Texas Speakers Oral History Project

In November 2003, in cooperation with Speaker Tom Craddick and his wife Mrs. Nadine Craddick, the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin launched "A Speaker from Its Own Members: A Project Documenting the History of the Speakers of the Texas House of Representatives." From its inception to April 2005, Center for American History historians Dr. Patrick Cox and Dr. Michael Phillips have interviewed Speaker Craddick and nine former Texas House speakers.

The speaker of the Texas House, along with the governor and the lieutenant governor, ranks among the three most powerful officeholders in Texas politics, yet speakers have enjoyed relatively limited visibility. Few Texans are fully aware of the office's significance. As documented in these interviews, the powers of Texas House speakers expanded greatly following the expansion of the Texas economy in the aftermath of World War II. In this time, speakers began to shape the state’s budget, its tax policies and the quality of Texas public schools and universities.

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