Texas Oil Boom

Oil was found in Texas in 1923. After the discovery, oil took Texas by storm causing many economic and social changes. Here are four social changes that effected Texas throughout the 20th century.

Before the oil boom, many people were struggling to find employment. However, the discovery of oil in Texas helped them tremendously. While white men worked in the oil field, domestic work was done by the African-Americans and Mexican-Americans. Not only did the oil boom create jobs, but it also significantly increased wages. In fact, when Wilsie Lee McKinney explained her decision to come to West Texas, she said this: “I could make one dollar per hour for domestic work... So if I worked ten hours that day, I had ten dollars. Ten dollars per week was a good wage back in East Texas.” The oil industry helped many others like Wilsie live.

Additionally, the oil industry allowed for many more people to get an education. Prior to oil being discovered, it seemed as though college was reserved only for wealthy people. However, more colleges were being built as a result of the oil income. For example, in 1900 the University of Texas wanted to find oil on their property. Once they found and profited off of it, they began building more colleges. These new schools provided more

Oil was discovered in Wink, Texas in 1926. By 1929, the town had a population of 6,000. Despite the community’s success, I would not include this in my radioshow. I would not include this because it was impacted the least by the oil boom. the population of Wink, Texas drastically shrank after the oil boom was over. In fact, as of 2013, Wink, Texas had a population of 1,006. Unlike the other topics featured, Wink’s success was only temporary. Today, people can still be educated at the universities oil profits created and people still have jobs in the oil industry. That is why I would choose to exclude this from the radio