Oral history interview with Margaret Carter, October 25, 1975

Margaret Carter, the "grand dame of liberal Texas politics," reflects on how she and her husband became interested in politics, what she learned through her political experiences, the ways the state's political structure changed from the New Deal era through the late 1950s, and the character of various state politicians. Both became involved in state politics just in time for the 1940 Texas Democratic Party's convention, and she remarks on the lack of organization during that convention. However, by 1944, notes Carter, the liberals were better organized and were better able to promote their views. Nonetheless, Carter laments the gradual decline of the liberal labor leadership that had once been influential in Texas. In addition to her own trials and tribulations in liberal Texas politics, she also discusses important state-level politicos, including Raymond Buck, John Connally, John Hammond, Hunter McClean, Sam Rayburn, and Ralph Yarborough.