Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded in 1837 and organized the next year.^[1] It is named for a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around the fort in early days. The county seat is Richmond. The largest city located entirely within the county borders is Sugar Land. The largest city by population in the county is Houston; however, most of Houston's population is located in neighboring Harris County.

Quick Facts Country, State ...

Fort Bend County
County
Fort Bend County Courthouse, Richmond, November 2008
Seal
Location within the U.S. state of Texas
Texas's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 29°32′N 95°46′W
Country	United States
State	Texas
Founded	1838
Named for	A blockhouse positioned in a bend of the Brazos River
Seat	Richmond
Largest city	Sugar Land
Area
• Total	885 sq mi (2,290 km2)
• Land	861 sq mi (2,230 km2)
• Water	24 sq mi (60 km2)  2.7%
Population  (2020)
• Total	822,779
• Estimate  (2022)	889,146
• Density	930/sq mi (360/km2)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional districts	7th, 9th, 22nd
Website	www.fortbendcountytx.gov

Close

Fort Bend County is included in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 822,779.^[2][3] In 2017, Forbes ranked it the fifth-fastest growing county in the United States.^[4]

In 2015, Fort Bend County became Texas's wealthiest county, with a median household income of $95,389 and a median family income of $105,944, surpassing Collin and Rockwall Counties since the 2000 census.^[5]

Before European settlement, the area was inhabited by Karankawa Indians. Spanish colonists generally did not reach the area during their colonization, settling more in South Texas.

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.^[6] 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 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.^[7] In 1860, the slave population totaled 4,127, more than twice that of the 2,016 whites.^[8] Few 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 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.^[9]

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," disenfranchising African Americans from the only competitive contests in the county.^[9] 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,^[10] the last of the white primary cases.^[11]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 885 square miles (2,290 km²), of which 24 square miles (62 km²) (2.7%) are covered by water.^[17]

From 1930 to 1950, the county showed a decline in the rate of expansion and even a decrease in population. This was a period when many African Americans migrated in the second wave of the Great Migration from Texas and other parts of the South to the West Coast, where a buildup in the defense industry provided more job opportunities. Other minorities settled in the county during its residential development, and African Americans are now a minority.

Note: the U.S. Census Bureau treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.

As of the census^[23] of 2000, 354,452 people, 110,915 households, and 93,057 families resided in the county. The population density was 405 people per square mile (156 people/km²). The 115,991 housing units averaged 133 units per square mile (51/km²). The racial or ethnic makeup of the county was 56.96% White (46.21% White non-Hispanic), 19.85% Black or African American, 0.30% Native American, 11.20% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 9.10% from other races, and 2.56% from two or more races. About 21.12% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Other self-identifications were 8.8% of German ancestry, 6.3% American, and 5.8% English ancestry.

In 2000, of the 110,915 households, 49.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.80% were married couples living together, 11.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 16.10% were not families. About 13.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.14, and the average family size was 3.46.

In the county, the age distribution of the population was 32.00% under the age of 18, 7.60% from 18 to 24, 32.30% from 25 to 44, 22.40% from 45 to 64, and 5.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.30 males.

County politics in Fort Bend County, as in all Texas counties, center around a commissioners' court. It is composed of four popularly elected county commissioners, one representing each precinct drawn decennially on the basis of population, and a county judge elected to represent the entire county. Other county officials include a sheriff, district attorney, tax assessor-collector, county clerk, district clerk, county treasurer, and county attorney.

For decades, Fort Bend County was a stronghold for the Democratic Party, having achieved disenfranchisement of Blacks at the county level in 1889 in the aftermath of the Jaybird–Woodpecker War.^[9] The state effectively disfranchised them with a poll tax and White primaries; the latter device was declared unconstitutional in 1944. By 1960, so few Republicans resided in Fort Bend County that the county's Republican chair once received a letter addressed simply to "Mr. Republican".^[32]

As the 1960s progressed, though, rapid suburban-style development in west and southwest Houston began to overflow into Fort Bend County, where the development of numerous master-planned communities attracted many upper-middle-class families to developments in the eastern portion of the county. This development, along with the shift of conservative white Democrats towards the Republican Party in the wake of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, led to increased support for the GOP in the following years.^[33] Richard Nixon narrowly carried the county in 1968, making it the only county in greater Houston outside of Harris County to go Republican that year, and carried it again in 1972. In 1976, conservative physician Ron Paul of Brazoria County, noted for his opposition to most government programs, which earned him the nickname "Dr. No", captured the 22nd district in the United States House of Representatives in a special election, before narrowly losing re-election in the November election in which Gerald Ford also won Fort Bend, despite losing Texas to Jimmy Carter.

Beginning in 1978, Republicans began to win several offices within the county, with William P. Clements carrying the county in his successful run for governor. That same year, Paul was returned to Congress, while businessman Tom DeLay captured the county's seat in the Texas House of Representatives. In 1984 DeLay succeeded Paul in Congress after the latter ran an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign, and became House majority leader by 2002. Beginning in 1982, Republicans won a number of county-level offices and judicial benches, and Fort Bend County's new reputation as a Republican stronghold culminated in the 1994 election of a Republican county judge to the commissioners' court for the first time since Reconstruction. As of 2019, five of Fort Bend County's eight countywide offices, including two precinct-level positions, are held by Republicans. The remaining three are held by Democrats.

With growing populations of minorities and more socially moderate suburban voters who often break Republican on fiscal and economic issues, Fort Bend County has recently become more competitive. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama came very close to winning the county, with 48.6% of the vote to Republican John McCain's 50.9%. In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first Democrat to carry the county since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, largely due to the unpopularity of Republican nominee Donald Trump, with many voters splitting their tickets between Clinton and Republicans for other offices; Republicans won every elected countywide office by a margin similar to Clinton's, while also defeating an incumbent Democrat on the Fort Bend County Commissioners' Court.^[34][35] In 2018, significant enthusiasm for U.S. Senate candidate Beto O' Rourke and strong Democratic infrastructure resulted in Democratic control of the commissioners' court (including county judge) and a number of countywide administrative and judicial posts, with Fort Bend Independent School District board trustee K.P. George becoming Texas's first Asian-American county judge.^[36]

Today, Fort Bend County is often considered a swing county, with election results usually tilting more Democratic than statewide results, which continue to favor Republicans. Elections within the county are often decided by margins in more Republican-leaning areas in Sugar Land, Rosenberg, and Sienna, with Republicans dominating in the Katy, Fulshear, and rural southern areas of the county and Democrats in the county's northeast corner around Missouri City and Fresno, as well as heavily Hispanic Mission Bend.

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the federal government has enforced it by regularly reviewing voting patterns and local practices, and plaintiffs have sometimes sued state or local governments over discriminatory practices. In April 2009, as part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice, officials of Fort Bend County agreed to increase assistance to Spanish-speaking Latino voters in elections held in the county.^[33]

In contrast to greater Houston in general, Fort Bend County's economy is more diverse, with numerous service-sector jobs in healthcare, energy, education, hospitality, and other areas. Major companies with a presence in the county include Schlumberger, Minute Maid, Fluor, and Sunoco's logistics operations in Sugar Land. The Houston Business Journal reported in 2010 that the diversity of industries promoted decades of rapid population growth.^[49] After Memorial Hermann Hospital and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital opened facilities in Fort Bend County, already home to local facilities for Houston Methodist Hospital in Sugar Land, as well as locally based OakBend Medical Center in Richmond, many doctors moved their offices to the county.^[50] Compared to Montgomery County, which has experienced rapid growth in corporate employment following ExxonMobil's decision to move its greater Houston operations to an area directly south of The Woodlands, Fort Bend County has yet to experience significant corporate growth, though Schlumberger recently announced plans to move its North American headquarters to Sugar Land.

The county does not have a hospital district. OakBend Medical Center serves as the county's charity hospital which the county contracts with.^[51]

Local newspapers in the county include three weeklies: the Fort Bend Star, headquartered in Stafford; the Fort Bend Independent; and the Fort Bend Sun, headquartered in Sugar Land. The daily Fort Bend Herald and Texas Coaster focuses on news coverage in the Richmond-Rosenberg area. Fort Bend County is also a major service area for the Houston Chronicle, which provides separate local coverage for the Sugar Land and Katy areas.

• Brittney Karbowski, American voice actress
• CeeDee Lamb, Wide Receiver for the Dallas Cowboys

• List of museums in the Texas Gulf Coast
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Fort Bend County, Texas
• Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Fort Bend County