Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 25

Sunday August 27 1995 I Fort Worth Star Telegram I Section A Page 23 Amendment changed little for Texas' blacks I 3s 44 A 4444 1 e1 r11" 'IAA blacks away at the polls in primary elections until the practice was declared unconstitutional in 1944 Because the Democratic Party dominated Texas politics voting in the Democratic primaries was tantamount to full-voting rights said Ruthe Winegarten a historian and the author of Black Texas Women: 150 Years of Trial and Triumph "In November there usually wasn't a Republican opponent in the first place" she said State leaders also limited the voting pool by requiring a $175 poll tax from registered voters a fee that was declared unconstitutional in 1966 Blatk women faced another barrier fear Lenora Rolla 91 learned at age 6 that voting could be a perilous endeavor Her uncle a black man hoping to cast a ballot in an election around 1910 rode into the East Texas town of Palestine and was promptly kicked out relatives told her "They put him back on his horse put the whip to the horse's butt and sent him running" said Rolla who is executive director of fled in 1920 excluded black women from their lobbying efforts partly because of racism but also because they believed including them would antagonize white men working to keep African-Americans out of the voting booth said Winegarten of Austin But Rolla who in the 1940s worked toward abolishing the poll tax attributes her involvement in the suffrage movement to a prominent white woman Margaret Carter of Fort Worth Carter a longtime liberal Democrat who died in 1988 urged black women to vote paying them $1 each to attend organizational meetings Rolla recalled The women would take miniature polling machines to people's' homes and teach the residents to cast ballots said Rolla adding that she never accepted Carter's dollar "She was very influential in getting information to the black community" she said Rolla says the history however painful is important "1 don't think you can get bothered about the present" she said "unless you get bothered about the past" I or 4 at look back 'roman suffrage FOn Wonh Star-Telegram I PAUL MOSELEY Lenora Rolla of Fort Worth recalls that her uncle was run out of the East Texas town of Palestine when he tried to vote around 1910 the Tarrant County Black Historical Genealogical Society Inc "I could associate that very closely with the attempt to vote" White suffragists battling for the 19th Amendment which was rati I I I a i a return to economics BY LISA BLACK Fort Worth Star-Telegram The 19th Amendment meant little to black women in Texas where a whites-only law for primaries long walks to the voting booths poll taxes and fear kept most blacks away from the polls until 46 years later It took steady local campaigning the removal of state restrictions and enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 before Tarrant County blacks began voting consistently authorities and residents say "We had a heck of a time trying to get to vote" recalled Viola Pitts 80 precinct chairwoman for Fort Worth's Como area Pitts and her neighbors in the late 1950s walked up to a mile to a polling booth at a Camp Bowie Boulevard feed store where the owner would chastise them for resting on his sacks of feed Pitts said "We'd get tired and rest and he didn't like that" she said "We got a petition to get it a poll at Como Elementary and we've had the vote there ever since" County election officials turned Women's )3Y KRISTIN SULLIVAN Fort Worth Star-Telegram 1887 Texas members of the Christian Temperance Vnion became the first anti-liquor organization in the South to en dorse woman suffrage The vote they said was the "surest and shortest way" to prevent husbands from drinking away the family's income More than a century later economics is once again the driving fokce of women's politics leading female politicians and activists almost back at survival needs because of the economic pressures on the American family" said Mary Beth Rogers former campaign manager for Gov Ann Richards and a visiting professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin "People are working longer hours for less money When you have less money generally there are two options: that is either to produce more income or figure out -Vote From Page 1 anniversary of woman suffrage i women are assessing their progress "Once you say 'Oh1 believe we will let these people be citizens' then their voices count differently" said Karen Perkins executive director of The 4 4 Women's Center of Tarrant 4 County "They can do what everybody else does with the vote They can use it wisely they can waste it but atleast they have it At least it says you too are human" 4 Human but still unequal in many cases "There are still enormous inequalities and the present more conservative courts and government ifanything are attempting to roll back some of the gains" said Jane Dolkart associate professor oflaw at Southern Methodist University Dolkart cites opposition to affirmative-action policies as an example of the reversal of gains made by women Women comprise about half the US work force but earn 60 percent to 80 percent of salaries paid to men in comparable positions according to the Women'sSourcebook published by Houghton Mifflin Co Texas women have successfully pushed for better laws in education and health and for social changes from prohibition and child labor laws in the 1920s to an equal-rights amendment ratified by Texas in 1973 Yet the national equal rights amendment was never ratified by the required 75 percent of the state legislatures Only eight amen serve in the 50-member Senate and only 47 women are in the 435-member House of Representatives A stalled effort to move a monument to suffragists out of the capolbasement and lip the rotunda to join monuments to "Attained my major- ity at last thank you registered to vote (the) 6th of Travis Co women at about 7:45 on June 26th We had a lot of fun" McCallum diary 1918 Courtesy: Janet 0 Humprey A Texas Suffragist Susan Anthony Helen Stoddard of Fort Worth president of the Texas Woman's Christian Temperance Union 1891-1907 Courtesy: The Women's Collection Texas Woman's University Minnie Fisher Cunningham of Galveston elected president of the Texas Woman Suffrage Association in 1915 Courtesy: Library al Congtsss A poster in support of women voting Courtesy: Minnie Fisher Cunningham Collection Houston Metropolitan Research Center Houston Public Library end tr0 Mt IL 1 8 4 8 First national women's rights convention in Seneca Falls NY Issues include legal freedom for unmarried women and a call for an end to the corset 1866 Susan Anthony daughter of a Quaker abolitionist helps establish the American Equal Rights Association 1 882 Woman's Christian Temperance Union organized in Texas to stop the sale of whiskey 1892 Rebecca Henry Hayes appointed vice president of National American Woman Suffrage Association and enlists support for Texas Equal Rights Association 1893 In May 52 women and men meet in Dallas and establish the Texas Equal Rights Association 1894 Second Texas Equal Rights Association meeting convenes in Fort Worth with 50 delegates representing Dallas Taylor Belton San Antonio and Granger Suffrage column begins appearing in newspapers 1895 Texas House debates women's right to vote for first time since the 1875 constitutional convention Amendment dies in committee 1 896 Wyoming Utah Colorado and Idaho the only states allowing women to vote 1903 The wealthy Finnigan sisters of Houston organize equal suffrage league reviving the movement in Texas The movement dies in 1905 when the Finnigans leave the state 1908 National suffragists Carrie Chapman Ceti and Anna Howard Shaw visit Texas renewing interest in the movement 1913 Texas suffragists hold first state convention since 1904 attracting 150 women and a 'sprinkling" of men 1915 Minnie Fisher Cunningham of Galveston elected president of the Texas Woman Suffrage Association Suffrage opponents organize for the first time in Texas Legislature takes first vote on an amendment supporting woman suffrage the amendment fails 1917 Legislature again rejects woman suffrage amendment 1918 Women granted the right to vote in Texas primaries after pledging support for Gov WP Hobby During a 17-day period before the next election more than 386000 women register to vote Law allows local officials to reject black women at the polls 1 9 1 9 A constitutional amendment granting woman suffrage is submitted to states for ratification On June 28 Texas becomes the tworaroorgfroo! ninth state first in the South to ratify lett 1 920 On Aug 26 the 19th Amendment proclaimed law Later that year a coalition of women's groups 4 nicknamed the 4 'Petticoat Lobby" by Texas legisla- tors pushes through a variety of legislation League of Women Voters is formed nationwide 1929 Petticoat Lobby disbands after one of its endorsed candidates Gov Dan Moody commits to the program A 4 4 7- i tOtt concerns a way to cut back on what's going out" An Aug 19 the Texas Poll showed that statewide the women polled count economics and the national debt among their top concerns About 10 percent of 509 women surveyed said the economy is America's biggest problem That answer ranked second to concerns about crime and violence The economy was on men's minds too: Of the 492 men surveyed 20 percent ranked the economy as their chief concern Crime and violence ranked as Texas men's second concern The poll's margin of error was 3 percentage points Some historians say that such surveys point out that Texas women's concerns have come full circle In the early 1920s suffragists successfully lobbied Texas lawmakers to increase funding for public education to strengthen child labor laws and to provide money for maternity and infant health care male heroes such as Thomas Jefferson and Spiro Agnew has become a symbol of slow progress for some At least four times since 1921 women have tried to have the 8-ton monument depicting women's-rights advocates Susan Anthony Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott moved to a more suitable location the latest unsuccessful attempt was made this summer "I think it says it all" said Karen Staser a congressional liaison for the National Woman's Party a nonprofit organization whose founder commissioned the statue in 1920 "They're down in the crypt by themselves It parallels the treatment of women" Making haste slowly NCE THEY gained the right to vote women leaned toward Democratic candidates and issues such as abortion rights social programs and environmental protection with less interest in issues such as military buildup according to research by the Center for the American Woman and Politics at Rutgers University a nonprofit research and education service Still female voting patterns are no easier to categorize than those of men In I 990 female voters shot down Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams after he made a joke about rape Gov Ann Richards a Democrat received 59 percent of their vote Four years later GOP women stuck with their party's candidate George Bush and Richards saw her overall support among female voters drop 4 percentage points "Women don't vote together" said Virginia Elwood librarian for women's studies at California State University at Northridge "I think that was one of the things that was a shock to Geraldine Ferraro the Democrats' 1984 vice presidential candiOate When Geraldine Ferraro was unable to bring in the In the late 1960s and early 1970s the focus of women's political efforts turned to securing full property-owning rights for women equal pay for equal work and access to legal abortion But some women who became politically active in the late 1970s say they were moved to act as a backlash to the feminist movement and by economic downturns "I got married in 1975 and started settling down to a way of life" said Marcia Saunders of Lake Kiowa president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women "Then we saw interest rates up at 22 percent" Women's political activity in Texas gathered momentum again in 1989 when the Supreme Court allowed state-imposed restrictions on abortion and in 1990 when Republican gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams joked about rape during his campaign against Richards said author and Texas political observer Celia Morris Williams "was anti-choice and women's vote I think a lot of politicians dropped the idea of women on a national party ticket" Women voters didn't begin to wield influence immediately after 1920 said Susan Carroll senior research associate for the center at Rutgers "It took women a while to catch up with men in terms of voter turnout" Carroll said "You had generations of women who had been socialized that voting was something women didn't do that politics was dirty and masculine It took new generations being socialized very differently" Other gains were slower in coming Texas women were not allowed to serve on juries until 1965 Birth control was illegal for married couples until 1969 Not until 1969 did the law give Texas women financial equality And it was 1975 before women became eligible to enroll in US service academies "It was absolutely incredible" said Louise Ballerstedt Raggio 76 a Dallas attorney whose lobbying helped push through a marital property law that gave Texas women more say in their financial dealings "A married woman had 27 things that she couldn't do She couldn't sell her own property She couldn't own her own business It was a long litany" Gains for black women who were barred from voting in Texas primary elections until 1944 have been even longer in coming And women of all races continue to struggle for equality in workplace promotions and child-care issues For example fewer than 5 percent of senior managers at American corporations are women according to a report released in March by the Labor Department's Glass Ceiling Commission Liquor and suffrage EXANS CAME to the suffrage movement late in the 1800s after mothers who feared a lot of Republican women crossed over That was not the case in this last year" said Morris author of the 1991 book Storming the Statehouse: Running for Governor with Ann Richards and Dianne Feinstein Richards won 59 percent of women's votes in 1990 But her support among Texas women dropped 4 percentage points in 1994 when she lost her re-election bid to Republican George Bush Railroad Commissioner Carole Keeton Rylander said women's politics have changed since she ran for Austin mayor in 1977 "When 1 ran for mayor being a woman was an issue They were calling the precincts saying 'She's abandoning her children' said Rylander who switched to the Republican Party in 1985 "Now you're blasted or praised based on your stance on the issues and that's the way it should be My issues are paychecks and jobs into the 2 1st century" that liquor would destroy the family joined prohibition efforts "They had us making recitations about the terrible thing about the drink as kids" said Eugenia Allen 82 of Fort Worth whose mother was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in their hometown of Miami Fla Virginia Sloan 92 remembers when national suffragists traveled to Fort Worth in 1917 attracting an audience that packed a downtown auditorium Sloan 13 at the time rode by streetcar to the convention with her mother Sloan recalls one speaker who referring to the United States' recent entry into World War I left an unforgettable impression "She said 'Here we are engaged in a war for democracy and we want all the nations of Europe to be engaged in democracy' Sloan recalled' "Yet here we are the largest democracy in the world and half our citizens can't even vote' Suffragists homemakers society club members and female college graduates turned to techniques still popular among specialist-interest groups organizing campaigns lobbying and negotiating back-room deals They learned their lessons well In 1917 Texas Gov James "Pa" Ferguson an anti-suffragist was impeached in the wake of accusations of mismanaging state money Texas suffragists aided in the legislative investigation of Ferguson and helped publicize his misdeeds which endeared the suffragists to Ferguson's successor Gov William Hobby In 1920 the Tennessee Legislature approved the 19th Amendment becoming the 36th and final state needed for ratification Little fanfare accompanied the event suffrage work was just something the women were doing" one researcher said and it went largely unhrralded in history books Sources: Citizens at Last: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Texas A Texas Suffragist: Diaries Writings of Jane McCallum Texas Women: A Celebration of History I OnM101MNLAP0kW111LaliMall ftA olgo WAlcatlno01LannjosAt00 Owatkm ontfircsa "At "war filt AR Ali AIL" "-ON 4 AoLlat.