Jaybird–Woodpecker War

With support from Texas Governor Lawrence Ross and the Houston Light Guards (the first uniformed state militia company formed after the Civil War),[8] a complete reorganization of county government resulted in the removal or resignation of all Woodpecker officials and the selection of Jaybirds or persons acceptable to the Jaybirds to fill those offices.

This device lasted until 1950, when Willie Melton and Arizona Fleming won a lawsuit against the practice in United States District Court, though it was overturned on appeal.

The roots of the Jaybird-Woodpecker violence stretch back to the emergence of antebellum plantation society in Fort Bend County and the end of the American Civil War.

The conflict over slavery impacted how the war began, played out, and influenced Fort Bend political and social life for over 100 years.

Fort Bend County was colonized by families of the Old 300, who had purchased land rights from Stephen F Austin and the Mexican government in the 1820s and the pacification of local Native American tribes.

Within the decades leading up to the American Civil War, Fort Bend country grew into one of the largest and most prosperous slaveholding communities in Texas.

As a result of outnumbering White males, the vote of freedmen carried most elections that occurred during Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War when Texas was under military rule while transitioning back to statehood in the Union.

Also significant was the breaking up of the old plantations into smaller land units, many of which were either purchased by new immigrant farmers from Europe or were rented by Black sharecroppers.

While resisting emancipation and Black suffrage, plantation elite surprisingly cooperated with the biracial county government that emerged during Reconstruction.

Unlike other Texas counties at that time, Fort Bend Country actually enjoyed racial co-operation and peace during this post-Civil War era.

The majority of Whites resented the independent Democrats for their "treasonous behavior" in supporting Blacks' right to vote and to hold public office.

In the spring of 1889, Kyle Terry, then a Woodpecker official appointed as the tax assessor, murdered Ned Gibson, a leader of the Jaybirds.

Following this, Governor Sul Ross declared martial law and dispatched troops from the Houston Light Guards, along with more Texas Rangers.

The Jaybird Democrats retained control until their provision was overturned by a ruling by the United States Supreme Court in Terry v. Adams, 345 U.S. 461 (1953).

By that time, two White primary processes authorized by the state government had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; the second was in Smith v. Allwright (1944).