During the 1970s, Texas' longstanding political, legal, and cultural framework continued the systematic exclusion or discouragement of minority groups from political participation and representation. The Texas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights studied the representation of the state's 12.5% black, 18% Spanish surnamed, and 51% female citizens in every elective office at the state, city, and county level from 1968 to 1978. The Commission found uniformly low minority representation in the major state and local governmental institutions. Overall, black and Mexican American representation changed little during the period, except in those cases in which federal legislation, such as the 1975 Voting Rights Act, or federal courts had intervened. The Commission also confirmed its assumption of the dominance of Anglo males in Texas' political structure, and the accompanying near-total exclusion of black and Mexican American women. Except for city council offices, Anglo males held 90% of all elective positions. A regional analysis of Commission findings further confirmed this conclusion and revealed gross disparities between minority population and representation. As regards minority representation, Texas did not compare particularly well with other southern and southwestern states. Five case studies illustrate various aspects of the report. (SB)