Although early twentieth century Texas witnessed the beginning of a transition from rural to  urban state, challenges remained in race relations and the economy. Agriculture continued to dominate the economic scene, but oil ushered in prosperity and modernity, while segregation continued to define race relations..

Oil

The Texas landscape became dotted with boomtowns, derricks and refineries as more and more Texans drove gasoline-powered automobiles over asphalt roads. Oil-related spin-off industries proved to be even more important than Spindletop itself. While Texas was not yet an industrial state, economic expansion led to one of the more prosperous periods in Texas’s history. U. S. entry into World War I spurred the ship-building, oil and petrochemical industries.

Urban Growth and Workers

Each decade saw a steady increase in the urban population as major Texas cities acquired specific characteristics: Fort Worth became Cowtown, Dallas a financial and business center, San Antonio an important military center and tourist attraction, Houston one of the nation’s major ports, and El Paso the commercial hub of the Trans-Pecos region.

On September 8, 1900, a hurricane slammed into Galveston Island, killing approximately 6,000 people and devastating the economy and business community. Although Houston replaced Galveston as the economic giant of the Texas Gulf Coast, Galveston rebuilt its place in the sun, both economically and politically. The commission plan (a handful of businessmen acting as a policy-making and legislative body) emerged out of the devastation. Even though critics charged that the commission plan diluted the strength of minorities, Progressives did not disapprove of elites’ control of local government. The Texas Idea, as it also came to be called, served as a model for municipal reform across the nation.

Cities retained a rural, southern character since most new residents were “in-state immigrants” while developing modern amenities. The League of Texas Municipalities, organized in 1913, endorsed the “city beautiful” movement. Urbanites coexisted with their rural counterparts despite some uneasiness due to the vast social changes occurring across the nation in the 1920s.

Although by 1929 a Texas worker’s wage was only about eighty percent of the national average, the labor force expanded due to cheaper housing and heating costs in the South.  The cost of living doubled between 1913 and 1920, offsetting any real increase in wages, but a growing number of industrial jobs made urban areas more attractive than rural. 

In 1930, a higher percentage of urban women than rural women were employed (an increase of about twenty-five percent over 1920). There was an accompanying decrease in the number of female agricultural workers by nearly one-half as more women moved to urban areas and the demand for agricultural labor in general dropped.  Whereas the growth of large cities and new technologies meant better job opportunities for women, a disproportionately high percentage of divorcees and widows were unskilled laborers. Some jobs became type-cast as woman’s work: teachers, nurses, librarians, telephone operators, clerical workers and salespeople. 

The rising percentage of white married women in the workplace contributed to the concept of the “New Woman” who demonstrated independence and social activism. Although most Texans opposed a proposed child labor amendment to the U. S. Constitution, the state mandated compulsory school attendance in 1915, effectively decreasing the number of children in the labor pool.

Labor Organization

Labor organization had never been particularly strong due to the state’s hostile mind-set. The Texas State Federation of Labor was the strongest union, with 512 “locals” in 1918 but declining to 135 by 1931. The United Mine Workers’ Union was relatively strong until oil replaced coal as the principal source of energy. The first “Red Scare” further restricted the expansion of organized labor. The Open Port Law urged by governors W. P. Hobby and Pat Neff was indicative of the anti-labor sentiment that prevailed.

Agriculture and Rural Life

Commercial agriculture developed and moved into West Texas where the flat terrain and climate were well-suited for cotton and wheat. Cotton also joined the budding citrus industry in promoting the economic development of the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. Regrettably, the boll weevil devastated South Texas cotton production but did not thrive in the Panhandle climate.

Another indication of transformation was the significant drop in the number of beef cattle and horses while the number of dairy cows, mules, sheep and goats rose. Texas led the South in value of farms and farm buildings and led in farm income per family in 1929 but trailed the agricultural Midwest. Crop liens increased as all tenants were forced to borrow against their expected income. Black tenant farmers and their families remained the poorest of all with women probably facing the greatest hardships in the southern cotton culture.

Although new technology improved farm women’s lives, the majority of women, and especially black women, did not enjoy electricity and indoor plumbing; neither did the automobile or telephone quickly lessen the isolation and loneliness of rural life. Overall, the lives of farm and urban wives focused primarily on family responsibilities.

Blacks in Texas

Historians have identified the early twentieth century as the nadir of U.S. race relations. Segregation was the norm and black political participation was nil, although blacks acquired some voting power as they migrated into urban areas. In Nixon v. Herndon (1927) the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that all-white primaries violated the Fourteenth Amendment; but other obstacles surfaced, and most black Texans did not vote until 1944. Although the U. S. Supreme Court ruled against residential segregation and the like, the Texas legislature authorized cities to pass zoning regulations effectively segregating neighborhoods. Urban ghettos developed where health and recreational facilities and governmental services such as paving and road repair, lighting, sewage, and police protection were inadequate. By 1930, both segregation and inequality of services were the norm. 

Texas ranked third nationally in the lynching of black persons. Race riots erupted periodically (Beaumont, Longview, Port Arthur, Houston, Brownsville); and, in 1916, hundreds turned out to view the lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco. Gradually, organizations such as The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) were founded to fight extralegal acts against them. White reformers and newspapers like the Dallas Morning News and the San Antonio Express openly denounced segregation and white oppression.  Most religious organizations stood in opposition to racial violence as did the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, led by Jessie Daniel Ames of Texas.

The majority of blacks lived in rural areas and worked as tenants and farm laborers. Most remained poor although organizations that promoted self-help through cooperatives and educational fairs attempted to help offset poverty and segregation. Other black Texans sought to escape rural poverty by migrating into urban areas—Texas cities and even northern cities. From 1900 to 1930, the number of African American males employed in urban areas doubled. Most were unskilled jobs that had previously been held by whites. A higher percentage of black women than white women were employed, most as seamstresses, laundresses or domestics.

Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement had little impact in Texas, but his philosophy of black pride and the development of black enterprise influenced many. Living and working in segregated communities promoted the development of a small black bourgeoisie that included black physicians, dentists and lawyers who organized their own professional organizations. Many others owned mercantile businesses, banks, drugstores and restaurants. The majority of black professionals were ministers and teachers, among them a high percentage of black women teachers.

Black Texans formed their own social, religious, and fraternal organizations, preparing the next generation of African Americans to dismantle the Jim Crow system. Churches continued to play a significant role as public forums. Of course, the segregated school system also prepared black leaders, but disparities hampered the educational opportunities of black Texans. Black schools were substandard; per capita spending for white students was triple that spent to educate black children.

Black Texans celebrated Juneteenth as well as other state and national holidays.  Blacks held their own county fairs and rodeos, parades, picnics, barbecues, and baseball games. In 1920 Andrew “Rube” Foster organized the National Negro Baseball League. The best-known black sports hero, Jack Johnson, held the heavy-weight boxing crown from 1908 to 1915. Films of his fights, however, were banned by the state legislature, arguing that they might inspire rioting. Blacks also contributed substantially to American music. Some made their names in journalism. Black newspapers flourished for a while in Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont, Calvert, Denison, Fort Worth, Port Arthur, San Antonio, San Angelo, and Waco; but progress was slow due to restricted political participation and little, if any, social or economic influence in a segregated society.

Tejanos

Economic and political distress in Mexico and the need for cheap labor in the U. S. fueled the immigration wave of the early twentieth century. Texans of Mexican ancestry were by far the largest ethnic group in the state by 1930; but lingering racist attitudes prevailed, and Mexican Americans remained deprived of full citizenship rights. The poll tax requirement and the reality of the “white primary” served to eliminate many Mexican American voters. Like blacks, Mexican Americans also encountered segregation in residential areas, schools and public services.

The majority of Mexican Americans (76% in 1900) lived in rural areas, making their living as agricultural workers, sheep herders or as cotton pickers. The pattern of migratory labor began in the 1920s and persisted for about fifty years. Mexican neighborhoods developed in places like Lubbock as families wearied of the constant migration and sought to establish permanent roots.

Texas Mexicans also organized self-help organizations or mutualistas. More politically-focused organizations included El Primer Congreso Mexicanista and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) founded in 1929.  Members of La Orden Hijos de America, LULAC’s predecessor, emerged out of the small bourgeoisie element that became doctors, lawyers, merchants and World War I veterans -- the “Mexican American Generation” that succeeded the “Immigration Generation.” 

Although Mexican Americans maintained their culture, some aspects of social, cultural, and recreational activities reflected biculturation. Holidays included several religious holy days, fiestas patrias (Cinco de Mayo and Diez y Seis de septiembre), while at the same time celebrating George Washington’s birthday and the Fourth of July.  Hispanics, too, have contributed significantly to the music scene with the sounds of an accordion-based ensemble, the conjunto. Corridos celebrate the mythical legends of Catarino Garza and Gregorio Cortez. Names of early Texas Mexican writers, including Sara Estela Ramirez and Jovita Gonzalez, are more recognizable today than during the 1920s. 

Other Ethnic Groups

The state’s ethnic groups supported fifty-seven foreign-language newspapers in 1909. In 1919, forty of them were still being published despite the economic and cultural pressures imposed by World War I. Germans, the second largest white ethnic group after Mexicans, contributed their cuisine and architecture, as well as their native tongue that remained relatively strong until the war years. Other ethnic groups included the Czech, Polish, Italian, Norwegian, Lebanese, Greek, Swedish, Belgian, Danish, French, Hungarian, Russian, Swiss, British, Chinese, and a few Japanese.  Many “folk islands” developed in major cities and select counties. The exception to ethnic white and Anglo Texas compatibility was the anti-German sentiment associated with the war years.

Literature and the Arts

Although a rural society rarely produces writers or artists, some of the earliest monographs written in Texas were actually personal experiences of the early settlers. George Pierce Garrison taught the first course in Texas history in 1897 and organized the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). Major names in historical writing include Herbert E. Bolton, Eugene C. Barker, Charles W. Ramsdell and Walter Prescott Webb.  Literary figures include William Sidney Porter (O. Henry), who was born in North Carolina but settled in Austin, and J. Frank Dobie, born on a ranch in West Texas and credited with unveiling the state’s rich cultural heritage. On the other hand, Katherine Anne Porter and Dorothy Scarborough, both born in Texas, left the state for more sophisticated environs.

Texas also developed artists who saw and preserved the rich historical panoramas or landscapes of the Texas scene. Recognizable names in the art world include Henry A. McArdle, the Onderdonks — Robert and his son Julian — and Elisabet Ney. Texas music — blues, corridos, Cajun, western or country — still reflected its rural and provincial culture but was rapidly responding to the developing urban environment.