Cover of the Houston Suffragist Exhibit: Alice Paul and the Stars In January 1920, Alice Paul, suffragist leader and member of the National Woman's Party, began sewing a star on their purple, white, and gold Suffrage Flag every time a state ratified the amendment. She sewed the last star on August 18th, and the flag was unfurled at the NWP headquarters in Washington, D. C., complete with the thirty-six stars representing the number of states required for the passage of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. This Flag is now known as the Ratification Flag.

Houston Women Cast Their Ballot Celebrating 100 Years of the Right to Vote 1920 - 2020

19th Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of SEX. August 18, 1920

Golden Flyer The Golden Flyer automobile reached Houston on Tuesday, May 2, 1916. The drivers, Mrs. Alice S. Burke and Miss Nell Richardson, traveled under the direction of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to carry the suffrage message all across the United States. They traveled a total of 10,700 miles. Arrangements for their stop in Houston were organized by Miss Annette Finnigan, Miss Julia Ideson, Mrs. Harris Masterson, Mrs. Lockhart Wallis and Mrs. J.A. Brown. Burke and Richardson were the first women to make this circuit around the United States in an automobile. At every stop, the car became a podium for suffrage speakers, with some even using the vehicle’s headlights for nighttime speeches. The drivers carried suffrage banners and literature to hand out, along with tools for repairing the car, a small hand-powered sewing machine and a small typewriter. Burke and Richardson were given a black kitten as they left New York, which they promptly named Saxon in honor of the Saxon Four automobile which they drove. When questioned about bringing a sewing machine and typewriter, Burke explained, “If any anti-suffragist makes remarks about suffrage ruining a woman’s feminine abilities, I got out the sewing machine and ran off an apron while the crowd waited. If they claimed women don’t have the brains to vote, I would pull out her typewriter and write them a poem.” The Houston Post, Tuesday, May 9, 1916. Hand-Powered Singer Sewing Machine c. 1913 on loan from Teresa Schwartz Corona 3 Typewriter on loan from Melvalene Cohen The Golden Flyer Children’s Book is available in The Heritage Society’s Gift Shop.

1911 Ford Model T The Model T changed the way Americans lived, worked and traveled. Henry Ford’s revolutionary advancements in assembly-line automobile manufacturing made the Model T the first car to be affordable for a majority of Americans. In 1908, the Model T sold for $850 while competing cars often cost $2000-$3000. The Model T was offered in several body styles, including a five-seat touring car, a two-seat runabout, and a seven-seat town car. All bodies were mounted on a uniform 100-inch-wheelbase chassis. A choice of colors was originally available, but from 1913 to 1925 the car was mass-produced in only one color—black. By the 1920s the price had fallen to $300 as the assembly line technique became more efficient and produced a greater volume of cars.

The engine was simple and efficient, with all four cylinders cast in a single block and the cylinder head detachable for easy access and repair. The engine generated 20 horsepower and propelled the car to modest top speeds of 40–45 miles per hour (65–70 km/h). In most models, the engine was started by a hand crank, which activated a magneto connected to the flywheel, but after 1920 some models were equipped with battery-powered starters. The transmission, consisting of two forward gears and one reverse, was of the planetary type, controlled by foot pedals rather than the more common hand lever used in sliding-gear transmissions. Spark and throttle were controlled by a hand lever on the steering column. The 10-gallon fuel tank was located under the front seat – or mounted on the back because gasoline was fed to the engine only by gravity. Also, the reverse gear offered more power than the forward gears, the Model T frequently had to be driven up a steep hill backward.

Automobiles arrived in Houston early in the 20th century and quickly grew in popularity. The number increased from just over 1,000 cars in Harris County in 1911 to almost 100,000 by 1930. Prior to the automobile, the streetcar system was the preferred mode of transportation around the city. The effect of the automobile on Houston’s landscape was profound. Along with cars came the need for new and better roads, parking, car dealerships, gas stations, mechanic shops, and even new laws to regulate traffic. In fact, the first local speeding ticket was given to T. Brady in 1903 for exceeding the 6 m.p.h. limit on Main Street.

Henry Ford was also Pro-Suffrage. Ford was one of the first automobile manufacturers to advertise to women and offer independence through being able to drive on their own in their easy to operate automobiles.

Heritage Society Museum Permanent Collection

Julia Ideson In 1913, suffragist leader Miss Julia Ideson purchased this white batiste dress in Paris, France, while on leave from the City of Houston Library, serving as the American Art Students Club’s secretary. Suffragists favored the wearing of white apparel as a symbol of the purity and righteousness of their cause. Dress on loan from The San Jacinto Museum Julia Ideson Collection

World War I

Rice Institute Coeds During World War I, a group of coeds at Rice Institute formed the Woman’s Army Corps. While they were not an official military unit, they showed that women could be an important factor in supporting the country’s war efforts.

The South End Embroidery Club So named because its members resided in the White Oak Bayou area near the southern boundary of Houston Heights, pictured in front of the c. 1918 Collins Memorial Methodist Church building located on Harvard Street. Its members are wearing their hand-sewn World War I American Red Cross volunteer hats and aprons. Courtesy of Houston Metropolitan Research Center

American Red Cross. The World War I white gauze sleeve protectors and hat belonged to Ruth Reifel Farren, a longtime member of the Houston Heights Woman’s Club, established 1900. As American Red Cross volunteers, the members spent hours rolling bandages at their 1846 Harvard Street clubhouse. The red embroidered cross with a red line underneath on the hat and sleeve indicates that the wearer was a volunteer, not a medical nurse. On Loan from Alice Butts and the Houston Heights Woman’s Club

Julia Ideson in Europe. Julia Ideson, the director of the Houston Public Library (pictured second from the right), spent eight months during World War I overseeing a library for American soldiers stationed in France. She also organized a library at Camp Logan, an Army training camp established in Houston during the war.

Nina Allender Nina Allender, the official cartoonist for the National Woman’s Party, in this image speaks for the thousands of women who contributed so much to the massive Liberty Bond Loan war effort. Like them, she is voicing the question all women were asking Uncle Sam in 1918.

Mrs. Alice McKean Young Alice McKean Young drove with her friends Hortense Ward, Miss Julia Ideson and Miss on a tour of southwestern Texas to help sell Liberty loan bonds. According to the Houston Post, April 14, 1918, "The trip of these women is in no sense connected with suffrage propaganda or work, although all of them are known to be ardent suffragists." The Houston Post front page headline on Sunday, May 5, 1918 records the money Houston women raised for the Liberty Loan bond drive. The $890,750 raised is equivalent to $15 million dollars in today’s money. Many Houston women’s organizations “…put their shoulders to the wheel.” to surpass their self-appointed quota, but the Equal Suffrage Association led in the amount raised.

World War I Poster Hazel Lavinia Roberts (1883-1966) created this World War I poster in 1916 for the Navy League, a civilian-run group founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, which began a training program for women to replace men in submarines should the nation need them. On loan by Anne Sloan

Hortense Ward

Hortense Ward was photographed signing the first voter registration receipt issued to a woman in Harris County in the hallway of the courthouse in Houston. The Houston Post, June 28, 1918.

In 1925, Ward was appointed by Governor Pat Neff to serve as Chief Justice of an all-female Texas Supreme Court to hear a case for which all the male justices had been disqualified. The associate judges were Hattie Henenberg of Dallas and Ruth Brazzil of Galveston.

This gavel was given to and used by Ward when she served as Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

Ward was President of the Houston Equal Suffrage Association, and was presented with this large silver loving cup by members of the association at a banquet at the University Club on April 2, 1918. “The cup was given for Mrs. Ward’s work on behalf of securing suffrage in the primaries for the women of Texas.” The Houston Post, Wednesday, April 3, 1918. The cup is inscribed “A remembrance for faithful service to Texas women from Houston Equal Suffrage Association”. Gavel and Loving Cup on loan from Linda Hunsaker

Suffrage Party Ideas

Adele Mendel's Indoor Merrymaking and Table Decorations, published in 1915 in Boston and New York, included a chapter, "Table for a Suffragette Party." The suffrage theme illustrated women's efforts to include this current issue as a topic for their parties. Perhaps hostesses could persuade their guests to work for the cause. Interesting is the author’s use of the word "suffragette." Clearly, it was not meant to be derogatory. Occasionally, suffragists appropriated the word, as did the women in the United Kingdom, as a symbol of defiance. Rare Book on loan from Randy Pace

Bessie Chapman Dean Born in Williamson County, Texas, Bessie Dean grew up in Cherokee, Texas where she met and married W.V. Dean on June 30, 1901. She purchased the poll tax in San Saba and voted for the first time in the 1920 national election. Registered voters were required to show the paid poll tax receipt at polling stations. The City of San Saba poll tax receipt in blue was still preprinted with only “he” in its wording. The mannequin is wearing Dean’s white lawn dress which was a typical afternoon attire when the ladies entertained guests. Dress and Poll Tax Receipt on loan from Patricia Brison Estate Antique 1920 Mannequin on loan from Jennifer Sharp Rodriguez

The yellow Texas poll tax receipt from 1923 had been updated to include both sexes, male or female, and race, white or colored, after the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Dress and Poll Tax Receipt on loan from Patricia Brison Estate The Heritage Society Permanent Collection Christia V. Adair Collection

Mamie Ewing Mamie Ewing’s strong interest in educating Houston’s youth led her into a fierce battle with the Mayor over appointing women to the local school board. Although Houston suffragists had promoted this change as early as 1904, no action was ever taken. Finally, Ewing decided to wage the battle in the public arena by taking a petition to Houston’s first open-air suffrage rally in 1915. A woman was not appointed to the school board until 1917, but Ewing and her sister suffragists had kept the issue alive for years until they met with success. Framed Original Photo on loan from Vesta Eidman

CARTOONING FOR SUFFRAGE In the first decade of the twentieth century, dedicated and creative suffragists began drawing cartoons to help win the vote. They harnessed the power of symbolic images to create blatant propaganda designed to promote women's equality. These first-generation female cartoonists were idealistic, talented, and strong-willed. Often referred to as the "New Women," they were not always ladylike, and they enjoyed defying tradition as they targeted male power and privilege. Many of them lacked art training and selected the cartoon genre as their way of contributing to the fight for enfranchisement. The pro-suffrage cartoons seldom, if ever, made it into national newspapers and magazines, but they were regularly used by suffrage periodicals. After women won the vote, these cartoons were relegated to storage or destroyed. Recently, researchers have brought them to light, providing interesting new dimension to women's strategies for enfranchisement. Anti-suffrage cartoons, on the other hand, began to appear in the 1880s. Life magazine and other widely circulated publications regularly used these images for forty years. These cartoons are included to make clear the opposition women faced as they fought for seventy-two years to win the vote.

Suffragist Cartoons vs. Anti-Suffragist Cartoons Suffragist 1. George Twelvetrees (1888-1948). The downcast waif-like little girl is this cartoonist’s poignant response in 1916 to yet another suffragist defeat. The suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress 43 times during the women's 72 year struggle for enfranchisement. Minnie Fisher Cunningham Collection, University of Houston Archives

4. Rose O'Neill (1874-1944). O’Neill used images of children to demand the vote for their mothers. O'Neill was already famous for inventing the Kewpie doll in 1912. She uses drawings of her doll to promote woman's suffrage in these images.

5. Emily Hall Chamberlin, (1875-1916). Like O'Neill, she used children to address the subject of suffrage because these images were less threatening to male critics. Her drawings suggest equality of the sexes and uses Uncle Sam to imply traditional American values.

7. Edith H. Clapsaddle (1865-1934). Clapsaddle suggests there will be no love on Valentine's Day until women get the right to vote. Anne Sloan Collection

8. Nell Brinkley (1888-1941). Brinkley uses the three Greek symbols for beauty, charm, and grace in her cartoon “The Three Graces”. Tying a universal sash around the suffragist, dressing the second as a World War I worker, and the last as a star-spangled patriot, the cartoonist illustrates the women's war effort and patriotism. The breezy, feminine independent and very attractive Brinkley Girl, as she came to be known, grew into a national phenomenon, inspiring songwriters, hair stylists, and journalists.

10. Anonymous. This Valentine suggests the recent passage of the Nineteenth Amendment frees the suffragist to boldly propose to her sweetheart. Courtesy of Randy Pace

11. Edith H. Clapsaddle (1865-1934). Another Clapsaddle cartoon using a typical Valentine image. Ironically, Clapsaddle was not a suffragist, simply an enterprising woman drawing both pro-suffragist and anti-suffragist cartoons to earn money.

14. Lou Rogers (1879-1952). "Tearing off the Bonds" appeared in the October 23, 1913 issue of Judge magazine. Rogers, a regular contributor to the magazine's "Modern Woman" column, worked alongside another cartoonist, George Peter, who was later the original artist for Wonder Woman. Critics point to the similarity between the two images. Roger's suffragist, a metaphorical image of Columbia, is being released by the actions of one million voters. Wonder Woman, in contrast, breaks the chains holding her back by using her own strength.

16. Joseph Keppler (1834-1894). "Two's Company, Three's a Crowd," Keppler's pro-suffrage cartoon, appeared in the February 23, 1914 issue of his magazine, Puck. The woman, symbolizing the battle for suffrage, is intruding on two men identified as "Honest Graft" and "Political Boss" shown huddled over a money bag. Typically, male politicians have considered women unwelcome at the table.

17. Katherine Milhous (1894-1977). "Votes for Women" (1915) designed by an artist and illustrator who, in 1951, won a Caldecott Medal for The Egg Tree, questions the popular argument that voting makes a woman unwomanly, but earning wages and scrubbing floors do not. Minnie Fisher Cunningham Collection, University of Houston Archives

18. Sara Moore (1886-1968). Moore facetiously describes the "New Masculinism" as a society in which men need to learn sewing and other household duties since the "New Woman" will be occupied outside the home. Courtesy of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College.

20. Lou Rogers (1879-1952). "The Ballot Box is Mine Because it's Mine!" When Rogers submitted this cartoon to the NAWSA in 1911, the association said it was too controversial to publish. The man's asses' ears, his pompous stance, and his paper crown shocked them. Later it was published by a New York socialist newspaper.

21. Lou Rogers (1879-1952). "From Force of Habit, She Will Clean This Up," appeared in Judge magazine on February 8, 1913. Since women have always cleaned up after men in the home, she proposes that by giving them the vote, women will clean up social evils.

Anti Suffragist 2. Anonymous. This postcard image is #ll in an anonymous suffragette series produced by Dunston-Weiler Lithograph Company in 1909. Each of the twelve postcards represents an anti-suffrage protest to the women's demand for the vote which was considered an upending of the gender order. The cartoons feminize men and masculinize women to portray the dangers of giving women the right to vote.

3. Bernhardt Wall (1872-1956). Another postcard series, published by the Ullman Publishing Company in New York in 1909, ridicules the notion that giving women the vote might result in men having to perform tasks more rightly assigned to their wives.

6. Anonymous. The unknown illustrator trivializes a women's desire to vote as a childish wish to smoke cigars, prop her feet on the table, and wear a pretty sash.

9. William Walker (1871-1938). Walker uses the stereotypical image of suffragists as ugly, angry women who do not care whom they insult. Life magazine, June 14, 1914.

12. Laura Foster (1871-1920). Foster, an illustrator who opposed women's suffrage, later became a suffragist, but died before she could cast her first vote. Here she poignantly conveys the ambivalence some women feel, even today, as they try to "have it all".

13. Joseph Keppler (1834-1894). Owner of the satirical and influential American magazine Puck, drew this ambiguous cartoon, "Now Stop Her," in 1914. An ardent anti-suffragist, Keppler portrays the great foot of American suffrage as effectively stomping on its opponents. There are some who interpret this drawing as the suffragist foot battling with a group of men and a few women. Either way, it is not a positive image of women's struggle to win the vote.

15. Floyd Triggs (1872-1919) When the men cast disapproving looks at the woman’s hat, burdened with all of the suffragist demands, Triggs uses the wearer’s worried expression to suggest her uncertainty about her beliefs and her concern for her appearance.

19. Elmer Andrews Bushnell (1872-1939). "The Sky is Now Her Limit," a post-suffrage 1920 cartoon pictures a woman burdened by a yoke of buckets who is viewing a ladder with rungs which symbolize the continuing obstacles to gender equality. Note how the writing on each rung becomes fainter as you near the top. This is a prescient image of the American woman's 100 year continuing struggle to succeed in politics.

22. Laura Foster (1871-1920). In "Bye.Baby Bunting," imagines a nursery school's chaos when father is left in charge. It appeared in Life magazine, April 18, 1912, a publication that was strongly anti-suffrage.

23. William Walker (1871-1938) Life magazine published "Diplomacy" in June 1914. Walker, known for his satirical style, addresses the woman's suffrage issue by portraying feminists as incapable of understanding diplomacy and thus always offending those with the power to grant their desires.

The Woman's Hour has Struck

In 1917, the Houston Woman Suffrage Association held a poster contest and exhibit at the Jones building, located at Travis and Rusk. Edward Poucher of New York won the $250.00 first prize with this poster entitled The Woman's Hour has Struck, a phrase first used by . Judges reportedly liked the young woman of modern type wearing a three-cornered colonial hat. Another poster entered in the contest was the work of Eugene Pillot, the son of Teolin Pillot whose historic home is now located in Sam Houston Park.

Framed, original poster on loan from Anne Sloan

In 1920, the two major political parties, the Democratic and Republican, had very different platforms from today. As the party of Abraham Lincoln, African Americans voted Republican during the 19th Century. As policies and political influences within the Republican Party shifted at the end of the 19th Century and into the 20th century towards white business interests, African American male voters were squeezed between the two parties which neither supported Black interests nor Black suffrage. The Republican Party split into the “Lily Whites” and the “Black and Tans”. Black and Tans refer to Black and Mulatto (mixed race) people. When the 19th Amendment ratification went into effect on August 26, 1920, Houston Blacks announced their own complete slate of Black and Tans’ candidates for the first time in Houston history with the intention that combined with the Black woman’s vote; they had a real chance to elect a Black person to public office. Three days after the 19th Amendment was certified, The Houston Chronicle reported the offical announcement of the Black and Tans’ slate for the November election, “The ‘regulars’ were surprised at the action and political observers were keenly interested in this development in local politics.” August 29, page 2 col 4. The Houston Chronicle. Now that Black women could vote as full citizens, it triggered several firsts: Houston’s African Americans thought they had a chance to influence election outcomes, so they formed a political organization offering a qualified and full slate of candidates including three Black women and finally, Mrs. Rosa L. Yocome was the first woman to run for a legislative position in Harris County.

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The Texas Constitution enshrined the requirement that for qualified men to vote in Texas, they must pay the poll tax in the year of voting between January 1st and January 31st of the same year. For example: If you were a man and wanted to vote in 1920, you had to pay the poll tax at the county tax collector’s office during office hours, Monday through Friday between January 1st and January 31st. Poll tax payments not only suppressed voting for African-Americans, but also supressed voting for poor white men, rural men and working men who would have to leave their jobs during working hours to pay the tax and take a loss on wages. The tax in 1920 was $1.50. In today’s dollars, this is about $25.00 meaning a couple today would pay $50.00 to vote. When the 19th Amendment ratification went into effect on August 26, 1920, the Texas Constitution’s poll tax requirement violated the clear language of the 19th Amendment. The Texas State Legislature quickly met to pass an additional two-week period allowing qualified men and women to pay the poll tax so that women could vote in the November election. The Texas State Legislature used the 1919 poll tax list and added the January 1920 poll tax payments. The payments made in October during the new poll tax window were added to the 1919 list. The combined final list was called the “1919 Supplemental Poll Tax List”.

Harris County 2020 archivist, Sarah Jackson found 134 images labeled “1919 Supplemental Poll Tax List”. The original book was destroyed. This list contains 22,000 names and poll tax receipt numbers. It is unknown when the list was compiled from receipt books and if it is a complete list. Even though there are problems with the list such as unintelligible handwriting and ommisions of some active Houston suffragists, The Houston Area Suffragist Names Project members extracted approximately 3,500 women’s names from various sources. Additional names from suffragist documentation and suffragist-related newspaper articles between 1918-1920 have been added to the banner.

Please click on this photo to enlarge the banner to read and search the names.

ELECTION DAY Tuesday, November 2, 1920, The Houston Chronicle, the Houston Post and the Houston Press newspapers offer accurate and dramatic descriptions of the election events in real time. All of the following quotations use the exact language as published in November 1920. You can read along the daily events just like voters did 100 years ago.

Polling Locations Open at 8:00 a.m.; Many Long Lines and Shortages of Poll Workers Tuesday, November 2, 1920 “Nearly every presiding officer is reporting a shortage of election clerks and with the long ballot being voted declares the task of counting is going to be difficult and considerably delayed.” The Houston Chronicle. “When doors were opened…the presiding officer…found a long line of negroes waiting to vote and that condition continued through the whole morning…Election officials declare that the way the negroes are voting and the manner in which they are scratching their ballots indicates that they have been schooled on what to do and how to act prior to the elections. Few presiding officers reported lone negro women coming to the polling places. They say they come in crowds and leave in that manner…at that hour there was a waiting line of over 100 voters, only one of whom was white... In the waiting lines were negro women with babies in their arms, aged negro women who were forced to hobble to the polling places and negro women who came to the polling places in vehicles because they were unable to walk…negroes…were seen standing on street corners with large numbers of women gathered around them, preparing to lead them to the polling places…The negroes in the county have also been organized to vote the ‘black and tan’ ticket like the negro men and women are doing in Houston.” The Houston Chronicle.

Slow Ballot Count Results in Long Delay Before Final Results are Announced Wednesday, November 3, 1920 “The heavy vote, the big ballot, and inexperienced election officials…make the counting of the ballots of Tuesday’s election a difficult task. In many of the voting districts the experienced election officers did not participate in the election because of the smallness of the pay allowed…as a result, it became necessary…to use women volunteers, many of whom had never served at an election. In some of the districts, the women in the polls outnumbered the men.” The Houston Chronicle. Thursday, November 4, 1920 “The big ticket, inexperienced clerks and a heavy vote are said to be responsible for the delay….Deputies in the office of County Clerk Townsend are at work tabulating the returns but it probably will be Saturday before the exact totals are known…”. The Houston Chronicle. Friday, November 5, 1920 “Complete returns of last Tuesday’s election…show that the heaviest vote in the history of the county was polled. The total vote polled for the presidential electors was 28,766. Four years ago the total vote was 12,648…This year the two wings of the Republican party polled a total vote of 12,939, while in 1916 the party only polled 3,009. The Democratic total this year was 14,837 as against a total of 10,132 in 1916.” The Houston Post estimates 6,000 Black women voted. The Houston Post.

Sunday, November 7, 1920 “Official calculations made by deputies in the office of County Clerk Albert Townsend show that in the general election of last Tuesday a total of 28,797 votes were polled in the county, the largest vote in the county’s history. Women who were qualified as voters by a decision of District Judge J.D. Harvey were responsible for the unusual vote…In practically every box in the city the vote of the women was heavy and in some instances…the women outvoted the men. This was particularly true in the negro districts, where women went to the polls and stood in line for hours waiting for an opportunity to cast their first ballot… County Judge Bryan…says he believes that fully 5,000 negro women voted and that he understands fully 1,000 more were unable to get into the precincts where the voting was heavy before closing time. He also declares he is convinced that as many as 1,000 votes were thrown out by election judges because of defective marking.” The Houston Chronicle. Monday, November 8, 1920 County Clerk Townsend submitted the final election results to the commissioner’s court. The Houston Chronicle.

Duncan General Store/Polling Station Egypt, Texas is one of the most historic towns of Wharton County and is about 70 miles southwest of Houston. Green Cameron Duncan, a cattleman and farmer who settled in Texas after the Civil War, established the store in the late 1870s and it operated until the mid-twentieth century. An earlier store had first been established by A. Northington in 1840. The store became the business and social center for a large area of the county. The merchandise for the store was initially hauled in by horse and wagon from the railroad station at Hungerford until the Cane Belt Railroad came into Egypt in 1900. The store sold everything from food to coffins. A meat market was added shortly after opening as well as a lumber yard and saddlery. In 1900 one corner of the store became the Egypt, Texas United States Post Office. The Heritage Society records. Egypt had originally been in Colorado County, but in 1846 it became part of newly established Wharton County. When the first election was held in the county, a general store was the polling place; in the 1990 primary election, the newer general store in Egypt was still the polling place. Handbook of Texas. The election day sign is part of the original contents of the store. The Heritage Society, Permanent Collections.

Antique 1920 Mannequin on loan from Jennifer Sharp Rodriguez

Ballot Box Ballot box from Dallas County Texas, early 2Oth century. Ballot boxes were used to collect voting cards that had checkboxes, filled in by citizens that paid their poll tax in General Stores, such as this one located in Eygpt, TX. On loan from The Honorable Chris Bell, United States Congressman

Barbara C. Jordan Keynote speech given by Houstonian Barbara C. Jordan (1936-1996) in the opening session of the National Women's Conference 1977 in Houston, Texas, about the true, unrecognized value of women in America. This was the first and only Women’s Conference after Civil Rights and Equality was recognized to be a national issue for women, by President Jimmy Carter. Jordan was known for being the first in many things during her career. She was the first Black woman in the in 1967 and co-authored over 70 bills, including the Texas Equal Rights Amendment, and promoted women’s rights. She was also the first Black woman to give the keynote speech at the Democratic Convention. Her brilliant speeches won her national acclaim for her intellect and integrity, as well as helping lead to Richard Nixon’s resignation. Multiple Sclerosis tragically ended her political career, but wheelchair bound Jordan was able to deliver her second Democratic Convention keynote address in 1992. In 1994 President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Even in death, she broke barriers as she was the first African American to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery, among the governors, senators and congressmen.

On loan from Texas Southern University Barbara Jordan Collection

Symbol of Triumph Bertha Boye created this image in 1911 for the California's Equal Suffrage League poster contest. The sun is setting on the Golden Gate Bridge behind a woman draped in a "suffrage yellow" garment," the color California women called the "color of success." Shown all over San Francisco, it supposedly inspired voters to approve the California suffrage amendment that year. National Women's History Project. On loan by Anne Sloan

A special thank you toSuffrage Exhibit Committee Member Lisa Cari for logo design, photography, video, graphics, and layout design for the exhibit and booklet. Please vist our Celebration Suffrage Gift Shop for Unique and Custom Gifts for All Ages!

https://www.heritagesociety.org/suffrage-merch

The Heritage Society (THS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to tell the stories of the diverse history of Houston and Texas through collections, exhibits, educational programs, film, video, and other content. Founded in 1954 by a number of public-spirited Houstonians to rescue the 1847 Kellum-Noble House from demolition, The Heritage Society has since saved an additional nine historic buildings, moved them from various locations to join the Kellum-Noble House in Sam Houston Park, and restored them to reflect their respective eras. These ten buildings, along with the Museum Gallery, serve as historic reference points and exhibition spaces for more than 23,000 artifacts that document life in Houston from the early 1800s to the mid- 1900s.

Heritage Society Membership: The Heritage Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to telling the stories of Houston's past. Membership is open to everyone. Membership comes with a variety of benefits including free historic building tours, free admission to lectures, invitations to exhibit preview parties, discounts in the Gift Shop, and much more!

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