Legendary Lawyers Hon. Hortense Sparks Ward: A Texas Trailblazer for Equality and Suffrage –By David Furlow and Elizabeth Furlow
H
ortense Sparks Ward is a household name in our family. As a father and a daughter, we have both been inspired by Ward’s example as an attorney who fought for justice and equal rights. Ward was a Texas attorney who blazed a trail for others to follow. She was the first woman in Texas to pass the bar exam, in 1910, and she was one of the first woman
members of the State Bar. Ward drafted a bill to protect the property rights of women who acquired income, then successfully lobbied the Texas Legislature for its enactment.1 She served as Special Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court’s “All Woman-Court” in 1925, the first all-female panel of a state supreme court.2 But Ward’s greatest victories occurred between 1915 and 1920 during the struggle to enfranchise Texas’s women voters. Ward led the successful campaign for ratification of a federal constitutional amendment to grant Texas women the right to vote. As president of the Houston Equal Suffrage Association, Ward also successfully lobbied Texas Governor William P. Hobby and the Legislature to pass a bill in 1918 that authorized women to vote in primary elections. Ward published newspaper articles and a pamphlet, “Instructions for Women Voters,” that helped convince nearly 386,000 women to register to vote in just 17 days during 1918. To honor her instrumental role in mobilizing women’s suffrage, Ward,
with the support of Democratic Party officials, was the first woman to register to vote in Harris County. Texas was the first Southern state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Secretary of State certified the amendment’s ratification on August 26, 1920. After winning the battle for women’s suffrage in Texas, Ward and her law partner husband, William Henry Ward, filed a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the new poll tax law the Legislature had just enacted. The Wards recruited a well-respected plaintiff and filed a mandamus action in accord with the Texas Constitution. The Wards’ victory opened doors to voters of every race and gender, ultimately enabling all citizens to vote as equals.3 David A. Furlow, attorney and historian, serves as Editor Emeritus of The Journal of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. Elizabeth Furlow is a litigation associate at Baker Botts L.L.P. She is the Off the Record Editor of The Houston Lawyer. Endnotes
1. JAMES L. HALEY, A NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE TEXAS SUPREME COURT, 1836– 1986 146, 168, 278 (2013). 2. See Barbara Karkabi, Judge O’Connor’s Nomination Reminds Us: Once Texas Had an All-Woman Supreme Court!, HOUS. CHRON., July 13, 1981, at 6; LINDA C. HUNSAKER, FAMILY REMEMBRANCES AND THE LEGACY OF CHIEF JUSTICE HORTENSE SPARKS WArd, 4 J. TEX. SUP. CT. HIST. SOC’Y 51–61 (2015), http://texascourthistory.org/Content/Newsletters//TSCHS%20Journal%20Summer%202015.pdf; Debbie Mauldin Cottrell, All-Woman Supreme Court, TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASS’N, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ entries/all-woman-supreme-court. 3. Despite Ward’s efforts, people of color continued to face significant obstacles in exercising their right in the years that followed. See, e.g., Jen Rice, How Texas Prevented Black Women from Voting Decades after the 19th Amendment, HOUS. PUBLIC MEDIA (June 28, 2019, 12:30 PM), https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/in-depth/2019/06/28/338050/100years-ago-with-womens-suffrage-black-women-in-texas-didnt-get-the-right-to-vote/. The authors hope Ward’s work will inspire readers to keep up the efforts for positive change.
The Bracewells: A Lineage of Political and Community Engagement –By Kelly Frels
T
“Mr. Bracewell, I am running for office, and I need your advice.” hese words were repeated many times by aspiring politicians who passed my office in Pennzoil Place on their way to Searcy Bracewell’s point conference room seeking his guidance, and hoping to receive his blessing. Searcy was Harris County’s sole state senator for ten years when state law limited any county to a single senator. He was also a frequent participant with other Houston leaders in Lamar Hotel Suite 8-F meetings.1 Searcy came by his legal and political interests naturally. His 20
November/December 2020
thehoustonlawyer.com
father, J. S. Bracewell, was a notable trial lawyer known for his oratory skills, especially in jury arguments. As youngsters, Searcy and his brother Fentress, on summer days, would listen to their father’s jury arguments through open windows of the Harris County Courthouse. The racial prejudices and hatred displayed by the Ku Klux Klan and the White Men’s Union that J. S. Bracewell encountered on juries when representing African-American clients led him in 1922 to run for Harris County Criminal District Attorney as the anti-Klan candidate. While he lost that election, his campaign helped bring change. Popular among Houston lawyers, J. S. was elected to serve as the president for the Houston Bar Association in 1939. Searcy Bracewell spent many hours visiting with us younger lawyers about life and lawyering. Listening to others and understanding their views on issues was a key message we received in these
