Suffrage in Texas Expanded (SITE)

Regionally distinct yet influenced by national trends, women's progressive culture in Texas offers a valuable opportunity to analyze the evolution of women's voluntary associations, their challenges to southern conventions, and their quest for social change and political power. Judith McArthur makes an important and accessible contribution to the study of women's activism by tracing in details and providing valuable comparisons between; North and South, among various southern states, and between black and a wide range of courses on southern or women's history.

African American political activism after women were allowed to vote in Texas was significant (143). In El Paso black women registered, in Austin black women registered, but were told they could not vote. they were refused in Fort Worth, in Waxahachie they were refused and then allowed, in Orange they were refused and sued and in Houston they were refused and sued (143). The population density and the presence of such organizations such as the Equal Suffrage League presence in El Paso and the NACCP in Houston make clear the connection between organizing and political action for black women of Texas.

The work is a collection of Texas activists and pioneers within their field including Christia Adair.

Along with bar rooms and bordellos, there has hardly been a more male-focused institution in Texas history than the Texas Legislature. Yet the eighty-six women who have served there have made a mark on the institution through the legislation they have passed, much of which addresses their concerns as citizens who have been inadequately represented by male lawmakers. This first complete record of the women of the Texas Legislature places such well-known figures as Kay Bailey Hutchison, Sissy Farenthold, Barbara Jordan, Irma Rangel, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Susan Combs, and Judith Zaffirini in the context of their times and among the women and men with whom they served. Drawing on years of primary research and interviews, Nancy Baker Jones and Ruthe Winegarten offer concise biographies and profiles of all eighty-six women who have served or currently hold office in the Texas Legislature. The biographies describe the women lawmakers' lives, campaign strategies, and legislative successes and defeats. Four introductory essays provide historical and cultural context for the biographies, which are arranged chronologically to give a sense of the passage of time, of relationships among and between women, and of the issues of their eras.

Overall a work discussing Texas legislators with relevant biographical and personal information alongside their political organizing goals. This work discusses Irma Lerma Rangel who was the first female chair of the House Mexican American Republican Caucus in Texas and first elected legislator. Prior to her political career she was an educator and was part of farm worker organizing. In addition Barbar Jordan is discussed in particular her comments at the Democratic National Convention in 1976 and her remarks at Nixon’s impeachment hearings. She was a figure that defied expectations in Texas supporting extensions to the Voting Rights Acts and while initially disagreeing with the ERA, supported it.

"Annie Mae Hunt is a survivor. Born in 1909 near Brenham, Texas, she grew up in a time and place where African Americans, although legally free, lived in circumstances that had changed little since the days of slavery. Much of her adult life was spent in backbreaking domestic service, until she created a modest independence for herself through sewing and selling Avon cosmetics." "I Am Annie Mae, told in her own words and edited by Ruthe Winegarten, records a life filled not only with hardships but also with the joys of family, of political activism, and of service to church and community. Since its publication in 1983, this book has touched the hearts of thousands of people and inspired the musical I Am Annie Mae.

Hattie Mae White and Barbara Jordan are the major political figures discussed within this work relevant to the project. Jordan is cited as a major successful and influential political figure in Texas, prior to her work, no black woman save White held any political office in Texas. She was elected to the Senate in 1966, there were no black female senators prior and no black senators since Reconstruction. She also sponsored the Social Security Act and the Voting Rights Act Extensions. White was elected in 1958 and was the first black Texas woman to hold civic office, enduring racism and segregation from her board and community in her attempt to desegregate Houston Schools.

"Rarely has a short book accomplished so much as Terborg-Penn's seminal work. With the utmost attention to detail Terborg-Penn examines the contributions of black suffragist stalwarts . . . It undoubtedly will become the definitive work on African American women's involvement in the mainstream woman suffrage movement and specifically on black women's struggle for the vote." --Choice " . . . this is a well-written overview of a crucial aspect of African American history that would be ideal for the college classroom." --Journal of American History " . . . not only a major contribution to suffrage history . . . but also a powerful indictment of white suffrage activists who were able to see beyond the sexism but not the racism of their society." --Journal of Southern History "This groundbreaking volume provides a theoretical and practical framework for new paradigms in African American women's history. . . . All Black politicians should read and discuss this unique and brilliant book. Many lessons can be learned." --Philadelphia New Observer This comprehensive look at the African American women who fought for the right to vote analyzes the women's own stories and examines why they joined and how they participated in the U.S. women's suffrage movement. Terborg-Penn shows how every political and racial effort to keep African American women disfranchised met with their active resistance until black women finally achieved full citizenship.

There were two organizations promoting black women's right to vote in Texas: the Colored Welfare League of Austin and the Negro Women's League of Galveston (146). In Houston the NAACP made a copy of the bill giving all women a right to vote to show at the polls (147). In Kingsville specifically according to Christia Adair, black women were turned away leading to the monumental case destroying the white primary in Texas (148). Overall what the ballot meant to black women in Texas was political access.

In Black Victory, Darlene Clark Hine examines a pivotal breakthrough in the struggle for black liberation through the voting process. She details the steps and players in the 1944 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Allwright, a precursor to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. She discusses the role that NAACP attorneys such as Thurgood Marshall played in helping black Texans regain the right denied them by white Texans in the Democratic Party: the right to vote and to have that vote count. Hine illuminates the mobilization of black Texans. She effectively demonstrates how each part of the African American community--from professionals to laborers--was essential to this struggle and the victory against disfranchisement.
Clark covers Smith v. Allwright in Texas which eventually became the 1965 Voting Rights Act precedent due to the poll tax repeal. Suffrage was linked to black education and safe living quarters (5). Lulu B. White is cited as a teacher/activist/NAACP, who organized for what would eventually become the 1965 Voting Rights Act, extending suffrage to black women and eliminating the poll tax (22-23). Similar to first wave feminists, the network of black clubwomen and church organizers was a wide one where women could join and fund the NAACP (37). White was able to door knock and use these extended community networks to be successful as an organizer. As cited earlier, white women had to accept a “white primary” to gain suffrage and avoided any discussion of any BIPOC folks.

African American women have played significant roles in the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality, but relatively little is known about many of these leaders and activists. Most accounts of the civil rights movement focus on male leaders and the organizations they led, leaving a dearth of information about the countless black women who were the backbone of the struggle in local communities across the country. At the local level women helped mold and shape the direction the movement would take. Lulu B. White was one of those women in the civil rights movement in Texas. Executive secretary of the Houston branch of the NAACP and state director of branches, White was a significant force in the struggle against Jim Crow during the 1940s and 1950s. She was at the helm of the Houston chapter when the Supreme Court struck down the white primary in Smith v. Allbright, and she led the fight to get more blacks elected to public office, to gain economic parity for African Americans, and to integrate the University of Texas. Author Merline Pitre places White in her proper perspective in Texas, Southern, African American, women's, and general American history; points to White's successes and achievements, as well as the problems and conflicts she faced in efforts to eradicate segregation; and looks at the strategies and techniques White used in her leadership roles. Pitre effectively places White within the context of twentieth-century Houston and the civil rights movement that was gripping the state. In Struggle Against Jim Crow is pertinent to the understanding of race, gender, interest group politics, and social reform during this turbulent era.
Known for her hardworking attitude and desire to push change for African Americans to the federal level, White was an inspirational organizer (128). As Pitre concludes, White organized on all levels to effect change and challenged the legality of Jim and Jane Crow laws. The black vote as a bargaining chip for socio-political equality did not become fully functional until 1948 (43-45).

"There is so much to be learned from the documents collected here. . . . Where better than in this record to find the inspiration to achieve another high point of women's political history?"--from the foreword by Anne Firor Scott Citizens at Last is an essential resource for anyone interested in the history of the suffrage movement in Texas. Richly illustrated and featuring over thirty primary documents, it reveals what it took to win the vote.

Brief discussion of poll taxes in the primary documents and how it limited women of color votes.

This special series focuses on the unique contributions Hispanics have made in the United States from the earliest Spanish explorers to the many successful Latinos in contemporary America. Each book provides historical and factual easy-reading stories. The books are jam-packed with information and contain between 7500 and 9000 words. Started San Antonio's first free kindergarten and founded the League of Mexican American women in 1911 to educate poor children. While a children's work, this is an introduction to Idar's life and struggles with strong archival resources support from Texas Woman's University.

Luis Bruni was against suffrage in Mexico and female societies (46); furthermore, argued capitalism was the enemy of women’s rights rather than other political issues (79). Again the Mexican Revolution was the spark to many activist groups in Texas fighting for suffrage, it was a transnational movement that inspired Tejana activism.
Jovita Idar’s background and transnational activism and roots through her father Nicasio and brothers, Clemente Eduardo and Federico were all labor organizing for Mexican origin workers. Federico worked primarily in Mexico as a labor activist, while Clemente worked for the AFL. They all published El Progresso and Idar wrote for El Estudiante (26). Idar served as a precinct judge for the Democratic party in San Antonio through the 1920s-1930s (26). Emma Tenyauca was a political organizer and activist within the Communist party (145). Learning from her grandfather who voted for Ma Freguson because of her anti-KKK political leanings, voting as a Mexican activist (147). She joined and led the Finck cigar strike (147-149) and pecan shellers strike (154-156). Within the “Mexican Question” she and Homer Brooks argued the reason Mexicans were marginalized civically through work and voting rights inequalities was that they were still treated as “conquered people” when unification was necessary (159). Tenyauca was eventually blacklisted and had to leave the Communist party as a result of a 1939 riot in San Antonio and operated as a citizen and educational advocate, one who worked for the lower class people seeking equality (165).

Winner, Texas Reference Source Award, Reference Round Table, Texas Library Association, 2003 T.R. Fehrenbach Award, Texas Historical Commission, 2004 Since the early 1700s, women of Spanish/Mexican origin or descent have played a central, if often unacknowledged, role in Texas history. Tejanas have been community builders, political and religious leaders, founders of organizations, committed trade unionists, innovative educators, astute businesswomen, experienced professionals, and highly original artists. Giving their achievements the recognition they have long deserved, this groundbreaking book is at once a general history and a celebration of Tejanas' contributions to Texas over three centuries. The authors have gathered and distilled a wide range of information to create this important resource. They offer one of the first detailed accounts of Tejanas' lives in the colonial period and from the Republic of Texas up to 1900. Drawing on the fuller documentation that exists for the twentieth century, they also examine many aspects of the modern Tejana experience, including Tejanas' contributions to education, business and the professions, faith and community, politics, and the arts. A large selection of photographs, a historical timeline, and profiles of fifty notable Tejanas complete the volume and assure its usefulness for a broad general audience, as well as for educators and historians.