Events - Month View

Join us in celebrating the birthday of Ann Richards. In 1976, Ann became the 1st woman elected to the Travis County Commissioners Court. In 1982, Ann became the 1st woman elected as Texas State Treasurer, which was the 1st time a woman had been elected to statewide office in Texas since Miriam Ferguson‘s successful gubernatorial race in 1932--breaking a 50-yr absence of women in statewide leadership. In 1990, Ann became the 2nd woman to serve as governor of Texas since Texas became a state in 1845.

Learn more:
-- https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fri62

#OnThisDay in 1997, the 75th TX legislature, passed HB1001, which amended the Election Code to clarify the voting rights (eligibility) of fully discharged ex-felons, and it eliminated the 5-year waiting period established by HB718.

In 1983, the 68th Session of the TX Leg passed HB718, which abolished the life-time voting ban on ex-felons, but included a 5-year waiting period before ex-felons would become eligible to vote.

Learn more:

-- TXSLL: https://guides.sll.texas.gov/reentry-resources/voting

-- TXSOS: https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/elo/jwf20.pdf

-- 75th #TXLege Summary: https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/Sessionoverviews/summary/75soe.pdf#page=114 (pg. 114)

-- 68th #TXLege Summary: https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/sessionOverviews/summary/soe68.pdf#page=82 (pg. 77)

-- HB1001 Text: https://lrl.texas.gov/LASDOCS/75R/HB1001/HB1001_75R.pdf

-- HB718 Text: https://lrl.texas.gov/LASDOCS/68R/HB718/HB718_68R.pdf#page=23 (pg. 23)

-- HB718 Election Law Opinion: https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/elo/jwf20.pdf

-- JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/29768353?read-now=1&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents (pg. 82)

This Labor Day we’re recognizing the contributions of laborers by taking a look back at the impact of labor unions on the women’s suffrage movement.

Did you know that middle and upper-class suffragists learned to use parades and picketing from working-class suffragists who were members of labor unions?

“Since the beginning of the women’s rights movement, women who devoted their lives to reform often were middle and upper-class women. Women who worked to support themselves and their families had less time and funds to devote to social movements.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, working women began supporting suffrage in greater numbers. They joined labor unions, held strikes for higher pay, and protested for better working conditions. Working women started seeing the vote as a way to gain more political power to further these causes.

Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of suffrage leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was among the first suffragists to recruit working women to support suffrage. She started collaborating with the Women’s Trade Union League, founded in 1905, to help women form unions and advocate for labor reforms. In 1907, she founded the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (later called the Women’s Political Union) to attract working women to the suffrage movement. Blatch also wanted to integrate the more aggressive, militant tactics of labor activists—like parades through city streets and speakers on street corners—into the suffrage strategies to attract more publicity. Working women and their experience with the tactics of labor activists proved vital to winning the vote.” Allison Lange, Ph.D. https://www.loc.gov/resource/ggbain.02144/

Learn more:

-- Crusade for the Vote: http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/working-women-movement

-- LOC: https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/women-of-protest/images/tactics.pdf

-- DOL: https://www.dol.gov/general/laborday/history

JJoin us in celebrating the birthday of Jovita Idár. Idarwas born in 1885 and was an American journalist and civil rights activist who wrote about the challenges Mexican Americans faced in Texas. Her activism was influenced by the lynching of ethnic-Mexican men in South Texas during the early 20th century. She also used her platform as a journalist to support suffrage.

Learn more:

-- PBS (Unladylike): https://unladylike2020.com/profile/jovita-idar

-- TXWF: https://www.txwf.org/champions-for-change-jovita-idar-and-the-villareal-sisters/

-- Women‘s History: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/jovita-idar

-- TSHA Handbook: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fid03

-- TSHA Honest Past (p. 196): https://join.tshaonline.org/ebook-offers/honest-past/SHQ-An-Honest-Past.pdf

-- Humanities of Texas: https://www.humanitiestexas.org/programs/tx-originals/list/jovita-idar

-- Hidden Figures: https://www.brandywine.org/museum/hidden-figures-suffrage-movement


Photo Credit: General Photographs, UTSA Special Collections (@UTSA)

#OnThisDay, Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1957 into law. The act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. #CivilRights #VotingRights

This was the 1st civil rights legislation since Reconstruction (1875).

Timeline:

-- 1866 Johnson vetos CRA of 1866, but veto is overridden by Congress (define citizenship and guaranteed citizens equal protection)

-- 1875 Grant signs CRA of 1875 (guaranteed African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and prohibited their exclusion from jury service)

-- 1883 SCOTUS rules 7-1 that CRA of 1875 is unconstitutional

-- 1957 Eisenhower signs CRA of 1957 (forms the Civil Rights Commission)

-- 1960 Eisenhower signs CRA of 1960 (guaranteed qualified voters the right to register to vote

-- 1964 Johnson signs CRA of 1964 (prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and employment)

-- 1968 Johnson signs CRA of 1968 (guaranteed equal housing opportunities)

-- 1991 Bush signs the CRA of 1991 (expanded the rights of women and disabled persons)

Resources:

--Civil Rights Digital Library: http://crdl.usg.edu/events/civil_rights_act_1957

--Eisenhower Library: https://www.dwightdeisenhower.com/383/Civil-Rights-Act-of-1957

--Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/civil-rights-era-timeline.html

Photo credit: Photographs of Official Activities of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953 - 1961, US National Archives .https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7865612 (@USNatArchives)

Today is Constitution and Citizenship Day, so we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all recently naturalized American citizens. We hope an LWV volunteer was present at your naturalization ceremony to assist you with becoming a registered voter.

Learn more:

-- @LWVTexas: https://my.lwv.org/texas/register-vote

-- @librarycongress: https://www.loc.gov/law/help/commemorative-observations/constitution-day.php

-- @uscis: https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/educators/constitution-day-and-citizenship-day

Join us in celebrating the birthday of Mary Burnett Talbert. Mary was an American orator, civil rights activist, and suffragist. She believed that race and gender were unifying factors that could help resolve class issues. Talbert became one of the first women to join the NAACP after its founding in 1909.
#WomenInLeadership

Learn more:
-- https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/mary-burnett-talbert (https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/mary-burnett-talbert/)
-- https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/talbert-mary-b-1866-1923 (https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/talbert-mary-b-1866-1923/)
-- https://suffragistmemorial.org/mary-burnett-talbert-september-17-1866-1923 (https://suffragistmemorial.org/mary-burnett-talbert-september-17-1866-1923)

Join us in celebrating the birthday of Mary Church Terrell. Mary was a civil-rights activist who championed racial equality and women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Learn more:
-- PBS (@unladylike2020): https://unladylike2020.com/profile/mary-church-terrell-2
-- Womens History (@womenshistory): https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-church-terrell
-- LOC (@libraryofcongress): https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/mary-church-terrell-advocate-for-african-americans-and-women
-- NPS (@NPS) - https://www.nps.gov/people/mary-church-terrell.htm
-- https://suffragistmemorial.org/mary-church-terrell/