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The Hidden History of Texas: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Hank Wilson
The episodes cover Texas history from the earliest days of Indigenous peoples to Spanish exploration, control by Mexico, the Anglo’s take over, Texas becomes part of the U.S., the confederates move in, and back to the U.S. The audio files are accurate and try to tell the story as best as they can from all sides of the issues. The hidden history of Texas is a history replete with heroes and villains of all sorts. There were good and bad people throughout Texas history, just as there were throughout world history.
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- 1 weeks ago8 min
Separate Schools – Separate Futures
OPENING My learning curve about segregation did not happen all at once. I grew up in a Navy family and attended Catholic schools. We moved often. Different states. Different bases. Different communities. But strangely… many things stayed the same. Most of the schools I attended as a child were almost entirely white. In Virginia, in 1962, I remember having my first non-white classmate… a Hispanic girl. Later that same year, we moved back to Texas. Again, I attended Catholic schools that were overwhelmingly white. But by 1964, after we had settled in Houston, I went to San Antonio to attend high school, and I began noticing something larger than classrooms. The city itself seemed divided. Whites lived primarily on the north side. Blacks on the east side. Mexican-Americans on the west and south sides. And the schools reflected those invisible boundaries. At the time, it simply seemed normal. Years later, I realized I had been watching the geography of segregation. (pause) This is Hidden History of Texas. Episode 90: Separate Schools, Separate Futures. EDUCATION AND THE TEXAS MAP In Texas, schools have always been more than places of learning. They reflected power. Economics. Geography. Race. And opportunity. For generations, where a child lived often determined the quality of education they received. Not officially, perhaps. But practically. And sometimes intentionally. After the Civil War, Texas entered Reconstruction along with the rest of the South. In theory, formerly enslaved people had access to education. In reality, separate systems quickly emerged. Black Texans were relegated to schools that often had few, if any resources. Churches became classrooms. Communities raised money themselves. Teachers were underpaid. Buildings were overcrowded. Supplies were outdated or nonexistent. But education represented something larger: advancement, independence, and hope. SEGREGATED TEXAS By the early 20th century, segregation in Texas had become deeply embedded. Sometimes through laws. Sometimes through custom. Sometimes simply through where people were allowed to live. Entire cities developed around racial geography. In San Antonio, those lines were easy to see. North side. East side. West side. South side. Different neighborhoods. Different churches. Different schools. Different expectations. Even Catholic education reflected these divisions. In San Antonio there was St. Peter Claver Academy, founded in 1888 as the first African American Catholic parish in Texas. They competed separately in athletics and academics. As students, we simply accepted this as part of everyday life. Looking back now, it becomes clear how deeply separation had been normalized. THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Texas segregation was never simply Black and white. Mexican-American communities experienced many of the same barriers. In some Texas towns, children attended so-called “Mexican schools.” These schools were often poorly funded and overcrowded. Students were frequently discouraged from speaking Spanish. Some were punished for it. In 1948, a major Texas court case challenged these practices: Delgado v. Bastrop Independent School District. The ruling declared that Mexican-American students could not legally be segregated into separate schools solely because of ethnicity. But as often happened in Texas and across America… changing laws did not instantly change attitudes. COLLEGES AND QUIET BARRIERS Even higher education reflected these divisions. Colleges across Texas remained segregated well into the 1960s. Official barriers slowly began to fall. But social barriers remained. People often stayed within familiar communities. Familiar churches. Familiar schools. Familiar neighborhoods. Official segregation can end with a court ruling. But social separation often lasts much longer. A NATION OF REGIONS One thing that shaped my perspective was movement. Because of being raised in a military family, and later my time in the Coast Guard, I lived in multiple regions of the country. I saw firsthand that segregation and division were not unique to Texas. America itself often functioned as a collection of separate worlds. Different regions. Different customs. Different assumptions about race, class, and belonging. But Texas had its own version. Its own geography. Its own history. And its own invisible boundaries. SCHOOLS AS MAPS OF OPPORTUNITY Schools became mirrors of larger systems. Housing patterns shaped districts. Property values shaped funding. Economic divisions reinforced educational divisions. In many ways, schools became maps of opportunity. And those maps often reflected decades of earlier decisions. Some districts fl
- 2 weeks ago7 min
1964: The Breaking Point…
1964: The Breaking Point...How a Texas President Helped Reshape American Politics Forever There are years in American history that feel less like moments… and more like fault lines. 1964 was one of them. It was the year the old political order began to crack. Not overnight.Not all at once.But in ways we are still living with today. And at the center of it all stood a Texan. Lyndon B. Johnson Growing up in Texas, Lyndon Johnson was never just another historical figure to some families. People remembered him. In my own family, my great-aunts grew up around Johnson City during the years when Lyndon Johnson was still simply “Lyndon.” Before the presidency. Before Vietnam. Before history turned him into something larger and far more complicated. And that’s important to remember. Because Johnson understood Texas.He understood the South.And perhaps more than anyone else in Washington, he understood political power. Especially how to use it. By 1964, America was already under enormous strain. The images coming across television screens were becoming impossible to ignore. Black students being screamed at while trying to attend school.Peaceful protesters attacked with dogs and fire hoses.Freedom Riders beaten.Church bombings.Demonstrations erupting across the South. For many Americans, the Civil Rights Movement was becoming not just a regional issue but a moral one. And television changed everything. For the first time in American history, millions of people could witness these confrontations in their living rooms almost as they happened. The country was being forced to look at itself. John F. Kennedy had moved cautiously on civil rights during his presidency. But after Kennedy’s assassination in November of 1963, Lyndon Johnson inherited not only the presidency… but the unfinished battle over civil rights legislation. And Johnson knew something many younger Americans today may not fully appreciate: The bill would not pass simply because it was morally right. It would pass only if someone could force it through Congress. And Lyndon Johnson knew Congress better than almost anyone alive. Before becoming president, Johnson had served as Senate Majority Leader. He understood personalities, pressure, favors, intimidation, timing, all the invisible machinery of power. Historians would later call it “The Johnson Treatment.” He could flatter you.Threaten you.Charm you.Corner you.Convince you. Sometimes all within the same conversation. And in 1964, Johnson unleashed that political machinery behind what became the: Civil Rights Act Today, most Americans remember the Civil Rights Act as inevitable. It wasn’t. The legislation faced fierce opposition, especially from Southern Democrats who viewed it as federal overreach into state affairs and Southern society. For decades, many Southern politicians had held enormous power in Congress. Committee chairmanships. Senate influence. Institutional seniority. But the country was changing. And Johnson understood that history was moving whether Congress wanted it to or not. So he pushed. Hard. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation in public accommodations and prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Supporters viewed it as one of the most important moral and constitutional advances in modern American history. Opponents viewed it as a dangerous expansion of federal authority. And beneath the political arguments, something deeper was beginning to happen. The old Democratic coalition, the one that had held together since the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was beginning to fracture. Then came the election of 1964. And this is where the political story becomes truly fascinating. The Republican nominee that year was: Barry Goldwater Goldwater was a conservative from Arizona. He opposed the Civil Rights Act, not necessarily because he supported segregation, but because he argued parts of the law violated constitutional limits on federal power. That distinction mattered to Goldwater. But politically, something much larger was unfolding. Goldwater lost the election badly nationwide. Lyndon Johnson crushed him at the national level. But then something unexpected happened. Goldwater carried several Deep South states. States that had been Democratic strongholds for generations. For many observers at the time, it looked strange. Temporary, even. But in hindsight, historians now recognize it as one of the first major warning signs that the political map of the South was beginning to change. Slowly. Unevenly. But undeniably. Now, none of this happened in a single election. The South did not suddenly wake up Republican in 1964. That transformation would take decades. Many Southern Democrats remained loyal to the party well into the 1970s
- 3 weeks ago13 min
Episode 89 After Sundown: The Hidden Geography of Fear in Texas
Welcome to Episode 89 of The Hidden History of Texas. After Sundown: The Hidden Geography of Fear in Texas Tonight, we’re stepping onto a highway most history books barely mention. A road traveled in silence…A road traveled with caution…And sometimes, a road traveled in fear. This episode is called: “After Sundown: The Hidden Geography of Fear in Texas.” We’re going to talk about Sundown Towns…The Green Book…And the hidden map Black Texans and Black travelers carried in their minds during the Jim Crow era. Now imagine this with me. The year is 1952. You’ve just crossed the Sabine River leaving Louisiana and entering Texas. The sun is beginning to sink low across the horizon. Your children are asleep in the back seat. Your gas gauge is dropping toward empty. And suddenly… you’re nervous. Not because of bandits.Not because of weather.Not because of the road itself. You’re afraid of where you might accidentally stop. Because there are towns ahead where being Black after dark could get you threatened… beaten… arrested… or worse. So before you ever left home, you packed something almost as important as gasoline. A small green book. Texas has always carried a larger-than-life image in the American imagination. Cowboys.Oil wells.Cattle drives.Wide-open skies.Frontier independence. But hidden beneath that mythology is another Texas. A Texas many people never experienced firsthand…and many others could never escape. For decades, scattered across this state and across America, were places known as Sundown Towns. Some had signs posted right at the city limits. Others didn’t need signs at all. Everybody knew the rules. “Don’t let the sun set on you here.” Now before we go further, let’s talk about that little green book. The Negro Motorist Green Book was first published in 1936 by a Harlem postal worker named Victor H. Green. At first, it covered only New York City. But over time, it expanded across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and even Bermuda. Inside were lists of hotels, restaurants, tourist homes, gas stations, barber shops, beauty parlors, and businesses where Black travelers were welcome or at least safe. Safe. Think about that word. Today, most Americans choose a hotel based on price or reviews. Back then, Black families often chose places based on one simple question: “Will we survive the night?” The Green Book became known as “the bible of Black travel.” And it wasn’t paranoia. It was necessity. Because across America, including Texas, there were towns where Black travelers knew not to stop after dark. So what exactly was a Sundown Town? A Sundown Town was a community that either formally or informally excluded minorities from remaining there after sunset. Most commonly, these policies targeted African Americans. But in some places, the hostility extended to Mexican Americans, Chinese Americans, Native Americans, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, almost anyone considered “outside” the community’s idea of whiteness. Some towns passed ordinances. Others used intimidation. Violence.Threats.Economic pressure.Police harassment. And often, unwritten rules enforced the system more effectively than laws ever could. Maybe businesses mysteriously closed at sunset. Maybe hotels “had no vacancies.” Maybe gas stations refused service. Maybe local law enforcement simply escorted Black travelers to the city limits. The message was always understood. “You don’t belong here.” Now many people think this was mostly a Deep South phenomenon. But Texas had its own long and painful history with Sundown Towns. Some communities openly embraced exclusion. Others quietly practiced it for generations. And some of those legacies still linger today. Take Alba. Small East Texas town.Population under five hundred. On the surface, it looks peaceful. But historically, Alba was founded as an all-white community. In the year 2000, it was still reported to be over 98 percent white. One local theory even claimed the town’s name came from the Latin word for “white.” (note: the Latin word is album) Whether that story is fully true or not almost doesn’t matter. Because the reputation itself tells us something important about how communities wanted to define themselves. Then there’s Alvin. In 1933, a brutal axe murder shocked the community. When suspicion briefly turned toward a Black suspect, local newspapers reportedly noted that this seemed unlikely because “practically no negroes are allowed to live in Alvin.” Imagine reading that sentence in a newspaper today. Not whispered privately. Printed openly. As if exclusion itself were ordinary. Because at the time, in many places, it was. And perhaps one of the starkest examples comes from De Leon in Comanche County. In the late 1800s, Black residents were driven out after racial viol
- Apr 29, 202613 min
Episode 88 – From Reconstruction to DEI: The Long Arc of Race Relations in Texas
Episode 88 – From Reconstruction to DEI: The Long Arc of Race Relations in Texas Hello folks, I’m Hank Wilson and welcome to Episode 88 of the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 88 - From Reconstruction to DEI: The Long Arc of Race Relations in Texas In this episode I’m going to talk about a subject that a lot of folks like to avoid. That is the subject of race and race relations in Texas History. The story of the struggle that both African Americans and Mexican Americans faced in achieving their civil rights might be something you were unaware of. While our image travels from reconstruction to today, and that is the title of this episode, the reality is also that our Mexican American citizens have fought to improve their political circumstances ever since the Anglos began showing up in the 1820s and especially after the revolution of 1836. The struggle African Americans faced started after their emancipation from slavery in 1865. For the most part though organized campaigns for both groups really weren’t launched until the early twentieth century. In the years following the Texas Revolution Tejanos were often the focal point of Anglo hatred and mistrust. In the 1850s, Anglos accused Tejanos in Central Texas of helping slaves escape to Mexico and many of the Tejano families were forced to leave their homes. During the Cart War of 1857 (which I covered in a previous episode) Tejanos around Goliad and San Antonio were attacked by Anglos. Two years later in 1859, Tejano’s in South Texas were attacked after Juan N. Cortina's captured Brownsville. And he issued a proclamation demanding the protection of Mexican-American land rights. Needless to say, this caused panic among Anglo residents who thought of him a nothing more than a bandit. This instigated the "First Cortina War" which grew in intensity and eventually required the U.S. Army, including troops under Robert E. Lee and local Texas Rangers, to eventually force him to retreat into Mexico by December 1859. It was called the First Cortina War because Cortina returned during the Civil War (hence, the Second Cortina War), initially assisting the Union army this time, (after all he recognized that the Confederacy wanted to maintain slavery and continue to take the land held by Tejanos) and he succeed in taking control of steamboats, before being defeated in 1861 by Confederate forces under Santos Benavides. After the Civil War, both the newly freed slaves and Tejanos faced further atrocities. In the 1880s, White men in East Texas used lynching as their preferred method of maintaining political control. It became very common as a method of retaliation for alleged rapes of White women or for other insults or injuries that white people felt had been perpetrated. Mexican Americans of South Texas faced the same problems. The Ku Klux Klan, the White Caps, law officials, and the Texas Rangers, all served as official and unofficial enforcers of White authority, and they regularly terrorized both Mexican and Black Texans. For blacks emancipation eventually proved to be more of a symbolic action than anything else, because while slaves were freed from official bondage, they were still mostly blocked from fully participating in society. Freedmen often found themselves barred from most public places and schools and often were forced to live only in certain residential areas of towns. As the calendar changed to the twentieth century and reconstruction was abandoned, white politicians insured that such practices were written into the law. Even though Tejanos were not specifically targeted by these statutes they were still often subjected to them through unwritten social customs. Through the 1880s and 1890s, both African Americans and Mexican Americans faced organized legal efforts to disfranchise them and if those didn’t work, Anglos turned to a variety of informal means to weaken their political strength. The most common method they faced were terrorist tactics, literacy tests, the stuffing of ballot boxes, and accusations of incompetence when they won office. White political bosses in South Texas and other areas with large Mexican-American population such as the El Paso or Rio Grande valley, meantime, dominated their areas by controlling the votes of the poor. Two of the more odorous methods used by the white politicians was the poll-tax law and the other was the white primary passed by Texas Democrats. The poll tax law was passed in 1902 the legislature passed the poll-tax law which required every person who wanted to vote to “pay from $1.50 to $1.75’ for that privilege, which effectively disenfranchised those who were poor. (Poll Taxes for federal elections weren’t eliminated until 1964 when the 24th amendment was passed and then in 1966 for state election.) These mechanisms disfranchised Blacks, and Mexican Americans for that matter, for White society did not regard Tejanos as belonging to the "White" race. Progressive reformers
- Apr 4, 20267 min
Episode 87 – The Towns the Company Owned
Episode 87 of the Hidden History of Texas - The Towns the Company Owned There was a time in East Texas…when you could live your entire life…without ever leaving the reach of a single company. They built your house. They paid your wages. They sold you your food. They taught your children…and sometimes… they buried your dead. These were the company towns of East Texas places that don’t always show up in the history books…but helped build the state as we know it. The Piney Woods System Long before oil changed Texas…the wealth of East Texas came from the forest. Endless stretches of longleaf pine straight, tall, and valuable. But the forests weren’t near cities. They were deep in the Piney Woods…isolated… difficult… and expensive to reach. So the lumber companies did something remarkable. They didn’t just build mills. They built entire towns. Places like Diboll, Manning, and Camden weren’t accidents of settlement they were designed systems. Efficient. Controlled. Purpose-built. A Life Inside the System In these towns…you didn’t just work for the company. You lived inside it. Your house? Owned by the company. Your groceries? Bought at the company store. Your paycheck? Sometimes paid in cash…sometimes in scrip, currency only good inside that same system. And if you stepped back and looked at it what you saw wasn’t just a town. It was a closed loop. A complete economic ecosystem…decades before anyone used words like “platform” or “vertical integration.” Diboll: The Model Town Take Diboll, for example. Built around the Southern Pine Lumber Company, it became one of the most structured company towns in Texas. Neighborhoods were organized. Workers were grouped, sometimes by job, sometimes by race. Life had a rhythm… defined by the mill whistle. Diboll lasted longer than most. Not because the system changed…but because the company adapted just enough to survive. Many others weren’t so fortunate. When the Forest Was Gone The thing about timber towns…is that they were built on something that could disappear. Tree by tree. Rail line by rail line. And when the forest was gone…the reason for the town disappeared with it. Places like Manning faded quietly. No dramatic collapse. No headlines. Just… empty houses. Silent tracks. And the slow return of the forest. Then Came Oil Then, in 1930, everything changed. The East Texas Oil Boom didn’t just create wealth, it created chaos. Where timber towns were planned…oil towns exploded. Kilgore. Joinerville and dozens more. Overnight, forests filled with derricks. Fields turned into tent cities, shacks were thrown up, and hurried streets. The companies were still there, but control was looser. Faster. Rougher. Temporary. If timber towns were systems…oil towns were surges. Control vs. Freedom And that’s the contrast that defines this hidden chapter. Timber towns offered stability, but at the cost of control. Oil towns offered opportunity but at the cost of order. Two different models of the same idea: What happens when an entire community…is built around a single industry? Closing Today, if you drive through East Texas…you’ll pass through places like Diboll without thinking twice. You might not notice what used to be there. The rows of company houses. The store where everyone shopped. The mill that set the rhythm of life. But the pattern hasn’t disappeared. It’s just changed form. Because the idea of a “company town”…never really went away. It evolved. From the forests of the Piney Woods…to the oil fields beneath them…this is another chapter in the Hidden History of Texas. But in reality, History isn’t over yet, because “The Company Town Never Left” There’s a phrase we don’t use much anymore. “Company town.” It sounds like something from another century; something tied to sawmills… rail lines… and oil derricks. But if you look a little closer…the idea didn’t disappear. It just changed form. In those East Texas towns, the company controlled the essentials. Where you lived. Where you worked. Where you shopped. Your economic life…was contained within a single system. And today? We don’t always live in physical company towns…but many of us live in digital ones. Think about it. The platforms we depend on, for communication, business, even identity They provide the marketplace. They set the rules. They take a percentage of every transaction. And if you step outside that system…you often lose access to the very audience you built. Now, Washington doesn’t call them company towns. It calls them markets. Platforms. Ecosystems. But the questions feel familiar. How much control is too much? What happens when one system becomes unavoidable?And who really owns the value created inside it? In East Texas, when the timber ran out…the towns disappeared. When oil slowed down…people moved on. But today’s syst
- Mar 21, 20268 min
Episode 86 – Ma Ferguson the first woman governor of Texas
Episode 86 - Ma Ferguson the first woman governor of Texas Hello everybody and welcome once again to the Hidden History of Texas. I’m Hank Wilson and this is Episode 86 – were I continue telling y’all about some of the “notorious” governors we’ve had. This episode is devoted to Miriam Amanda (Ma) Ferguson, the first woman governor of Texas. Born in Bell County on June13, 1875, to Joseph L. and Eliza (Garrison) Wallace, she attended Salado College and Baylor Female College at Belton. In 1899 at the age of 24 she married James Edward Ferguson in a ceremony in Bell County. She served as the first lady of Texas during the gubernatorial terms of her husband, who managed to get himself impeached during his second administration. I talked about his administration in a previous episode, which I’m sure is still available. Even though he had been impeached and forced out of office in 1924 Old Pa Ferguson tried to once again run for Governor. Now even in Texas we sometimes draw line as to who or what we want in the governor’s office, and the court’s said he was not eligible. In order to keep power in the family Miriam or Ma as she was known entered the race for the Texas governorship. Why was she called Ma? Prior to this entrance into politics, she had devoted her energies almost exclusively to her husband and two daughters and because of this and the combination of her first and middle initials, her supporters called her "Ma" Ferguson. While, in theory it was her campaign, she made it clear that if she were elected, she would follow the advice of her husband. This meant then, as she proudly said, that Texas thus would gain "two governors for the price of one." One goal of her campaign was to have her husband’s name vindicated. She promised to make extensive cuts in state appropriations. She condemned the Ku Klux Klan, and opposed passing new liquor legislation, (this was during the years leading up to prohibition). Initially, in the primary, she trailed the Klan-supported prohibitionist candidate, Felix D. Robertson; however, she was able to easily defeat him in an August run-off to become the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Then in November of 1924 she handily defeated the Republican nominee, George C. Butte, a former dean of the University of Texas law school. Many folks are unaware that in those days, the Republicans where the more liberal of the parties and the democrats were in favor of segregation and generally supported the Klan. She was inaugurated fifteen days after Wyoming's Nellie Ross, thus becoming the second woman governor in United States history. Her first administration is remember by historians as being dominated by political strife and controversy. What did she do or didn’t do? She did fulfilled a campaign promise to secure an antimask law against the Ku Klux Klan, (for those who are truly unaware of the KKK, they, much like today when people wear masks or hoods to cover their faces, the Klan wore hoods because they don’t want people to know who they are) however the courts overturned it. In her administration a series of events took place that many current voters can recognize due to how they seem to occur in today’s politics. For example, she had pledged to reduce state expenditures and the budget by $15 million, but in fact they increased. She and her husband, remember Pa, were accused of irregularities both in the granting of pardons and paroles and in the letting of road contracts by the state highway department. It seems that Ma Ferguson pardoned an average of 100 convicts a month, and she and "Pa" both were accused by critics of accepting bribes of land and cash payments. An attempt to impeach Ma failed, but in 1926 those controversies helped Attorney General Daniel James Moody defeat her and win the governorship. Two years later, in 1928, she decided not to run for office, but in 1930 the Texas Supreme Court once again rejected her husband's petition to place his name on the ballot for governor, so she decided to run. In the May primary she led Ross Sterling, but then Sterling defeated her in an August runoff. This loss turned out to be fairly good for her reputation because Sterling was blamed by the voters when Texans began to feel the full impact of the Great Depression. In February 1932 she again ran for governor under a platform of lowering taxes and once again reducing state expenditures. In what many see as ironic, she also condemned alleged waste, graft, and political favoritism by the Sterling-controlled highway commission. Because of the effect of the depression on Texans, she easily beat Sterling in the May primary by over 100,000 votes, she then narrowly won in the August runoff to secure the democratic nomination. Defeating Orville Bullington, the Republican nominee thus securing her second term as governor. This time her administration did not generate nearly as much controversy as the first. The fiscally conservative governor held the line on
- Mar 1, 202611 min
Notorious Governors of Texas – James “PA” Ferguson
Welcome to episode 85 of the Hidden History of Texas, today I'm talking about one of the most Notorious Governors of Texas - James "PA" Ferguson. James Edward (Pa) Ferguson, Texas governor, was born in 1871 near Salado, which is in Bell County and is fairly close to where I am, to James Edward and Fannie (Fitzpatrick) Ferguson. Sadly, his father passed away when Pa was only four, and his mother, being a true strong Texas woman stayed on working the farm and he began working in the fields as a young boy. When he was 12, he entered Salado College, which was a local preparatory school, but in a sign of things to come, was expelled for disobedience. At age 16 he left home for a life on the road and wandered throughout the Western states, where he did any type of job he could find. Eventually he returned home to Bell County, where he tried farming and working on a railroad-bridge gang. He did use this time to begin to study law and in 1897 he was admitted to the bar. He opened up a practice in Belton and then in 1899 he married Miriam A. Wallace. The couple had two children and since in those days lawyers weren’t as busy as they are today, he expanded his personal interests to real estate and insurance. He then turned his attention to banking and for several years was not only a member of the Texas Bankers Association but also associated with the Farmers State Bank of Belton. In 1907 he moved his family to the larger town of Temple where he joined in the formation and establishment of the Temple State Bank. Needless to say, it was during this time period when he was involved with banking that he also took an active interest in county and local politics. In spite of the fact that he never held a local office he was very aware of how local politics worked. He was a staunch opponent of prohibition and had fought against allowing what was known as the local-option out of Bell County. He served as a campaign manager for Robert V. Davidson in 1910 and worked with Oscar B. Colquitt in his successful gubernatorial campaign in 1912. Prohibition had been a major issue in the 1914 campaign, and there were candidates for the governor’s race on both sides of the issue. The prohibitionists held an elimination convention and pledged their support to Thomas H. Ball of Houston. The anti-prohibitionists tried to have their own convention, but Ferguson, even though he had been identified as an anti-prohibitionist, refused to publicly support it. As a result, the leaders at the convention was not able to eliminate him from receiving their endorsement and while they did not endorse him the other anti-prohibition candidates withdrew from the race. Due to his popularity Ferguson easily won the nomination by a majority of about 40,000 votes. Ferguson proved to be one of the more captivating speakers and had a native ability to persuade people. He was a masterful public speaker. His most popular and talked about proposition was a law that would actually limit how much rent a landlord could charge. For the folks who were known as “tenant farmers” this proved to be very popular. It was not popular among landowners, and he tried to assure landowners that the law would prove to be beneficial to everyone. After his election he was successful in getting the law passed, but it was soon declared unconstitutional. During his term the state began to provide aid to rural schools and there was enacted a relatively minor law that required compulsory school attendance. He was in favor of helping schools, and colleges were permitted to begin building programs. In order to pay for everything, educational appropriation bills were more generous than usual. Needless to say, these changes increased the ad valorem tax rate for state purposes advanced from 12½ to 30 cents. The prison system increased its landownership and since Texas had many ‘prison farms’ the system benefited from the rising price of farm commodities. During World War I the system became self-sustaining and profitable. In 1916 Ferguson's reelection seemed almost a certainty. The prohibitionists decided to support a relatively unknown Charles H. Morris of Winnsboro. The major issues of the campaign were prohibition, the tax rate, and certain rumors concerning the Ferguson administration. Regardless of the rumors, Ferguson was reelected by a majority of about 60,000 votes, but there was enough opposition to show that many Texans were not completely pleased with his administration. His second administration did little of consequence, except pass enough appropriation bills to force the tax rate to rise to the constitutional maximum of 35 cents. This is when old Pa made a serious mistake. He got involved in a quarrel with the University of Texas. Turns out the board of regents refused to fire some faculty members that the governor didn’t like. Well, he threw a Texas sized temper tantrum and vetoed almost the entire appropriation for the university. Needless
- Feb 15, 202611 min
Episode 84 – Notorious Governors of Texas, Up First Edmund J. Davis
This is Episode 84 - Notorious Governors of Texas Edmund J. Davis and the first of our series of Notorious Governors of Texas. With all the politics in the news today, I’ve naturally been thinking about politics and politicians. One group that has always intrigued me are governors. Not presidents, or senators, or members of the house, but governors. They’re the ones who really give a state its identity, well at least in a way, because they’re most often the ‘face’ of the state. Here in Texas, our current governor seems to love making pronouncements about how his administration is going to fight this or that evil that might be encroaching on Texan’s freedoms. More often than not, it’s usually just a bunch of fluff that his advisors know will make his hard-core supporters emotional and get him on the evening news. After all he’s running for re-election and needs to make sure people don’t forget about him. Naturally this got me to thinking about Texas governors in the past, so I started researching what I thought of the most notorious governors in the history of the state. These governors often gained notoriety due to the turbulent, defining political eras in which they served, such as the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Progressive era scandals. So, today I’m going to start a series on these leaders from the past. First is Edmund J. Davis: Union Army Officer and Reconstruction Governor of Texas. Davis was governor in the reconstruction period 1870 and 1874. He was a Republican, (not the type of Republican we have today, these were the anti-slavery, pro-union republicans). Since he was a Republican during Reconstruction, needless to say he was very unpopular with a large percentage of white Texans. They thought of him as a tyrant, because he believed in using the state police and he was adamant in enforcing what many considered to be radical Republican policies. Who was he, and how did he become governor? As were many Texans at the time, he wasn’t originally from Texas. He was born at St. Augustine, Florida, on October 2, 1827, to William Godwin and Mary Ann (Channer) Davis. His lineage traced back to a Grandfather Godwin Davis, who had immigrated from England to Virginia and had fought and perished during the Revolutionary War. His father, who lived in South Carolina, was a land developer and attorney in St. Augustine. As a young man Davis was educated in Florida, and at age 19 moved, with the family to Galveston, Texas, in January 1848. In Galveston he started a career working in the post office while he undertook the study of law. In 1849 he relocated to Corpus Christi, where he worked in a store and continued to read and study law and in the fall of 1849, he was admitted to the bar. Between 1849 and 1853 he was an inspector and deputy collector of customs at Laredo. In 1853 he became district attorney of the Twelfth Judicial District at Brownsville. About 1856 Governor Elisha M. Pease named him judge of the same district, and Davis continued to serve as a state judge until 1861. As judge he accompanied the ranger unit of Capt. William G. Tobin, who was involved in the Cortina affair at Brownsville in 1859 On April 6, 1858, Davis married Elizabeth Anne Britton, daughter of Forbes Britton, a state senator and friend of Sam Houston. Now we have his personal story, but this is Texas and in Texas nothing is simple, particularly politics. Davis was a Whig until the mid-1850s. OK, who were the Whigs? They were a major political party that was very active from 1834 to 1854. They were originally formed in order to oppose President Andrew Jackson's policies and his desire to expand executive power. (see power hungry president’s isn’t exactly anything new in American history). They supported Henry Clay’s "American System," and they believed in modernization, industrialization, protective tariffs, and a national bank. The fell apart by infighting over the expansion of slavery into new territories. This caused Northern "Conscience" Whigs to join the Republican Party and Southern "Cotton" Whigs to join other factions, such as the fledgling democratic party and some joined the “Know-Nothing” party. In 1855 after the Whigs fell apart, Davis joined the Democratic party. In 1861 even though the Texas democratic party was a strong advocate for secession and were pro-slavery, Davis supported Sam Houston and opposed secession. He ran unsuccessfully to become a delegate to the Secession Convention. Once Texas voted to leave and announced it was seceding from the union, Davis refused to take the oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, and the state vacated his judgeship on April 24. Unable to support the Confederacy in May of 1862 Davis fled Texas and travelled to New Orleans. From New Orleans along with John L. Haynes and William Alexander, he went to Washington. The men met with President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln recommended that the three would be given help so they could provide weapons to troops t
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About The Hidden History of Texas
The episodes cover Texas history from the earliest days of Indigenous peoples to Spanish exploration, control by Mexico, the Anglo’s take over, Texas becomes part of the U.S., the confederates move in, and back to the U.S. The audio files are accurate and try to tell the story as best as they can from all sides of the issues. The hidden history of Texas is a history replete with heroes and villains of all sorts. There were good and bad people throughout Texas history, just as there were throughout world history.
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