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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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  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.