How Did Texas Contribute To Society

The first known African American to arrive in Texas was named Estevanico. In 1528, he was brought to Texas as a slave. It took the efforts of many people of many different races to make Texas what it is today and to help the state slowly move forward from the dark days of slavery, racism, segregations, and oppression. Along the way, African American Texans have contributed to the culture of the state, and many black Texans made historical contributions as well. All of African American Texan’s history is important but the time periods that had the most impact were the Mexican National Era, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the era of Civil Rights and Conservatism.

The Mexican National Era took place around the 1820’s and the 1830’s. It
was a time of conflict when Texas was in a bit of a dilemma. Mexico wanted money and settlers but disliked slavery, while Texas settlers needed slaves for money due to labor-intensive cotton cash crops. In the 1820’s, Moses Austin worked with Mexico to create a land grant process to increase the number of settlers. When he died, his son, Stephen F. Austin, took over the land grant process. When applying for a land grant, the settlers could get 50 acres per slave. Mexico on the other hand, offered full citizenship to free blacks and property rights. In 1823, a colonization law made few changes to Stephen F. Austin’s land grants. One change was that the settlers had to be Catholic, and another change was the children of slaves had to be freed at the age of 14. This was a problem because Texas’ main cash crop was cotton, and they needed slaves to do the work. Mexico opposed slavery, so Texas tried to work around slavery with indentured servants. Even though indentured servants sounded like a way out of slavery, Texas made it nearly impossible to be freed because of the strict conditions required to earn freedom. In 1829, Mexico freed all slaves except for the ones in Texas. Mexico also prevented new slaves from entering their borders. Conflicts began to arrive over runaway slaves. While Texas was still a part of Mexico, 10% of the total population was slaves, the number of slaves doubled when Texas became Republic. A few years after Texas became a state, its slave population grew even more to 30 percent of the total population, In summary, this was a period of great conflict between Texas and Mexico over slavery. Mexico opposed slavery, and Texas settlers did everything they could to hold onto slavery.

The Civil War and the Reconstruction Period was also a time of conflict.
Sam Houston helped Texas gain its independence from Mexico, and he was also the first president of the Republic of Texas. When Texas became a state, Sam Houston became a US senator. At the beginning of the Civil War, Sam Houston had recently been elected as Governor of the state of Texas. Sam Houston opposed succession and was pro-union. In response, Texas kicked him out of office and replaced him with Lt. Governor Ed Clark. Texas joined the Confederacy because it was dependent on slavery for cotton crops and was afraid that the economy would be destroyed without slavery. Ironically, cotton production boomed after the Civil War. After the Civil War, blacks were freed in Texas and the US because of the 13th amendment. Because of that, more blacks moved to Texas including the Buffalo Soldiers. The Buffalo Soldiers were an all African-American regiment that fought for the Union. After the war, they moved Westward to fight the Native Americans and to help with the settlements. The 14th and 15th amendments were supposed to ensure fundamental rights for all Americans, but Texas and other states created Jim Crow Laws to continue discrimination and segregation. Opposition to these laws began the Civil Rights
movement.

In the early 1900’s, Texas went through another dark time as tensions grew between blacks and whites. As the Civil Rights movement began, groups like the NAACP began to fight for equal rights. One crucial moment was the Longview Race Riot of 1919. The tension was high, and during the riot, blacks were shot, and houses were burnt to the ground. Progress was made only very slowly as blacks began to fight for equal rights and education. One key moment was in Mansfield, Tx. Mansfield ISD did everything the could make it difficult for blacks to go to their schools. Eventually, the situation went all the way to the supreme court twice. During the 1950’s, Texas still had Jim Crow Laws including, blacks and whites could not marry. At the national level, president Truman began what would later become the Civil Rights movement. At that time, Lyndon B. Johnson was a senator from the state of Texas. Texas at that time was considered a democratic state. Unfortunately, Texas Governor Allan Shivers and many people in Texas were mad at President Truman because they were fighting over land rights to the Texas coast. It is possible that their anger at President Truman caused Texas to move even more slowly towards equal rights. Ironically, when Lyndon B. Johnson became president, he became famous for his efforts to support civil rights.
It has been more than 150 years since emancipation, and more than 50 years since the Civil Rights movement began. It has been a long road for Texas to move towards giving African-Americans equal rights. We have made lots of progress, but we still have some more work cut out for us. Unfortunately, we are now facing a new era of discrimination for people of the Mexican race. Even as we speak, our president is pushing for a wall to divide Texas from Mexico.