Shiner Gazette Analysis

In the United States, for the last four decades, from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan through the two Bush Presidencies, the Republican Party won the White House by amassing large margins among white voters (Lizza.) The state of Texas has been reliably Republican since the 1970s and there are various elements to Texas political culture that can be narrowed down to three essential ideological trends: economic liberalism, or faith in the free market economy, social conservatism, or favoring traditional values and moralism, and populism, or promoting the rights and worthiness of ordinary people (Texas Political Culture.) As a result, the dominant political mood in Texas favors low taxes, minimal government services, and policies that are

In 1944, Primus King, a black man registered to vote in Georgia, attempted to cast a ballot in the Democratic primary. He was turned away by a police officer who escorted him off the premises of the Muscogee County Courthouse. This was a time in Georgia where the Democratic Party controlled all of the politics in Georgia and in the South. Primus King’s challenge to the white primary was planned by a group of black civil rights

selectively.” (Laney 11) Other laws and practices, such as the white primary, attempted to evade the 15th Amendment by allowing private political parties to conduct elections and establish qualifications for their members. As a result of these efforts, in the former Confederate states nearly all black citizens were disenfranchised and removed by 1910. The process of restoring the rights stolen by these tactics would take many decades.

This article focuses on the rise and fall of the “black-white coalition” of populist advocates in Grimes County, TX. The period of Reconstruction gave black people opportunities and power. For instance, during this time, blacks in Grimes County successfully formed a Republican organization. Despite white-supremacists of the Democratic party seeking to end the group, black Republicans managed to retain local power and send legislators to Austin, even after the period of Reconstruction ended. A few years later, a meeting was held in Grimes County in which candidates from black and “lily-white” Republican groups, and Independent Greenbackers were nominated for county offices. Among the candidates was Independent Greenbacker Garrett Scott. Unlike other candidates, Scott had a willingness to publicly associate with blacks. In fact, the article mentions that Scott undermined the idea of white solidarity. After winning the election for county sheriff, Scott became political allies with black district clerk, Jim Kennard. The two worked together to create the black-white coalition that became the People’s Party. The People’s party did well up until 1898. However, the coalition did not sit well with the men of the democratic party. The Democrats, led by J.G. McDonald, came together and held a covert meeting in which they planned to take back county offices that populists filled. This was the first of many meetings of the White Man’s Union. The union made their debut once the spark of

Historians have found that carpetbaggers in Texas hold a numeral insignificance. This is due to the fact that very few Northerners who arrived after the war ever even held political offices. During the Constitutional Convention of 1868-1869, a mere seven of ninety-three delegates were able to be considered carpetbaggers. In the Republican administration of Governor Edmund J. Davis, Northerners held only the positions of state adjutant general and chief justice of Texas supreme court. Eight out of sixty total district court judges were carpetbaggers. This goes to show that the so-called carpetbaggers weren’t so power hungry after all. At the county level the documented number of northern carpetbaggers was also small. One scholar, Randolph B.

The Jacksonian democracy of the 1820s-1830s is often associated with an expansion of the political influence, economic opportunities, and social equality available to “the common man,” a concept of the masses which President Andrew Jackson and his newly founded Democratic party came to represent. The new administration certainly saw gains for the majority; namely, public participation in government increased to unprecedented levels, and several economic decisions were made to favor the people over monopolies. Beginning with their exaggerated portrayal of the “corrupt” 1824 election however, the Jacksonian democrats also left a legacy of substantial miscalculations

This proved to be a very important act passed. The passing of the voting to African Americans was strongly not wanted. The Ku Klux Klan along with other hate groups tried to prevent the 15th Amendment from being in place by violence and intimidation. In view of that fact the practical question immediately is, whether that situation of things could be changed by legislation. And if it could, if the protection of those whom the Ku-Klux keeps from the polls by terror would prevent the national government falling into the hands of the Ku-Klux party, ought they not to be protected and the government saved”, The Ku Klux 1871. “Two decisions in 1876 by the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of enforcement under the Enforcement Act and the Force Act, and together with the end of Reconstruction marked by the removal of federal troops after the Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877, resulted in a climate in which violence could be used to depress black voter turnout and fraud could be used to undo the effect of lawfully cast votes”, Before the Voting Rights Act.

In “Populist Dreams and Negro Rights: East Texas as a Case Study,” Lawrence Goodwyn keys in on the triumphs of the People 's Party in Grimes County, Texas. I discovered Populism in Grimes County is the narrative of an interracial alliance that had its beginning in Reconstruction and persevered for more than an era. I resolved why the long post-Reconstruction period emerges as the social request that has been composed progressively along racial lines; the time period encroached as a brief gleaming light in parts of the South. I learned how some white Southerners have generally been a spread for the district 's skepticism and other issues. Goodwyn establishes a viewpoint about the possible results for a greater number of individuals voting in a free society. I understand that the variables of pressure and coercion caused an end to influence at the polling stations; there was corruption occurring with vote counts. The Grimes County story significantly describes this disappointment; however in the understanding, it gives into the hidden legislative issues of black disfranchisement and the accomplishment of a solid single-party political environment in the American South it is not one of a kind.

Political advocacy organizations have historically played a big part in securing political rights for minority groups in Western Liberal Democracies. Whether we look to the now infamous Boston Tea Party to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, we observe the importance of political organizations in their quest to ensure equitable rights for the people whom they represent. In context of the early twentieth century, the most prominent group to represent African-American’s in the United States was that of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP, as it is more commonly called, was founded on February 12, 1909 by a mixed group of individuals including but not limited to Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. DuBois and Archibald Grimké with the goal of creating a civil rights organization that would help assist in organizing for civil rights for blacks. One of its most prominent members, Charles Hamilton Houston, who became a part of the organization around the mid-twentieth century, changed the trajectory of the organization for years to come. Hence this essay

In fact, throughout Reconstruction, African Americans comprised about 90% of GOP membership and 44 African hard work of a number of dedicated African American men and women that the earliest foundations of the Republican Party of Texas were laid. The first ever state Republican convention that met in Houston on July 4, 1867 was predominantly African American in composition, with about 150 African American Texans attending, and 20 Anglos. The second State GOP Chairman, Norris Wright Cuney, an African-American from Galveston who led the Republican Party from 1883 to 1897, is said by State historians to have held “the most important political position given to a black man of the South in the nineteenth century.”

The college students tried to get enough voters to put African Americans into the governing house of congress. They educated voters and formed a party for those people in Mississippi. “The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party waited in the wings. The MFDP’s bold challenge at the Democratic National Convention was still seven weeks away. To unseat Mississippi’s all-white delegation, Freedom Democrats would need as many registration forms as possible for their parallel party”(Watson

William Jennings Bryan was a prominent figure in U.S. politics during the late 19th century and early 20th century who was known for his strong faith, incredible oratory skills, and relentless fight for the “common man”. During his three candidacies, Bryan embedded the eventual shift of the Democratic Party from a central focus on laissez-faire capitalism into a party of the people that advocated for the working class and fought for numerous political reforms.

Polk took this to heart and led a strong, expansionist campaign with the slogan ‘Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!’ resonated with voters. Not only did Polk embrace the annexation of Texas, but he also challenged Britain’s presence in the Oregon territory. While Polk was able to capture the imagination of the public with his slogan, the Whigs could barely use their slogan as a headline. “Hurray, Hurray America’s Risin’—Vote for Clay and Frelinghuysen” was wordy and did not give the voters any idea of who the candidates were or what they stood for. Whigs also faced Third Party problems with the Liberty Party. When Clay finally realized he could not win the election without acknowledging the Texas issue, he softened his position on annexation, angering Northerners who fled to the Liberty Party as the only strict non-expansionist option. As the results came in, Clay and the Whigs realized how important the annexation of Texas

James Laurence Laughlin wrote an article “Causes of Agricultural Unrest” that was published in the Atlantic Monthly. He wrote, “the farmers, in all honesty, have attributed their misfortunes to the “constriction” in prices”, caused by lack of gold, not overproduction of their crops. He then went on to explain how that could not be possible, and we simply have produced too much wheat. Poet Vachel Lindsay wrote a poem concerning the subject, entitled, “BRYAN, BRYAN, BRYAN, BRYAN: The campaign of 1896 as viewed at the Time by a Sixteen Year Old, etc.” In it he mentioned the “Election at midnight; Boy Bryan’s defeat” which was when the Populists lost the election. He then wrote “Defeat of the wheat; victory of the letterfiles” and “Defeat…[of] the blue bells of the Rockies, and the blue bonnets of Texas, by the Pittsburgh alleys” He was simply saying that the city people had defeated them and would therefore get their way.

By 2050, Hispanics alone are projected to be the new majority with Anglos only constituting a mere 27.5 percent of the Texas population (Jillson 17). A minority majority has taken place where the minority population together is larger than the Anglo population. Wasserman effectively explains the situation in stating, “Democrats’ coalition of non-white, young and well-educated voters continues to expand every election, while the Republicans’ coalition of white, older and less-educated voters keeps shrinking”. However this simple change in demographics alone is not enough to predict the demise of the Republican Party’s dominance in Texas government. African American support is crucial to the Democratic Party’s successful competition with the Republican Party.