Editing Fort Bend County, Texas (section)

==History==
Before European settlement, the area was inhabited by [[Karankawa people|Karankawa]] Indians. [[Spain|Spanish]] colonists generally did not reach the area during their colonization, settling more in South Texas.

[[File:The Sugar Land Refinery in Sugar Land, TX.jpg|210px|thumb|The former Sugar Land Refinery in Sugar Land]]

After Mexico achieved independence from Spain, Anglo-Americans started entering from the east. In 1822, a group of [[Stephen F. Austin]]'s colonists, headed by William Travis, built a fort at the present site of Richmond. The fort was called [[Fort Bend]] because it was built in the bend of the Brazos River.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n127 128]}}</ref> The city of Richmond was incorporated under the [[Republic of Texas]], along with 19 other towns, in 1837. Fort Bend County was created from parts of Austin, Harris, and Brazoria Counties in 1838.

Fort Bend developed a [[Plantations in the American South|plantation]] economy based on cotton as the commodity crop. Planters had numerous African-American slaves as laborers. By the 1850s, Fort Bend was one of six majority-black counties in Texas.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlxFHFdF3_gC&q=Arp%2C%20Texas&pg=PT671 | title=Texas Almanac 2012–2013 | publisher=Texas A&M University Press | date=November 8, 2011 | access-date=November 17, 2013 | author=Alvarez, Elizabeth Cruce | pages=Contents| isbn=9780876112571 }}</ref> In 1860, the slave population totaled 4,127, more than twice that of the 2,016 whites.<ref>Virginia Laird Ott, "FORT BEND COUNTY," ''Handbook of Texas Online'' ({{cite web |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcf07 |title=FORT BEND COUNTY &#124; the Handbook of Texas Online&#124; Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) |access-date=February 22, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928180653/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcf07 |archive-date=September 28, 2013 }}), accessed February 22, 2014. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association</ref> Few [[Free negro|free Blacks]] lived there, as Texas refused them entry.

While the area began to attract White immigrants in the late 19th century, it remained majority-Black during and after Reconstruction. Whites endeavored to control [[Freedman|freedmen]] and their descendants through violence and intimidation. Freedmen and their sympathizers supported the Republican Party because of emancipation, electing their candidates to office. The state legislature was still predominately White. By the 1880s, most White residents belonged to the Democratic Party. Factional tensions were fierce, as political elements split largely along racial lines. The Jaybirds, representing the majority of the Whites, struggled to regain control from the Woodpeckers, who were made up of some Whites who were consistently elected to office by the majority of African Americans, as several had served as Republican officials during Reconstruction.

Fort Bend County was the site of the [[Jaybird–Woodpecker War]] in 1888–89. After a few murders were committed, the political feud culminated in a gun battle at the courthouse on August 16, 1889, when several more people were killed and the Woodpeckers were routed from the county seat.<ref name="jay">{{cite web |author=Yelderman, Pauline |title=Handbook of Texas Online: JAYBIRD-WOODPECKER WAR |publisher=[[Texas State Historical Association]] |year=2010 |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wfj01 |access-date=February 22, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214164855/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wfj01 |archive-date=December 14, 2013}}</ref>

Governor [[Lawrence Sullivan Ross]] sent in militia forces and declared martial law. With his support, the Jaybirds ordered a list of certain Blacks and Woodpecker officials out of the county, overthrowing the local government. The Jaybirds took over county offices and established a "White-only pre-primary", [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|disenfranchising]] African Americans from the only competitive contests in the county.<ref name="jay"/> 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. In 1953, they ultimately won their suit when the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] declared the Jaybird primary unconstitutional in ''[[Terry v. Adams]]'',<ref>{{cite web |author=Hayes, Bonni C. |title=Handbook of Texas Online: ARIZONA FLEMING |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fflmw |year=2010 |access-date=July 5, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714144207/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fflmw |archive-date=July 14, 2014}}</ref> the last of the [[White primary]] cases.<ref>{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Paul|title=A History of the American People|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z0YQHAAACAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Orion Publishing Group, Limited|isbn=978-1-84212-425-3|page=661}}</ref>

===20th century to present===
In the 1960s, the first of several master-planned communities that came to define the county were developed, marking the beginning of its transformation from a largely rural county dominated by railroad and oil and gas interests to a major suburban county dominated by service and manufacturing industries. Among the earliest such developments were Sugar Land's [[Sugar Creek (Texas)|Sugar Creek]] and Missouri City's [[Quail Valley (Missouri City, Texas)|Quail Valley]], whose golf course hosted the [[Houston Open]] during the 1973 and 1974 seasons of the [[PGA Tour]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.golfquailvalley.com/history/|title=Quail Valley's History: Golf, Special Events & Restaurant|website=www.golfquailvalley.com|access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref> Another was [[First Colony]] in Sugar Land, a 9,700-acre development commenced in the 1970s by Houston developer [[Gerald D. Hines]] that eventually became the southwest Greater Houston area's main retail hub, anchored by [[First Colony Mall]] and [[Sugar Land Town Square]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=First Colony |url=https://www.hines.com/properties/first-colony-sugar-land |publisher=[[Hines (company)|Hines]] |website=www.hines.com |access-date=March 25, 2025 |language=en-us}}</ref>

Since the 1980s, new communities have continued to develop, with [[Greatwood, Sugar Land, Texas|Greatwood]], [[New Territory, Sugar Land, Texas|New Territory]], and [[Sienna, Texas|Sienna]] (originally Sienna Plantation) among the more recent notable developments.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fortbendcountytx.gov/your-county/about-us/history|title=History {{!}} Fort Bend County, TX|website=www.fortbendcountytx.gov|language=en|access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref> In addition to continued development in the eastern part of the county around Sugar Land and Missouri City, the [[Greater Katy]] area began to experience rapid growth and expansion into Fort Bend County in the 1990s, led by the development of [[Cinco Ranch, Texas|Cinco Ranch]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hec06|title=CINCO RANCH, TX|last=E.|first=JASINSKI, LAURIE|date=June 12, 2010|website=tshaonline.org|language=en|access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref> By 2010, the county's population exceeded 500,000, and it had become the second-largest county in the greater Houston area (behind Harris County).

In 2017, [[Hurricane Harvey]] caused significant flooding in Fort Bend County, leading to the evacuation of 200,000 residents and over 10,000 rescues. The unprecedented flooding, the result of record rainfall and overflow from the Brazos River and [[Barker Reservoir]], resulted in damage to or destruction of over 6,800 homes in the county.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/fortbend-news/article/Harvey-update-highlights-commissioner-s-court-12750687.php|title=Hurricane Harvey damaged or destroyed 6,800 homes in Fort Bend, officials say|date=March 14, 2018|work=Houston Chronicle|access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref>