DALLAS (ABP) — It's official: Whites are no longer the majority population in Texas.
Late last year, the number of non-Hispanic whites dipped below 50 percent for the first time since Texas became a state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Estimates show Texas was 49.5 percent white in 2003, down 1.5 percentage points from 2002 but still a large plurality.
Almost all the loss was made up by Hispanics, who accounted for 35.3 percent of the populace in 2003. African-Americans account for 10.8 percent of Texans, and Asians total about three percent.
“The future of Latinos is the future of Texas, as the population numbers show,” Luis Figueroa, legislative staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, told the Associated Press.
Baptists in Texas have seen the population shift coming for a long time and have changed their ministry accordingly.
“We're trying to be ready,” said E.B. Brooks, coordinator of the church missions and evangelism section of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. “We have focused staff employment, church planting, enlistment of volunteers, community ministries and events on reaching out to non-Anglo populations.”
The convention has expanded ministry and conference options tailored for the needs of non-Anglo congregations. An increasing number of materials are available in Spanish.
The current first vice president of the state convention is Albert Reyes, president of the Baptist University of the Americas, a Hispanic school in San Antonio with close ties to the convention. Reyes is expected to become the convention's first Hispanic president this fall.
In 1994, Anglo congregations made up 75 percent of the convention. In 2003, that number was 63 percent. Hispanic congregations jumped from 14 to 20 percent during that span. African-American churches went from 7 to 12 percent of the convention's congregations.
More than 70 percent of the churches that have become affiliated with the BGCT in the last four years are non-Anglo, according to convention statistics. And last year, nearly half of the 160 new churches started with convention help were Hispanic.
Texas was dominated by Indians and a few Spanish settlers until 1821, when the new Mexican government allowed Americans to enter as long as they pledged allegiance to Mexico, turned Catholic and learned Spanish. Soon the flood of white newcomers quickly made Texas look like other U.S. frontier areas, and dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's attempt to tighten Mexican control resulted in a successful Texas revolution in 1836. By the time Texas became a state in 1845, whites dominated the landscape.
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— This article includes information from John Hall of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.