th
20
Century Texas
Unit Survey
Modern Era (1900s) – World War II (1940s)
Texas in the 1900s
• The Modern Era of Texas is marked
by two major events that happened in
southeast Texas in 1900 and 1901.
• One of these involves WATER and
the other involves OIL!
Galveston Hurricane of 1900
• September 8, 1900: Galveston is struck
by a hurricane of unbelievable force.
• Impact:
1. worst natural disaster in U.S. history
2. more than 6000 killed or injured
3. aftermath brought new changes in city
government, housing and protective
seawall construction for residents
Aftermath of Galveston Hurricane
• Engineers built a seawall around the
shoreline to prevent damaging waves and
water surges from destroying homes and
businesses. Houses were raised on
platforms or stilts as protection.
• Galveston adopts a new city manager
form of government to handle the
rebuilding (most common form of city
government in Texas today)
Oil – Texas Gold!
• January 10, 1901: Texas strikes oil at
Spindletop (near Beaumont).
• First major oil strike in Texas!
• Gusher shot 100,000 barrels of oil per day
until capped 9 days later.
• Started the oil boom in Texas.
• Boosted the overall economic development
in Texas, especially Houston.
Effects of Spindletop
• Impact:
1. Oil fields created new boomtowns and
oil production companies in Texas
(Humble Oil, Exxon-Mobil).
2. Most important – it encouraged oil
drilling and production in other parts
of Texas.
Houston Benefits from Oil Boom
• Houston became the center of the oil
business industry.
• Petroleum companies needed the
banking, insurance, transportation, and
legal services Houston could provide.
• 1914 – Houston Shipping Channel
opened which allowed large ships and
barges into the port.
Oil Boom Opens Other Industries
• Oil boom created demand for lumber for
housing, businesses, and oil derrick
construction.
• Major industry in Piney Woods of East
Texas.
• Also created new towns built around the
lumber industry.
Progressive Movement in Texas
• Population growth in the cities
brought in new problems and forced
Texans to deal with existing ones.
• The Progressive Movement
attempted to reform (solve) these
problems.
Progressive Movement Reforms
• Reforms included:
1. new form of city government (after
Galveston hurricane),
2. the Terrell Election Law,
3. women’s suffrage,
4. prohibition,
5. evangelical and other social services
organizations
Progressive Reforms
• Terrell Election Law was passed in 1903
and remains the basic voting law in Texas
today. This Law ensured:
1. elections would be carried out fairly
2. secret ballot voting
3. restricted campaigning near voting
booths
4. primary elections held before the last
general election
Progressive Reforms
• Women were still working
to reform election laws and
gain voting rights.
• 1918 - Governor William
P. Hobby granted Texas
women voting rights in
Texas primary elections.
• 1920 – 19th Amendment
passed gave women
constitutional voting rights
in elections.
Progressive Reforms
• Progressive reformers targeted the sale of
alcoholic beverages as the center of social ills
(no-good). They argued that saloons were
associated with illegal activities.
• Groups including WCTU claimed alcohol was
associated with illegal activities like gambling,
theft, and left many families in poverty.
• 1918 -Texas approved a statewide prohibition
law.
• 1920 – 18th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution made prohibition the law of the
land.
Progressive Reforms
• Progressives focused on social morality, a
return to religion, and community service.
• The Young Men’s Christian Association
(YMCA) was a very influential organization
that successfully promoted “daily
evangelical Christianity,” while promoting
good sportsmanship in athletic contests in
gyms. The YMCA remains much the same
today.
Discrimination in Texas
• Democratic Party passed Jim Crow laws, that
discriminated against African Americans and many
Mexican-Americans. These laws blocked these
people from using public hotels, restaurants,
and attending entertainment events.
• Discrimination was present in housing and
education, too. African Americans, as well as
Mexican-Americans lived in sections of towns with
inadequate housing, lighting, sewage, and police
protection. Children attended separate schools
which were often poorly constructed, lacking basic
school equipment and supplies.
Discrimination in Texas
• Racial unrest led to violence. Those
accused of minor crimes were sometimes
lynched by mobs (usually KKK).
• Ku Klux Klan was a politically powerful
group during this time.
• 1902 - Democratic Party requires payment
of a poll tax and adopts a “whites only”
restriction for the primary election.
These bar most African Americans from
voting and/or participating in politics.
NAACP and Mutualistas
• 1912 – In Houston, the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) began.
They worked to end discrimination
and create racial equality.
• Mexican Americans joined labor
unions and formed mutualistas
(mutual assistance societies) to
provide community service with
weddings, funerals, and aid to the
poor.
World War I
• 1914 – World War I began, but the U.S.
remained neutral (stayed out of the war).
• 1917 - German submarines sank ship (the
Luisitania) carrying American passengers.
This forces the U.S. into the war! In April,
President Woodrow Wilson officially
declares war against Germany.
The Zimmerman Telegram
• German diplomat, Arthur Zimmerman,
sent a secret-code telegram to Mexico.
• In telegram, Germany promised to help
Mexico regain its “lost territories” of Texas,
Arizona, and New Mexico in exchange for
its support.
• News reaches the U.S. and Texas;
they are furious!
Texas and World War I
• About 200,000 U.S. troops are Texans. 25% are
African Americans.
• Texas is excellent for training troops
because of wide open spaces and
many connecting railroad networks.
• Training camps include:
1.
Kelly Field in San Antonio –
world’s largest flight
training school
2.
Camp Logan near Houston
3.
other camps in Waco, Fort Worth
Texas Soldiers in the War
• The War caused significant changes for
Texas soldiers.
1. many got health and dental care for
the first time.
2. many had never before traveled
outside of Texas.
3. many received more education and
specialized training.
Texans Support the War at Home
• Texans encouraged to
“Do your bit” at home to
support troops by:
1. buying war bonds and
liberty loans
2. buying war stamps
3. giving to the Red Cross
4. ration food supplies
Wartime Prosperity in Texas
• Businesses, industries, farmers, and ranchers
prospered during the War because they
produced many things for the troops.
• Items included:
1. cotton/wool = tents, uniforms
2. leather = boots
3. meat/grain = food supplies
4. petroleum industry = gas, lubricants
for machinery
Farmers, ranchers went into debt to expand farms
for wartime production.
Ku Klux Klan
• Ku Klux Klan was a secret anti-minority
organization formed during Reconstruction
• Used violence against victims (African
Americans, Jews, Catholics)
• 1920s – very influential in Texas politics
• Many Texans fed up with Klan’s violence
and elected anti-Klan Miriam “Ma”
Ferguson as Governor. First woman to be
elected Governor in Texas!
Urban Texas
• 1920s - Texas changed from a rural,
agricultural state to an urban one in which
people had more leisure time.
• Most homes now had:
1. electricity, phone service
2. refrigerators, electric appliances
3. washing machines, irons, vacuums
Women and Equality
• 1920s – living, working conditions
improved for most white women in Texas;
limited jobs, opportunities remained for
African, Mexican American women.
• More women entered politics now. Jane
McCallum held powerful posts in
Democratic Party and was Texas
Secretary of State under 2 governors.
Texas Highway Department
• 1922 – more than one million cars and
trucks were registered in Texas, ending
the horse and buggy era.
• Traffic laws were passed and police
enforced them.
• Texas created the Texas Highway
Department and became eligible for
federal funds to build new roads.
Great Depression Begins
• In 1929, early in Republican Herbert
Hoover’s presidency, the U. S. stock
market collapsed.
• Many investors, hoping to make quick
fortunes, drove up the price of stock.
• Some investors borrowed money heavily
to buy stocks, and when stock prices fell,
those investors and the banks that loaned
them money were wiped out.
Too Much Oil
• Late 1920s - East Texas oil fields
produced more oil than the rest of the
state of Texas combined.
• Overproduction caused oil prices to
drastically drop.
• April 1931 - Texas Railroad Commission
issued an order for operators to limit
production and by 1935, oil priced
stabilized.
Cotton Crisis for Farmers
• 1930s - Cotton prices dropped and the
Great Depression forced the prices even
lower.
• The Texas Department of Agriculture
urged farmers to reduce the number of
acres planted in cotton.
The Dust Bowl in Texas
• After World War I, when wheat prices were
high, farmers tried to earn more money by
planting more crops.
• But, during the 1920s, wheat prices
dropped drastically from overproduction.
• Farmers plowed under the grasses of
the plains to plant crops, but there was
nothing to hold down the soil from strong
winds.
The Dust Bowl in Texas
• 1930s - A severe drought added to the
problem as dust storms made the area
into a Dust Bowl; it lasted 7 years.
• People became ill from lung diseases and
many families lost their farms because of
hard times.
• The Dust Bowl covered a five-state area:
Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New
Mexico, and Texas.
A New Deal for Texas
• 1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt won the
presidential election, with almost 90 percent
of Texans supporting him.
• After taking office in March 1933, he started
reform programs called the “New Deal.”
• John N. Garner, former Texas Congressman
and then the U.S. Vice President, helped
push New Deal programs in Congress.
New Deal Programs in Texas
• New agencies to deal with problems of the
Depression were known as alphabet
agencies because people called them by
their initials.
• Agencies included: Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC), National Youth Administration
(NYA), Public Works Administration (PWA).
New Deal for Rural Texans
• New Deal programs tried to slow down soil
erosion to help farmers in the Dust Bowl
regions.
• New planting and contour plowing
techniques helped farmers protect the
topsoil from blowing away.
• The federal government paid farmers to
plant trees as windbreaks, and by 1938,
sand dunes around Dalhart were gone.
Mexican Americans Fight
for their Rights
• 1929 - The League of United Latin
American Citizens (LULAC) is
founded in Corpus Christi.
• They worked for Mexican American
rights in courts, hiring, and
education. They fought against
school segregation of Mexican
American children.
World War II
• Military leaders in Germany, Italy,
and Japan took control and began
wars of expansion. They signed a
treaty promising not to attack each
other and became known as the
Axis Powers because they thought
the earth “revolved around them.”
• When Germany invaded Poland in
1939, and continued invasions of
several smaller countries, European
democracies like France and
England were forced into action, and
World War II began.
U.S. Supports the Allies
• Roosevelt favored the Allies–nations at
war with the Axis powers–although the
United States was officially neutral.
• To assist the Allies,
Roosevelt made
military equipment
available through
the Lend-Lease Act.
U.S. Goes to War
• December 7, 1941 - Japan attacked the
U.S. troops based at Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii, and the United States officially
entered the war.
• World War II would not end until 1945 with
a victory for the Allied forces.
Texas Leaders in World War II
• General Dwight Eisenhower, who was
born in Denison, Texas, commanded
Allied forces in Europe, while
• Admiral Chester Nimitz of Fredericksburg
was one of 12 navy admirals from Texas.
• Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby of Houston,
organized and served as commander of
the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
(WAAC).
U.S. Forces Train in Texas
• Texas’s favorable climate, location
between the two coasts, and wide open
spaces made it ideal for military bases.
• More than 100 military bases were built or
enlarged.
Industrial Production in Texas
• World War II depended heavily on tanks,
ships, airplanes, gasoline, explosives, and
other supplies. Texas had large supplies
of natural gas, water, timber, and sulfur
and supplied 80% of the oil needed.
• From 1942 to 1944, Texas industries
boomed, resulting in a large population
growth.
New Methods of Production
• Wartime needs encouraged development
of improved products and methods of
production.
• Scientists invented synthetic rubber from
petroleum, and plants were built in Texas.
Home Front Workers
• Between 1940 and 1943,
about 450,000 rural
Texans moved to cities to
work in wartime factories.
• There were new job
opportunities for women,
African Americans, and
Mexican Americans, but
discrimination was still a
problem.
Texans Support the War at Home
• Food items, gasoline, tires, and other
scarce supplies were rationed.
• Texans supplemented their food by
planting “victory gardens.”
• They collected scrap iron for use in
manufacturing war supplies.
• Texans contributed to the Red Cross
and other agencies serving the military.
Texas After the War
• Airplane and ship plants either closed or began
producing consumer goods.
• Women who worked in factories generally were
fired so that returning servicemen could have
their jobs.
• Since farming had become mechanized and
required fewer workers, most tenant farmers
never returned to work on farms.
New Attitudes of Minorities
• Many African Americans and Mexican
Americans realized the unfairness of fighting
and dying for democracy and freedom when
many of their civil rights were denied at home.
• Many Mexican American veterans joined
LULAC, while others formed the American GI
Forum of Texas.
• The NAACP also became more active during
and after the war.
Texans Return to Civilian Life
• After the war, many factories closed down and
there were not enough consumer goods for
everyone.
• 1944 - Congress passed the GI Bill of Rights
which helped veterans in various ways, including
paying college tuition.
• As a result, the United States economy grew and
prospered.
Foreign Affairs
• U.S. troops served in Germany and Japan as
armies of occupation.
• New threats emerged when the Soviet Union set
up Communist dictatorships in several Eastern
European nations.
• The United States was committed to stopping
the spread of Communism and became involved
in the Cold War.
VS.
New Threats
• 1950 - Communist North Korea invaded South
Korea and the United States was again at war –
the Korean War.
• This was would not end until 1953.