Texas Almanac, 2004-2005 Page: 50
672 p. : col. ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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50 Texas Almanac 2004-2005
The covered wagon or "prairie schooner" played an important part in the settlement of Texas. This photo was taken in Hale County
north of Lubbock around 1920. File photo.law. Peace officers and other officials often ignored
speakeasies and gambling. The Klan seemed to many
Texans to be an appropriate instrument for restoring law
and order and for maintaining morality in towns and cit-
ies. By 1922, many of the state's large communities
were under direct Klan influence, and a Klan-backed
candidate, Earle Mayfield, was elected to the U.S. Sen-
ate, giving Texas the reputation as the most powerful
Klan bastion in the Union. Hiram Wesley Evans of Dal-
las also was elected imperial wizard of the national Klan
in that year.
The Klan became more directly involved in politics
and planned to elect the next governor in 1924. Judge
Felix Robertson of Dallas got the organization's backing
in the Democratic primary. Former governor Jim Fergu-
son filed to run for the office, but the Texas Supreme
Court ruled that he could not because of his impeach-
ment conviction. So Ferguson placed his wife, Miriam
A. Ferguson, on the ballot. Several other prominent
Democrats also entered the race.
The Fergusons made no secret that Jim would have a
big influence on his wife's administration. One cam-
paign slogan was, "Two governors for the price of one."
Mrs. Ferguson easily won the runoff against Robertson
when many Texans decided that "Fergusonism" was
preferable to the Klan in the governor's office.
Minorities began organizing in Texas to seek their
civil rights. The National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People (NAACP) opened a Texas
chapter in 1912, and by 1919, there were chapters in 31
Texas communities. Similarly, Mexican-Texans formed
Orden Hijos de America in 1921, and in 1929, the
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
was organized in Corpus Christi.
The Klan dominated the Legislature in 1923, pass-
ing a law barring blacks from participation in the Demo-
cratic primary. Although blacks had in fact been barred
from voting in primaries for years, this law gave Dr.
Lawrence A. Nixon, a black dentist from El Paso, the
opportunity to go to court to fight the all-white primary.In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the statute,
but that was only the beginning of several court battles,
which were not resolved until 1944.
Disgruntled Democrats and Klansmen tried to beat
Mrs. Ferguson in the general election in 1924, but she
was too strong. Voters also sent 91 new members to the
Texas House, purging it of many of the Klan-backed
representatives. After that election, the Klan's power
ebbed rapidly in Texas.
Mrs. Ferguson named Emma Grigsby Meharg as
Texas' first woman secretary of state in 1925. The gov-
ernors Ferguson administration was stormy. Jim was
accused of cronyism in awarding highway contracts and
in other matters. And "Ma" returned to her husband's
practice of liberal clemency for prisoners. In two years,
Mrs. Ferguson extended clemency to 3,595 inmates.
Although Jim Ferguson was at his bombastic best in
the 1926 Democratic primary, young Attorney General
Dan Moody had little trouble winning the nomination
and the general election.
At age 33, Moody was the youngest person ever to
become governor of Texas. Like many governors during
this period, he was more progressive than the Legisla-
ture, and much of his program did not pass. Moody was
successful in some government reorganization. He also
cleaned up the highway department, which had been
criticized under the Fergusons, and abandoned the lib-
eral clemency policy for prisoners. And Moody worked
at changing Texas' image as an anti-business state. "The
day of the political trust-buster is gone," he told one
Eastern journalist.
Progressives and prohibitionists still had a major
influence on the Democratic Party, and 1928 was a
watershed year for them. Moody easily won renomina-
tion and re-election. But the state party was drifting
away from the direction of national Democrats. When
Al Smith, a wet and a Roman Catholic, won the presi-
dential nomination at the national Democratic conven-
tion in Houston, Texans were hard-pressed to remain
faithful to the "party of the fathers." Moody, who had
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Alvarez, Elizabeth Cruce. Texas Almanac, 2004-2005, book, 2004; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth162511/m1/50/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.