- 1875 resolution for women's suffrage", "Votes for Women! reset. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, promising that all people in Texas had the right to vote, regardless of race or gender. [24], Annette Finnigan and her sisters, Elizabeth Finnigan Fain and Katherine Finnigan Anderson, began to revive the women's suffrage movement in Texas in 1903. [11] On her tours, Folsom recorded that she was surprised by the "timidity" of women in Texas, who seemed to be afraid to be seen in public spaces. [59] Cunningham had helped negotiate this provision with Metcalfe. [49] TAOWS was led by Pauline Wells and published and distributed anti-suffrage fliers.[49]. Hobby for governor, Annie Webb Blanton for state superintendent of public instruction, and other candidates from across the state who were favored by women were victorious. The party's Texas branch announced its approval of this policy but sponsored no militant agitation in the state. “Texas Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage,” A couple of weeks ago, Texans exercised their right to vote in the primary election. Created / Published New York, 1894. [31] The amendment failed, but a positive minority decision was prepared. "[53] Ferguson, who was an obstacle to women's suffrage, was impeached on August 25, 1917. Of course, the push toward full women's voting rights was not complete. A [9] Folsom was in contact with Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell who both felt that Texas needed to organize, but that the state may not yet be ready for women's suffrage. Hobby. [3] Martha Goodwin Tunstall spoke in support of women's suffrage in Austin at a meeting of the Austin Friends of Female Suffrage before the final vote. Organized opposition to woman suffrage began in the United States in the late nineteenth century in several statewide groups, including strong ones in New York and Massachusetts. '"[10], Rebecca Henry Hayes, a suffragist living in Galveston, began to correspond with Laura Clay of NAWSA in late 1892 and early 1893. [20] The group could not reach a decision and when Hayes declared that she would not support Anthony's visit, she was removed as president by the executive committee. [49] They argued that since women's suffrage had just been defeated by voters in May, that indicated that voters really didn't want women to have equal suffrage. [62] That same month the Texas Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (TAOWS) disbanded. [55] In Houston, suffragists ran a "food conservation education drive" in the summer of 1917. In November 1913, a group of Houston businessmen and public officials dressed in drag as suffragists marched downtown in a derogatory mock parade staged by a local men’s social club. Jane Y. McCallum Papers, Austin History Center. [86], Jovita Idar began writing articles in favor of women's suffrage in the Spanish language newspaper, La Cronica in 1911. In many cases, anti-suffragists believed that extending the vote to women would lead to voting rights for non-white minorities and other “undesirables” who might “take over” the government if they got too much power. The question of women’s voting rights was raised during the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1868–69 when Titus H. Mundine of Burleson County proposed that the franchise be conferred upon qualified persons without distinction of sex. Debbie Mauldin Cottrell, [41], TFWC came out in support of women's suffrage in 1915, helping to bolster the cause. Two years later T. H. McGregor of Austin introduced a similar resolution in the Texas Senate. This resolution received a favorable committee report but was rejected by a vote of nineteen to eight. [3] In 1873, Texas senator, Albert Jennings Fountain of El Paso, proposed extending suffrage to women. 1915 – Opponents of woman suffrage formed the Texas Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. The Texas Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage chose to emphasize other reasons for not granting women the right to vote, but they were unable to overcome the joint efforts against them, including the prohibition movement, in Progressive Era Texas. The time of your degradation has passed…. African American club leader Eliza E. Peterson of Texarkana became the head of the state’s “Colored Division” of the Texas WCTU and national superintendent of the division in 1908. These organizations, largely consisting of prominent middle and upper class women, resulted in the formation in 1911 of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, headquartered in New York. In 1901 Houstonian Annette Finnigan and her father John were listed as contributors to the New York Suffrage League, headed by NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt, and by 1902 Annette Finnigan was serving on the executive committee of the national association. Many people, including many women, thought that the status quo should not be disturbed.