John B. Rayner and Texas Populism: A Book Review

Introduction: Rayner's Place in Texas Political History

The complex career of the Texas politician John B. Rayner demonstrates how the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the rise — but ultimate failure — of Reconstruction defined the history of Texas during the nineteenth century. Despite the profound prejudice that existed against African Americans during the era, Rayner was able to rise to public prominence during the latter half of the 1800s in Texas. His politics fused populist rhetoric with a desire to build a multiracial coalition of Texans united by mutual economic interests.

Yet coupled with this populism was a frequent elitist streak in his temperament. He disdained a wholly inclusive voting-rights policy, ended his career supporting vocational rather than academic schools for Black Texans despite his own considerable learning, and frequently resorted to backroom deals to pursue his vision of Texas in the post-Reconstruction era. His flexible liberalism and political maneuvering make him quintessentially Texan — reminiscent, in a later mode, of Lyndon Johnson — although Rayner was fundamentally an iconoclast and was not nearly as successful at capitalizing on his political leverage as some later Texas politicians.

Gregg Cantrell's Feeding the Wolf: John B. Rayner & The Politics of Race, 1850–1918 creates a portrait of an ambitious yet politically passionate man who consistently exceeded the expectations society imposed on African Americans of the period, even though his dearest dreams for Texas's farmers and Black citizens were not always realized.

Origins: From Slavery to Political Ambition

Rayner's personal and political achievements are remarkable, especially when considered in the context of the era's attitudes toward African Americans. Many Black Americans never learned to read or write, even after the Emancipation Proclamation. Rayner was born into slavery in 1859, during the final years of the antebellum period. His father was a white slaveholder, Kenneth Rayner, a wealthy man from Raleigh, North Carolina, who later became a leader of the nativist, anti-immigration American Party — otherwise known as the Know-Nothing Party.

John Rayner would be classified as a mulatto in post-Civil War racial discourse. During the antebellum period, of course, a slave was simply a slave regardless of ancestry. Kenneth Rayner was a prominent attorney and slaveholder who negotiated the surrender of Raleigh during the Civil War. Though father and son were both politicians, their careers took very different directions: John became a Populist advocate of African-American rights, while his father died an advocate of slavery.

John Rayner was a member of the first generation of Southern Black Americans able to seek an education, largely due to federal Reconstruction policies. He studied for the ministry and teaching at Raleigh Theological Institute and at St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute. After working as a teacher, he began his political career in North Carolina, but eventually moved to Texas, where he spent the rest of his life advocating for agrarian and populist interests.

The Rise of a Populist Champion

At first, like most Black Americans of the era, Rayner aligned with the Republican Party when he arrived in Texas — the party of Lincoln, after all. But he gradually became convinced of the emerging Populist Party's cause, particularly given the hardships suffered by farmers in the state. Rayner believed the Populist Party was uniquely positioned to fuse the interests of poor Black and white Texans, seeing them as united by a common economic cause.

Rayner rose to prominence within the party despite persistent racial prejudice. At the 1894 state convention, he became a member of the party's powerful executive committee and, rather than shying away from controversy, actively sought it out — urging the party to take a stronger stance on expanding African-American civil rights within Texas. He gained a reputation as one of the state's most eloquent orators of the Populist cause.

His hopes were dashed, however, when the Populist Party threw its support behind the Democratic presidential candidate in 1896, William Jennings Bryan. The Democrats used the rhetoric of white solidarity to build support against the Republican nominee. The Republican Party — the party of Reconstruction — was uniformly despised across the South, including Texas, and Rayner's initial belief that Texas was fundamentally different from the Carolinas proved mistaken. He began to lose confidence in the capacity of any party to forge a truly multiracial coalition.