Richard Coke

Richard Coke (March 18, 1829 – May 14, 1897) was an American lawyer and statesman from Waco, Texas, who became a central figure in the post–Civil War political realignment of his state. Born in Williamsburg, Virginia, he was a nephew of United States Representative Richard Coke Jr., linking him to an established political family. He grew up in the antebellum South and absorbed the racial and political attitudes of the slaveholding elite that would later shape his public career and his role in the restoration of white supremacist rule in Texas after Reconstruction.

Coke was educated in Virginia and studied law before moving west. He was admitted to the bar and eventually settled in Texas, where he established himself as a practicing attorney. By the time he made Waco his home, he had become a prominent member of the local bar and an influential figure in Democratic Party circles. His legal training and political connections positioned him to participate in the state’s judiciary and, later, in its highest offices. During the Civil War era and its aftermath, he aligned himself with the Southern Democratic cause and the broader Redeemers movement in Southern U.S. politics, which sought to overturn Republican Reconstruction governments and restore white Democratic control.

Coke’s judicial career advanced rapidly in the years following the war. He served on the Texas Supreme Court but was removed from that position during the Reconstruction period, when federal authorities and Republican state leaders sought to reshape the state’s institutions. This removal deepened his opposition to Reconstruction policies and strengthened his standing among Texas Democrats who resented federal intervention. His experience on the bench and his ouster under Reconstruction would later influence his actions as governor, particularly in his reorganization of the state judiciary.

In 1873, Coke emerged as the Democratic challenger to Republican Governor Edmund J. Davis in a bitterly contested election that became a referendum on Reconstruction in Texas. Coke claimed victory, but the Texas Supreme Court initially ruled against the validity of the election. Disregarding the court ruling, Democrats secured the keys to the second floor of the state Capitol and took possession, while Davis reportedly stationed state troops on the lower floor. The Travis Rifles, a Texas military unit originally created to fight Native Americans, were summoned to protect Davis but were converted into a sheriff’s posse and instead protected Coke. On January 15, 1874, Coke was inaugurated as the 15th governor of Texas. On January 16, Davis arranged a truce and made a final appeal for federal intervention; President Ulysses S. Grant replied by telegram that he did not feel warranted in sending federal troops to keep Davis in office. Davis resigned on January 19, 1874, and Coke’s inauguration effectively restored Democratic control in Texas.

Coke’s governorship from 1874 to 1876 was marked by vigorous efforts to reverse Reconstruction and consolidate Democratic power. His administration took notable steps to balance the state budget and oversaw the drafting and adoption of a revised state constitution in 1876, which remains the current Constitution of Texas. He was instrumental in the creation of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, which later became Texas A&M University, thereby laying foundations for the state’s modern system of higher education. Having once been removed from the Texas Supreme Court, Coke, as governor, appointed all of its members, naming Oran M. Roberts as chief justice after the United States Senate had refused to seat Roberts. George F. Moore, who had been chief justice when he and Coke were previously removed under Reconstruction, became the first chief justice elected under the 1876 Constitution and held that position until his death. Other jurists who had served in the Texas judiciary under the Confederacy also received key appointments, reflecting Coke’s determination to restore pre-Reconstruction legal and political leadership.

At the same time, Coke’s tenure was central to the reestablishment of local white supremacist rule in Texas and the systematic disfranchisement of African American voters following Reconstruction. He was a leading figure in the Redeemers movement in Southern U.S. politics, which sought to restore white political dominance across the former Confederacy. By the time of his resignation as governor in December 1876, following his election by the legislature to the United States Senate, Texas Democrats had united with white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan to maintain political control of the state. In the rhetoric of his supporters, Coke was celebrated as a defender of what they termed the “supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race,” priding himself, in their view, on “the rich blood of the Southern people.” As their leader, they claimed, he “fought back the tide of tyranny that was about to engulf them in the murky water of mulatto domination.” Admirers in the Texas Southern Democratic tradition revered him for what they saw as his triumphs over Reconstruction-era federal control in Texas politics, describing him as a “constructive statesman” who “served his people with true fidelity” and left Texas “a rich heritage of a fruitful and useful life,” asserting that “his name is engraved on the scroll of immortals, and his footprints are in the sands of time.”

Coke served in the United States Senate from 1877 to 1895, representing Texas for three consecutive terms. In the Senate he was a consistent Democrat and an advocate for states’ rights, limited federal government, and the interests of the postwar South. His long tenure reflected his continued popularity among white Texas voters and the strength of the Democratic Party in the state during the late nineteenth century. Although less nationally prominent than some contemporaries, he participated in debates over economic policy, federal authority, and the lingering issues of Reconstruction, always from the perspective of a Southern Redeemer determined to preserve the political and social order he had helped reestablish in Texas.

After leaving the Senate in 1895, Coke returned to Texas, where he remained a respected elder statesman among Democrats and former Confederates. He continued to reside in Waco and maintained his connections to the legal and political communities that had shaped his career. Coke County in West Texas was named in his honor, reflecting the esteem in which he was held by many of his contemporaries and the enduring influence of his role in state politics. Richard Coke died on May 14, 1897, leaving a legacy that included the long-lived 1876 Texas Constitution, the establishment of what became Texas A&M University, and the firm entrenchment of Democratic and white supremacist rule in Texas during the post-Reconstruction era.