1 million—behind New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Its consolidated metropolitan area encompasses eight counties, with an estimated population of 6.1 million in 2011. Houston grew by 7.5 percent during the first decade of the twenty-first century.

The city originated in 1836 out of the entrepreneurial dreams of two brothers, Au - gustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, who sought to create a “great interior commercial emporium of Texas.”43 The town was named after Sam Houston, the leader of Texas’s army during its war of independence from Mexico. Early settlers came from the South, bringing with them the institution of slavery. As a consequence, segrega- tion was built into the social structure from the outset. For the first half of the twenti- eth century, African Americans were either denied or given limited access to a variety of public services such as parks, schools, buses, restrooms, and restaurants. Although not enforced legally, residential segregation divided the city into a number of distinct racially divided neighborhoods for much of the twentieth century.

In the late nineteenth century, Houston’s economic well-being depended on cot- ton and commerce. Railroads played an integral role in placing Houston at the hub of the Texas economy. The opening of the Houston Ship Channel further enhanced Houston’s place in the state economy by helping to turn it into the second or third (depending on whose ranking is used) deep-water port in the United States. But it was oil that fundamentally transformed the Houston area in the twentieth century. Oil refineries opened along the ship channel and a petrochemical industry emerged, mak- ing Houston one of the leading energy centers in the world. Today, Houston continues to rank first in the nation in the manufacture of petroleum equipment.

By 1930, Houston had become the largest city in Texas, with a population of around 292,000 people. The population continued to expand throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, assisted by a liberal annexation policy that enabled the city to in- corporate into itself many of the outlying suburban areas. Although the oil bust in the

Race and Ethnic Breakdown of Texas and Its Largest Counties, 2014

WHITE (%) BLACk (%) AsIAN (%) MULTIPLE RACE (%) HIsPANIC (%) ToTAL

Texas 43.5 * 12.5 4.5 1.8 38.6 26,956,958

Harris 31.4 19.5 7.0 1.7 41.8 4,441,370

Dallas 31.1 23.1 5.9 1.7 39.3 2,518,638

Tarrant 49.3 16.2 5.3 2.3 27.8 1,945,360

Bexar 29.2 8.3 2.9 2.2 59.3 1,855,866

Travis 49.7 8.9 6.5 2.4 33.9 1,151,145

Collin 60.4 9.6 12.9 2.5 15.1 885,241

El Paso 13.3 4.0 1.3 1.4 81.2 833,487

*Columns may not add to 100 percent as a result of multiple counting. These are estimates projected from the 2014 Census. SOURCE: 2014 U.S. Census Bureau.

TABLE 1.2

35U R B A N I Z AT I O N

mid-1980s slowed the city’s growth, that growth continued in the early twenty-first century, extending into suburban areas such as Clear Lake City and other urban areas such as Galveston.

Dallas–Fort Worth The Metroplex is an economic region encompassing the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, as well as a number of other suburban cities, includ- ing Arlington ( population 383,204), Mesquite (144,416), Garland (235,501), Rich- ardson (108,617), Irving (231,406), Plano (278,480), McKinney (156,767), Carrollton (128,353), Grand Prairie (185,453), Frisco (145,035), and Denton (128,205).44 The ma- jor counties in the area are Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin. The Metroplex is joined to- gether by a number of interlocking highways running north–south and east–west, and a major international airport that is strategically located in the national air system.

Dallas was founded as a trading post in 1841, near where two roads were to be built by the Republic.45 By the 1850s it had become a retail center servicing the rural ar- eas. By 1870 the population had reached 3,000. The coming of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1871 and the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1873 made Dallas the first rail crossroads in Texas and transformed forever its place in the state’s economy. Markets now beckoned east and north, encouraging entrepreneurs and merchants to set up shop. Cotton became a major cash crop, and the population expanded over threefold to more than 10,000 people in 1880. By the turn of the twentieth century, the city had grown to more than 42,000 people.

As with Houston, the oil economy changed the direction and scope of the city’s economic life. With the discovery of oil in east Texas in 1930, Dallas became a major center for petroleum financing. By the end of World War II, the economy had diver- sified, making Dallas a minor manufacturing center in the nation. In the 1950s and 1960s technology companies such as Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) and Texas Instru- ments were added to the industrial mix, transforming Dallas into the third-largest technology center in the nation. The high-tech boom of the 1990s was built from the corporate infrastructure laid down in the 1950s and 1960s. Dallas grew from 844,401 people in 1970 to 1,281,047 in 2014.

Although they are locked together in important ways economically, Dallas and Fort Worth are as different as night and day. Whereas Dallas looks to the east and em- bodies a more corporate white-collar business culture, Fort Worth looks to the west. It is where the West begins in Texas.

Fort Worth originated as an army post in 1849.46 By 1853 the post had been aban- doned as new forts were located to the west. Although settlers took the fort over, pop- ulation growth was slow through the early 1870s. The spark that enabled the town to begin to prosper was the rise of the cattle industry. Fort Worth was a convenient place for cowboys to rest on their cattle drives to Kansas. Cattle buyers established head- quarters in the city. Gradually, other businesses grew up around these key businesses. Transportation and communication links improved with the establishment of stage lines to the west and railroad lines to the north and east.

By 1900, Fort Worth was served by eight different railroad companies, many of them transporting cattle and cattle-related products to national markets. The two world wars encouraged further economic development in Fort Worth. Over 100,000 troops were trained at Camp Bowie during World War I. World War II brought an important air force base and, along with it, the aviation industry. The Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, which was later bought by General Dynamics, became

In some areas of  Texas, Asian immigrants are a growing force. The signs behind Charles Park, president of the Asian District Development Association of Dallas, at the Asiana Plaza in Dallas attest to the changing demographic landscape of  Texas.

You Decide: Voices of Texas

Immigration has long been an important part of Texas culture. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, the U.S.–Mexico border tightened considerably. Traditionally, residents in border areas could cross the border easily. With increasing border and security concerns, border crossings become more difficult. The Paso del Norte bridge between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez (shown at left), the busiest cross­border footpath between the United States and Mexico, is one of several official international bridges in the state. One of Texas’s ongo­ ing debates is over the most effective ways to ensure border security and respect the diversity of the state’s history.

In the 2014 campaign for lieutenant governor, Hous ­ ton state senator Dan Patrick campaigned on a platform of stopping the “illegal invasion” of immigrants into Texas. Patrick emphasized that the federal government was not enforcing border security by allowing so many immigrants into Texas. He further claimed that lack of border security has brought third world diseases into the state. In his campaign he promised to spend more state money on border security.

Patrick also gained headlines by debating then–San Antonio mayor Julian Castro about immigration reform. Castro accused Patrick of dog whistle politics, that is, appealing to exclusionist and racist rhetoric in order to win the election. Castro argued that there is no “inva­ sion” of immigrants. He said that illegal immigration has dropped from its peak levels and undocumented immigrants are essential to the state’s economy. Cas ­ tro argued that those in the country illegally, especially those in college or serving in the military, should be allowed a path to citizenship.

Patrick disagreed, claiming that those in the country illegally should go to the “back of the line” and wait their turns. He also suggested that granting citizenship to illegal immigrants would only encourage more illegal immigration. Patrick opposed “amnesty,” the notion of allowing illegal immigrants the opportunity to eventually become U.S. citizens. More illegal immigration, accord­ ing to Patrick, will strain the state budget on education and health care. Patrick also opposed in­state tuition for undocumented immigrants. He claimed that citi­ zens should be given the priority and illegal immigrants should not have this benefit.

The debate in Texas mirrors the national debate re ­ garding how best to deal with immigration. There are approximately 11 million undocumented or “illegal” im­ migrants in the United States, and about 2 million of those immigrants are in Texas, mostly of La tino descent and mostly from Mexico.

Some claim Patrick’s views will turn off the growing Latino population because the harsh anti­immigrant rhe ­ toric is perceived as anti­Latino. Patrick maintained that he supports legal immigration and just wants to stop illegal immigration. Castro and others have argued that the United States is a nation of immigrants and there must be a comprehensive way to reform the problem. They say that businesses in Texas greatly benefit from the hard work of undocumented immigrants and as long as jobs are available, immigrants will find a way to make it to the United States despite expensive border secu­ rity efforts.

Immigration in Texas

COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY: YOUR VOICE

• Do you agree with Dan Patrick or Julian Castro? Should illegal immigrants be given a pathway to citizenship or be sent back to their country of origin?

• Is compromise possible on immigration? Are the only two options deportations and amnesty? If you had to suggest a third option, what would it be?

37U R B A N I Z AT I O N

the largest manufacturer in the city. Between 1900 and 1950 the population grew from 26,668 to 277,047. In 2014, Fort Worth’s population was 812,238. The overall metro- politan area of Dallas–Fort Worth included 6.954 million people in 2014.

san Antonio San Antonio is located in Bexar County, the fourth-largest county in Texas today. San Antonio grew out of the Spanish presidio San Antonio de Bexar, which was founded in 1718.47 In 1773 it became the capital of Spanish Texas, with a population of around 2,100 people. Because of the threats posed by Native Americans and Mexicans after the Texas Revolution, the population declined to about 800 people by 1846. On Texas’s entry into the Union, however, the population took off, reaching 3,488 in 1850 and 8,235 in 1860. By the Civil War, San Antonio was the largest city in Texas.

Following the Civil War, San Antonio grew rapidly, stimulated by the building of the San Antonio Railroad in 1877. By 1880 the population had grown to more than 20,000 people, mostly white Americans from southern states. The population contin- ued to grow through the first two decades of the twentieth century, reaching 161,000 by 1920. Mexican immigration increased significantly following the Mexican Revolu- tion of 1910 and the building of a city infrastructure that provided paved roads, utili- ties, water, telephones, and hospitals. By midcentury San Antonio had become a unique blend of Latino, German, and southern Anglo American cultures. Population growth slowed down in the 1930s but picked up again during World War II, reaching over 408,000 in 1950. Major military bases came to dot the landscape around San Antonio. By 1960 the population topped 587,000 people.

Today, San Antonio is Texas’s second-largest city. The population of the city was estimated to be 1,436,697 in 2014, and the San Antonio metropolitan area as a whole had a population of 2,234,003, making it the thirty-first-largest metropolitan area in the country. San Antonio’s population has become increasingly Latino. In Bexar

As immigration has changed the demographic profile of Texas, it has also given rise to numerous political debates. Here, protesters for immigration reform rally in San Antonio outside a hotel where former U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner held a fund-raiser.

38 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

County where San Antonio is located, approximately 59.4 percent of the people are Latino, 29.2 percent are white, and 8.3 percent are African American.48

Unlike Houston or Dallas, San Antonio lacks high-paying manufacturing jobs, and average metropolitan income is lower than in Houston and Dallas. The econ- omy rests on four legs: national military bases, educational institutions, tourism, and a large medical research complex.

Political Culture and the Future of Texas In this chapter, we have studied the political culture of Texas and seen how the state has been transformed by economic and demographic shifts over the past hundred years. Three great technological revolutions have reshaped the economic life of the state. Accompanying and fueling these economic revolu­ tions have been ongoing demographic changes, which have redefined who the “typical” Texan is and where this person lives. No longer can it be said that a “typical” Texan is simply an extension of white American culture rooted in south ­ ern tradition. No longer does this person reside in a small town, living life close to the land much as his or her ancestors did. Like the economy, the people of Texas have been diversified. Increasing numbers of Latinos from Mexico and whites from other parts of the United States have created a new melting pot of cultures and concerns throughout the state. These cultures have come to­ gether in the big metropolitan areas across Texas.

The future of Texas likely will continue to be defined by the economic and demographic changes that we have chronicled in this chapter. A diversifying economy fueled by international trade and a rejuvenated oil and natural gas industry will integrate the state more closely into a burgeoning world economy. Latinos will come to play an increasingly important role in the economic and po­ litical life of the state as the Latino population ages and works its way through the educational system. Over the next 30 years, both political parties will have to adjust their expectations and ideologies to meet the demands of an electorate increasingly dominated by young Latino voters.

39S T U D Y G U I D E

STUDYGUIDE

Use QIJK to help you study and master this material.

Texas Political Culture

• Describe the defining characteristics of political culture in Texas (pp. 5–7)

Texas political culture can best be characterized as individualistic and traditional. Texans have great pride in their state and have adopted a famous phrase, “Don’t mess with Texas,” for those external forces wishing to change the state’s way of doing things. Texas is a low­ tax state with distrust for large government programs. Business plays a major role in defining the political culture of the state.

key Terms political culture (p. 5) moralistic political culture (p. 5) individualistic political culture (p. 5) traditionalistic political culture (p. 5) elite (p. 5) provincialism (p. 6)

Practice Quiz 1. In terms of area, how does Texas rank among the

50 states? a) first b) second c) third d) fifth e) seventh

2. Provincialism refers to a) a narrow view of the world. b) a progressive view of the value of diversity. c) a pro­business political culture. d) an urban society. e) a group of counties.

The Land

• Explain how Texas’s geography has influenced its political culture (pp. 7–10)

Because of Texas’s immense size, the state’s topogra­ phy is diverse, with east Texas’s flat lands, west Texas’s arid climate, and central Texas’s hill country all repre­ senting diverse ecosystems and land patterns.

key Term privatization of public property (p. 8)

Practice Quiz 3. Which of Texas’s physical regions is characterized

by the presence of many of the state’s largest ranches?

a) Gulf Coastal Plains b) Great Plains c) Interior Lowlands d) Basin and Range Province e) Rio Grande Valley

4. Which of Texas’s physical regions is found in the westernmost part of Texas? a) Gulf Coastal Plains b) Great Plains c) Interior Lowlands d) Basin and Range Province e) Pine Belt

40 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Economic Change in Texas

• Trace the evolution of Texas’s economy (pp. 11–22)

The Texas economy has undergone a series of techno­ logical transformations over the past 100 years. Once, the Texas economy was grounded in cotton and ranch­ ing. Oil production came to play an important role in the twentieth century. Today, high technology and interna­ tional trade play important roles in the state’s economy. Texas appears to have weathered the Great Recession better than most other states.

key Term North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (p. 19)

Practice Quiz 5. Creative destruction

a) destroys both old and new economies. b) creates new economies and destroys old ones. c) maintains old economies and creates new

ones. d) creates and maintains old and new economies. e) does not affect economies.

6. Which industry controlled the politics and economy of Texas for most of the twentieth century? a) cotton b) cattle c) railroad d) oil e) technology

7. Which of the following statements is true? a) Oil production in Texas is less today than it was

10 years ago. b) Oil production no longer plays an important role

in the state’s economy.

c) Oil has been almost totally drained from Texas oil fields.

d) The border region has become a major producer of oil in the early twenty­first century.

e) Fracking and horizontal drilling have reinvigo­ rated Texas’s oil industry.

8. Unlike earlier eras, the Texas economy of the twenty­first century features a) computers, electronics, and other

high­tech products. b) transportation, oil and natural gas, and banking. c) insurance, construction, and banking. d) ranching, oil, and tourism. e) education, the military, and agriculture.

9. NAFTA refers to a) an oil company. b) an independent regulatory commission. c) an interstate road network. d) an interest group. e) an international trade agreement.

10. What is meant by the “Great Recession”? a) the post–Vietnam War era in the mid­1970s

when housing prices rose b) the period of high inflation during the early

1980s c) a time of chronic economic problems beginning

in late 2007 that drew analogies to the Great Depression of the 1930s

d) the time when Democrats lost control of the Texas House for the first time since Reconstruction

e) a period of high unemployment in the early 1990s

41S T U D Y G U I D E

The People of Texas

• Explain how the population of Texas has changed over time (p. 22–30)

Texas demography has changed over the last century. Once dominated by whites, Texas now has a large Latino population that, when coupled with the African American population and other minorities, makes Texas a majority­ minority state. Despite considerable overall wealth in Texas, Texans tend to be younger and poorer than the average American.

key Terms empresario (p. 23) poll tax (p. 25)

Practice Quiz 11. Which of the following accounts for most of Texas’s

population growth today? a) immigration b) natural increases as a result of the difference

between births and deaths

c) domestic immigration d) NAFTA e) movement from rural to urban areas

12. Which of the following is not true? a) Latinos are increasing as a percentage of

the population in Dallas. b) More African Americans live in east Texas than

in west Texas. c) San Antonio has a larger white population than

Latino. d) Houston’s largest minority population is Latino. e) The Latino population in Texas has grown rap­

idly in recent decades.

Urbanization

• Describe Texas’s shift from a rural society to an urban one (pp. 30–38)

Initially a rural state, Texas has urbanized, with Hous­ ton, San Antonio, and Dallas–Fort Worth representing the largest metropolitan areas in the state. This pro­ cess of urbanization has changed the state’s economy from an agricultural powerhouse to a high­tech and innovative economy.

key Term urbanization (p. 30)

Practice Quiz 13. Urbanization refers to a process in which

a) people move from rural to urban areas. b) people from the north and west move to Texas.

c) people move out of urban centers to the suburbs.

d) people move out of urban centers to rural areas.

e) minorities assume political control of a city.

14. The three major metropolitan areas in Texas are a) Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, and San Antonio. b) Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, and El Paso. c) El Paso, Houston, and Austin. d) San Antonio, El Paso, and

Brownsville­Harlingen­McAllen. e) San Antonio, El Paso, and Houston.