Chapter 19: ReconstructionSection 4: Texas after Reconstruction

Thinking Question

Imagine an election is being held for student body president and seventh

graders are being allowed to vote for the first time. At the last minute, school officials decide not to let seventh

graders vote after all. How would you feel?

The Texas Constitution of 1876

• Democrats call for another constitutional convention

• 1875 delegates meet:

– 15 of 90 delegates were Republican

– 6 Republicans were African American

The Texas Constitution of 1876

• Provisions:

– Governor’s term reduced from 4 to 2 years

– Governor’s power to appoint officials reduced

– Legislature returned to meeting biennially

The Texas Constitution of 1876

•Provisions

–Debt limited to $200,000

–Funding to public education cut

•Approved February 1876; still the state’s basic law

The Texas Constitution of 1876

• U.S. Constitution has 7,000 words

• Texas Constitution has 100,000 words

• U.S. Constitution has 27 amendments

• Texas Constitution has 439 amendments

The Texas Constitution of 1876

• Democrats reversed Davis policies:

– Removed Republican officials and cut taxes

– Limited government spending

– School attendance no longer compulsory

• 100 years of Democratic rule

Segregation & Jim Crow

•As the power of Radical Republicans decreased, so did African American political power

•African American civil rights lost as political power declined

Segregation & Jim Crow

•“Redeemers”—tried to restore the south to its prewar days:

–Limited size of government

–Cut back African American political participation

Segregation & Jim Crow

•Segregation—the forced separation of people of different races in public

•Jim Crow—laws passed to enforce segregation

Segregation & Jim Crow

•Jim Crow laws were passed in the South after African Americans lost much of their political power

The Growth of Tenant Farming

• End of Reconstruction large landowners returned to power

• Agriculture remained important to economy

• Many people could not afford land

The Growth of Tenant Farming

•Tenant Farmers—people who rent land to grow crops

• Landowners usually receives part of crop as payment

• Some farmers lacked land and necessary supplies

The Growth of Tenant Farming

•Sharecroppers—farmers who lacked land and necessary supplies promised a large part of their crops to the land owner in exchange for these items

The Growth of Tenant Farming

•Sharecropping became a way for large landowners to keep their labor costs very low after the end of slavery.

The Growth of Tenant Farming

• Highest number of tenant farmers were in areas where slavery flourished before the war

• Black & white were sharecroppers

• By 1880, around 40 percent of Texas farmers were sharecroppers

End of Reconstruction

Effects on Politics Effects on Farmers Effects on African Americans

•Led to Democratic one-party rule

•Reduced black political participation

•Limited size of government

•Restored political power of planters

•Rise in tenant farming and sharecropping

•Lost many civil rights

•Segregation enforced by Jim Crow Laws

•Decline of political power