When inmate David Ruiz sued the director of the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC), William J. Estelle, in 1972 over dangerous and degrading living and working conditions, he set in motion a ...

Click the dates below for longer accounts of each revision episode from The Handbook of Texas Online. Click the constitution cover for the full constitutional text and images of the original documents ...

Browse work by researchers who have used Texas Politics Project data and analysis.

Governor Abbott’s State of the State Address rolled out seven emergency items as well as a host of tone-setting policy signals. The emergency designation enables the legislature to bypass the ...

Dorothy Ann Willis (1933-2006) was born September 1, 1933, in Lakeview, Texas. Richards received a bachelor's degree from Baylor University and a teaching certificate from the University of Texas. She ...

As the Texas Legislature convenes for its 89th session, a University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll reveals that the concerns that prevailed during the 2024 election continue to shape Texas ...

(Voters know) that any document that you have to amend 20 times every other year is broke. It's sort of a Texas tragedy, actually, that we can't seem to come to grips with the fact that we need a new ...

Born: James Richard "Rick" Perry (1950-). A fifth generation Texan, Rick Perry grew up on his family's farm in Paint Creek, Texas. In 1968, he left Haskell County to attend Texas A&M University where ...

Minorities are the new majority in Texas. Historically since 1850, a majority of the state's inhabitants were non-Hispanic whites. But the rapidly growing Hispanic segment of the population, ...

After the Civil War two amendments were added to the U.S. Constitution that explicitly guaranteed the rights of African Americans as citizens. The 14th Amendment (ratified in 1868) prohibited states ...

Claud H. Gilmer (1901-1983) teamed with A. M. Aikin, Jr., to produce one of the most comprehensive sets of legislation affecting public school education ever enacted in Texas. In the 50th Legislature ...

James Edward (Pa) Ferguson (1871-1944), Texas governor, son of James Edward and Fannie (Fitzpatrick) Ferguson, was born on August 31, 1871, near Salado, Bell County, Texas. When he was four years old, ...