History & Politics
Allan Shivers
Allan Shivers modernized Texas legislative and budget institutions, won repeated gubernatorial terms and led the Tidelands fight, while his opposition to integration and break with the national Democratic Party helped accelerate the long partisan realignment of Texas politics.
- Roster rank
- #35
- Category
- History & Politics
- Subject type
- Person
- Profile source
- Published Texas Icons profile
Texas story
Life and career
Robert Allan Shivers was born in Lufkin in 1907, grew up partly near Woodville and Port Arthur, studied law at the University of Texas and was elected to the Texas Senate at twenty-seven. He served in the Army during World War II in North Africa and Europe, returned to politics as lieutenant governor and became governor in July 1949 after Beauford Jester died in office.
As governor through January 1957, Shivers helped create the Legislative Council and Legislative Budget Board, supported expanded state services, highways, hospitals and teacher pay, and backed the first legislative redistricting in decades. His most nationally visible issue was Texas's claim to offshore Tidelands oil revenue. Shivers broke with Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and supported Republican Dwight Eisenhower, helping deliver Texas to Eisenhower. At the same time, Shivers opposed school integration after Brown v. Board of Education and became a leading states-rights voice resisting federal desegregation pressure. Those positions, combined with intraparty battles, made the 'Shivercrat' period an important stage in Texas's eventual shift toward Republican dominance.
Defining work
What to know
- Texas Senate and lieutenant-governor institutional reforms
- Legislative Council and Legislative Budget Board creation
- State-service, highway and education funding expansion
- Tidelands campaign and state-federal ownership dispute
- 1952 break with the national Democratic presidential ticket
- States-rights resistance to school integration
Timeline
Key milestones
- 1907Born in Lufkin, Texas.
- 1934Wins election to the Texas Senate at age twenty-seven.
- 1943–1945Serves in the U.S. Army in North Africa and Europe during World War II.
- 1947Takes office as lieutenant governor.
- 1949Becomes governor after Beauford Jester dies in office.
- 1952Breaks with the national Democratic ticket and backs Dwight Eisenhower over the Tidelands issue.
- 1953Federal legislation restores state control of the disputed Tidelands to Texas and other states.
- 1954–1956Opposes federally driven school desegregation and intensifies conservative control of the Texas Democratic organization.
- 1957Leaves office after more than seven years as governor.
- 1985Dies after decades in business and civic roles, including University of Texas regent service.
Texas connections
Places in the story
Lufkin
East Texas city where Shivers was born.
Port Arthur
Gulf Coast city where Shivers attended high school, practiced law and built his early political base.
Austin
Capital where Shivers served in the Senate, as lieutenant governor and as governor.
Texas Gulf Coast
Offshore Tidelands and their oil revenue were central to Shivers's state-federal political fight.
Legacy
Why the story lasts
Shivers helped professionalize Texas state government and demonstrated that a conservative Democratic governor could command a durable statewide coalition during the postwar boom. His Tidelands fight also made him a nationally visible advocate of state control over offshore resources and school-fund revenue.
His civil-rights record is inseparable from that legacy. Texas archival material identifies Shivers's resistance to desegregation as one of the defining controversies of his final years. His support for Eisenhower and later Democratic factional warfare also helped weaken one-party Democratic loyalty in Texas well before Republicans became dominant statewide.
Sources
Research trail
Cross-linked profiles