Fall 2025 Part 5.

 

The Legacy of Country Music

 

Modern country music has existed for almost one century. People have used country music for manifold reasons. Some have expressed country music to talk about the complexities about love and romance. Some use it to describe the wonder and grandiose nature of rural culture. Other individuals just wanted to display a love of joy and having a great time. One example is how Tanner Adell, from Lexington, Kentucky, love to express herself in her songs. She is the first woman country artist to perform during the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards on June 30, 2024, on Sunday. Some people sing country music to be vulnerable about the pain commonly found in human longevity. It is important to reiterate the fact that black people have been a part of country music since its inception. Even the banjo originated from Africa. Now, times have changed. Decades ago, country music was mostly promoted by older people and rural people of all ages. In our generation in 2025, a higher level of younger human beings has been promoting country music genres, going into concerts and shows, etc. This spread of country music isn't just found in rural or suburban locations. It is found in urban markets with more people in the urban community wearing cowboy hats and singing country music songs. Many country music fans have been to award shows and watched country music in the privacy of their own homes. 

 

A Youth Movement

In our generation in 2025, we see a rise of younger country music artists expressing themselves in a higher level. Back in the day, most of the mainstream country music artists were either middle aged or older. Today, we live in a completely different world that is more digitalized and more focused on the widespread nature of the Internet. In a way, it is like a youth movement. Breland is a country music artist from New Jersey. He moved into Atlanta after graduating from Georgetown University. He has been a songwriter for years. He released the song of My Truck in late 2019. He works in the hip hop/country hybrid movement too. He has released songs like Cross Country and Natural too. There is an artist named Marcus King who is very young making many country music songs. He is a songwriter, guitarist, bandleader, and singer. He has been inspired by rock and roll music too. The Well is a title of a song from Marcus King. Many people know about the acclaimed country music artist Rhiannon Giddens. She is open about talking about race and other issues in her music. She earned the MacArthur Genius Grant award. She co-founded the Grammy Award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, and she has been nominated for six additional Grammys for her work as a country folk soloist and collaborator. Wayfaring Stranger is one song from her. Gabe Lee is a country music artist too. He sings music that talks about the diversity of the components of human life. He was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. One of his songs is Eveline. He is inspired by alternative rock and classic rock. He is inspirated by Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, and Creedance Clearwater Revival. Esther Rose is a singer and songwriter plus a country music pop musician. She performed and recorded music in New Orleans. She loves to show traditional country arrangements. Many of her songs are How Many Times, etc. She is inspired by Hank Williams Sr. and Joni Mitchell plus the many writers and musicians from the New Orleans neighborhood. 

 

Hybrid Genres

Country music always had diverse genres and hybrid musical movements. There is alternative country music that deals with Americana, country punk, cowpunk, gothic country, and roots rock. One of the most famous country genres is outlaw country. This was created by a few artists back in the 1970s and early 1980s being part of the outlaw movement. This movement wanted creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment. It spread into being supported by people like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, David Allan Coe, Jerry Jeff Walker, and other human beings. The music has its roots in earlier subgenres like Western, honky tonk, rockabilly, and progressive country, and is characterized by a blend of rock and folk rhythms, country instrumentation, and introspective lyrics. We know that Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers merged country music with pop sounds in many of their songs like 9 to 5 and Islands in the Stream. There is the Country rap music that has been popular since the late 1990s. There has been early influences of this style of music from songs like Jimmy Dean's Big Bad John in 1961 and Uneasy Rider in 1975 by Charlie Daniels. Black artists' works that may have been influential in the genre's development include Jamaican ska artist Prince Buster's "Texas Hold-Up" (1964), "Lil Ole Country Boy" (1970) by Parliament, and "Black Grass" (1972) by Bad Bascomb. Music journalist Chuck Eddy traces the genre's roots back to Woody Guthrie. Other early examples of country rap are Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Square Dance Rap" (1985). Kid Rock, Bubba, and other people used country and rap styles. The trend continued in 2005 when country music stars Big and Rich introduced Cowboy Troy and his album Loco Motive. Troy has said he uses "country instrumentation" that includes a banjo, fiddle, and acoustic guitar blended with "shredding rock guitar riffs and a rap delivery." The Mo Thugs Family single "Ghetto Cowboy" (1998) is noted for featuring a harmonica. Rolling Stone said of "Cruise (Remix)" (2012) by Florida Georgia Line featuring Nelly. 

 

Beyonce's Cowboy Carter

Nothing will be same with her music. The album of Cowboy Carter from Beyoncé was her eighth studio album. It was released on March 29, 2024, via Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. It changed country music forever, filled with excitement, debate, and a new sense of realizing the black contributions to country music in general. Now, you have people across the world wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots to not only celebrate Beyoncé. They want to affirm that country music culture doesn't just belong to white rural people. It also belongs to all people globally, irrespective of color, background, sex, gender, creed, or zipcode. Cowboy Carter was her 2nd album of her planned trilogy of albums after Renaissance was released in 2022. Beyonce dealt with a reinvention of Americana, showing the black pioneers of musical history and to show country music, country pop, outlaw country, western pop, Jersey, and other genres of music. Many people contributed to the album like  Shaboozey, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, and Willie Jones (including Dolly Parton, Linda Martell, and Willie Nelson acting as disc jockeys). The album has R&B, zydeco, rock and roll, hip hop, bluegrass, etc

The music is driven by a range of acoustic instruments played by musicians including Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Nile Rodgers, Gary Clark Jr., Adam Granduciel, Robert Randolph, Jon Batiste, and Rhiannon Giddens. The album has been met with universal acclaim and appeared on multiple year-end lists. It is an experimental album showing conversations about culture and music that has been powerful. Similar to Garth Brooks back in the day, Beyonce's country music album increased the popularity of Western wear and culture. At the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, Cowboy Carter made Beyoncé the first Black artist to win Best Country Album and the first Black woman since Lauryn Hill in 1999 to win Album of the Year; its single "II Most Wanted" won Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Cowboy Carter debuted at number one in many countries and broke multiple chart and streaming records. In America, Cowboy Carter became Beyoncé's eighth consecutive number one album on the Billboard 200 and the first album by a Black woman to top the Top Country Albums chart. The album was supported by three singles, "Texas Hold 'Em", "16 Carriages", and "II Most Wanted", with the first becoming Beyoncé's ninth U.S. number one single and the first country song by a Black woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts. The Cowboy Carter Tour began on April 28, 2025. Cowboy Carter landed Beyoncé her biggest streaming week ever and broke streaming records on several platforms. On Spotify, the album became one of the most-streamed albums in a single day in 2024, the biggest debut of the year for a country album, and the biggest debut ever for any album by a Black woman, with over 76 million streams globally in its first day. Cowboy Carter also marks the most first-day streams for a country album by a female artist in the history of Amazon Music.

Cowboy Carter also broke several chart records. In the United States, Cowboy Carter debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with 407,000 album-equivalent units. In doing so, Beyoncé became the first woman and second artist overall to debut her first eight albums at number one. Cowboy Carter debuted at number one on the Americana/Folk Albums, and Top Country Albums charts, making Beyoncé the first Black woman to have a number-one country album. The album remained atop the Billboard 200 for two weeks, her first multi-week number one since 2013's Beyoncé. All 23 eligible songs on Cowboy Carter debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, giving African-American country artists Martell, Adell, Kennedy, Roberts, Spencer, Jones and Shaboozey their first chart entries and bringing Beyoncé's career total Hot 100 entries to 106, the third highest for a female artist. Beyoncé also topped eighteen Billboard charts the week of Cowboy Carter's release, including the Artist 100, Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers; she also became the first artist to simultaneously hold the number one positions on both the Top Country Albums and the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums charts, with Renaissance atop the latter. Cowboy Carter has spent over 50 weeks on the Billboard 200, making Beyoncé the sole record holder for the most studio albums by a Black woman to chart 50 or more weeks, surpassing Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey with a total of eight.

The Essence of Country Music

We live in many changes in the world, but one thing that remains the same is the truth. Country music has been around in the modern era for almost one century. Even before that time, country music elements have been abundant from the banjo the guitar, and to certain vocal genres. The essence of country music is diverse in dealing with rural culture, cowboys, the rugged events of life (as life will never be completely perfect all of the time), the honest expression of humanity, and the essence of having purpose to see the day. Rural life has a vibe of self-reliance and independence found at the bedrock of much of American culture. Farm, family, religious institutions, and activism encompass the landscape of country living. Not to mention, community is important too. No human is an island, and all human beings have received help at least one time in the duration of their lives. That is why there is power in the individual and in the collective. Country music has been expressed by people of all colors, nationalities, sexes, and backgrounds eloquently filled with passion and strength. It is important for us to believe in things from freedom to justice for all. After the Cowboy Carter album, which was done by Beyonce Knowles-Carter, more human beings know more about the black contributions to country music and culture. That is certainly a profound, historic blessing. Regardless of how you feel about Beyonce, you can't deny her Southern country roots (Beyonce actually been to rodeos and her ancestors are from the Deep South in real life) and her talent as it pertains to overall popular culture. Country music is part of our overall global human culture that seeks to learn to discover, to love, and to embark on an intrepid, hallowed journey to go establish a better future than the past indeed. 

 

Country Music Related TV shows and movies

There are tons of movies and TV shows the exemplify or represent country music. The 2005 film Walk the Line starred Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix playing June Carter and Johnny Cash. The couple been through the rain and the storm. Johnny Cash went from a hardcore rebel to a born-again Christian just before his passing. The film details the long, complex life story of country music pioneer Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter. The movie earned many Academy Award nominations, and Witherspoon took the Best Actress trophy. The song Harper Valley P.T.A. was sang by Jeannie C. Riley. It inspired both a film and television series that I Dream of Jeannie actress Barbara Eden starred as the song's protagonist in both. The series Nashville showed the uncut, honest reality of many events in country music culture. It has been around for six seasons ending in 2019. In the 1982 called Honkytonk Man film, Clint Eastwood plays Red Stovall, a character loosely based on the life of Jimmie Rodgers, who many regard as one of country music's early pioneers. In addition to the film's funny hijinks, it features a performance from country legend Marty Robbins. Inspired by the legendary Hank Williams song of the same name, Your Cheatin' Heart is an origin story of sorts for country music's "hillbilly Shakespeare." George Hamilton stars as Williams in the film, originally intended to feature Elvis Presley in the roll. Reba was a popular sitcom featuring Reba McEntire (who is a legendary country music singer in her own right) that lasted from October 5, 2001, to February 18, 2007. 

The Black Contributions ot Country Music

Many people still don't know that black people have been involved in the history of country since the genre's inception. Back in the day, many of us never heard of anyone black playing country music except for Charlie Pride and Darius Rucker (from the group Hootie and the Blowfish). Yet, there were tons of black artists playing country music for a long time. The vocalist and historian Queen Esther spoke her words in TED Talk to document this history. Country music has always been part of many cultures including black culture. We know that the blues and jazz are part of American culture. We know that West African music traditions influence the music today in our time. Our ancestors came from Western and Central Africa mostly. The African plants, fruits, vegetables, and music spread globally including the Americas. The banjo is a key part of the country music being a powerful instrument. The banjo came from Africa. The banjo has been called the banjar, bangie, banjer, and banza. It came to America by the 17th century. Many black musicians taught early country music artists too. Tee Tot Payne was a guitarist and street performer form Louisiana. He was a teacher to Hank Williams, teaching him passing chords and how to write sounds. Musician Lesley Riddle helped the Carter family. Fiddler and guitarist Arnold Shultz – the son of a former slave, from a family of musicians and performers – played a pivotal role in the life of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass. He gave him his first gig, introduced him to the blues and taught him a Kentucky “thumb style” guitar technique that would make musician Chet Atkins famous. Bill Monroe said that Arnold Shultz was his best friend, and always spoke of him fondly. DeFord Bailey was the first black artist to perform at the Grand Ole Opry back in 1927, making history. Tina Turner played a country song before too which was DeFord Bailey's Pan American Blues (from 1941). In our modern times, we have Mickey Guyton who loves country music and has toured the world to celebrate life and the black contributions in country music in full detail. Cowboy Troy came after Darius Rucker to have a country and even hip hop type of sound too. Linda Martell was a black woman who was an innovator of country music during the 1970s. There are artists like Stoney Edwards, Howdy Glenn, The Pointer Sisters (yes, they did country music along with R&B music), Frankie Staton, Aaron Neville, Cleve Francis, Jake Blount, Kane Brown, Rhiannon Giddens, Rissi Palmer, Shaboozey, Tanner Adell, Chapel Hart, Willie Jones, Miko Marks, Beyonce, Don Flemons, Adia Victoria, Valerie June, Julie Williams, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell, Breeland, Reyna Roberts, Alice Randall, Brittney Spencer, Blanco Brown, and other human beings who made country music then and now. Many younger people know about the country music duo War and Treaty.

In Closing

For centuries and millennia, music has been a universal language. Country music has been around for a long time in America. It is known for its ballads, dance tunes, folk influences, and other components that has inspired people of every nationality and color. Country music represents a massive cultural aspect of people living in rural areas, suburban areas, and urban areas. People who perform country music love to use instruments like banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, guitar, and other types of forms of expression. In music, there are at least six major instrument families. There are strings filled with violins, guitars, and cellos. There is the woodwinds that uses a tube like flutes, clarinets, and saxophones. There is the brass that includes trumpets, trombones, and tubas. There is the percussion that is filled with drums and xylophones. We know about the keyboards filled with pianos, organs, and synthesizers. There are electronic devices like synthesizers, drum machines, electric guitars, etc. Country music legends back in the day and now are hugely respected and acknowledged like Charlie Pride, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Kenny Rogers, Buck Owens, Jimmie Rodgers, Keith Urban, Linda Martell, Darius Rucker, Reyna Roberts, Aaron Neville, Cleve Francis, and so many other human beings who sacrificed their lives to show their stories to the populace. Themes in country music are diverse from focusing on love, resiliency, overcoming challenges, and embracing a rural cultural environment. The rural area represents the origin of all human life, so we have a customary love for rural locations genetically. One major turning point in country music history is the release of the Beyonce album of Cowboy Carter. That album inspired debate, discussion, and caused Beyonce to have the highest selling country music tour in history. The same ones who say that Beyonce is not country omit that Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers did pop records for decades, but no one say that both people weren't truly country. We know why they are hypocrites. We don't need to spell out the reason. Therefore, country music has been an artform that continues to inspire younger artists from Jellyroll to Brit Taylor. 

Texas

 

Texas is a state filled with a lot of history and culture. From cowboys to steaks, Texas has been a cultural beacon of American society. There have been activists like Barbara Jordan who desired civil rights back in the day. Today, Jasmine Crockett has risen up to defend our human rights and confront the nefarious agenda of the Trump movement. Texas is a state with a stronghold of conservative people, and its urban communities especially have dedicated progressive people. Also, many rural and suburban areas in Texas have progressives too. Texas is a place that has major technological industries and is one major epicenter of country music culture. It has massive hip hop expansion, rock influences, jazz, gospel (The Moriah Sisters, Tamela Mann, Les Beasley, Guy Penrod, Yolanda Adams, Kirk Franklin, and other gospel artists are from Texas), and it's a place where other genres of music are fully shown to the public. Texas have been involved in the civil rights struggle for justice, Texas has cultural issues debated, and it has famous political campaigns in a changing world. Texas represents America, because Texas is America. The same discussions about political policies, the same diverse cultures, and the diversity of Americans in general are found in Texas, including the other areas of the United States of America, too. Permanently, we believe in justice, liberty, and equality for all people. We know when Texas goes down the right path of progressive values, the rest of America and the world will follow suit greatly. 

The History of Texas

The state of Texas has a long history. Native Americans or indigenous people have lived in Texas for more than 10,000 years. There is the discovery of the remains of the prehistoric Leanderthal Lady. In 1519, the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors in the region of North America now known as Texas found the region occupied by numerous Native American tribes. The name Texas derives from táyshaʼ, a word in the Caddoan language of the Hasinai, which means "friends" or "allies." As time went on, more Native American ethnic groups lived in Texas. There were ancestral Pueblo people in the upper Rio Grande region, around the western part of Texas. The Mound Builders of the Mississippian culture spread across the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries, including the Caddo nation being among its descendants. There were the indigenous peoples of Aridoamerica in the southern and western Texas region of Aridomamerica. Some tribes have trade and cultural ties to the densely populated Mesoamerica in Mexico and Central America. There was the influence of the city of Tenochtitlán in Mexico City, which peaked in ca. 500 A.D. and declined over the 8th and 10th centuries. The Paleo-Indians who lived in Texas between 9,200 and 6,000 BC may have had links to the Clovis and Folsom cultures; these nomadic people hunted mammoths and bison using atlatls. They extracted Alibates flint from quarries in the panhandle region. Beginning during the 4th millennium BC, the population of Texas increased despite a changing climate and the extinction of giant mammals. Many pictograms from this era, drawn on the walls of caves or on rocks, are visible in the state, including at Hueco Tanks and Seminole Canyon. Native Americans in East Texas began to settle in villages shortly after 500 BC, farming and building the first burial mounds. They were influenced by the Mississippian culture, which had major sites throughout the Mississippi basin. In the Trans-Pecos area, populations were influenced by Mogollon culture.

Early Ceramics date back to ca. 500 BC. In Eastern Texas, the Tchefuncte tradition of ceramics flourished from around 500 to 100 BC. Local hunters adopted bows and arrows around the 8th century, replaced the long-distance but less accurate atlatl. Native peoples hunted bison for food, clothing, shelter, and more. They imported obsidian from suppliers in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains. Texas has been conquered by the French and Spanish Empires. After Spanish explorers entered the area, Texas was largely divided between six cultural groups. Caddoan language-speaking peoples occupied the area surrounding the entire length of the Red River, and at the time of European contact, they formed four collective confederacies of the Wichita, Natchitoches, the Hasinai, and the Kadohadocho. Along the Gulf Coast region were the Atakapa tribes. Southward from the Atakapa, along the Gulf Coast to the Rio Grande river, at least one Coahuiltecan tribe (a culture group primarily from Northeast Mexico) was located. The Puebloan peoples, situated largely between the Rio Grande and Pecos river were part of an extensive civilization of tribes that lived in what are now the states of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. While the northernmost Ancestral Pueblo groups faced a cultural collapse due to drought, many of the southern tribes survive to the present. North of the Pueblos were the Apache peoples, who included several tribes with distinct languages.

By the late 17th century, in Texas Panhandle region, the Comanches settled and later expanded their territories. Native Americans determined the fate of European explorers and settlers depending on whether a tribe was kind or warlike. Friendly tribes taught newcomers how to grow indigenous crops, prepare foods, and hunting methods for the wild game. Warlike tribes made life difficult and dangerous for explorers and settlers through their attacks and resistance to European conquest. Many Native Americans died of new infectious diseases, which caused high fatalities and disrupted their cultures in the early years of colonization. 

The first European to see Texas was the Spanish person Alonso Alvarez de Pineda,  who led an expedition for the governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, in 1520. While searching for a passage between the Gulf of Mexico and Asia, Álvarez de Pineda created the first map of the northern Gulf Coast. This map is the earliest recorded document of Texas history. Between 1528 and 1535, four survivors of the Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico, spent six and a half years in Texas as slaves and traders among various native groups. Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to explore the interior of Texas. In 1543, the Hernando de Soto expedition entered Texas from the east, becoming the first Europeans to visit the Caddo peoples. Searching for an overland path to Mexico, the expedition turned back to the Mississippi River after leaving Caddo territory and finding nomadic tribes without food stores to sustain the Spanish.

Although Álvarez de Pineda had claimed the area that is now Texas for Spain, the area was essentially ignored for over 160 years. Its initial settlement by Europeans occurred by accident. In April 1682, French nobleman René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle had claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France. The French colonization of Texas took place from 1684 to 1689.  The following year, he convinced King Louis XIV to establish a colony near the Mississippi, essentially splitting Spanish Florida from New Spain. La Salle's colonization expedition left France on July 24, 1684, and soon lost one of its supply ships to Spanish privateers. A combination of inaccurate maps, La Salle's previous miscalculation of the latitude of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and overcorrecting for the Gulf currents led the ships to be unable to find the Mississippi. Instead, they landed at Matagorda Bay in early 1685, 400 miles (644 km) west of the Mississippi. In February, the colonists constructed Fort Saint Louis. René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle founded the French colony in Texas.

After the fort was constructed, one of the ships returned to France, and the other two were soon destroyed in storms, stranding the settlers. La Salle and his party searched overland for the Mississippi River, traveling as far west as the Rio Grande and as far east as the Trinity River. Disease and hardship laid waste to the colony, and by early January 1687, fewer than 45 people remained. That month, a third expedition launched a final attempt to find the Mississippi. The expedition experienced much infighting, and La Salle was ambushed and killed somewhere in East Texas. The Spanish leaned of the French colony in late 1685. The Spanish believed that the French colony was a threat to Spanish mines and shipping routes. King Carlos II's Council of war wanted the removal of the French colony from Texas. They made 10 expeditions. The Frenchman guided the Spanish to the French fort in late April 1689. The French fort was destroyed. By March 1690, Alonso De Leon led an expedition to form a mission in East Texas. Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in late May, and its first mass was celebrated on June 1. 

On January 23, 1691, Spain appointed the first governor of Texas, General Domingo Terán de los Ríos.On his visit to Mission San Francisco in August, he discovered that the priests had established a second mission nearby, but were having little luck converting the natives to Catholicism. The Indians regularly stole the mission cattle and horses and showed little respect to the priests. When Terán left Texas later that year, most of the missionaries chose to return with him, leaving only three religious people and nine soldiers at the missions. The group also left behind a smallpox epidemic. The angry Caddo threatened the remaining Spaniards, who soon abandoned the fledgling missions and returned to Coahuila. For the next 20 years, Spain again ignored Texas. Spain used the French to help build missions in Texas in trying to convert Native Americans to Catholicism. By the 1700s, missions grew in Texas.  The following year, the War of the Quadruple Alliance pitted Spain against France, which immediately moved to take over Spanish interests in North America. In June 1719, seven Frenchmen from Natchitoches took control of the mission San Miguel de los Adaes from its sole defender, who did not know that the countries were at war. The French soldiers explained that 100 additional soldiers were coming, and the Spanish colonists, missionaries, and remaining soldiers fled to San Antonio. 

The new governor of Coahuila and Texas, the Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo, drove the French from Los Adaes without firing a shot. He then ordered the building of a new Spanish fort Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes, located near present-day Robeline, Louisiana, only 12 mi (19 km) from Natchitoches. The new fort became the first capital of Texas, and was guarded by six cannons and 100 soldiers. The six East Texas missions were reopened, and an additional mission and presidio were established at Matagorda Bay on the former site of Fort Saint Louis. By the late 1720s, the viceroy of New Spain had many soldiers. The Spainish were friends with the Hasinai, but they couldn't convert them to Catholicism. The Hasinai were enemies of the Lipan Apache. The Apaches shunned the mission but appeared to be friends of the Spanish. So, the Apache's enemies of the Hasinai, Comanche, and Tonkawa tribes destroyed the missions. Native Americans had battles among each other in Texas. During the American Revolution, Texas and the Tejanos helped the Americans in the fights in British West Florida. Unlike East Florida, Texas supported U.S. independence by also fighting in New Orleans and other campaigns in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1799, Spain gave Louisiana back to France in exchange for the promise of a throne in central Italy. Although the agreement was signed on October 1, 1800, it did not go into effect until 1802. The following year, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States. The original agreement between Spain and France had not explicitly specified the borders of Louisiana, and the descriptions in the documents were ambiguous and contradictory. The United States insisted that its purchase also included most of West Florida and all of Texas. The Spainish and America had an agreement on land in the Adams Onis Treaty of 1819. In 1808, Napoleon forced the Spanish king to abdicate the throne and appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as the new monarch. A shadow government operated out of Cadiz during Joseph's reign. Revolutionaries within Mexico and the United States unsuccessfully combined to declare Texas and Mexico independent.

Spanish troops reacted harshly, looting the province and executing any Tejanos accused of having Republican tendencies. By 1820, fewer than 2,000 Hispanic citizens remained in Texas. The situation did not normalize until 1821, when Agustin de Iturbide launched a drive for Mexican Independence. Texas became a part of the newly independent nation without any violence or physical conflict, ending the period of Spanish Texas. So, Spain ruled Texas for a time until Mexico ruled Texas. The 1821 Mexican War for Independence caused Spain to lose control of Mexico, Texas, and the rest of New Spain. The 1824 Constitution of Mexico joined Texas with Coahuila to form the state of Coahila Tejas. The same year, Mexico enacted the General Colonization Law, which enabled all heads of household, regardless of race or immigrant status, to claim land in Mexico. Mexico had neither manpower nor funds to protect settlers from near-constant Comanche raids and it hoped that getting more settlers into the area could control the raids. The government liberalized its immigration policies, allowing for settlers from the United States to immigrate to Texas. German immigrants came to Texas too. Starting in 1821, and in spite of growing Mexican limitations on slavery, U.S. immigrants brought an increasing number of slaves into Texas. By 1825, 69 slave owners owned 443 slaves. Mexico granted Texas a one-year exemption from the national edict of 1829 outlawing slavery, but Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante ordered that all slaves be freed in 1830. To circumvent the law, the colonists converted their slaves into indentured servants "for life." By 1836 there were 5,000 enslaved African Americans in Texas.

Bustamante outlawed the immigration of United States citizens to Texas in 1830. Several new presidios were established in the region to monitor immigration and customs practices. The new laws also called for the enforcement of customs duties, angering both native Mexican citizens (Tejanos) and Anglos. In 1832, a group of settlers in East Texas led a revolt against customs enforcement in Anahuac. These Anahuac Disturbances coincided with a revolt in Mexico against the current president. Texans sided with the federalists against the current government and after the Battle of Nacogdoches, drove all Mexican soldiers out of East Texas. So, while Mexico banned slavery, many of the white Texan settlers including Stephen F. Austin wanted slavery in Texas. 

Texans took advantage of the lack of oversight to agitate for more political freedom, resulting in the Convention of 1832. Among other issues, the convention demanded that U.S. citizens be allowed to immigrate into Texas, and requested independent statehood for the area. Many Americans wanted to own slaves in Texas using independence rhetoric as a cover. The following year, Texians reiterated their demands at the Convention of 1833. After presenting their petition, courier Stephen F. Austin was jailed for the next two years in Mexico City on suspicion of treason. Although Mexico implemented several measures to appease the colonists, President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's measures to transform Mexico from a federalist to a centralist state led the Texan colonists to revolt. The vague unrest erupted into armed conflict on October 2, 1835, at the Battle of Gonzales, when Texans repelled a Mexican attempt to retake a small cannon. This launched the Texas Revolution, and over the next three months, the Texian Army successfully defeated all Mexican troops in the region. On March 2, 1836, Texans signed the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos, effectively creating the Republic of Texas. The revolt was justified as necessary to protect basic rights and because Mexico had annulled the federal pact. The majority of the colonists were from the United States; they said that Mexico had invited them to move to the country, but they were determined "to enjoy" the republican institutions to which they were accustomed in their native land. Santa Anna fought back. Santa Anna led the bulk of the troops to San Antonio de Bexar to besiege the Alamo Mission, while General Jose de Urrea led the remaining troops up the coast of Texas. Urrea's forces soon defeated all the Texian resistance along the coast, culminating in the Goliad massacre, where they executed 300 Texian prisoners of war. After a thirteen-day siege, Santa Anna's forces overwhelmed the nearly 200 Texians defending the Alamo, and killed the prisoners. "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" became a battle cry of the Texas Revolution. The Texans came back to defeat the Mexican forces commanded by General Sam Houston. They defeated Santa Ana's forces near Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto by April 21, 1836. 

The Republic of Texas existed from 1836 to 1845. The 1st Congress of the Republic of Texas convened in October 1836 at Columbia (now West Columbia). Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, died in December 27, 1836, after serving two months as Secretary of State for the new Republic. In 1836, five sites served as temporary capitals of Texas (Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco and Columbia) before President Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837. In 1839, the capital was moved to the new town of Austin by the next president, Mirabeau B. Lamar. The internal politics of the Republic were based on the conflict between two factions. The nationalist faction, led by Mirabeau B. Lamar, advocated the continued independence of Texas, the expulsion of the Native Americans, and the expansion of Texas to the Pacific Ocean. Their opponents, led by Sam Houston, advocated the annexation of Texas to the United States and peaceful co-existence with Native Americans. Mexico refused to support Texas independence.  On March 5, 1842, a Mexican force of over 500 men, led by Ráfael Vásquez, invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They soon headed back to the Rio Grande after briefly occupying San Antonio. 1,400 Mexican troops, led by the French mercenary general Adrian Woll launched a second attack and captured San Antonio on September 11, 1842. A Texas militia retaliated at the Battle of Salado Creek. However, on September 18, this militia was defeated by Mexican soldiers and Texas Cherokee Indians during the Dawson massacre. The Mexican army would later retreat from the city of San Antonio. America made Texas a slave state in 1845. The Mexican American war happened as America via President James K. Polk viewed the border at the Rio Grande and Mexico thought the border was on the Nueces River. Fundamentally, this war was about disputes in borders, economic and political power, and slavery. 

On April 25, 1846, a 2,000-strong Mexican cavalry detachment attacked a 70-man U.S. patrol that had been sent into the contested territory north of the Rio Grande and south of the Nueces River. The Mexican cavalry routed the patrol, killing 16 U.S. soldiers in what later became known as the Thornton Affair. Both nations declared war. In the ensuing Mexican–American War, there were no more battles fought in Texas, but it became a major staging point for the American invasion of northern Mexico. America won the war, and America annexed tons of lands from New Mexico to Wyoming. The Texas population by 1860 was quite diverse, with large elements of European whites (from the American South), African Americans (mostly slaves brought from the east), Tejanos (Hispanics with Spanish heritage), and about 20,000 recent German immigrants. Irish immigrants were in Texas too. Cowboys of every color were in Texas, there were Western towns, and massive zeal for adventure in Texas back then too. There were Czech immigration to Texas too. 

By 1860, there has been the antebellum period near the time of the American Civil War. In the summer of 1860, a slave panic erupted in North and East Texas amid rumors of arson by slaves and abolitionists. Between 30 and 100 black people and whites were lynched by vigilantes in the so-called "Texas Troubles." The events were used to arouse support for secession.  Yet at least one fire was proven at the time to be due to a new kind of match that self-ignited in that season's unusual heat and wind, stopping the Denton lynch mob in that case. Texas was a major slave state. Slave labor was used in Texas to promote the southern cotton industry. In 1860, 30% of the total state population of 604,215 were enslaved. Slave owners were also politically dominant: During the 1860s, between 60 and 80% of state legislators came from a slave owning family, and 10–15% belonged to the Planter class. In the statewide election on the secession ordinance, Texans voted to secede from the Union by a vote of 46,129 to 14,697 (a 76% majority). The Secession Convention immediately organized a government, replacing Sam Houston when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Texas declared its secession from the United States on February 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States of America on March 2, 1861. With few battles in its territory, 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, horses or cattle impossible. Texas regiments fought in every major battle throughout the war. After the capture of New Orleans in 1862, slave owners with means to move forced the resettlement of enslaved people to Texas to escape the Union Army's reach. The last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, was fought in Texas on May 12, 1865. The 2nd Texas Cavalry Battalion (U.S.) (one of only two from the state) took part. There is the history of how Mexico, Mexican Americans, and other people dealt with the Union and Confederate Civil War military operations. 

Many Texan unionists supported the Confederacy after the war started, but many stuck with unionism during the war like in the northern coutnies, the German districts in Texas Hill County, and the Mexican areas. Local officials harassed unionists and engaged in large-scale massacres against unionists and German immigrants. In Cooke County, 150 suspected unionists were arrested; 25 were lynched without trial and 40 more were hanged after a summary trial. Draft resistance was widespread, especially among Texans of German or Mexican descent; many of the latter went to Mexico. Potential draftees went into hiding, Confederate officials hunted them down, and many were shot. On August 1, 1862, Confederate troops executed 34 pro-Union German Texans in the "Nueces Massacre" of civilians. Texas's most famous unionist was state Governor at the time, Sam Houston. After refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, he was deposed as governor. Even after news of the Emancipation Proclamation arrived in Galveston on June 19, 1865, creating the celebration of Juneteenth, slave owners withheld the news. It was not uncommon for them to delay telling the formerly enslaved people until after the harvest, according to historian Elizabeth Hayes Turner in her comprehensive essay, "Juneteenth: Emancipation and Memory."  

The state suffered little during the war, but trade and finance were disrupted. Angry returning veterans seized state property, and Texas went through a period of extensive violence and disorder. Most outrages took place in northern Texas; outlaws based in the Indian Territory plundered and murdered without distinction of party. President Andrew Johnson appointed Union General A. J. Hamilton as provisional governor on June 17, 1865. Hamilton had been a prominent politician before the war. He granted amnesty to ex-Confederates if they promised to support the Union in the future, appointing some to office. On March 30, 1870, although Texas did not meet all the requirements, Congress restored Texas to the Union. Many free blacks were able to become businessmen and leaders. Through the young Republican Party, blacks rapidly gained political power. Indeed, blacks comprised 90% of the Texas Republican Party during the 1880s. Norris Wright Cuney, an African American from Galveston, rose to the chairmanship of the Texas Republican Party and even the national committeeman. Like other Southern states, by the late 1870s white Democrats regained control of the state legislature. They passed a new constitution in 1876 that segregated schools and established a poll tax to support them, but it was not originally required for voting. Within the Republican Party the Lily-white movement emerged, a movement to wrest control of the party by whites and eliminate black influence altogether. The movement had its origins in Texas but spread across the nation. This in addition to wider efforts to restrict the influence of non-whites rapidly reversed the fortunes of the black population.

The history of Texas from 1876 to 1899 saw massive racism and oppression against black people. Still, the freedmen created educational systems, organized new churches and fraternal organizations, entered politics, and won local offices. By the 1890s, more than 100,000 blacks were voting in state elections. In 1896 and 1898, Republican Robert B. Hawley was elected to Congress from the state by a plurality, when most white voters split between the Democratic and Populist parties. Democrats were determined to end competition by Republicans and Populists, and reviewed what other Southern states were doing to disenfranchise blacks and poor whites. Mississippi's new constitution of 1890 had survived a Supreme Court case, although in practice it was highly discriminatory against freedmen. There were land politics during this time too. There was the federal Morill Act, and then Texas sold public lands to gain funds to invest in higher education. In 1876, the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas opened, and seven years later the University of Texas at Austin began conducting classes. There were more land policies that were drafted during the time of Governor John Ireland. Now, people in Texas could accumulate land like forming cattle ranches. Many ranchers ran barbed wire around public lands, to protect their access to water and free grazing. This caused many range wars. Governor Lawrence Sullivan Ross guided the Texas Legislature to reform the land use policies. The railroads grown in Texas by the 1880s. That ended the famous cattle drives and allowed ranchers to market their cattle after a short drive, and farmers move their cotton to market cheaply. They made Dallas and other cities the centers of commercial activity. Ft. Worth became the gateway to the west, via the Fort Worth and Denver Railway. However the passenger trains were often the targets of armed gangs.

Governor Lawrence Sullivan Ross had to personally intervene to resolve the Jaybird-Woodpecker War (1888–1889) among factions of Democrats in Fort Bend County; at bottom, it was a racial conflict. The majority population was black by a large margin, and had been electing county officers for 20 years. But, the white elite Democrats wanted their own people in power. Conflict became violent and the Jaybirds ordered several black people out of town. Tensions increased and a total of seven people were killed. In the fall of 1889, the Democratic Party created "white-only pre-primary elections," which in practice were the only competitive contests in the county, and thus disenfranchised the black human beings. This situation lasted until the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Terry v. Adams (1953) declared it unconstitutional in the last of the white primary cases. Under Jim Hogg, the state turned its attention toward corporations violating the state monopoly laws. In 1894, Texas filed a lawsuit against John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company and its Texas subsidiary, the Waters-Pierce Oil Company of Missouri. Hogg and his attorney-general argued that the companies were engaged in rebates, price fixing, consolidation, and other tactics prohibited by the state's 1889 antitrust act. The investigation resulted in a number of indictments, including one for Rockefeller. Hogg requested that Rockefeller be extradited from New York, but the New York governor refused, as Rockefeller had not fled from Texas. Rockefeller was never tried, but other employees of the company were found guilty. 

By September 8, 1900, there was the Hurricane that destroyed Galveston or Texas's fourth largest city during that time. It had a 20 ft. storm surge. Water covered the whole island, killing between 6,000 and 8,000 people, destroying 3,500 homes as well as the railroad causeway and wagon bridge that connected the island to the mainland. To help rebuild their city, citizens implemented a reformed government featuring a five-man city commission. Galveston was the first city to implement a city commission government, and its plan was adopted by 500 other small cities across the United States. In the aftermath of the Galveston disaster, action proceeded on building the Houston Ship Channel to create a more protected inland port. Houston quickly grew once the Channel was completed, and rapidly became the primary port in Texas. Railroads were constructed in a radial pattern to link Houston with other major cities such as Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin.

By 1900, the Dallas population reached 38,000 as banking and insurance became major activities in the increasingly white-collar city, which was now the world's leading cotton center. It was also the world's center of harness making and leather goods. Businessmen took control of civic affairs; with little municipal patronage, there was only a small role for the Democratic Party to play. The predominantly black Republican Party was essentially closed out of politics by the disenfranchisement in 1901 of most blacks through imposition of a poll tax (see below). The Democrats in 1901 wanted to end the political power of Republicans, Populists, and black people. So, the Democratic dominated state legislature passed a poll tax as a requirement for voting.  Given the economic difficulties of the times, the poll tax caused participation by African Americans, poor whites, and Mexican Americans to drop sharply, effectively disenfranchising more than one-third of the population of the state. The Democrats used a white primary to harm the rights of minorities. . By 1906, the number of black voters had dropped from more than 100,000 in the 1890s to 5,000. The state also passed a law for white primaries. In 1896, 86.6% of all voters in Texas voted in the presidential election; following disenfranchisement, voter turnout in 1904 was 29.2% and in 1920 was 21.6%.

When the Supreme Court ruled in 1923 that white primaries established by political parties were unconstitutional, in 1927 the Texas state legislature passed a bill that authorized political parties to establish their internal practices. The Democratic Party reinstated the white primary. That law survived until 1944 before another Supreme Court case ruled that it was unconstitutional. After 1944, the NAACP and other organizations worked to register black voters and participation increased. But the major disenfranchisement continued until passage in the mid-1960s of civil rights legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to provide for federal oversight in areas in which historically minorities did not vote in expected numbers based on population. Texas reached 4 million population in 1910, making it the fifth largest state, and continued to grow. It remained primarily rural, based on cotton farms and ranches, with 30% living in numerous villages and towns and a few cities. Later, the populations of Galveston, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso grew their populations, had cars, and increased their infrastructure. In 1911 an extremely bloody decade-long civil war broke out in Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to Texas, raising the Hispanic population from 72,000 in 1900 to 250,000 in 1920. The number reached 700,000 in 1930, 1,400,000 in 1960, and 4 million in 1990. The black population grew in numbers but declined as a proportion. There were massive lynchings in Texas too.  Of the 468 lynching victims in the state between 1885, the peak, and the last episode in 1942, 339 were black, 77 white, 53 Hispanic, and 1 Native American. There was improved law enforcement after 1920 meant the violence rapidly died out, but segregation only ended in 1964.

By the early to mid 1900s, there were oil industries growing, high skyscrapers, and then the Great Depression happened. The economy, which had experienced significant recovery since the Civil War, was dealt a double blow by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. After the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the economy suffered significant reversals. Thousands of city workers became unemployed, many of whom depended on federal relief programs such as FERA, WPA and CCC. Thousands of unemployed Mexican citizens received one-way bus tickets to their home villages in Mexico. The Dust Bowl happened form 1934 to 1939. Many people left Texas. Many of the New Deal helped some people, and some minorities didn't benefit from the New Deal because of discriminatory reasons. Federal money came into Texas during the World War II era. Texas saw the growth of military bases, factors, Army hospitals, and POW detention camps. There were tons of military bases in Texas from Fort Sam Houston to Camp Mabry.  People of many races participated in WWII form Texas to fight fascism overseas. Tens of thousands of new migrants streamed in from rural areas, straining the city's housing supply and the city's ability to provide local transit and schools. For the first time, high-paying jobs went to large numbers of women, black people and Hispanic people. The city's African-American community, emboldened by their newfound prosperity, increased its agitation for civil rights; they backed and funded the legal case of Smith v. Allwright (1944), in which the Supreme Court ruled against the latest version of the white primary in support of voting rights. Jim Crow still existed including the Texas drought from 1949 to 1957. Because of the drought, a system of water conservation existed via the Texas Water Development Board form 1957. There was more of an access to groundwater, lakes, and rivers. By the early 1960s, times would change. More black civil rights leaders fought for their human rights including other ethnic groups like Latino Americans. 

By the 1960s, Texas changed. The Civil Rights Movement has grown in society. On Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 pm Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC), President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The Texas Governor, John B. Connally, was also shot but survived. The episode caused a national outrage focused on right wing elements in Dallas that had long been hostile to Kennedy. However, Oswald was a pro Castro Marxist revolutionary and had no discernable connection to any right-wing organizations. In fact, no organizations related to low level groups were implicated in the assassination. Many people believe that Oswald acted alone, and others believe that President John F. Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. This debate continues to this day. In the aftermath, many in media and on the political left attempted to call the city and its citizens with accusations that "Dallas is a deceased city" or "Dallas is a city of hate " Nevertheless, for a half-century and more the people of Dallas still struggle with being branded as having some responsibility. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, located where the assassin is believed to have fired the shots, has become a historic tourist site. During World War II the main universities like University of Texas and Texas A&M University gained a new national role. The wartime financing of university research, curricular change, campus trainee programs, and postwar veteran enrollments changed the tenor and allowed Texas schools to gain national stature.

From 1950 through the 1960s, Texas modernized and dramatically expanded its system of higher education. Under the leadership of Governor 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. 

The Culture of Texas

The culture of Texas is much more diverse than people think. It has been influenced by massive migration from the North, West, East, and the Deep South. It has been a mixture of diverse cultures from African Americans, Native Americans, Tejanos, Cajuns, Irish people, German Texans, people of British heritage, etc. To understand Texas culture, you have to know the different regions of Texas. Texas has five major regions. they are East Texas, Central Texas, North Texas, South Texas, and West Teas. These regions  are defined by urban centers and varying cultural characteristics. The Texas Triangle, formed by Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio, is an interstate corridor between the three major Texan cities closest to the geographic center, each representing distinct cultural areas. Texas is bordered by the western prairies, the Deep South, and Mexico, incorporating Hispanic, African, and Anglo traditions. Texas also includes communities with origins in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Mexico, Southern African American and White Southern populations, as well as Native Americans. Texas is placed in the Southern United States by the United States Census Bureau. Texas culture is heavily influenced by agriculture as Texas has the most farms and highest acreage in America.  The state is ranked No. 1 for revenue generated from total livestock and livestock products. It is ranked No. 2 for total agricultural revenue, behind California. At $7.4 billion or 56.7 percent of Texas's annual agricultural cash receipts, beef cattle production represents the largest single segment of Texas agriculture. This is followed by cotton at $1.9 billion (14.6 percent), greenhouse/nursery at $1.5 billion (11.4 percent), broiler chickens at $1.3 billion (10 percent), and dairy products at $947 million (7.3 percent).

 

Texas produces the most cattle, horses, sheep, goats, wool, mohair, and hay in the United States. Texas produces the most cotton in America, which is the number one crop grown in the state in terms of value. The state grows a lot of cereal crops and produces a lot of food. There is obviously a ranch and cowboy culture in Texas. Ranching has been part of Texas culture for years and centuries. Cowboys back in the day would guard farms, be sheriffs, and act in many ways. Cowboys back then and now include people of every color and sex. The rodeo culture is prominent today. Texas is regularly identified as one major aspect of Westerns and country western music. Texas has been promoted by numerous shows, including the TV series Dallas and Walker, Ranger, offering a diverse range of content from oil tycoons to moral lessons. The annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the world's largest known rodeo. It 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 NRG Park for a barbecue cook-off. The rodeo includes typical rodeo events, as well as, concert performances from major artists, and carnival rides. The Fort Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo lasts three weeks in late January and early February. It has many traditional rodeos, but also a cowboy rodeo and a Mexican rodeo in recent years, which both have large fan bases. Many state fairs exist, and college football games are staples of Texas culture (like the University of Texas Longhorns, etc.). Many state and national holidays are found in Texas, like Juneteenth, Texas Independence Day, Lyndon Baines Johnson Day, and San Jacinto Day (for the celebrate the defeat of Mexico for Independence). The Dallas Cowboys is one of the most popular football teams in the world, too. 

There are tons of art and architecture in Texas, from the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Plaza to the Mustangs of Las Colinas. The music of Texas is dominated by many forms of music, like country music, R&B, hip hop, jazz, rock, etc. There is a live music scene in Austin, Texas. Austin, Texas, is the city with the most music venues per capita of any other U.S. city. That is why Austin is called The Live Music Capital of the World. There are Austin nightclubs on 6th Street with the music and multimedia festival called South by Southwest. The longest-running concert music program on American television, Austin City Limits, was videotaped at 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.

In Houston, the annual Free Press Summer Fest is a major draw as well as the entertainment lineups at the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Notable music venues for Houston are Fitzgerald's, Warehouse Live, and Walter's among others. Many renowned musicians' origins are in Houston including Lyle Lovett, Beyoncé, Clint Black, The Crusaders, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Kenny Rogers as well as groups including D.R.I., Helstar, La Mafia, the Geto Boys, and ZZ Top. The Houston Symphony and Houston Grand Opera are both attractions of the Houston Theater District. San Antonio has deep Mexican American roots with Tejano and conjunto music. There is music from the Panhandle and West Texas with artists like Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. Dallas, meanwhile, boasts a thriving blues and jazz scene, historically rooted in Deep Ellum, a neighborhood once frequented by legends like Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker. Together, these cities illustrate the incredible diversity and influence of Texas’s music landscape. Literature, Japanese anime, and other forms of culture is popular in Texas. Basketball is another popular sport in Texas. The state has three NBA teams, the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, and Dallas Mavericks, which have all won league titles. Fishing, marching bands and auto racing are also found in Texas. The Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth is a large motorsport track, hosting both domestic and international events. People eat Texas barbecue, Tex-Mex cuisine like sizzling fajitas, cheesy enchiladas, and crispy nachos with bold spices.  Texas culture has a long history filled with power and inspiration indeed. 

Beginning around the mid-20th century, Texas began to transform from a rural and agricultural state to one that was urban and industrialized. The state's population grew quickly during this period, with large levels of migration from outside the state. As a part of the Sun Belt Texas experienced strong economic growth, particularly during the 1970s and early 1980s. Texas's economy diversified, lessening its reliance on the petroleum industry. By 1990, Hispanics overtook black people to become the largest minority group in the state. Prior to the mid-20th century, Texas was essentially a one-party state, and the Democratic primary was viewed as "the real election". The Democratic Party had conservative and liberal factions, which became more pronounced after the New Deal. Additionally, several factions of the party briefly split during the 1930s and 40s.

The state's conservative white voters began to support Republican presidential candidates by the mid-20th century. After this period, they supported Republicans for local and state offices as well, and most white citizens became Republican Party members. The party also attracted some minorities, but many have continued to vote for Democratic candidates. The shift to the Republican Party is much attributed to the fact that the Democratic Party became increasingly liberal during the 20th century and thus was increasingly thought to be out-of-touch by the average Texas voter.  For the record, there are many progressive Texans to be clear. As Texas was always a conservative state, voters switched to the GOP, which now more closely reflected their beliefs. Commentators have also attributed the shift to Republican political consultant Karl Rove, who managed numerous political campaigns in Texas in the 1980s and 90s. Other stated reasons included court-ordered redistricting and the demographic shift in relation to the Sun Belt that favored the Republican Party and conservatism.

The 2003 Texas redistricting of Congressional districts led by Republican Tom DeLay, was called by the New York Times "an extreme case of partisan gerrymandering." A group of Democratic legislators, the "Texas Eleven", fled the state in a quorum-busting effort to prevent the legislature from acting, but was unsuccessful. The state had already redistricted following the 2000 census. Despite these efforts, the legislature passed a map heavily in favor of Republicans, based on 2000 data and ignoring the estimated nearly one million new residents in the state since that date. Career attorneys and analysts at the Department of Justice objected to the plan as diluting the votes of African American and Hispanic voters, but political appointees overrode them and approved it. Legal challenges to the redistricting reached the national Supreme Court in the case League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (2006), but the court ruled in favor of the state (and Republicans).

In the 2014 Texas elections, the Tea Party movement made large gains, with numerous Tea Party favorites being elected into office, including Dan Patrick as lieutenant governor, Ken Paxton as attorney general, in addition to numerous other candidates, including conservative Republican Greg Abbott as governor. In the late 20th century, Native American tribes regained federal recognition by organizing under the Indian Reorganization Act. They have been able to expand their government-to-government relationships with the U.S. federal government under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. Three federally recognized Native American tribes are headquartered in Texas today. They are: Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. The state formed the Texas Commission for Indian Affairs in 1965 to oversee state-tribal relations; however, the commission was dissolved in 1989. The state of Texas confirmed its first case on February 13, 2020, and many of the state's largest cities recorded their first cases throughout March. As of late May 2021, there were 50,198 COVID-19 related deaths reported in that state. The death rate in Texas was 175 for every 100,000 people, while national COVID-19 death rate was 179 per 100,000.

On March 13, 2021, Governor Abbott declared a state of disaster for all counties in Texas, invoking emergency powers for his administration, and ordered state employees to remote work. Day cares, nursing homes, and prisons were asked to limit visitations. The state's first mobile testing center for COVID-19 opened in San Antonio. Colleges and universities throughout the state extended spring breaks with some transitioning to online instruction, including Baylor University, the University of Houston, the University of North Texas, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University, and Texas Tech University. School districts also announced temporary suspensions of classes statewide.

 

The Heroes of Texas

There are a lot of heroes in the history of Texas. One person was Barbara Jordan who wasn't just a U.S. House of Representative Congressional leader. She was a lawyer and civil rights activist who fought for the defense of the rights of the people. She was the first southern African American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was in the House from 1973 to 1979. She was a member of the Texas Senate from 1967 to 1973. She earned her BA from Texas Southern University and a LLB from Boston University. She gave a powerful, eloquent speech to condemn the corrupt action of then President Richard Nixon during the impeachment hearings. She promoted Texas' first minimum wage law and fund programs to fight hate crimes. Juanita Craft was a civil rights leader and politician in Texas who was a member of the Dallas City Council in Texas. She worked in the Dallas NAACP to fight against Jim Crow apartheid. She protested discrimination throughout her life. Julia Catherine Thomas Hester was a teacher and community activist in Houston. She worked in Houston's Fifth Ward to save lives. She and her husband were active in Payne Chapel African Methodists Episcopal Church in Houston. Beulah Ann Shepard had a long career of political activism and community service. Shepard worked in Houston to allow the existence of a swimming pool, a library, better roads, parks, and infrastructure improvements for the underserved community. She was a member of Missionary Baptist Church.

Bill Pickett was born and raised in Texas. He was born and raised in Texas, and he was a cowboy and rodeo performer. In 1972, he was the first African American man to be inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame. Later in 1989, Pickett was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. He was an actor too. He loved his wife, Maggie Turner, and the couple had nine children. He invented bulldogging or the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground. He was very popular among his peers and fans. There are more Texas heroes like Holly Hogrobrooks, Christine Abel Nix, Jasmine Crockett, and other people.

 

Political Realities (and Progressive Inspiration)

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that he has more bullets in his belt involving the gerrymandering controversy. His comments are evil and inappropriate. It's sick and shows the desperation of many Texas Republicans who care more for raw political power than freedom, justice, and equality for all people. Texas House voted on the GOP redistributing plan. This effort by the GOP is not only against voting rights after this is not a census year. It relates to how the GOP in Texas is stealing the votes in Texas unjustly for the sake of growing political power. The hypocrisy is that the Republicans claim to love individual rights, but they want to strip away the legal representation of mostly black and brown citizens in Texas in increasing the GOP power base. That is why people must be in the offensive to defend voting rights and support courageous people who reject the corruption found in the status quo. Some said that the actions of the GOP violate the Title II section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Like always, this is not a time for moderation as centrists never caused revolutionary change in a meaningful way. That was done by progressives and revolutionaries who sacrifice their time and their lives to promote voting rights, civil rights, and human rights in general along with economic justice. Kamala Harris (who was a DA, Attorney General of California, a Senator, and a Vice President proving her experience in government) gave words of encouragement to Texas state legislature Nicole Collier. Nicole Collier was being held hostage in the Texas chamber, because she rightfully refused to sign a document to be escorted and stalked by DPS officers. Nicole Collier was a victim of kidnapping, and this is truly anti-democratic.

Epilogue

Texas represents so much in America. It is a location that has been the heart of rural and country culture of the United States. Many ranches, rodeos, and cowboys have a long history in Texas. Also, Texas is a state with some of the greatest urban metropolitan locations in America. For example, Houston is found in Texas being home to Beyonce Knowles Carter and a strong cultural influence in the world. Austin is Texas's capital filled with a large progressive movement. We know about El Paso, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Arlington, Corpus Christi, Plano, Laredo, and Irving, Amarillo, Grand Prairie, and other locations found throughout the state too. Many of my relatives do live in Texas, and many of my relatives have visited Texas before too. We see a diverse population in Texas filled with almost 270,000 square miles of land and over 31 million people being the largest state in the Union in terms of population. Also, we can't be naive about Texas either. Texas's legislature is dominated by far-right Republicans who recently signed a redistricting plan that harms the representation of African Americans and Latino people. We have a governor Greg Abbott of Texas and the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick who make it their mission to nearly unconditionally support the nefarious bigoted and xenophobic policies of the Trump regime. Therefore, we have to acknowledge reality and also commend the progressive heroes of Texas who are fighting for a future Texas filled with justice for all. This is not a time to give in or give up. This is the perfect opportunity to stand up for our principles like economic justice, a cleaner environment, housing rights, an end to racism, an end to sexism, the rights of immigrants maintained, the dignity of black people promoted, health care being used as a human right not as a privilege, and strengthening our voting rights. Amen.

By Timothy