Chapter

Texas Political Culture and Diversity

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 1.1 Analyze the relationships among Texas political
culture, its politics, and its public policies.
LO 1.2 Differentiate the attributes that describe the
major Texas regions.
LO 1.3 Analyze Texans’ political struggles over equal
rights and evaluate their success in Texas
politics today and their impact on the state’s
political future.
LO 1.4 Apply what you have learned about Texas
political culture and diversity.

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POLITICAL CULTURE, PARTISANSHIP,
AND PUBLIC POLICY 1 OF 3

• Ideology
 Conservative
 Texas liberals
• Conservative and liberals in Texas
today
 48% identify as conservative
 21% identify as liberal

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 TEXANS’
IDEOLOGY

Source: University of Texas/Texas Tribune Polls: 2011–2016

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POLITICAL CULTURE, PARTISANSHIP,
AND PUBLIC POLICY 2 OF 3

• Partisanship
 About 11% of Texans are true independents
 Substantial gender, ethnic/racial and
generational differences in party identification
 Republican dominance during past 20 years

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POLITICAL CULTURE, PARTISANSHIP,
AND PUBLIC POLICY 3 OF 3

• Public Policy
 Conservative opinions regarding policy
 Low taxes
 Few financial resources committed to public
services
 Conservative social values

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 TEXAS’S CULTURAL REGIONS
1 OF 5

• Texas Cultural Regions

East Texas
The Gulf Coast
A Boom Based in Houston

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 TEXAS
CULTURAL
REGIONS

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 TEXAS’S CULTURAL REGIONS
2 OF 5

• Texas Cultural Regions continued

South Texas
• Ranchero culture
• Creoles
• Mestizos
• The Valley (of the Rio Grande)

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 TEXAS’S CULTURAL REGIONS
3 OF 5

• Texas Cultural Regions continued

Far West Texas
• Bicultural
• NAFTA
• The Texas Border
• Maquiladoras

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 TEXAS’S CULTURAL REGIONS
4 OF 5

• Texas Cultural Regions continued

German Hill Country
West Texas
The Panhandle

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 TEXAS’S CULTURAL REGIONS
5 OF 5

• Texas Cultural Regions continued

North Texas
• Metroplex
Central Texas

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 POLITICS AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY 1 OF 7
• Texans’ Struggle for Equal Rights
• Female Texans (in Republic of Texas)
• Were not able to vote
• Were not able to serve on juries
• Retained some property rights

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 POLITICS AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY 2 OF 7
• Texans’ Struggle for Equal Rights
continued
Female Texans continued
• Minnie Fisher Cunningham
• The 19th Amendment
• The Marital Property Act
• 2016 abortion decision

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 FEMALE TEXANS

Texan Minnie Fisher

Cunningham was a
champion for women’s
suffrage in the state.

Bettmann/Corbis
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 POLITICS AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY 3 OF 7
• Texans Struggle for Equal Rights
continued
African American Texans
• White primary
• Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
• NAACP
• Sweatt v. Painter
• United States v. Texas

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 SWEATT V. PAINTER
Heman Sweatt
successfully integrated
Texas public law schools
after the U.S. Supreme
Court began to chip away
Joseph Scherschel/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

at the “separate-but-
equal” doctrine in the
landmark case Sweatt v.
Painter, (1950).

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 POLITICS AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY 4 OF 7
• Texans Struggle for Equal Rights
continued
Latino Texans
• Raymondville Peonage cases
• Hector Garcia and the American GI Forum
• Hernandez v. Texas

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 POLITICS AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY 5 OF 7
• Texans Struggle for Equal Rights
continued
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Texans
• Lawrence v. Texas
• The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

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 KEY U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS PROTECTING
TEXANS’ RIGHTS TO EQUALITY AND PRIVACY 1 OF 3

Unconstitutional Texas Landmark Supreme

Practice U.S. Constitutional Violation Court Case
Texas laws permitting No state shall deny any person the Smith v. Allwright
the Democratic Party right to vote on account of race— (1944)
to conduct whites-only Fifteenth Amendment.
primaries. Also used in
other southern states
Texas law requiring No state shall deny any person the Sweatt v. Painter
racially segregated law equal protection of the laws— (1950)
schools. Professional Fourteenth Amendment.
schools were
segregated throughout
the South.
Texas practice of No state shall deny any person the Hernandez v. State
denying Latinos the equal protection of the laws— of Texas (1954)
right to serve on juries. Fourteenth Amendment.

20
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 KEY U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS PROTECTING
TEXANS’ RIGHTS TO EQUALITY AND PRIVACY 2 OF 3

Unconstitutional Texas Practice
State laws mandating statewide
segregation of public schools
and most facilities open to the
public. Texas was among the 17
mostly southern states with
statewide laws requiring
segregation at the time of the
decision.
Texas law making abortion
illegal; 30 states outlawed
abortions for any reason in 1973. law—Fourteenth
Landmark Supreme
U.S. Constitutional Violation Court Case
No state shall deny any Brown v. Board of
person the equal Education of
protection of the laws— Topeka (1954)
Fourteenth Amendment.
No state shall deny liberty Roe v. Wade (1973)
without due process of
Amendment

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 KEY U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS PROTECTING
TEXANS’ RIGHTS TO EQUALITY AND PRIVACY 3 OF 3

Unconstitutional Texas Practice
Texas law making homosexual
conduct a crime; 14 mostly
southern states made
homosexual conduct a crime at
the time of the decision.
State laws making same-sex
marriage illegal; Texas was
among 31 states with
constitutional provisions that
banned same-sex marriage.
Most states had statutes
defining marriage as between
one man and one woman.
Landmark Supreme
U.S. Constitutional Violation Court Case
No state shall deny liberty Lawrence v. Texas
without due process of (2003)
law—Fourteenth
Amendment.
No state shall deny liberty Obergefell v.
without the due process of Hodges (2015)
law; no state shall deny
any person the equal
protection of the laws—
Fourteenth Amendment.

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 POLITICS AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY 6 OF 7
• Cultural Diversity Today
Demographics
• Texas one of the fastest-growing states
• Texas becoming more culturally diverse

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 TEXAS
ETHNIC/RACIAL
POPULATIONS,
PAST AND
PRESENT,
1980-2015

Source: U.S. Census Bureau and Office of the Texas State Demographer

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 POLITICS AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY 7 OF 7
• Cultural Diversity Today continued
Increasing diversity in Texas could impact
• Politics
• Culture
• Voter participation
• Income and poverty

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ETHNICITY, INCOME, AND
POVERTY IN TEXAS

Source: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas at Rice University

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