Oral History Interview with Margaret Carter, October 25, 1975. Interview A-0309-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
Margaret Carter, the "grand dame of liberal Texas politics," reflects on how she and her husband became interested in politics, what she learned through her political experiences, the ways the state's political structure changed from the New Deal era through the late 1950s, and the character of various state politicians. Both became involved in state politics just in time for the 1940 Texas Democratic Party convention, and she remarks on the lack of organization she found there. However, by 1944, notes Carter, the liberals were better organized and better able to promote their views. Nonetheless, Carter laments the gradual decline of the liberal labor leadership that had once been influential in Texas. In addition to her own trials and tribulations in liberal Texas politics, she also discusses important state-level politicos, including Raymond Buck, John Connally, John Hammond, Hunter McLean, Sam Rayburn, and Ralph Yarborough.
Excerpts
A variety of influences on Carter's childhood
Courtship and marriage
Becoming politically active; reflections on early socialist leanings
1940 Texas Democratic Party Convention
1944 elections in Texas
Race as a factor in Texas political campaigns during the mid-twentieth century
Amon Carter's political influence
Impressions of black voting habits
Other important families in Fort Worth, Texas
The Carters help found Young Democrats in Texas
Homer Rainey campaigns for academic freedom at the University of Texas
1948 presidential campaign
More political shenanigans in Texas
Liberal Texas Democrats support Lyndon Johnson in his early years
The Carters lose faith in Johnson
Downfall of liberal labor leadership in Texas
Memories of various politicos and the downfall of the labor movement in Texas
Outwitting Rayburn and Johnson at the Democratic convention
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