Stormont Lecture: The Origins of Texas’ White Primary Election System, 1876-1906

The public is invited to join VC's Museum of the Coastal Bend for a John W. Stormont Lecture, The Origins of Texas’ White Primary Election System, 1876-1906.

Dr. Bobby Oliver, Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington explores the critical thirty-year window following the end of Reconstruction in 1876. By analyzing local ordinances, legislative debates, and early legal challenges, this presentation examines how the foundations of Jim Crow voting restrictions were built in Texas, long before the landmark Supreme Court battles of the mid-twentieth century. Oliver is a fifth-generation Texan, with ancestors settling in Van Zandt County in 1856 and Upshur County in the 1870s. He received his MA and PhD. in History from Texas Christian University.

Admission is free and open to the public.