100 Years of Women Voting

Join us in commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment, on August 26, 1920, one very important step in our democracy's long voting history.  Support our mission of empowering voters and defending democracy as we continue the fight for voting rights today! 

"As Virginia Kase CEO LWVUS said “We mustn’t romanticize the story of the 19th Amendment. The truth is, progress towards a more perfect democracy is often messy, and the 19th Amendment did not break down voting barriers for all women—and even today, there is more work to be done.”

Honor the heroines who continued the fight for voting rights over the past 101 years.  

Heroines such as ...

The first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, was a Texan who, among many other notable achievements, worked for the passage of the 19th Amendment in Texas and nationally.

A suffragist who was unable to vote in Texas after the passage of the 19th Amendment,Christia Adair, continued to worked for full suffrage as an NAACP leader in Houston. She was among the first black women to vote in a Texas primary after the Supreme Court struck down Texas' white primary law in 1944.

In 1931, Oveta Culp Hobby was elected the League of Women Voters of Texas president. She was the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and first Director of the Women's Army Corps as well as a Chair of the Board of the Houston Post.

Eva Carillo de Garcia was a missionary, a nurse, a social-welfare volunteer, and a civil-rights activist. She was active in the League of Women Voters and a founding member and president of Ladies LULAC in Austin in the late 1930's. 

Elected in 1966, Texas Senator Barbara Jordan,was thefirst black state senator since 1883 and then the first black woman from a Southern state to serve in the US Congress. She successfully included Hispanics in the extension of the 1975 Voting Rights Act.

Use the following resources to discover more voting rights heroines and heroes!

Honor a voting rights heroine or hero in your life with a donation to the League!

Resources

• LWV Texas
  • A Timeline of 100 years of Voting and Elections in Texas
  • Texas Voting Rights calendar Google Calendar or iCal
  • History of the League of Women Voters of Texas
  • League Of Women Voters of Texas & Texas Secretary Of State Celebrate Women's Equality Day 100 Year Anniversary of Passage of 19th Amendment
  • As We Celebrate the Anniversary of the 19th Amendment Remember it Only Applied to White Women Op Ed Dallas Morning News by NAACP, LULAC and LWV Texas
• LWVUS
  • Voting Rights & LWV Our Story and Our Progress Powerpoint by Celina Stewart, LWVUS Senior Director of Advocacy and Litigation, presented at the Bullock Texas State History Museum June 2019.
  • League of Women Voters at 100 YouTube
  • 100 years of the League of Women Voters
  • The 19th and Women of Color
  • Historical Photos &League of Women Voters at 100 video

Texas 

• Texas State Historical Association
  • Texas Women and the Vote, free ebook with dedication by the League of Women Voters of Texas!
  • Woman Suffrage
  • Texas Women’s History
  • History of the League of Women Voters of Texas
• other
  • How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment by The Texas Observer
  • Sister Suffragists A Celebration of the Suffrage Centennial by the Bullock Texas History Museum is a celebration of the movement that brought suffrage to the women of Texas and the nation.
  • Women's Power, Women's Vote by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
  • 100 Years: Voices Of Women Voters by Texas Standard/Texas Public Radio, These are the stories of civic-minded Texas women who are changing our world today inspired by a fundamental right: the right to have one’s voice heard.
  • The Women's Suffrage Movement in Texas  Texas Woman's University & LWV Texas
  • 100 Years of Women's Suffrage The Daily Texan

National 

• The Complex History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement  New York Times
• Shall Not be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote  Library of Congress Exhibition
• Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Right to Vote Exhibit  National Archives
• Votes for Women: A Portrait of PersistenceNational Portrait Gallery
• National Votes for Women Trail National Collaborative for Women's History's Sites