Chaired by Justice Ken Wise, this session includes Governor Oran Roberts: From Secession to the University of Texas, in which John Adams explores the career of Oran Roberts, a staunch states’ rights advocate who guided Texas into secession, served in the Confederate army, and later became governor. His tenure emphasized fiscal responsibility and a commitment to higher education, culminating in the chartering of the University of Texas, where he served as the first law professor.
In Governor James Webb Throckmorton: The Trials and Tribulations of a Reconstruction Governor, 1866–1867, Kenneth Howell details the brief but contentious governorship of Throckmorton. Confronted with frontier defense, disputes over military versus civil authority, and the sweeping changes of Congressional Reconstruction, Throckmorton resisted federal policies aimed at granting full citizenship to freedmen—a stance that ultimately led to his removal from office.
In Governor Richard Coke: Texan, Rosser Coke Newton recounts the dramatic story of Richard Coke’s rise from Virginia lawyer to Texas governor. Best known for ending Reconstruction in Texas, Coke’s leadership restored local control and strengthened state institutions. Newton’s account, enriched by family records and first-person sources, also examines the political standoff that marked Coke’s contested assumption of the governor’s office and his lasting impact as governor and U.S. senator.
