1. Richard Coke was an American lawyer and statesman from Waco, Texas.
20 Facts About Richard Coke
1. 2.
Richard Coke was the 15th governor of Texas from 1874 to 1876 and was a US Senator from 1877 to 1895.
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Richard Coke's governorship is notable for reestablishing local white supremacist rule in Texas, and the disfranchisement of African American voters, following Reconstruction.
4.
Richard Coke was revered by many Texas Southern Democrats due to his perceived triumphs over Reconstruction era Federal control in Texas politics.
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Richard Coke was born in 1829 in Williamsburg, Virginia, to John and Eliza Coke.
6.
Richard Coke graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1848 with a law degree.
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In 1850, Coke moved to Texas and opened a law practice in Waco.
8.
In 1859, Coke was appointed by governor Hardin R Runnels to lead a commission tasked with removing the remaining Comanche natives from West Texas and the Texas Hill Country.
9.
Richard Coke was a delegate to the Secession Convention at Austin in 1861.
10.
Richard Coke voted that Texas should leave the United States to join the Confederacy.
11.
Richard Coke was wounded in an action known as Bayou Bourbeau on November 3,1863, near Opelousas, Louisiana.
12.
In 1865, Richard Coke was appointed a Texas district court judge, and in 1866, he was elected as an associate justice to the Texas Supreme Court.
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Richard Coke's administration was marked by vigorous action to balance the budget and by a revised state constitution adopted in 1876.
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Once the new Constitution had been negotiated, Richard Coke resigned his office in December 1876, following his election by the legislature to the United States Senate.
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Richard Coke retired to his home in Waco and his nearby farm.
16.
Richard Coke became ill with "progressive paralysis" in early 1897.
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Richard Coke's rise to power marked the return of locally elected government in Texas and the establishment of a rigidly white supremacist Texas Democratic party that would maintain a strong hold on Texas government for over 100 years.
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Richard Coke was a constructive statesman; he served his people with true fidelity and left Texas to rich heritage of a fruitful and useful like.
19.
Richard Coke's name is engraved on the scroll of immortals, and his footprints are in the sands of time.
20.
The 1876 constitution created under Richard Coke's administration is the current Constitution of Texas.