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1874- 1890: Texas Democrats = Redeemers

Between 1874 and 1890, Texas Democrats known as Redeemers dismantled Reconstruction reforms, adopted a fundamentally revised state constitution and steered Texas in a new direction. Research by University of Arkansas historian Patrick G. Williams establishes that their constitution and policies affected the development of the state through the 20th century and up to today. “‘Redemption’ marked the end of a revolutionary period in Texas and across the South, and represented the effort of white conservative Democrats to rein in the changes enforced by emancipation and Reconstruction,” Williams said. In Beyond Redemption: Texas Democrats after Reconstruction, Williams – a native Texan – offers “the most detailed study to date of how Democrats destroyed Reconstruction and established an overwhelming power in Texas.” Williams also considers how the Redeemers’ policies in the areas of economic development, public services – most notably education – and citizenship rights created long-lasting...
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Tracking the Dust Bowl Migrants of the 1930s

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Depopulation was due more to falling in-migration than rising out-migration; most of those who left were not farmers, and only a minority went to California. Tragic images of the Dust Bowl's desolate farmlands and destitute migrants were ingrained into the American consciousness by John Steinbeck's classic novel  The Grapes of Wrath  and by the iconic photos of Dorothea Lange. Huge swaths of the Southern Great Plains were devastated in this human and environmental disaster of the 1930s. But did events really unfold as the popular account suggests? More than 70 years later,  Jason Long  and  Henry E. Siu  develop new evidence on how many people left the Dust Bowl region, who they were, and where they went. Their findings challenge conventional wisdom. In  Refugees From Dust and Shrinking Land: Tracking the Dust Bowl Migrants (NBER Working Paper No.  22108 ), they examine census data and other source materials. They find that the out-migratio...
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Mystery of infamous 'New England Dark Day' solved

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