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The Origins of Commission Government in Dallas, 1902-1907

Description: By the early 1900s, ambitious business leaders were transforming Dallas, Texas into a rising commercial metropolis. However, the problems created by rapid urban growth spawned demands from all classes of citizens upon local government for more public improvements and services. When city government failed to meet these demands, many citizens began to seek a more responsive governmental system. Their search led to the establishment of a commission government which, like the modern business corpor… more
Date: August 1975
Creator: Peacock, Robert Gary
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The "Viva Kennedy" Clubs in South Texas

Description: "This thesis analyzes the impact of the Mexican-American voters in south Texas on the 1960 presidential election. During that election year, this ethnic minority was strong enough to merit direct appeals from the Democratic presidential candidate, and subsequently, allowed to conduct a unique campaign divorced from the direct control of the conservative state Democratic machinery...The study of the Mexican-American political behavior in 1960 proceeds in three stages. The first chapter examines … more
Date: December 1972
Creator: Traffas, Joan
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Economic and Geographic Mobility in Dallas, Texas, 1880-1910

Description: The American Dream promised success to Americans in the nineteenth century. This study analyzes the possibilities for average individuals to succeed in rapidly growing Dallas, Texas from 1880 to 1910. Success is measured in terms of occupational, property, and geographical mobility. Available materials dealing with average persons from Dallas: tax rolls, city directories, and the manuscript census for 1880 are evaluated, The focus of this study is primarily on the black population, but for comp… more
Date: December 1972
Creator: Engerrand, Steven W.
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Texas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

Description: This work demonstrates the importance of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in stirring sectional awareness and tension in Texas. It also analyzes the continuing impact of the measure on Texas politics and public opinion from 1854 until secession in 1861. Texas newspapers of the 1850s were the principal source for this study, supplemented by historical journals and other works. Organized chronologically and topically, this study traces Texans' attitudes and opinions concerning the extension-of-slavery con… more
Date: December 1974
Creator: Moore, Charles Latham
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The Secret Six and Their Theory of Autonomous Individualism

Description: This paper focuses on the Secret Six who consisted of Theodore Parker, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Samuel Gridley Howe, George Luther Stearns, and Gerrit Smith, and the concepts that these men believed in regarding the type of society they wanted established in the United States. The dominant theme in the minds of this Secret Six was the romantic belief in the free individual. The belief in the free individual living in a free, progressive society held out the promise… more
Date: December 1973
Creator: Tatom, E. Lynn
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Their Faltering Footsteps: Hardships Suffered by the Confederate Civilians on the Homefront in the American Civil War of 1861-1865

Description: It is the purpose of this study to reveal that the morale of the southern civilians was an important factor in determining the fall of the Confederacy. At the close of the Civil War, the South was exhausted and weak, with only limited supplies to continue their defense. The Confederacy might have been rallied by the determination of its people, but they lacked such determination, for the hardships and grief they endured had turned their cause into a meaningless struggle. Therefore, the South fe… more
Date: August 1977
Creator: Spencer, Judith Ann
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United States Army Scouts: the Southwestern Experience, 1886-1890

Description: In the post-Civil War Southwest, the United States Army utilized civilians and Indians as scouts. As the mainstay of the reconnaissance force, enlisted Indians excelled as trackers, guides, and fighters. General George Crook became the foremost advocate of this service. A little-known aspect of the era was the international controversy created by the activities of native trackers under the 1882 reciprocal hot pursuit agreement between Mexico and the United States. Providing valuable information… more
Date: May 1975
Creator: Nance, Carol Conley
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Racial Turmoil in Texas, 1865-1874

Description: "The primary concern of this work is to present a clearer picture of the Reconstruction period in Texas, particularly as it relates to the black. Little consideration is given to those blacks elected to public office; rather concern is placed on those outside the then 'Establishment.' To view the black in terms of those elected to public office only presents a distorted picture and negates the influence blacks had on electoral politics. In the main, evidence presented by most historians writing… more
Date: December 1971
Creator: Keener, Charles Virgil
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A History of the Itasca Cotton Manufacturing Company

Description: "This study concerns the examination of the historical importance and achievements of a small cotton mill located in the agrarian Texas community of Itasca, Texas. Newspaper clippings and numerous interviews with former mill employees and Itasca citizens supplied factual material pertaining to the Itasca mill; however, company records provided the basic research material for this paper... The company offices have since been destroyed, and most of the records are now in the Southwest Collection … more
Date: December 1971
Creator: Ramsey, David O.
open access

Black-White Relations in Texas, 1874-1896

Description: "This thesis proposes to investigate the theory posed by Comer Vann Howard in 'The Strange Career of Jim Crow.' Woodward claims that complete physical segregation of Negroes was not legally established in the Southern states until the turn of the century. He further contends the period from Reconstruction until the 1890s was an era when Negroes participated in many activities with whites. This work investigates Woodward's theory in its applicability to Texas between 1874 and 1898. The study beg… more
Date: December 1970
Creator: Irvin, Bobbye Hughes
open access

Beginnings of City Planning in Dallas, Texas

Description: City planning in Dallas, Texas, gives insight into various aspects of the early planning movement in the United States. Dallas city planning offers an opportunity to study the initial work for a plan; citizens' involvement in the pre-planning campaign and later in the workings of the plan itself; the conception of the plan; its implementation; and the differences between the proposed and the implemented plan. Specifically, the 1911 plan for Dallas, Texas affords a chance to examine Kansas City… more
Date: August 1972
Creator: Presnail, Patricia C.
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Racial Discrimination and the Equalization of Negro and White Teachers' Salaries in the Dallas Public Schools

Description: On 13 November 1942, Thelma E. Page, a black high school teacher in Dallas, Texas, brought suit against the Dallas Board of Education in order to bring about the equalization of black and white teachers' salaries. This suit was part of a national movement of blacks, under the direction of the NAACP, and was an indirect attack upon segregation. Most of these suits were filed against large city school systems, in the South, in order to effect the greatest possible number of black teachers. This s… more
Date: December 1974
Creator: Tompkins, George W.
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A History of the Texas Electric Railway, 1917-1955

Description: This is an economic and social history of the Texas Electric Railway, which operated three interurban lines branching out of Dallas. The railway operated from 1917 until 1948, although the company was not dissolved until 1955. Of necessity, the study is based on primary source materials, including railway pamphlets, trade journals such as the Electric Rai Journal, personal interviews, Texas and United States Government documents and publications, and newspapers. Unfortunately, original financi… more
Date: May 1972
Creator: Gilson, Margaret M.
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The Crusade Against Lynching

Description: The problem with which this study is concerned is that of determining the methods and effectiveness of those persons and organizations attempting to stop the crime of racial lynching within the United States from the 1880's through the 1930's. Material for the study is compiled from a synthesis of secondary sources, congressional records, and newspaper accounts. The thesis is organized into five chapters dividing the crusade into five stages. These stages are; (1) establishing an institution, (… more
Date: December 1975
Creator: Hall, Elizabeth Jane
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Defense of the Faith: Fundamentalist Controversy in Texas, 1920-1929

Description: "This work examines the fundamentalist controversy in Texas from 1920 until 1929. Stressing the role of J. Frank Norris as the state's fundamentalist leader, it studies the manifestations of the controversy in both the religious and the secular institutions of the state. Since the movement met little organized resistance in Texas, the fundamentalists won significant victories. The study is organized topically. The first part is a general introduction to the controversy on both the state and nat… more
Date: December 1970
Creator: Ledbetter, Patsy Ruth
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The Mexican Connection: Confederate and Union Diplomacy on the Rio Grande, 1861-1865

Description: This study examines the efforts of the Union and Confederate diplomatic agents to influence the events along the Rio Grande during the Civil War. The paper compares the successful accomplishments of Confederate agent Jose Quintero to the hindered maneuverings of the Union representatives, Leonard Pierce and M. M. Kimuey. Utilizing microfilmed sources from State Department records and Confederate despatches, the paper relates the steps Quintero took to secure the Confederate-Mexico border trade,… more
Date: May 1978
Creator: Fielder, Bruce M.
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A Descriptive Account of United States Government Documents Pertaining to the History of United States Diplomatic Relations with Mexico, 1821-1846

Description: This paper provides a thematic approach to three major United States government document series relating to topics of early United States diplomatic relations with Mexico; treaty negotiations, the Santa 'Fe trade, the Texas question, and claims. The document series examined are .the United States presidential papers, United States Congressional documents , and the National Archives Record Group 59, diplomatic dispatches from United State Ministers to Mexico. Historians must make an evaluation o… more
Date: May 1976
Creator: Kelly, Melody S.
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The Farmers' Alliance in Wise County, Texas, 1880-1897

Description: The Farmers' Alliance in Wise County, from its introduction in 1880 to its demise in 1897, endeavored to improve the mental, moral, social, and financial conditions of small agrarians in the north central Texas county. This paper details the Alliance's efforts, in cooperative ventures and political activism and third-party politics, to place farmers in a better economic position. Additionally, the paper focuses on the Alliance's attempts to provide educational and social opportunities and moral… more
Date: December 1979
Creator: Riney, James E.
open access

Impeachment as a Political Weapon

Description: This study is concerned with the problem of determining the nature of impeachable offenses through an analysis of the English theory of impeachment, colonial impeachment practice, debates in the constitutional convention and the state ratifying conventions, The Federalist Papers and debates in the first Congress, In addition, the precedents established in American cases of impeachment particularly in the trials of Judge John Pickering, Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson are exami… more
Date: December 1977
Creator: Collins, Sally Jean Bumpas
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Black Opposition to Participation in American Military Engagements from the American Revolution to Vietnam

Description: This thesis includes two background chapters based largely on secondary works; Chapters I and II trace the historiography of black participation in American military engagements from the American Revolution through the Korean conflict. Chapter III, based largely on primary sources, places emphasis on black resistance and attitudes toward the Vietnam crisis. Evidence indicates that the Vietnam era of black protest was not unique but was an evolutionary process that had its roots in other periods… more
Date: August 1976
Creator: Alexander, Vern L.
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A History of Debutante Presentation in Dallas, 1884-1977

Description: This study traces the history of debutante presentations in Dallas, Texas, from 1884 to 1976. Manuscript materials, organizational collections, interviews, and published sources were used to document and establish past and present information. The problem is organized topically and treated in chronological order within each subject. The role of four bachelors' clubs, Idlewild, Terpsichorean, Calyx, and Dervish, is emphasized and the influence of a business known as Party Service is considered. … more
Date: December 1977
Creator: Lindley, Melinda A.
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Confederate Military Operations in Arkansas, 1861-1865

Description: Arkansas occupied a key position in the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. It offered a gateway for Confederate troops to move north and secure Missouri for the Confederacy, or for Union troops to move south towards Texas and Louisiana. During the war, Union and Confederate armies moved back and forth across the state engaging in numerous encounters. This paper is a year by year study of those encounters and engagements occurring in Arkansas between 1861 and 1865. Emphasis is necessarily… more
Date: December 1978
Creator: Fortin, Maurice G.
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Economic Cooperation: American Labor's Alternative to Modern Industrialism

Description: Economic reform completely dominated the later half of the nineteenth century. Cooperation proved the more dominant of alternatives. This study examines the significance the English working class perceived in their own Rochdale cooperation. The American labor press reveals the philosophy by which Americans adapted the English idea peculiar to their own cultural traditions. The Sovereigns of Industry are most representative of genuine cooperative practices in labor. The Texas Cooperative Associa… more
Date: December 1977
Creator: Rainwater, Patricia Hickman
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The Whigs and the Presidency: National Issues and Campaign Tactics, 1840-1848

Description: The Whig party, which existed in the United States approximately twenty years, 1834-1854, was a coalition of diverse economic, political and social groups united by their disapproval of Jacksonian politics and methods. This minority organization derived its strength from powerful congressional leaders, who held strongly nationalistic ideas regarding economic policy and governmental function, which had a profound and lasting influence on American political and economic thought. In the battle for… more
Date: December 1979
Creator: Baker, Beverly Jeanne
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