20 th Century Texas Unit Survey Modern Era (1900s) – World War II (1940s)

20th Century TexasUnit 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 fairly2. secret ballot voting3. restricted campaigning near voting booths4. 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.