Robert Allan Shivers (US: /ʃɪv.ərʒ/; October 5, 1907 – January 14, 1985) was an American politician who served as the 37th governor of Texas.

Shivers was a leader of the Texas Democratic Party during the turbulent 1940s and 1950s and developed the lieutenant governor's post into an extremely powerful perch in the state government.

He served there from 1934 to 1946, except for two years' service in the US Army during World War II from which he was discharged with the rank of major.

In office, Shivers initiated the practice of appointing state senators to specific committees and setting the daily agenda.

Later, the Senate passed a right-to-work law, reorganized the public school system with the Gilmer-Akin laws, appropriated funds for higher education including the Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University), and provided money for improvements of state hospitals and highways.

[5][6] In 1956, Shivers ordered Captain Jay Banks of the Texas Ranger Division to block "desegregation of Mansfield High School in Tarrant County.

Most of the Shivercrats either left public life or became Republicans after Johnson's presidency, as the liberal-moderate faction was in firm control of the state party after 1970.

[9] The recommendations of the committee were used as justification for Shivers's state actions in resisting integration, such as the Mansfield School Desegregation Incident.

[citation needed] Shivers appeared as himself in the 1955 film Lucy Gallant starring Jane Wyman and Charlton Heston.

Shivers helped enact laws raising teacher salaries and granting retirement benefits to state employees.

[11] He donated his Austin home, Woodlawn, the historic Pease mansion, to the university to help raise funds for its law school.

In 1980, Shivers was instrumental in securing a $5 million grant for the UT Austin Moody College of Communication, which soon established an endowed chair of journalism in his honor.