100 Years of Women Suffrage in Texas We’ve Come a Long Way, but We Still Must Fight for Full Equality BY JENNIFER HOPGOOD
Jennifer L. Hopgood is an Assistant County Attorney in the Travis County Attorney’s Office and a board member of the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association. Any views expressed in this article are solely the author’s personal opinions.
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n June 28, 1919, the Texas Senate approved the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and Texas became the ninth state in the country to pass legislation guaranteeing the right of women to vote. Although 1919 marked a successful culmination of decades of effort to achieve voting equality for women, the last hundred years have been marked by inconsistent advances for all women and in important areas such as equal pay. Women Suffrage in Texas The fight for women suffrage in Texas largely paralleled the suffragist movement in the United States in general. In 1875, the Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162, held that the U.S. Constitution did not grant anyone, specifically a female citizen of the state of Missouri, a right to vote even when a state law granted a right to vote to certain other classes of citizens. The Supreme Court reasoned that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment did not explicitly give citizens an affirmative right to vote. Despite the Court’s opinion in Minor, states and territories had begun to pass
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laws ensuring the right of women to vote. In 1869, Wyoming was the first territory or state to codify in its constitution female suffrage. Conversely in Texas, the idea of franchise being conferred on women was unsuccessfully raised during the Constitutional Convention of 1868-69 as well as subsequent legislative sessions in the late 1800s to early 1900s. Women formed suffrage clubs in Texas, notably in Austin in 1908 and in San Antonio in 1912 by Mary Eleanor Brackenridge. In 1913, the first statewide suffrage organization, the Texas Woman Suffrage Association, met in San Antonio and renewed the fight to achieve women suffrage. Women faced age-old arguments— custom dictated that the government sphere be reserved for men or that a women’s proper place was in the home tending to children. Anti-suffrage literature from the time shows the antiquated views espoused to undercut efforts to achieve voting rights for women. To counter these claims, women engaged in well-coordinated petitioning of politicians, arguing that enfranchisement would help to achieve better schools, public health, and a generally improved life for all citizens. Against the backdrop of World War I, newly reorganized and nationwide suffrage movements began to achieve success. Efforts by women in Texas began to pay off. In the 1917 legislative session, resolutions to enfranchise women were introduced; however, then-governor James E. Ferguson vigorously opposed women’s suffrage. After Ferguson was impeached and removed from office in the summer of 1917, his successor, Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby, proved friendly toward women’s suffrage. In March 1918, in a called session, Charles B. Metcalfe of San Angelo introduced a bill to permit women to vote in primaries. Governor Hobby signed the bill into law, and in 17 days
ABOVE: A group of Texas women, led by three dressed in white, marched in a suffrage parade under the Texas banner in Washington, D.C. in April 1913. RIGHT: Anti-suffrage literature prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Image credit: Texas State Library and Archives Commission
386,000 women registered to vote in the Democratic primary held in July 1918. In January 1919, Governor Hobby recommended that the Texas Constitution be amended to extend full suffrage to women. The amendment was defeated, in large part because a companion amendment would have imposed a citizenship requirement for foreign-born persons. After the first defeat in Texas, in June 1919 the federal women suffrage amendment was submitted to the states for ratification as the 19th Amendment, which states: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States
or by any State on account of sex.” The Texas Legislature convened in special session on June 23, 1919, with the House adopting a resolution to ratify the amendment, with Senate approval on June 28. Notably, Texas was the first southern state to ratify the 19th Amendment. With the ratification by Tennessee on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment became part of the Constitution and nationwide women now had the right to vote. The Ongoing Struggle to Achieve the Right to Vote and Sit on Juries Within the larger context of voting, women of color were,
