LibGuides: Suffrage in Texas Expanded (SITE): Dissertations

S I T E Dissertations

Suffrage in Texas Expanded

Suffrage in Texas Expanded (SITE) is an ongoing project to develop a digital research collection that consists of a webliography of resources that chronicle a more inclusive vision of the struggle for women’s suffrage in Texas.

Dissertations (African American and Black Women)

Black, Linda L. (2008). “Female community leaders in Houston, Texas: a study of the education of Ima “Hogg and Christia Daniels Adair.” Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University.
Christina Adair was a woman who attended segregated Texas schools, was a working-class teacher and married, but childless. This dissertation examines her educational history (1880-1920) to find parallels between that and her civil rights activism. Family, lifelong learning and religion impacted her future community work (247). Adair was a self-starter and believed in learning her entire life, holding a position as the NAACP secretary and believing in the Progressive values movement.
Brannon-Wranosky, Jessica S. Southern Promise and Necessity: Texas, Regional Identity, and the National Woman Suffrage Movement, 1868-1920, dissertation, August 2010; Denton, Texas.
Brannon-Wranosky’s dissertation discusses the national suffrage movement specific to Texas and background in grassroots regional identity politics influenced these strategies over generations. While introduced many times between 1868-1920, suffrage gained attention in the 1890s nationally. Black women were often barred from registration, but clubwork in Austin, Galveston and Orange ( 100 turned away) showed politically active women willing to fight for their rights (213). However, white women were confused black women would even register when Democrats were the nomination party (215). In Beaumont there was an effort to register, as well as Houston with an active community and NAACP did gain registration access, despite separate but equal (215). In Austin women registered but could not vote in the primary (215). Whereas, Mexican women in El Paso and Kingsville early on often worked together with white associations to register (216).
Gammage, Judie Walton. “Quest for Equality: An Historical Overview of Women's Rights Activism in Texas, 1890-1975.” North Texas State University, 1982.
Gammage’s dissertation mainly focused on women’s rights in Texas proper including suffrage as a major goal and how white women mainly organized around it, leaving their sisters behind. Texas women organized for suffrage carefully sidestepping the Southern question, even when prodded (10). When the feminist movement came along, it was the same concern, whether black/Chicana women would toe the party line for rights for all women, which is exactly what happened during the suffrage movement (178). Rights were gained for some, but not all women.
Gunter, Rachel M. More than Black and White: Woman Suffrage and Voting Rights in Texas, 1918-1923, Texas A&M University, Ann Arbor, 2017. ProQuest.
Intersectional analysis of the political limitations placed on suffrage in Texas beyond white women. It was granted but limited in respect to poll taxes/literacy tests, voting in WWI became tied exclusively to citizenship. Black women who attempted to register were often turned away. Specifically, Louise Dietrich of El Paso sought to Anglicize Mexicans into whiteness with voting, but did not address black women (136-137).