Texas
Texas is a
state in both the
West and
South regions of the
United States of America. It is also considered part of the
Southwest and the
Great Plains. With an area of 268,581
square miles (
695,622 km²) and a population of 22.8 million, Texas is second to
Alaska in area, and second to
California in population.
The state name derives from a word in the
Caddoan language of the
Hasinai:
táysha,
tecas, or
tejas (the Spanish spelling); meaning "those who are friends," "friends," or "allies".
Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 and existed as the independent
Republic of Texas for nearly 10 years. It joined the
United States in
1845 as the 28th state. The state is often used as a
point of reference for large geographical areas.
Texas boasts that "
Six Flags" have flown over its soil: the
Fleur-de-lis of
France, and the national flags of
Spain,
Mexico, the
Republic of Texas, the
United States of America and the
Confederate States of America.
Native American tribes who once lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include
Apache,
Atakapan, Bidai,
Caddo,
Comanche,
Cherokee,
Kiowa,
Tonkawa,
Wichita, and
Karankawa of
Galveston. Currently, there are three federally recognized Native American tribes which reside in Texas: the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, and the
Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo of Texas.
European and American settlement
On
November 6,
1528, shipwrecked Spanish
conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European in Texas; in
1537, he wrote about his experiences in a work called
La relación ("The Relation").
Prior to
1821, Texas was part of the Spanish dominions of
New Spain.
Moses Austin bought 200,000 acres (800 km²) of land of his choice. In 1821, Texas became part of
Mexico and in 1824 became the northern section of
Coahuila y Tejas. On
January 3,
1823,
Stephen F. Austin began a colony of 300 American families along the
Brazos River. This group became known as the "Old Three Hundred." The "Conventions" of
1832 and
1833 responded to rising unrest at the policies of the ruling
Mexican government.
War for Independence
In
1835,
Antonio López de Santa Anna,
President of Mexico, proclaimed a unified constitution for all Mexican territories, including Texas. North American settlers in Texas announced they intended to secede from Mexico rather than be forced to the new Mexican constitution and instead, asked for consideration under the original 1824 Mexican Constitution which allowed: freedom of religion, freedom of thought and the press and also enslavement, which Mexico had abolished under this new constitution. Other policies that irritated the
Texans included the forcible disarmament of Texan settlers, and the expulsion of immigrants and legal land owners originally from the United States. The example of the Centralista forces' suppression of dissidents in
Zacatecas also inspired fear of the Mexican government.
 |
Republic of Texas. The present-day outlines of the U.S. states are superimposed on the boundaries of 1836"1845 |
On
March 2,
1836, the
Convention of 1836 signed the Texas "Declaration of Independence," declaring Texas an independent nation. On
April 21,
1836, the Texans won their independence when they defeated the Mexican forces of Santa Anna at the
Battle of San Jacinto. A factor in the defeat of Santa Anna's army at
San Jacinto was the time the Texas Army got to gather itself, thanks to a small group of defenders at
The Alamo and General
Sam Houston's strategy of giving up land until he had rallied an army. Santa Anna was captured and signed the
Treaties of Velasco, which gave Texas firm boundaries; Mexico repudiated the treaties, considered Texas a breakaway province, and vowed to reconquer it. However the Mexican political system was so unstable that it was never able to make good on its threats. Later in
1836, the Texans adopted a constitution that formally legalized slavery in Texas. The
Republic of Texas included all the area now included in the state of Texas, and additional unoccupied territory to the west and northwest.
Annexation and Statehood
Texans strongly wanted
annexation to the
United States.
Mexico threatened war if this happened.
Great Britain tried to maintain Texas independence (as a counterweight to the United States), maintained a
Texas Embassy in London, and tried to convince
Mexico to stop threatening war. Texas was fast-growing and quite wealthy, and quite capable of protecting itself by the mid 1840s. However, American politics intruded; strong Northern opposition to adding another slave state blocked annexation until the election of
1844 was won on a pro-annexation platform by
James K. Polk. In
1845, Texas was admitted to the
United States as a constituent
state of the Union. War with Mexico followed, with decisive American victories. Texas grew rapidly as migrants poured into the rich cotton lands.
Civil War
During the
American Civil War, Texas seceded from the
United States on
February 1,
1861 and joined the
Confederate States of America March 2,
1861. Texas was most useful for supplying hardy soldiers for Confederate forces (veterans of the Mexican War), and in cavalry. As a whole, Texas was mainly a "supply state" for the Confederate forces until mid 1863, when the Union capture of the
Mississippi River made large movements of men or cattle impossible. Texas regiments fought in every major battle throughout the war.
The last battle of the Civil War, the
Battle of Palmito Ranch, was fought in Texas, on
May 12,
1865, well after Lee's surrender on
April 9,
1865 at
Appomattox Court House,
Virginia, because word of the surrender had not yet reached Texas. Texas descended into near-anarchy during the two months between the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia and the assumption of authority by (Union) General Gordon, as Confederate forces demobilized or disbanded and government property passed into private hands through distribution or plunder.
Reconstruction and New South: 1865"1913
Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the
Emancipation Proclamation on
June 19,
1865 in
Galveston, Texas, by General Gordon Granger; nearly 1-1/2 years after the original announcement of
January 1,
1863. On
March 30,
1870, although Texas did not meet all the requirements, the
United States Congress readmitted Texas into the
Union.
Texas in Prosperity, Depression, and War: 1914"1945
The first major oil well in Texas was drilled at
Spindletop, the little hill south of
Beaumont, on the morning of
January 10,
1901. Other oil fields were later discovered nearby in
East Texas, in
West Texas and under the
Gulf of Mexico. The resulting "Oil Boom" permanently transformed the economy of Texas. Oil production averaged three million barrels of oil per day at its peak.
The economy, which had experienced significant recovery since the Civil War, was dealt a double blow by
the Great Depression and the
Dust Bowl.
Immediately preceding and during
WWII, existing military bases in Texas were expanded and numerous new training bases were built, especially for Naval and Military Aviation training. Many Americans and allied troops (including
Free French Air Forces) came to Texas as part of the military mobilization.
Texas modernizes: 1945"
From 1950 through the 1960s, Texas modernized and dramatically expanded its system of higher education. Under the leadership of Governor
John B. Connally, the state produced a long-range plan for higher education, a more rational distribution of resources, and a central state apparatus that managed state institutions with greater efficiency. Because of these changes, Texas universities received federal funds for research and development during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations.[Blanton 2005]
The geography of Texas spans a wide range of features and timelines. Texas is the southernmost part of the
Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded
Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. It is in the south-central part of the United States of America. It is considered to form part of the
U.S. South and also part of the
U.S. Southwest.
The
Rio Grande,
Red River and
Sabine River all provide natural state lines where Texas borders
Oklahoma on the north,
Louisiana and
Arkansas on the east, and
New Mexico and the
Mexican states of
Chihuahua,
Coahuila,
Nuevo León, and
Tamaulipas to the south.
By residents, the state is generally divided into
North Texas,
East Texas,
South Texas, and
West Texas, but according to the
Texas Almanac, Texas has four major physical regions:
Gulf Coastal Plains,
Interior Lowlands,
Great Plains, and
The Basin and Range Province. This is the difference between
human geography and
physical geography.
Some regions of Texas are associated with the South more than the Southwest (primarily
East Texas and
North Texas), while other regions share more similarities with the Southwest than the South (primarily
West Texas and
South Texas). Even the northwestern part of the state seems to have more in common with parts of the United States (Kansas and Nebraska) that are considered "
midwestern" and never "southern". The size of Texas prohibits easy categorization of the entire state wholly in any recognized region of the United States; geographic, economic, and even cultural diversity between regions of the state preclude treating Texas as a region in its own right.
Geology
Texas is the southernmost part of the
Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded
Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. It is mostly
sedimentary rocks, with east Texas underlain by a
Cretaceous and younger sequence of sediments, the trace of ancient shorelines east and south until the active continental margin of the
Gulf of Mexico is met. This sequence is built atop the subsided crest of the
Appalachian Mountains–
Ouachita Mountains–Marathon Mountains zone of
Pennsylvanian continental collision, which collapsed when
rifting in
Jurassic time opened the Gulf of Mexico. West from this
orogenic crest, which is buried beneath the
Dallas–
Waco–
Austin–
San Antonio trend, the sediments are
Permian and
Triassic in age.
Oil is found in the Cretaceous sediments in the east, the Permian sediments in the west, and along the Gulf coast and out on the Texas
continental shelf. A few exposures of
Precambrian igneous and
metamorphic rocks are found in the central and western parts of the state, and
Oligocene volcanic rocks are found in far west Texas, in the
Big Bend area. A blanket of
Miocene sediments known as the Ogallala formation in the western high plains region is an important
aquifer. Texas has no active or dormant volcanoes and few earthquakes, being situated far from an active
plate tectonic boundary. (The
Big Bend area is the most seismically active; however, the area is sparsely populated and suffers minimal damages and injuries, and no known fatalities have been attributed to a Texas earthquake.)
State law and government
Republican
Rick Perry has served as
Governor of Texas since December 2000, when
George W. Bush vacated the office to assume the
Presidency. Two Republicans represent Texas in the U.S. Senate:
Kay Bailey Hutchison (since 1993) and
John Cornyn (since 2002). Texas has 32 representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives: 21 Republicans and 11 Democrats.
The
Texas Constitution, adopted in 1876, is the second oldest state constitution still in effect. As with many
state constitutions, it explicitly provides for the separation of powers and incorporates its bill of rights directly into the text of the constitution (as Article I). The bill of rights is considerably lengthier and more detailed than the federal
Bill of Rights, and includes some provisions unique to Texas.
The executive branch consists of the Governor,
Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Land Commissioner, Attorney General, Agriculture Commissioner, the three-member
Texas Railroad Commission, the State Board of Education, and the Secretary of State. The comptroller decides if expected state income is sufficient to cover the proposed state budget. Except for the secretary of state—who is appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate—each of these officials is elected (the three Railroad Commission members are voted at-large; the State Board of Education members are voted in single-member districts). There are also many state agencies and numerous boards and commissions. Partly because of many elected officials, the governor's powers are quite limited in comparison to other state governors or the U.S. President. In popular lore and belief the lieutenant governor, who heads the Senate and appoints its committees, has more
power than the governor. The governor commands the state militia and can veto bills passed by the Legislature and call special sessions of the Legislature (this power is exclusive to the governor and can be exercised as often as desired). The governor also appoints members of various executive boards and fills judicial vacancies between elections.
The
Legislature of Texas, like the legislature of every other state except
Nebraska, is bicameral (that is, it has two chambers). The House of Representatives has 150 members, while the Senate has 31. The speaker of the house, currently Tom Craddick (
R-
Midland) leads the House, and the lieutenant governor (currently Republican
David Dewhurst) leads the state Senate. The Legislature meets in regular session only once every two years. The Legislature cannot call itself into special session; only the governor may call a special session, and may call as many sessions as often as desired.
The
judicial system of Texas has a reputation as one of the most complex in the United States, with many layers and many overlapping jurisdictions. Texas has two courts of last resort: the
Texas Supreme Court, which hears civil cases, and the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Except in the case of some municipal benches, partisan elections choose all of the judges at all levels of the judiciary; the governor fills vacancies by appointment.
County government
Texas has a total of 254
counties, by far the most counties of any state. Each county is run by a commissioners court consisting of four elected commissioners (one from each of four precincts drawn based on population) and a county judge elected from all the voters of the county. The county judge does not have authority to veto a decision of the commissioners court; the judge votes along with the commissioners. In smaller counties, the county judge actually does perform judicial duties, but in larger counties the judge's role is limited to serving on the commissioners court. Certain officials, such as the sheriff and tax collector, are elected separately by the voters and state law specifies their salaries, but the commissioners court determines their office budgets. All county elections are
partisan.
Unlike other states, Texas does not allow for consolidated city-county governments. Cities and counties (as well as other political entities) are permitted to enter "interlocal agreements" to share services (as an example, a city and a school district may enter into agreements with the county whereby the county bills for and collects property taxes for the city and school district; thus, only one tax bill is sent instead of three).
Municipal government
Texas does not have townships—areas within a county are either incorporated or unincorporated. Incorporated areas are part of a city, though the city may contract with the county for needed services. Unincorporated areas are not part of a city; in these areas the county has authority for law enforcement and road maintenance.
Cities are classified as either "general law" or "home rule". A city may elect home rule status (draft an independent city charter) once it exceeds 5,000 population and the voters agree to home rule. Otherwise, it is classified as general law and has very limited powers.
Municipal elections in Texas are
nonpartisan in the sense that candidates do not appear on the ballot on party lines, and do not run as party tickets. However, a candidate's party affiliation is usually known or can be discerned with minimal effort (as the candidate most likely has supported other candidates on partisan tickets). In some instances, an informal citizen's group will support a slate of candidates that it desires to see elected (often in opposition to an incumbent group with which it disagreed on an issue). However, each candidate must be voted on individually.
School and special districts
In addition to cities and counties, Texas has numerous special districts. The most common is the independent
school district, which (with one exception) has a board of trustees that is independent of any other governing authority. School district boundaries are not generally aligned with city or county boundaries; it is common for a school district to cover one or more counties or for a large city to be served by several school districts.
Other special districts include Groundwater Conservation Districts (regulatory agencies), river authorities, water supply districts (for irrigation or municipal supply), public hospitals, road districts, and community colleges.
As with municipal elections in Texas, board members or trustees are elected on a nonpartisan basis or may be appointed.
Politics
Regardless of party affiliation, Texas politics are dominated by fiscal and social conservatism.
Texas politics are currently run by the
Republican Party, which has strong majorities in the Texas Senate and House of Representatives. Every executive branch official elected statewide is Republican, as is every member of Texas's two courts of last resort; no Democrat has won a statewide election since 1994. The majority of the state's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives is Republican, as are both U.S. Senators. A notable exception to this trend is the Travis County District Attorney,
Ronnie Earle, a Democrat elected by the people of
Austin who has served since 1978 with statewide authority and responsibility for legally prosecuting political mischief. Ronnie Earle is nationally known for leveling charges against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, which were dismissed in court, and against Representative Tom DeLay, which have not yet been resolved. The Travis County District Attorney is uniquely empowered by the Texas Constitution; most states grant this authority to the more broadly elected position of
Attorney General.
Note: The congressional districts in Texas were redrawn in 2003 by the Republican-dominated legislature. Districts are usually drawn after the national census every 10 years, but an impasse in the Texas Legislature resulted in the districts being drawn by the courts in 2001. The legislature, with controversial help from U.S. Congressman Tom DeLay, redrew the districts after the Republicans gained a larger share of the legislature. A court challenge to the legality of the non-Census-timed redistricting was upheld by the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court; the
United States Supreme Court has agreed to review the case. Texas won the case
Like other
Southern states, Texas historically was a one-party state of the
Democratic Party. The Democrats controlled a majority in the
Texas House and in the state's Congressional delegation until the 2002 and 2004 elections, respectively. One of the most famous Texans was a Democrat:
Lyndon Baines Johnson served in the
U.S. House of Representatives, the
U.S. Senate, and as
vice-president and president of the United States. Another famous Texas Democrat was longtime speaker of the House,
Sam Rayburn. The shift from Democrat to Republican control in Texas politics is because of the national Republican Party adopting official conservative stances on fiscal and social issues and the national
Democratic Party adopting official
liberal stances on these issues.
Law enforcement
The justice system in Texas has a reputation for strict sentencing. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, of the 21 counties in the United States where more than a fifth of the residents are prison inmates, 10 are in Texas.
Texas leads the nation in executions by far, with 366 executions from 1976 to 2006. The second-highest ranking state is
Virginia, with 94. Only capital murder (equivalent to such terms as "murder with malice aforethought" in other states) is eligible for the death penalty. Prior to 2005, the alternate sentence was life with the possibility of parole after 40 calendar years; a 2005 law change changed the alternate sentence to life without parole.
A 2002
Houston Chronicle poll of Texans found that when asked "Do you support the death penalty?", 69.1 percent responded that they did, 21.9 percent did not support, and 9.1 percent were not sure or gave no answer.
Well-known for their role in the history of Texas law enforcement, the
Texas Rangers continue today to provide special law enforcement services to the state.
Texas Military Forces
The Texas Military Forces includes the Texas Army and Air
National Guards and the
Texas State Guards, a state militia.
Congressional districts
|
Cotton harvesting in Texas |
In 2005 Texas had a
gross state product of $982.4 billion, the second highest in America after
California.
[http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/gspnewsrelease.htm] Gross state product per capita as of 2005 was $42,899. Texas's growth is often attributed to the availability of jobs, the low cost of housing (housing values in the Dallas and Houston areas, while generally rising, have not risen at the astronomical rates of other cities such as San Francisco), the lack of a personal
state income tax, low taxation and limited regulation of
business, a geographic location in the center of the country, limited government (the
Texas Legislature meets only once every two years), favorable climate in many areas of the state, and vast, plentiful supplies of oil and natural gas. Texas has 4.6 billion barrels of proven crude
oil reserves.
Texas remained largely rural until
World War II, with
cattle ranching, oil, and
agriculture as its main industries. Cattle ranching (though important) was never Texas's chief industry – before the oil boom back to the period of the first Anglo settlers, the chief industry was
cotton farming (as in most of the South).
In
1926,
San Antonio had over 120,000 people, the largest population of any city in Texas. After
World War II, Texas became increasingly industrialized. Its economy today relies largely on information technology, oil and natural gas, fuel processing, electric power, agriculture, and manufacturing. The major segment of the economy depends largely on the region involved – for example, the
timber industry is a major portion of the
East Texas economy but a non-factor elsewhere, while aerospace and defense manufacturing is primarily centered within the
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
The state has two major economic centers:
Dallas and
Houston. Houston stands at the center of the petrochemical and
biomedical research trades while Dallas functions as the center of the aerospace/defense manufacturing and
information technology labor market in Texas. Other major cities include
San Antonio,
Austin,
Brownsville,
Lubbock,
Amarillo,
Abilene,
Bryan-College Station,
Beaumont,
McAllen,
Tyler,
Odessa and
Midland. Other important cities include
Killeen (home to
Fort Hood, the largest military post in the U.S.) and the cities of
El Paso,
Eagle Pass, and
Laredo (these have particular significance due to their location on the border with Mexico, making them important trade points).
As of 2006, Texas, for the first time, has more Fortune 500 company headquarters (56) than any other state (California has 55; ironically, it was due to the move of
Fluor from California to Texas). This has been attributed to both the growth in population in Texas and the rise of oil prices in 2005, which resulted in the growth in revenues of many Texas oil drilling and processing companies.
Texas is the largest international exporter among the 50 American states, with international merchandise exports totaling $117.2 Billion in 2004.
[USA Today, Feb 26, 2006, 6B] In 2002, the
Port of Houston was 6th among the top sea ports in the world in terms of total cargo volume
;
Air Cargo World rated
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as "the best air cargo airport in the world".
Texans pride themselves in a history of tradition, yet they seek new social and technological developments also. Round Rock is the headquarters of
Dell and the surrounding area is known as "Silicon Hills". Dallas is a famously cosmopolitan metropolis and the birthplace of the
integrated circuit, Houston is a global leader in the energy industry. The cultures of San Antonio and El Paso retain their Mexican heritage while Fort Worth maintains its western heritage. With a nod to its diversity and its past as a former sovereign nation, the state tourism slogan is "Texas: It's like a whole other country.®" (The slogan is used only in domestic advertising, a different slogan is used for marketing to Latin American countries.)
Texas is one of the top filmmaking states in the United States, just after
California and
New York. In the past 10 years alone (1995-2004), more than $2.75 billion has been spent in Texas for film and television production.The
Texas Film Commission was founded for free services to filmmakers, from location research to traveling.
Since 2003, Texas state officials have been committed to developing the
economy of Texas with various initiatives such as the
Texas Enterprise Fund and the
Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which invest money into developing Texas business.
|
Texas Population Density Map |
| Historical populations |
|---|
Census
year | Population |
|---|
|
| 1850 | 212,592 |
| 1860 | 604,215 |
| 1870 | 818,579 |
| 1880 | 1,591,749 |
| 1890 | 2,235,527 |
| 1900 | 3,048,710 |
| 1910 | 3,896,542 |
| 1920 | 4,663,228 |
| 1930 | 5,824,715 |
| 1940 | 6,414,824 |
| 1950 | 7,711,194 |
| 1960 | 9,579,677 |
| 1970 | 11,196,730 |
| 1980 | 14,229,191 |
| 1990 | 16,986,510 |
| 2000 | 20,851,820 |
As of 2005, the state has an estimated population of 22.8 milion—an increase of 388,419 (1.7%) from the prior year and an increase of 2 million (9.6%) since the year 2000. In all three subcategories—natural (births less deaths), net immigration, and net migration—Texas has seen an increase in population. The natural increase since the last census was 1,155,182 people (1,948,398 births minus 793,216 deaths), immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 663,161 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 218,722 people. The state passed
New York in the 1990s to become the second-largest U.S. state in population (after
California).
As of 2004, the state has 3.5 million foreign-born residents (15.6 percent of the state population), of which an estimated 1.2 million are
illegal aliens (illegal aliens account for more than one-third of the foreign-born population in Texas and 5.4 percent of the total state population).
Census data reports 7.8 percent of Texas's population as under 5, 28.2 percent under 18, and 9.9 percent over 64 years. Females made up 50.4 percent of the population.
Texas has one of the largest concentration of
gay and
lesbian (or
LGBT) population in the United States. Houston has the largest concentration of gay and lesbian population in the state and third-largest in the United States.
[http://www.turnleft.com/places/houston.html][http://www.stp.uh.edu/vol65/39/news/news3.html]Race and ethnic origins
The largest reported ancestry groups in Texas include:
Mexican (24.3%),
African American (11.5%),
German-American (9.9%),
Anglo American (7.2%), and
Scots-Irish American (7.2%). Descent from some of these ancestry groups is underreported.
Much of east, central, and north Texas is inhabited by Texans of
White Protestant heritage— primarily descended from ancestors from the
British Isles. African Americans, who historically made up one-third of the state population, are concentrated in those parts of East Texas where the cotton plantation culture was most prominent prior to the
Civil War, as well as in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas.
Other population groups in Texas also exhibit great diversity. Frontier Texas saw settlements of
Germans, particularly in
Fredericksburg and
New Braunfels. In fact, the
largest family in Texas today is of German descent. After the European
revolutions of 1848, German,
Polish,
Swedish,
Norwegian,
Czech and
French immigration grew, and continued until
World War I. The influence of the diverse immigrants from Europe survives in the names of towns, styles of architecture, genres of music, and varieties of cuisine. Texans of German descent dominate much of central and southeast-central Texas and one county in the area,
Lavaca County, is predominantly Czech.
More than one-third of Texas residents are of
Hispanic origin and may be of any racial group. Some are recent arrivals from Mexico,
Central America, or
South America, while others, known as
Tejanos in English, have ancestors who have lived in Texas since before Texan independence, or at least for several generations. Tejanos are the largest ancestral group in southern
Duval County. The Hispanic population in Texas is increasing as more
illegal immigrants from
Latin American countries—primarily from Mexico—look for work in Texas. The state has the second-largest Hispanic population in the United States—California has the largest Hispanic population. Numerically, Hispanics dominate
south, south-central, and
west Texas and are a significant part of the residents in the cities of
Dallas and
Houston. This influx of immigrants is partially responsible for Texas having a population younger than the union average.
|
Houston International Festival, an annual event celebrating world cultures |
In recent years, the
Asian American population in Texas has grown, especially in Houston and in Dallas. People with ancestry from
Vietnam,
India,
China,
the Philippines,
Korea, and
Japan make up the largest Asian American groups in Texas.
In August 2005, it was announced by the
United States Census that Texas has become the fourth
minority-majority state in the nation (after
Hawaii,
New Mexico, and
California).
[U.S. Census Bureau News, August 11, 2005] According to the Texas state Data Center, if current trends continue, Hispanics will become a majority in the state by
2030.
| Demographics of Texas | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 |
|---|
| Total | 22,490,022 | 22,103,374 | 21,723,220 | 21,334,855 | 20,851,790 |
| White (Non-Hispanic) | 11,190,222 | 11,138,076 | 11,094,951 | 11,049,172 | 10,986,937 |
| 49.8% | 50.4% | 51.1% | 51.8% | 52.7% |
| Hispanic (of any race) | 7,781,211 | 7,519,603 | 7,258,302 | 6,993,458 | 6,669,666 |
| 34.6% | 34.0% | 33.4% | 32.8% | 32.0% |
| Black (Non-Hispanic) | 2,535,285 | 2,500,125 | 2,463,047 | 2,426,088 | 2,378,444 |
| 11.3% | 11.3% | 11.3% | 11.4% | 11.4% |
| Asian (Non-Hispanic) | 695,293 | 666,261 | 636,223 | 604,846 | 567,526 |
| 3.1% | 3.0% | 2.9% | 2.8% | 2.7% |
| Native American (Non-Hispanic) | 77,662 | 76,071 | 74,538 | 72,762 | 70,405 |
| 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Mixed/Other | 210,349 | 203,238 | 196,159 | 188,529 | 178,812 |
| 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.9% |
:
All data comes from the United States Census state population estimates.[U.S. Census Bureau Annual Estimates of the Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Origin for States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004.]Due to immigration in the United States history, the culture of Texas has been a
melting pot of different cultures around the world. Texas is a diverse and an international place to live, in part because of its many academic institutions and strong biomedical, energy, manufacturing and aerospace industries.
Texas also has an influx of people from the central United States moving in to find jobs. Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska and the Dakotas have experienced a "brain drain" as their university graduates move to other states to find employment. There is a common joke among native Texans that a "Yankee" is someone from the North who comes to Texas to visit, and a "damn Yankee" is someone from the North who buys a house and stays.
There are many popular events held in Texas celebrating cultures of Texans. The annual
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo that is held over 20 days from late February through early March. The event begins with trail rides that originate from several points throughout the state, all of which convene at
Reliant Park for a barbeque cook-off. The rodeo includes typical rodeo events, as well as concert performances from major artists and carnival rides. Another large celebration is the annual gay
pride parade held during summer months in several Texas cities to commemorate the struggle for gay liberation,
gay rights,
gay pride, and the
Stonewall riots of the late 1960s in New York City.
Texas has a vibrant live
music scene in
Austin boasting more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city as the Austin's official slogan is
The Live Music Capital of the World. Austin's music revolves around the many
nightclubs on
6th Street and an annual
film,
music, and
multimedia festival known as
South by Southwest. The longest-running concert music program on American television,
Austin City Limits, is videotaped on
The University of Texas at Austin campus.
Austin City Limits and
Waterloo Records run the
Austin City Limits Music Festival, an annual music and art festival held at
Zilker Park in Austin.
Arts and theatre
|
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston |
Known for the vibrancy of its
visual and
performing arts, the
Houston Theater District—a 17-block area in the heart of
Downtown Houston—is ranked second in the country (behind New York City) in the amount of theatre seats in a concentrated downtown area with 12,948 seats for live performances and 1,480 movie seats.
[http://www.houstontheaterdistrict.org/en/cms/?68]Houston is also one of only five cities in the United States with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines (the
Houston Grand Opera, the
Houston Symphony Orchestra, the
Houston Ballet, and
The Alley Theatre).
[http://www.visithoustontexas.com/arts_and_culture.asp?pageid=232] Houston is widely recognized as the nation's third most important city for contemporary
visual arts.
Dallas and Fort Worth serve as epicenters of the North Texas region's art scene. The
The Modern (formerly the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth), founded in 1892, is the oldest art museum in Texas. The city is also home to the
Kimbell Art Museum, the
Amon Carter Museum, the
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, the
Will Rogers Memorial Center, and the
Bass Performance Hall downtown. The
Arts District of
Downtown Dallas is home to several arts venues. Notable venues in the district include the
Dallas Museum of Art, the
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center,
The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, and the
Nasher Sculpture Center.
Also within Dallas is the notable
Deep Ellum district which originally became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as the prime
jazz and
blues hotspot in the
Southern United States. Artists such as
Blind Lemon Jefferson,
Robert Johnson, Huddie "
Leadbelly" Ledbetter, and
Bessie Smith played in original Deep Ellum clubs like The Harlem and The Palace. Today, Deep Ellum is home to hundreds of artists who live in lofts and operate in studios throughout the district alongside bars, pubs, and concert venues. One major art infusion in the area is the city's
lax stance on
graffiti, thusly several public ways including tunnels, sides of buildings, sidewalks, and streets are covered in murals.
Sports
|
Official logo of the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic |
Texas is known for its love of
American football and is noted for the intensity with which people follow
high school and
college football teams—often times dominating over all else for the purposes of socalizing and leisure. School districts in Texas are sometimes criticized for the amount of money spent on their sports programs and facilities. The turf of the football field at
Duncanville High School, the second largest high school in the nation, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such facilities and programs can garner a school attention, however. Duncanville's largest basketball court, the Sandra Meadows Memorial Arena, was named in 2004 as one of the top ten places to watch basketball by
USA Today. In May of 2005,
Sports Illustrated also named the high school's sports program as one of the top 25 in the nation.
is also very popular in Texas, with
Major League Baseball.
Minor league baseball is also closely followed.
Other popular sports in Texas include
golf (which can be played year-round because of the South's mild climate),
basketball,
fishing, and
auto racing.
Lacrosse, originally played by some of the indigenous tribes, is a visible sport and growing.
Soccer is a popular participatory sport—especially among children—but as a
spectator sport, it does not yet have a large following in contrast to its extreme popularity in other countries.
Hockey has been a growing participatory sport in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since the
Minnesota North Stars became the
Dallas Stars in 1993.
Largest cities
Ranked by population of
cities (incorporated municipalities), the six largest cities in Texas are
Houston,
San Antonio,
Dallas,
Austin,
Fort Worth, and
El Paso.
Texas is the only state in the U.S. to have three cities with populations exceeding one million: Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas; which are also among the 10 largest cities of the
United States. They are larger than any other cities in the
Southern United States. Austin and Fort Worth are in the top 20 largest U.S. cities.
[List of United States cities by population] Houston and Dallas are also two of 11 U.S.
world-class cities as defined by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC).
[http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/citylist.html] Nearly half of the state's 20 most populous cities are suburbs.
Houston is world-renowned for its energy (particularly oil) and aeronautics industries, and for its ship channel. The city has a vibrant visual and performing arts scene as Houston is one of the five U.S. cities that offer world-class, year-round resident companies in all major performing arts.
[http://www.houston.org/blackfenders/20AW005.pdf]Dallas is known globally as a center for telecommunications, computer technology, banking, and transportation. The city is the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the nation and lacks any direct link to the sea—Dallas's prominence despite this comes from its historical importance as a center for the
oil and
cotton industries, its position along numerous railroad lines, and its powerful industrial and financial tycoons.
Largest metropolitan areas
Texas has 25
metropolitan areas defined by the
United States Census Bureau. The two largest are ranked among the top 10
metropolitan areas of the United States.
As of June
2003, there is now an additional classification, that of a "Metropolitan Division". Texas has two metropolitan divisions within the Dallas"Fort Worth"Arlington MSA. The term metropolitan division is used to refer to a
county or group of counties within a metropolitan area that has a population core of at least 2.5 million. While a metropolitan division is a subdivision of a larger metropolitan area, it often functions as a distinct social, economic, and cultural area within the larger region.
The following table lists population figures for the five largest metropolitan areas, in rank of population. Population figures are as of the 2004 U.S. Census estimates.
Texas
rank | U.S.
rank | Metropolitan Area | Metropolitan Division! Population |
|---|
| 1 | 5 | Dallas"Fort Worth"Arlington | | 5,700,256 |
| | | | Dallas"Plano"Irving | 3,812,875 |
| | | | Fort Worth"Arlington | 1,887,381 |
| 2 | 7 | Houston"Sugar Land"Baytown | | 5,180,443 |
| 3 | 29 | San Antonio | | 1,854,050 |
| 4 | 38 | Austin"Round Rock | | 1,412,271 |
| 5 | 68 | El Paso | | 713,126 |
The
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is a
governmental agency and its purpose is to "provide safe, effective, and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state. Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with maintenance of the state's immense
highway system, the agency is also responsible for
aviation in the state and overseeing
public transportation systems.
Highways
|
State Highway 45, the first of several toll roads in Central Texas, under construction |
Texas
freeways are heavily traveled and are often under construction to meet the demands of continuing growth. As of 2005, there were 79,535 miles of public highway in Texas (up from 71,000 in 1984). Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) planners have sought ways to reduce rush hour congestion, primarily through
High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes for vans and carpools. The "Texas T," an innovation originally introduced in Houston, is a ramp design that allows vehicles in the HOV lane, which is usually the center lane, to exit directly to transit centers or to enter the freeway directly into the HOV lane without crossing multiple lanes of traffic. Timed freeway entrances, which regulate the addition of cars to the freeway, are also common. Houston and San Antonio have extensive networks of freeway cameras linked to transit control centers to monitor and study traffic.
One characteristic of Texas's freeways are its
frontage roads (also known as service roads or feeder roads). Alongside most freeways are two to four lanes in each direction parallel to the freeway permitting easy access to individual city streets. Other states have frontage roads, but in Texas they can be found even in the most remote areas. Frontage roads provide access to the freeway from businesses alongside, such as gas stations and retail stores, and vice versa. New landscaping projects and a longstanding ban on new billboards are ways
Houston has tried to control the potential side effects of convenience.
Another common characteristic found near Texas overpasses are the
Texas U-turns which is a lane allowing cars traveling on one side of a one-way frontage road to U-turn into the opposite frontage road (typically crossing over or under a freeway or expressway) without being stopped by traffic lights or crossing the highway traffic at-grade.
Airports
The
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, located nearly equidistant from
downtown Dallas and downtown
Fort Worth, is the largest airport in the state, the second largest in the United States, and fourth largest in the world. In terms of traffic, DFW is the busiest in the state, fourth busiest in the United States, and sixth busiest in the world. The airport serves 135 domestic destinations and 37 international, and is the largest and main
hub for
American Airlines (900 daily departures), the world's largest
airline, and also the largest hub for
American Eagle.
Texas's second-largest air facility is the
George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). The airport is the ninth-busiest in the United States for total passengers, and nineteenth-busiest worldwide.
Houston is the headquarters of
Continental Airlines, and the airport is Continental Airlines' largest hub, with over 750 daily departures (over 250 operated by Continental Airlines). Because of Houston's proximity to
American Airlines' hub at
DFW in
Dallas-
Fort Worth, that airline also maintains a large presence at IAH. A long list of cities within Texas, as well as international destinations are served directly from this airport. With 30 destinations in
Mexico, IAH offers service to more Mexican destinations than any other U.S. airports. IAH currently ranks second among U.S. airports with scheduled non-stop domestic and international service (221 destinations), trailing only
Atlanta Hartsfield with 250 destinations.
Some other airports that are served by airlines are Dallas
Love Field, Houston
Hobby Airport,
San Antonio International Airport, and
El Paso International Airport.
Mass transportation
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is the Dallas area public transportation authority, providing buses, rail, and
HOV lanes. DART began operating the first
light rail system in the
Southwest United States in 1996 and continues to expand its coverage. The DART light rail system remained the only one in Texas until
METRORail opened in Houston in 2004.
The
Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) operates
bus, lift bus, and
light rail service in
Harris County, which includes
Houston. METRO also operates bus service to two cities in
Fort Bend County. METRO began running light rail service (
METRORail) in Houston on January 1, 2004. Currently the track is rather short. It runs about 8 miles (13 km) from
Downtown Houston to the
Texas Medical Center and
Reliant Park.
The city of Austin will add a
commuter rail line called Capitol Metro in 2008.
Although located in the middle of the service areas of DART, the
Fort Worth Transportation Authority, and the
Trinity Railway Express that connects the two, the city of Arlington remains the largest city in the United States that is not served by a public transportation system.
Healthcare and scientific research
Houston is the seat of the internationally-renowned
Texas Medical Center, which contains the world's largest concentration of
research and
healthcare institutions.
There are 42 member institutions in the Texas Medical Center—all are
non-profit organizations, and are dedicated to the highest standards of patient and preventive care,
research,
education, and local, national, and international community well-being. These institutions include 13 renowned
hospitals and two specialty institutions, two
medical schools, four
nursing schools, and schools of
dentistry, public health,
pharmacy, and virtually all health-related careers. It is where one of the first, and still the largest, air emergency services was created—a very successful inter-institutional transplant program was developed—and more
heart surgeries are performed there than anywhere else in the world.
Some of the academic and research health institutions are
Baylor College of Medicine,
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is widely considered one of the world's most productive and highly-regarded academic institutions devoted to cancer patient care, research, education and prevention.
Other healthcare and medical research centers in the state are the
South Texas Medical Center in
San Antonio and the
UT Southwestern Medical Center in
Dallas.
Texas has two
Biosafety Level 4 laboratories: one at The
University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in
Galveston,
and the other at the
Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, the first privately owned BSL-4 lab in the United States.
In May 2006, Texas initiated the program "code red" in response to the report that Texas , at 25.1 percent, has the largest number of un-insured population of any state.
[http://www.utsystem.edu/hea/codered/]Colleges and universities
The
University of Texas System (UT), established by the
Texas Constitution in
1876, consists of nine
academic universities and six health institutions. UT System institutions enrolled a total of 182,752 students in fall 2004 making it one of the largest systems of
higher education in the nation. In 2004, the
University of Texas at Austin, which is the largest institution in the UT System and in the state of Texas, maintained an enrollment of 50,377 students.The University of Texas at Austin was once the largest institution in the United States, but it is now one of the top three largest by population and is the nation's 52nd ranked university.
Seven
doctoral programs at UT Austin rank in the top 10 in the nation and 22 degree programs rank in the top 25, according to a comprehensive study of the quality of graduate schools conducted by the
United States National Research Council. Four of the seven medical schools of Texas are within the
University of Texas System. In 2004, the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas was ranked the 16th highest ranking medical school in the United States, with four of Texas's 11
Nobel laureates.
[The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas list of Texas Nobel Laureates]The
Texas A&M University System, established by the 1871 Texas legislature, is the second largest state university system of higher learning in Texas. Its flagship institution,
Texas A&M University located in College Station, opened in 1876 and is the state's oldest public institution of higher education. Funded research generally exceeds that of all other Texas universities including UT Austin, and Texas A&M ranks among the top ten national universities in research. It is the second largest university in the state of Texas and also one of the top 10 largest schools in the nation. The University of Texas's rivalry with Texas A&M dates back to the late 19th century.
The
University of Houston System is the largest urban state system of higher education in the
Gulf Coast, which has four
universities with three located in Houston. Its flagship institution is the
University of Houston (UH), which is the only doctoral degree granting extensive research institution in Houston and is the third largest in the state of Texas with an enrollment of over 36,000. The interdisciplinary research conducted at UH breaks new ground in such vital areas as
superconductivity, space commercialization,
biomedical engineering,
economics,
education,
petroleum exploration and
management. UH is also home to over 40 research centers and institutes. Amongst the most prestigious of the University of Houston's colleges is the
University of Houston Law Center. The UH Law Center's Health Law and Policy Institute is ranked number one in the nation while the Intellectual Property Law Program is ranked fifth, according to
U.S. News & World Report.
Houston is the location of a well known prestigious private institution,
Rice University, which boasts one of the largest
financial endowments of any university in the world. The small undergraduate student body is among the nation's most select and one of the highest percentages of National Merit Scholarship winners. Rice University maintains a variety of research facilities and laboratories. Rice is also associated with the Houston Area Research Center, a consortium supported by Rice, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and the University of Houston.
Another
liberal arts college in Houston is the
University of St. Thomas. Founded by the
Basilian Order in
1947, the University has become one of the premier
Catholic universities in the world, renowned for its theology and philosophy departments. Former UST president Archbishop J. Michael Miller currently serves in the
Roman Curia as the
prefect of Catholic universities throughout the world. The campus is also home to some major historic buildings, such as the Link-Lee Mansion (once the largest house in Texas) and Hughes House (the childhood home of
Howard Hughes).
Houston is also home to
Texas Southern University, the first
historically black college and university to house a law school; it was also the first state-supported institution in the city of Houston. Over the years, the university's educational facilities and programs expanded, and many of its graduates began to achieve local, regional, and national recognition for their influence in politics, education, business, technology, medicine, and the arts. Its pioneering spirit continues today.
The
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex has the fourth-largest university in the state—the
University of North Texas—along with two UT System institutions—
The University of Texas at Dallas and
The University of Texas at Arlington, as well as private universities such as
Southern Methodist University, which has the Metroplex's largest law school,
University of Dallas, and
Texas Christian University.
San Antonio is home to many colleges and universities, such as
The University of Texas at San Antonio, the second-largest institution of the University of Texas System, as well as
University of Texas Health Science Center,
Trinity University, St. Mary's University,
University of the Incarnate Word, and
Our Lady of the Lake University.
Other large public universities in Texas include
Texas State University-San Marcos (formerly Southwest Texas State University) and
Texas Tech University in
Lubbock, the only institution in Texas with the university, law school, and medical school—all residing on the same campus.
Baylor University, located in Waco, is the world's largest Baptist university and the oldest continually operating university in Texas. The school opened in 1845 and today has an enrollment of 14,000 students. Baylor is well-known at the state level for its academics and is among the most traditional and conservative universities in the state.
Primary and secondary education
Texas has over 1,000
school districts, ranging in size from the gigantic
Houston Independent School District to the 13-student
Divide Independent School District in rural south Texas. All but one of the
school districts in Texas are separate from any form of
municipal government, hence they are called "independent school districts," or "ISD" for short. School districts may (and often do) cross city and county boundaries. School districts have the power to
tax their residents and to use
eminent domain. The sole exception to this rule is
Stafford Municipal School District, which serves all of the city of
Stafford.
The public school systems are administered by the
Texas Education Agency (TEA). The TEA is divided into twenty Educational Service Center "regions" that serve the local school districts.
Especially in the metropolitan areas, Texas also has numerous
private schools of all types (non-sectarian, Catholic, and Protestant). The TEA has no authority over private school operations; private schools may or may not be accredited, and achievement tests are not required for private school graduating seniors. However, many private schools will obtain accreditation and perform achievement tests as a means of encouraging future parents that the school is genuinely interested in educational performance.
Homeschooling is popular in Texas—it is generally considered to be among the least restrictive states in which to home school. Neither TEA nor the local school district has authority to regulate home school activities; state law only requires that the curriculum 1) must teach "reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and a study of good citizenship" (the latter interpreted to mean a course in
civics) and 2) must be taught in a
bona fide manner.
There are no minimum number of days in a year, or hours in a day, that must be met, and achievement tests are not required for home school graduating seniors. The validity of home schooling was challenged in Texas, but a landmark case,
Leeper v. Arlington ISD, ruled that home schooling was legal and that the state had little or no authority to regulate the practice.
Ships
Four ships of the
United States Navy and one in the
Confederate States Navy have borne the name
Texas:
*
CSS Texas*
USS Texas (1892)*
USS Texas (BB-35)*
USS Texas (DLGN/CGN-39)*
USS Texas (SSN-775) will join the fleet in 2006
Official designations and symbols
*
state flower — the
bluebonnet (
Lupinus texensis)
*
state motto — "Friendship"
*
state nickname —
The Lone Star State (after the single star on several historical flags of Texas and the current Texas flag
[50states.com list of State Nicknames]; also The Friendship State
*
state tree — the
pecan*
state bird — the
mockingbird* official
state song —
Texas Our Texas*
state mammals (three)
** small —
armadillo** large —
Texas longhorn** flying —
Mexican free-tailed batOther state designations
*
state dinosaur — the
Brachiosaur Sauropod,
Pleurocoelus*state dish —
chili con carne*state fiber and fabric —
cotton*
state fish —
Guadalupe bass*
state folk dance —
square dance*state fruit — Texas red
grapefruit*
state gem — Texas blue
topaz*state gemstone cut —
The Lone Star Cut[State History Guide Texas Symbols, Gemstone Cut: Lone Star Cut]*
state grass —
Sideoats grama (
Bouteloua curtipendula)
*
state insect —
monarch butterfly (
Danaus plexippus)
*state molecule;
buckyball*musical instrument —
guitar*state
peppers (two)
**native —
chiltepin**other —
jalapeño*state plant —
prickly pear cactus*
state reptile —
Texas horned lizard (
Phrynosoma cornutum), commonly called the "horny toad"
*state shell —
lightning whelk (
Busycon perversum pulleyi)
*state ship — the
Battleship USS Texas (BB-35)*state shrub —
crape myrtle (
Lagerstroemia indica)
*state native shrub —
Texas purple sage (
Leucophyllum frutescens))
*
state slogan —
"It's like a whole other country"*state snack —
tortilla chips and
salsa*
state sport —
rodeo*
state stone —
petrified palmwood*state
tartan — Texas Bluebonnet Tartan
*state vegetable — Texas sweet
onionThe pledge to the Texas Flag is:
Honor the Texas Flag;I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas,one and indivisible*
Don't Mess with Texas*
Gone to Texas*
List of Texas-related topics*
List of Texans*
List of Texas county name etymologies*
List of Texas county seat name etymologies*
Catastrophic Texas Hurricanes since 1900*
Scouting in Texas*
Texas Embassy*
Texas Irrigation Canals*
The Handbook of Texas Online - Published by the Texas State Historical Association Several thousand articles by scholars on every aspect of Texas history
Surveys
*
Gone to Texas : a History of the Lone Star State, Randolph B. Campbell, Oxford University Press, 2003, hardback, 500 pages.
* De Leon, Arnoldo.
Mexican Americans in Texas: A Brief History 2nd ed. Harlan Davidson, 1999.
* Montejano, David.
Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836"1986 University of Texas Press, 1987.
*Wooster, Ralph A. and Robert A. Calvert, eds.
Texas Vistas (1987) scholarly articles
Specialized Studies
See
History of Texas for further bibliography
Pre 1865
* Baum, Dale.
The Shattering of Texas Unionism: Politics in the Lone Star State during the Civil War Era Louisiana State University Press, 1998.
* Campbell, Randolph B.
An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821"1865 Louisiana State University Press, 1989.
* Campbell, Randolph B.
Sam Houston and the American Southwest HarperCollins, 1993.
* Cantrell, Gregg.
Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas. Yale University Press, 1999.
* Chipman, Donald E.
Spanish Texas, 1519"1821 University of Texas Press, 1992.
* De Leon, Arnoldo.
The Tejano Community, 1836"1900 University of New Mexico Press, 1982.
* Poyo, Gerald E., ed.
Tejano Journey, 1770"1850 University of Texas Press, 1996.
Since 1865
* Barr, Alwyn.
Reconstruction to Reform: Texas Politics, 1876"1906 University of Texas Press, 1971.
* Brown, Norman D.
Hood, Bonnet, and Little Brown Jug: Texas Politics, 1921"1928 Texas A&M University Press, 1984.
* Campbell, Randolph B.
Grass-Roots Reconstruction in Texas, 1865"1880 Louisiana State University Press, 1997.
* Davidson, Chandler.
Race and Class in Texas Politics. Princeton University Press, 1990.
* Gould, Lewis N.
Progressives and Prohibitionists: Texas Democrats in the Wilson Era University of Texas Press, 1973.
* Jordan, Terry G.
Trails to Texas: Southern Roots of Western Cattle Ranching University of Nebraska Press, 1981.
* Lee, James Ward, et al., eds.
1941: Texas Goes to War. University of North Texas Press, 1991.
* Olien, Diana Davids, and Roger M. Olien.
Oil in Texas: The Gusher Age, 1895"1945 University of Texas Press, 2002.
* Perryman, M. Ray.
Survive and Conquer, Texas in the '80s: Power"Money"Tragedy … Hope! Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1990.
* Pitre, Merline.
Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares: The Black Leadership of Texas, 1868"1900 Eakin Press, 1985.
*
The official State of Texas website*
Texas Tourism -
Texas: It's like a whole other country*
About Texas -
Many Texas subject area links from the Texas State Library*
The Handbook of Texas Online - Published by the Texas State Historical Association*
Texas Politics: Texas government resource provided by the University of Texas at Austin
*
Texas Online -
The Texas Government web portal.*
Texas Legislature Online*
Statistics about Texas*
Texas State Maps and Satellite Image*
GenealogyBuff.com - Texas Genealogy Library of Files.*
The Portal to Texas History*
State Department of Public Safety, Texas Ranger Division*
Texas Historical Commission -
Official Website*
Texas Obituary Links -
A directory of obituary resources arranged by county.*
Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum*
Texas Register, hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries
*
The Native Plant Society of Texas*
The Native Prairies Association of Texas*
Texan Nobel laureates*
Texas Newspapers*
Open Directory: Texas*
Texas State Facts *
Texas Economy
