Oral history interview with Maury Maverick, October 27, 1975
Subtitle: interview A-0323, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Davidson, Chandler, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Politicians; Legislators; Cause lawyers; Politics and government; Liberalism; Race relations; Political aspects; Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Draft resisters; Legal status, laws
Other titles: Interview A-0323, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Maury Maverick, October 27, 1975; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Maury Maverick Jr., was the son of Texas politician Maury Maverick, Sr. Born in 1921, Maverick grew up in Texas but spent considerable time in Washington, D.C., during his father's tenure in Congress. Maverick argues that his experiences with his father's political colleagues during his adolescence were particularly influential in the formation of his own political views. After serving as a Marine in World War II, Maverick earned his law degree. Then, following in his father's footsteps, Maverick was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1950. Serving for six years during the height of the McCarthy era, Maverick refused to follow the political status quo. Working in tandem with other Texas liberals and radicals, Maverick was a core member of the "Gashouse Gang" in the state legislature. Named for their effort to place a tax on natural gas, the Gashouse Gang worked to oppose anti-communist legislation during the 1950s. Aside from his tenure in the state legislature, Maverick briefly pursued politics at the national level, campaigning for Lyndon B. Johnson's vacated seat in the United States Senate following the latter's election as the vice-president. Although he continued to involve himself in politics, serving intermittently as a state committeeman for the Democratic Party, Maverick primarily focused on practicing law throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Maverick describes in detail his legal advocacy for Vietnam draft resisters. Throughout the interview, Maverick offers his thoughts on various Texan politicians, including D. B. Hardeman, Sam Rayburn, Henry B. Gonzalez, and Bob Eckhardt. He also speaks at length about the impact of various constituencies in Texas on the evolution of liberal politics, focusing primarily on Chicano voters and the labor movement. Maverick's lively and engaging recollections of his various experiences offer researchers a revealing portrait of Texas liberalism during the mid-twentieth century.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Dec. 5, 2008).

Interview participants: Maury Maverick, interviewee; Chandler Davidson, interviewer.

Duration: 01:30:35.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 156 kilobytes, 165 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series A, Southern politics, interview A-0323, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Joe Jaros. Original transcript: 44 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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