The Great Storm
On September 8, 1900, this natural disaster struck the Texas coast, becoming the deadliest in U.S. history.
What is the Galveston Hurricane?
After the hurricane, the old city council was overwhelmed, leading Galveston to create this new form of city government.
What is the commission form of government?
Progressives pushed for this movement, which sought to ban the manufacture and sale of alcohol.
What is Prohibition?
To stop political bosses from hand-picking candidates, progressives created this type of election where voters directly choose their party's candidate.
What is a primary election?
This women's group (abbreviated WCTU) was the leading organization fighting to outlaw alcohol in Texas.
What is the Woman's Christian Temperance Union?
Before the hurricane hit, Galveston was one of the wealthiest cities in Texas and was a major center for this economic activity.
What is a shipping port?
In a commission government, elected officials known as commissioners are each responsible for a specific one of these (such as police, fire, or water).
What is a city department?
This movement fought for the right of women to vote in political elections.
What is the women's suffrage movement?
Passed in 1903, the Terrell Election Law required major political parties to hold primary elections and also introduced this privacy measure at the voting booth.
What is the secret ballot?
She was a leading suffragist from Texas who served as president of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association and helped secure voting rights for women.
Who is Minnie Fisher Cunningham?
Protects the city from future storm surges, the surviving citizens built this massive 17 feet tall, 6 mile long structure along the beach.
What is the Seawall?
The Galveston plan of government was incredibly successful and helped kick off this era of widespread social and political reform in the early 1900s.
What is the Progressive Era?
In 1920, this amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially granted women the right to vote nationwide.
What is the 19th Amendment?
In 1902, Texas required voters to pay this tax before they could vote, which progressives originally supported but it ended up keeping many poor and minority Texans from voting.
What is the poll tax?
This Texas governor (nicknamed "Pa") strongly opposed both Prohibition and women's suffrage; he was eventually impeached in 1917.
Who is James E. Ferguson?
In addition to the seawall, engineers pumped sand from the Gulf to do this to the entire city of Galveston.
How the elevation was raised in Galveston?
Inspired by Galveston, other Texas cities adopted this similar form of government, where an elected council hires a professional to run the city's daily operations.
What is the city manager form of government?
In 1920, this amendment to the U.S. Constitution made Prohibition the law of the land.
What is the 18th Amendment?
Texas progressives wanted to regulate this powerful industry, which had laid tracks all over the state and often overcharged farmers to transport crops.
What are the railroads?
This major organization, made up of various local women's groups, successfully pushed the Texas legislature to fund public libraries, schools, and health programs.
What is the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs?
Because there was no advanced warning system like we have today, it is estimated that this many people lost their lives in the Galveston storm.
What happened to 6,000 to 8,000 people in Galveston in 1900?
The main goal of creating both the commission and city manager forms of government was to make running a city more like running one of these.
What is a business? (To make it efficient and less corrupt)
During the Progressive Era, reformers successfully pushed the state to pass these types of laws to protect young people from dangerous working conditions.
What are child labor laws?
The Progressive Era saw the end of this brutal system, where Texas prisoners were rented out to private companies for cheap labor.
What is the convict lease system?
Serving as Texas Governor from 1907 to 1911, he is considered the most reform-minded governor of the Progressive Era, ending the convict lease system and improving schools.
Who is Thomas Mitchell Campbell?