Ralph Yarborough
Encyclopedia
Ralph Webster Yarborough (June 8, 1903 January 27, 1996) was a Texas
Democratic politician who served in the United States Senate
(1957 to 1971) and was a leader of the progressive
or liberal
wing of his party in his many races for statewide office. As a United States Senator, he was a staunch supporter and author of "Great Society
" legislation that encompassed Medicare
and Medicaid
, the War on Poverty
, federal support for higher education and veterans. He co-wrote the Endangered Species Act
and was the only southern senator to vote for all civil rights bills from 1957 to 1970 (including the Civil Rights Act of 1964
and the Voting Rights Act
of 1965). Yarborough was known as "Smilin' Ralph" and used the slogan "Let's put the jam on the lower shelf so the little people can reach it" in his campaigns.
in Henderson County
west of Tyler
, the seventh of nine children of Charles Richard Yarborough and the former Nannie Jane Spear. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy
at West Point
in 1919 but dropped out to become a teacher. Yarborough instead attended Sam Houston State Teachers College
and worked his way into the University of Texas at Austin
. He graduated from the University of Texas Law School in 1927 and practiced law in El Paso
until he was hired as an assistant attorney general in 1931 by the state Attorney General and later Governor
James V. Allred.
Yarborough was an expert in Texas land law and specialized in prosecuting major oil companies that violated production limits or failed to pay oil royalties to the Permanent School Fund for drilling on public lands. He earned renown for winning a million dollar judgment against the Mid-Kansas Oil and Gas Company for oil royalties, the second largest judgment ever in Texas at the time. After Allred was elected governor, he appointed Yarborough to the bench in 1936, making him the 53rd District judge for Austin's Travis County
. Yarborough was confirmed in that office by an election later the same year. Yarborough's first run for state office resulted in a third-place finish in the Democratic primary for state attorney general in 1938 against the sitting lieutenant governor
. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II
after 1943 and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel
.
who told him not to run. Texas Secretary of State John Ben Shepperd
resigned in the spring of 1952 and was elected attorney general that year. He served two two-year terms. Angered at Shivers, Yarborough ran in the gubernatorial primaries in 1952 and 1954 against the conservative Shivers, drawing support from labor unions and liberals
. Yarborough denounced the "Shivercrats
" for veterans' fraud in the General Land Office and for endorsing in 1952 and 1956 the Republican Eisenhower
/Nixon
ticket, instead of the Democrat Adlai Stevenson of Illinois
. Shivers portrayed Yarborough as an integrationist supported by communists and unions. The 1954 election was particularly nasty in its race-baiting by Shivers as it was the year that Brown v. Board of Education
was decided, and Shivers made the most of the court decision in order to play on voters' fears. Yarborough, however, nearly upset Shivers.
In 1956, Yarborough made it to the primary runoff for governor against U.S. Senator Price Daniel
. Texas historian
J. Evetts Haley
ran in the primary to the political right of both Daniel and Yarborough but polled few votes. After being endorsed by former opponent and former Governor W. Lee O'Daniel
, and making aggressive attacks on the Shivers-backed candidate, Yarborough looked to win the runoff, but instead he trailed Daniel by about nine thousand votes. It is believed (by Yarborough, his supporters, and biographer) that the election was stolen because of irregular voting in East Texas
and that Yarborough really won the runoff by thirty thousand. Nevertheless, Yarborough's runs for governor had raised his stature and popularity in the state as he had been campaigning for six straight years for office.
in the Senate.
In office, Ralph Yarborough was a very different kind of Southern senator. He refused to sign the Southern Manifesto
opposing integration and supported national Democratic goals of more funding for health care, education, and the environment. Himself a veteran, he worked to expand the G.I. Bill to Cold War
veterans.
In 1958, Ralph Yarborough easily defeated conservative William A. Blakley
of Dallas
, who was backed by Yarborough's long-time party rival, Governor Daniel, in the Democratic primary and then cruised to victory in the general election against Republican publisher Roy Whittenburg
of Amarillo
. In 1962, Whittenburg ran unsuccessfully for governor in the Republican primary against Jack Cox
of Houston
, who would in turn lose to Yarborough's intraparty rival, John Connally. During his first full term, Yarborough worked for a bill signed by President John F. Kennedy
to designate Padre Island
as a national seashore.
Ralph Yarborough rode in the Dallas motorcade where John F. Kennedy was assassinated
on November 22, 1963. Yarborough was in the same convertible as Vice President
Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson
, and United States Secret Service
agent Rufus Youngblood, who protected all three of them with his body when shots were fired at Kennedy. only two cars away from the presidential limousine. A sobbing Yarborough announced Kennedy's death at Parkland Memorial Hospital by saying: "Excalibur has sunk beneath the waves."
In 1964, Yarborough again won the primary without a runoff and went on to general election victory with 56.2 percent in LBJ's 1964 Democratic landslide. His Republican Party
(GOP) opponent was future president George Herbert Walker Bush who attacked Yarborough as a left-wing demagogue and for his vote in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yarborough denounced Bush as an extremist to the right of that year's GOP nominee for president Barry M. Goldwater and as a rich easterner and a carpetbagger
trying to buy a Senate seat. It has since been learned that then Governor Connally was covertly aiding Bush instead of party nominee Yarborough against President Johnson's wishes by teaching Democrats the techniques of split ticket voting. In that same election, Connally easily defeated Bush's ticket-mate, Jack Crichton
, a Dallas oil and natural gas
industrialist.
Although Yarborough supported Johnson's domestic agenda, he went public with his criticism of Johnson's foreign policy and the Vietnam War
after Johnson announced his retirement. Yarborough supported Robert F. Kennedy
until his assassination, then supported Eugene McCarthy
until his loss in Chicago
, and finally backed Hubert Humphrey
for President in the pivotal campaign of 1968 against Nixon. In 1969, Senator Yarborough became chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.
, won a 54 to 46 percent upset victory against Yarborough in the Democratic primary, when Yarborough was focusing on the expected second general election again against Bush. Bentsen played on voters' fears of societal breakdown and urban riots and made an issue of Yarborough's opposition to the Vietnam War. Bentsen said that Yarborough was a political antique. Said Bentsen, "It would be nice if Ralph Yarborough would vote for his state every once in a while." Bentsen went on to win the general election against Bush.
In 1972, Ralph Yarborough made a comeback effort to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator as a challenger of Republican Senator John Tower
, who as a young man had once circulated Ralph Yarborough stickers. Yarborough won the first round of the primary and came within 526 votes of winning the primary runoff. Yarborough again made accusations of vote fraud from the conservative wing. He lost in the primary runoff to a former U.S. Attorney, Barefoot Sanders, in an anti-incumbent sweep after the Sharpstown Bank-stock Scandal despite neither being an incumbent nor involved at all with the scandal.
Ralph Yarborough never again sought public office.
. He is interred at the Texas State Cemetery
there beside his wife, the former Opal Warren (1903-2002), a native of Murchison
in Henderson County, Texas. The Texas State Cemeterty is sometimes called "the Arlington
of Texas." Also buried there are Yarborough's old intraparty rivals, Allan Shivers and John Connally. Yarborough left a legacy in the modernization of the state of Texas and achieved political power when Texas had a native son, Lyndon Johnson, in the White House. He was combative with the dominant industries of oil and natural gas
and pushed for the petroleum industry to pay a greater share of taxes.
Democrats and powerful liberals in Texas state politics. (He was followed by the moderately liberal Bentsen and the conservative Phil Gramm
). Yarborough is remembered as the acknowledged "patron saint of Texas liberals." Supporters and former aides that have since risen to prominence include Jim Hightower
, Ann Richards
, and Garry Mauro
.
The University of Texas at Austin
Press published a biography titled, Ralph W. Yarborough: The People's Senator, by Patrick L. Cox. It features a foreword written by liberal Senator Edward Kennedy
(D-MA
).
The Yarborough Branch of the Austin Public Library was named in Ralph Yarborough's honor.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
Democratic politician who served in the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
(1957 to 1971) and was a leader of the progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
or liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
wing of his party in his many races for statewide office. As a United States Senator, he was a staunch supporter and author of "Great Society
Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice...
" legislation that encompassed Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
and Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
, the War on Poverty
War on Poverty
The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent...
, federal support for higher education and veterans. He co-wrote the Endangered Species Act
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...
and was the only southern senator to vote for all civil rights bills from 1957 to 1970 (including the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
and the Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
of 1965). Yarborough was known as "Smilin' Ralph" and used the slogan "Let's put the jam on the lower shelf so the little people can reach it" in his campaigns.
Early life and career
Yarborough was born in ChandlerChandler, Texas
Chandler is a city in Henderson County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,099 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Chandler is located at ....
in Henderson County
Henderson County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 73,277 people, 28,804 households, and 20,969 families residing in the county. The population density was 84 people per square mile . There were 35,935 housing units at an average density of 41 per square mile...
west of Tyler
Tyler, Texas
Tyler is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, in the United States. It takes its name from President John Tyler . The city had a population of 109,000 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau...
, the seventh of nine children of Charles Richard Yarborough and the former Nannie Jane Spear. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
at West Point
West Point, New York
West Point is a federal military reservation established by President of the United States Thomas Jefferson in 1802. It is a census-designated place located in Town of Highlands in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 7,138 at the 2000 census...
in 1919 but dropped out to become a teacher. Yarborough instead attended Sam Houston State Teachers College
Sam Houston State University
Sam Houston State University was founded in 1879 and is the third oldest public institution of higher learning in the State of Texas. It is located in Huntsville, Texas. It is one of the oldest purpose-built institutions for the instruction of teachers west of the Mississippi River and the first...
and worked his way into the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. He graduated from the University of Texas Law School in 1927 and practiced law in El Paso
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
until he was hired as an assistant attorney general in 1931 by the state Attorney General and later Governor
Governor of Texas
The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature...
James V. Allred.
Yarborough was an expert in Texas land law and specialized in prosecuting major oil companies that violated production limits or failed to pay oil royalties to the Permanent School Fund for drilling on public lands. He earned renown for winning a million dollar judgment against the Mid-Kansas Oil and Gas Company for oil royalties, the second largest judgment ever in Texas at the time. After Allred was elected governor, he appointed Yarborough to the bench in 1936, making him the 53rd District judge for Austin's Travis County
Travis County, Texas
As of 2009, the U.S. census estimates there were 1,026,158 people, 320,766 households, and 183,798 families residing in the county. The population density was 821 people per square mile . There were 335,881 housing units at an average density of 340 per square mile...
. Yarborough was confirmed in that office by an election later the same year. Yarborough's first run for state office resulted in a third-place finish in the Democratic primary for state attorney general in 1938 against the sitting lieutenant governor
Lieutenant Governor of Texas
The Lieutenant Governor of Texas is the second-highest executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the work of the Texas Senate and controls the budgeting process as a leader of the...
. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
after 1943 and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, a lieutenant colonel is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of major and just below the rank of colonel. It is equivalent to the naval rank of commander in the other uniformed services.The pay...
.
Running for governor
Yarborough was urged to run again for state attorney general in 1952, and he planned to do so until he received a personal affront from Governor Allan ShiversAllan Shivers
Robert Allan Shivers was a Texas politician who led the conservative faction of the Texas Democratic Party during the turbulent 1940s and 1950s...
who told him not to run. Texas Secretary of State John Ben Shepperd
John Ben Shepperd
John Ben Shepperd was the segregationist Texas attorney general from 1953–1957 who led resistance to the desegregation of public schools mandated by the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka...
resigned in the spring of 1952 and was elected attorney general that year. He served two two-year terms. Angered at Shivers, Yarborough ran in the gubernatorial primaries in 1952 and 1954 against the conservative Shivers, drawing support from labor unions and liberals
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
. Yarborough denounced the "Shivercrats
Shivercrats
The Shivercrats were a conservative faction of the Democratic Party in Texas in the 1950s. The faction was named for Texas' conservative governor Allan Shivers, who was criticized by liberals within the party—particularly Ralph Yarborough—for his corruption and conservatism.The term was first used...
" for veterans' fraud in the General Land Office and for endorsing in 1952 and 1956 the Republican Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
/Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
ticket, instead of the Democrat Adlai Stevenson of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Shivers portrayed Yarborough as an integrationist supported by communists and unions. The 1954 election was particularly nasty in its race-baiting by Shivers as it was the year that Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
was decided, and Shivers made the most of the court decision in order to play on voters' fears. Yarborough, however, nearly upset Shivers.
In 1956, Yarborough made it to the primary runoff for governor against U.S. Senator Price Daniel
Price Daniel
Marion Price Daniel, Sr. , was a Democratic U.S. Senator and the 38th Governor of the state of Texas. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to be a member of the National Security Council, Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and Assistant to the President for Federal-State...
. Texas historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
J. Evetts Haley
J. Evetts Haley
James Evetts Haley, Sr., usually known as J. Evetts Haley , was a Texas-born political activist and historian who wrote multiple works on the American West, including an enduring biography of legendary cattleman Charles Goodnight...
ran in the primary to the political right of both Daniel and Yarborough but polled few votes. After being endorsed by former opponent and former Governor W. Lee O'Daniel
W. Lee O'Daniel
Wilbert Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, , was a conservative Democratic Party politician from Texas, who came to prominence by hosting a popular radio program. Known for his populist appeal, Pappy O'Daniel was the governor of Texas and later its junior U.S. Senator. He is also the only person ever to have...
, and making aggressive attacks on the Shivers-backed candidate, Yarborough looked to win the runoff, but instead he trailed Daniel by about nine thousand votes. It is believed (by Yarborough, his supporters, and biographer) that the election was stolen because of irregular voting in East Texas
East Texas
East Texas is a distinct geographic and ecological area in the U.S. state of Texas.According to the Handbook of Texas, the East Texas area "may be separated from the rest of Texas roughly by a line extending from the Red River in north central Lamar County southwestward to east central Limestone...
and that Yarborough really won the runoff by thirty thousand. Nevertheless, Yarborough's runs for governor had raised his stature and popularity in the state as he had been campaigning for six straight years for office.
Becoming a Senator
When Daniel resigned from the Senate in 1957 to become governor, Yarborough ran in the special election to fill the empty seat. With no runoff then required, he needed only a plurality of votes to win. Ironically, his many runs for governor made him the best positioned candidate. Yarborough won the special election with 38 percent of the vote to join fellow Texan Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
in the Senate.
In office, Ralph Yarborough was a very different kind of Southern senator. He refused to sign the Southern Manifesto
Southern Manifesto
The Southern Manifesto was a document written February–March 1956 by Adisen and Charles in the United States Congress opposed to racial integration in public places. The manifesto was signed by 101 politicians from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South...
opposing integration and supported national Democratic goals of more funding for health care, education, and the environment. Himself a veteran, he worked to expand the G.I. Bill to Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
veterans.
In 1958, Ralph Yarborough easily defeated conservative William A. Blakley
William A. Blakley
William Arvis "Dollar Bill" Blakley was an American senator and businessman from the State of Texas. He served two incomplete terms as Senator, the first in 1957, the second in 1961...
of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, who was backed by Yarborough's long-time party rival, Governor Daniel, in the Democratic primary and then cruised to victory in the general election against Republican publisher Roy Whittenburg
Roy Whittenburg
Roy Robert Whittenburg, Sr. , was a landowner, oilman, rancher, banker, and newspaper publisher from Amarillo, Texas, who was the Republican nominee in 1958 for the U.S. Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Ralph W...
of Amarillo
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
. In 1962, Whittenburg ran unsuccessfully for governor in the Republican primary against Jack Cox
Jack Cox (Texas)
Jack M. Cox was an oil equipment executive from Houston and the 1962 Republican gubernatorial nominee in the state of Texas.-Early years:...
of Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, who would in turn lose to Yarborough's intraparty rival, John Connally. During his first full term, Yarborough worked for a bill signed by President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
to designate Padre Island
Padre Island National Seashore
Padre Island National Seashore is a National Seashore located on Padre Island off the coast of South Texas. In contrast to South Padre Island , PINS is located on North Padre Island and consists of a long beach where nature is preserved...
as a national seashore.
Ralph Yarborough rode in the Dallas motorcade where John F. Kennedy was assassinated
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
on November 22, 1963. Yarborough was in the same convertible as Vice President
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
, and United States Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
agent Rufus Youngblood, who protected all three of them with his body when shots were fired at Kennedy. only two cars away from the presidential limousine. A sobbing Yarborough announced Kennedy's death at Parkland Memorial Hospital by saying: "Excalibur has sunk beneath the waves."
In 1964, Yarborough again won the primary without a runoff and went on to general election victory with 56.2 percent in LBJ's 1964 Democratic landslide. His Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
(GOP) opponent was future president George Herbert Walker Bush who attacked Yarborough as a left-wing demagogue and for his vote in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yarborough denounced Bush as an extremist to the right of that year's GOP nominee for president Barry M. Goldwater and as a rich easterner and a carpetbagger
Carpetbagger
Carpetbaggers was a pejorative term Southerners gave to Northerners who moved to the South during the Reconstruction era, between 1865 and 1877....
trying to buy a Senate seat. It has since been learned that then Governor Connally was covertly aiding Bush instead of party nominee Yarborough against President Johnson's wishes by teaching Democrats the techniques of split ticket voting. In that same election, Connally easily defeated Bush's ticket-mate, Jack Crichton
Jack Crichton (Texas businessman)
John Alston Crichton, known as Jack Crichton , was an oil and natural gas industrialist from Dallas, Texas, who was among the first of his ranks to recognize the importance of petroleum reserves in the Middle East. In 1964, he carried the Republican banner in a fruitless campaign against the...
, a Dallas oil and natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
industrialist.
Although Yarborough supported Johnson's domestic agenda, he went public with his criticism of Johnson's foreign policy and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
after Johnson announced his retirement. Yarborough supported Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
until his assassination, then supported Eugene McCarthy
Eugene McCarthy
Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy was an American politician, poet, and a long-time member of the United States Congress from Minnesota. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1971.In the 1968 presidential election, McCarthy was the first...
until his loss in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and finally backed Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
for President in the pivotal campaign of 1968 against Nixon. In 1969, Senator Yarborough became chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.
Defeat
In 1970, South Texan businessman and former Congressman Lloyd BentsenLloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...
, won a 54 to 46 percent upset victory against Yarborough in the Democratic primary, when Yarborough was focusing on the expected second general election again against Bush. Bentsen played on voters' fears of societal breakdown and urban riots and made an issue of Yarborough's opposition to the Vietnam War. Bentsen said that Yarborough was a political antique. Said Bentsen, "It would be nice if Ralph Yarborough would vote for his state every once in a while." Bentsen went on to win the general election against Bush.
In 1972, Ralph Yarborough made a comeback effort to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator as a challenger of Republican Senator John Tower
John Tower
John Goodwin Tower was the first Republican United States senator from Texas since Reconstruction. He served from 1961 until his retirement in January 1985, after which time he was the chairman of the Reagan-appointed Tower Commission that investigated the Iran-Contra Affair. He was George H. W...
, who as a young man had once circulated Ralph Yarborough stickers. Yarborough won the first round of the primary and came within 526 votes of winning the primary runoff. Yarborough again made accusations of vote fraud from the conservative wing. He lost in the primary runoff to a former U.S. Attorney, Barefoot Sanders, in an anti-incumbent sweep after the Sharpstown Bank-stock Scandal despite neither being an incumbent nor involved at all with the scandal.
Ralph Yarborough never again sought public office.
Death
Yarborough died in 1996 in AustinAustin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. He is interred at the Texas State Cemetery
Texas State Cemetery
The Texas State Cemetery is a cemetery located on about just east of downtown Austin, the capital of Texas. Originally the burial place of Edward Burleson, Texas Revolutionary general and Vice-President of the Republic of Texas, it was expanded into a Confederate cemetery during the Civil War...
there beside his wife, the former Opal Warren (1903-2002), a native of Murchison
Murchison, Texas
Murchison is a city in Henderson County, Texas, United States. The population was 592 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Murchison is located at ....
in Henderson County, Texas. The Texas State Cemeterty is sometimes called "the Arlington
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
of Texas." Also buried there are Yarborough's old intraparty rivals, Allan Shivers and John Connally. Yarborough left a legacy in the modernization of the state of Texas and achieved political power when Texas had a native son, Lyndon Johnson, in the White House. He was combative with the dominant industries of oil and natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
and pushed for the petroleum industry to pay a greater share of taxes.
Legacy
Yarborough also was one of the last of the New DealNew Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
Democrats and powerful liberals in Texas state politics. (He was followed by the moderately liberal Bentsen and the conservative Phil Gramm
Phil Gramm
William Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...
). Yarborough is remembered as the acknowledged "patron saint of Texas liberals." Supporters and former aides that have since risen to prominence include Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower
James Allen "Jim" Hightower is an American syndicated columnist, activist and author.-Life and career:Born in Denison, Texas, Hightower came from a working class background. He worked his way through college as assistant general manager of the Denton Chamber of Commerce and later landed a spot as...
, Ann Richards
Ann Richards
Dorothy Ann Willis Richards was an American politician from Texas. She first came to national attention as the state treasurer of Texas, when she delivered the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Richards served as the 45th Governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995 and was...
, and Garry Mauro
Garry Mauro
Garry Mauro is an American Democratic Party politician from Texas, most noted for being the four-term commissioner of the Texas General Land Office from 1983 to 1999 during the administrations of Governors Mark White, Bill Clements, Ann Richards, and George W...
.
The University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
Press published a biography titled, Ralph W. Yarborough: The People's Senator, by Patrick L. Cox. It features a foreword written by liberal Senator Edward Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
(D-MA
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
).
The Yarborough Branch of the Austin Public Library was named in Ralph Yarborough's honor.
External links
- Photographs of Ralph Yarborough, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
- East Texas historical newspaper column