Texas Political Culture and Diversity Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers Texas political culture, its various cultural regions, and key legal landmarks in the struggle for equal rights for women, African Americans, Latinos, and the LGBTQ community.

Conservative (Texas Ideology)

An ideology identified with by $48\%$ of Texans, typically characterized by support for low taxes, few financial resources for public services, and conservative social values.

Texas liberals

A political ideology identified with by $21\%$ of the Texas population.

True independents

Texans who do not identify with a specific political party, accounting for approximately $11\%$ of the population.

South Texas Cultural Groups

A region characterized by Ranchero culture, Creoles, and Mestizos.

The Valley

A sub-region of South Texas located along the Rio Grande.

Maquiladoras

Industrial plants located in the Texas Border region, often associated with Far West Texas and the impact of NAFTA.

Metroplex

A term used to describe the major urban cultural region of North Texas.

Minnie Fisher Cunningham

A key figure in the struggle for female Texans to gain equal rights and suffrage.

Marital Property Act

Texas legislation that marked a significant step in the legal struggle for women's equal rights.

White primary

A practice used by the Democratic Party in Texas to conduct whites-only primaries, later ruled unconstitutional.

Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

A landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled Texas’s racially segregated law schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

Smith v. Allwright (1944)

A U.S. Supreme Court decision that found Texas laws permitting whites-only primaries violated the Fifteenth Amendment.

Hernandez v. Texas (1954)

A Supreme Court case that ruled the Texas practice of denying Latinos the right to serve on juries was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Raymondville Peonage cases

Legal cases representing the struggle of Latino Texans for equal rights.

American GI Forum

An organization founded by Hector Garcia to advocate for the rights of Latino Texans.

Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

A U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Texas law making homosexual conduct a crime, citing the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause.

Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

A landmark Supreme Court case that ruled state laws banning same-sex marriage were unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

A Supreme Court ruling that declared state laws mandating segregated public schools unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Roe v. Wade (1973)

A Supreme Court case that ruled a Texas law making abortion illegal was unconstitutional, based on the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

A federal law that was relevant to the legal struggles of Lesbian, Gay, Bisextual, and Transgender Texans.