WOMAN SUFFRAGE and VOTING RIGHTS in TEXAS, 1918-1923 a Dissertation by RACHEL MICHELLE GUNTER Submit
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CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Texas A&M Repository MORE THAN BLACK AND WHITE: WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND VOTING RIGHTS IN TEXAS, 1918-1923 A Dissertation by RACHEL MICHELLE GUNTER Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSPHY Chair of Committee, Sara Alpern Committee Members, Terry Anderson Judith Baer Carlos Blanton Cynthia Bouton Head of Department, David Vaught August 2017 Major Subject: History Copyright 2017 Rachel Gunter ABSTRACT I explore the intersection of the woman suffrage movement and minority voting rights in Texas, a state that did not require voters to be citizens but disfranchised all servicemen for the length of their enlistment during World War I. I scrutinize congressional and legal records, newspapers, and correspondence to show how the Nineteenth Amendment, which removed sex as a legal barrier to voting, ultimately strengthened white political control in the state. My dissertation analyzes how Anglo, black, Mexican American and Mexican immigrant women, working separately or collectively, participated in and at times benefitted from the woman suffrage movement, which caused unforeseen relaxations of minority voting restrictions before the legislature acted to further restrict voting rights. I analyze how laws regulating elections affected women differently based on race and citizenship status. I maintain that politicians pass enfranchising legislation when it in some way benefits those already in power, and likewise they deploy fears of unethical or illegal voting when it benefits them as well. I argue that from WWI through the early 1920s, full citizenship was increasingly defined by the ability or right to vote. ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to the people who encouraged me along the way: To my mother, Shelly Gunter, and my aunt, Donna Gardner, who encouraged me to apply to graduate school; to my undergraduate and master’s adviser, Dr. Angela Howard at the University of Houston Clear Lake, and my doctoral adviser, Dr. Sara Alpern, for encouraging me in that process; and to my husband, Christopher Mathey, for always assuring me that I was intelligent, fierce and capable. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Sara Alpern, and my committee members, Dr. Terry Anderson, Dr. Judith Baer, Dr. Carlos Blanton, and Dr. Cynthia Bouton, for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research. I owe a debt of gratitude to Vince Lee at the University of Houston Special Collections, Mike Miller at the Austin History Center, and the teams at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The Department of History at Texas A&M University has graciously funded my research, and the graduate students and faculty have encouraged my progress. I was lucky to be a graduate student in the department as Dr. Adam Seipp and Dr. Lorien Foote presided over the program, and I benefitted from their efforts to improve the graduate student experience every year of their tenure. I would like to thank David Cameron, who read sections of early drafts and provided feedback as well. The St. George Tucker Society allowed me to present my early research at their Brooks Forum, where I benefitted from the questions, critiques and suggestions of its members. The East Texas Historical Association funded my research through the Archie P. McDonald Scholarship. The Texas A&M University College of Liberal Arts has funded my research and rewarded my teaching throughout my graduate career. The Department of History and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program have provided iv travel and research funding as well. I am grateful to all of these organizations for their support. v CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES This work was supported by a dissertation committee consisting of Professors Sara Alpern, Terry Anderson, Carlos Blanton and Cynthia Bouton of the Department of History and Professor Judith Baer of the Department of Political Science. Brief sections of chapters 1 through 5 originally appeared in the chapter “‘Without Us, It is Ferguson with a Plurality’: Woman Suffrage and Anti-Ferguson Politics,” and are reprinted with permission from Impeached: The Removal of Texas Governor James E. Ferguson, A Centennial Examination, eds. Jessica Brannon- Wranosky & Bruce A. Glasrud (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press), 2017. All work for the dissertation was completed independently by the student. Graduate study was supported by funding from Texas A&M University, the College of Liberal Arts, the Department of History, and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, as well as awards from the St. George Tucker Society and the East Texas Historical Association. vi NOMENCLATURE AERA American Equal Rights Association AWSA American Woman Suffrage Association DNC Democratic National Convention LWV (National) League of Women Voters NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAWSA National American Woman Suffrage Association NWSA National Woman Suffrage Association TAOWS Texas Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage TESA Texas Equal Suffrage Association TWSA Texas Woman Suffrage Association TLWV Texas League of Women Voters WJCC Women’s Joint Congressional Committee WCGG Women’s Committee for Good Government WCTU Women’s Christian Temperance Union vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................................iv CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES.............................................................vi NOMENCLATURE........................................................................................................ vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION “THE FIRST SOUTHERN STATE TO RATIFY”: THE SUCCESS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN TEXAS................................1 CHAPTER II “IT IS TIME THE MEN LEARNED WHAT A POWER THE ORGANIZED WOMEN OF TEXAS ARE”: TEXAS WOMEN ORGANIZE TO IMPEACH THE GOVERNOR........................................................................................42 CHAPTER III “WITHOUT US, IT IS FERGUSON WITH A PLURALITY”: THE QUID PRO QUO ARRANGEMENT FOR PRIMARY WOMAN SUFFRAGE .....................................................................................................................66 CHAPTER IV “THE TROUBLE WITH THE MEN WAS THAT THEY UNDERESTIMATED OUR INTELLIGENCE”: WOMEN AND THE 1918 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ............................................................................................97 viii CHAPTER V “NOTHING SHORT OF A MIRACLE WILL AVERT IT”: THE 1919 STATE SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT CAMPAIGN............................................158 CHAPTER VI “WE NEVER HAVE YET HAD…A COMPLETE VICTORY, THERE IS ALWAYS A BITTER DROP IN THE CUP”: THE RATIFICATION CAMPAIGN AND SAVING THE POLL TAX............................................................217 CHAPTER VII “WE WERE DISAPPOINTED, BUT…WE FORGAVE HER”: THE SECOND RISE OF THE KLAN AND THE FERGUSONS................................260 CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSIONS: “A GUARDED GOOD”: WOMEN REFORMERS’ CONTINUED FIGHT FOR FULL CITIZENSHIP.............................299 REFERENCES...............................................................................................................312 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: “THE FIRST SOUTHERN STATE TO RATIFY”: THE SUCCESS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN TEXAS After years of exhausting work leading the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA), white suffragist and Texan Minnie Fisher Cunningham paused to contemplate the sweet victory of being able to register to legally vote in the 1918 Texas primary: I registered today. And honey you’ll never know how I felt when I walked out with that piece of paper. But I know how a mocking bird feels when he perches on the top most swaying bough and fast tells his hearts [sic] secrets to the world. But for a hundred and sixty pounds excess baggage and the trifling matter of lack of voice, I could have done it myself!1 More than 250 miles away, African American suffragist Christia Adair had a very different experience come election day. Adair had led a group of black women working alongside white suffragists circulating petitions and pressuring Texas politicians to pass the 1918 primary suffrage bill that gave Texas women the right to vote in primary elections two years before the Susan B. Anthony Amendment banned voting 1 Minnie Fisher Cunningham (hereafter MFC) to Jane McCallum, undated [Monday, 1918], Box 3K84, File: Jane Y. McCallum: Women’s Suffrage, Correspondence, Letters Received, 1918-1921 & Undated, Jane Y. and Arthur N. McCallum Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas (hereafter Jane & Arthur McCallum Papers); Sections of this chapter are reprinted with permission from, “‘Without Us, It is Ferguson with a Plurality: Woman Suffrage and Anti-Ferguson Politics,” in Impeached: The Removal of Texas Governor James E. Ferguson, A Centennial Examination, eds. Jessica Brannon-Wranosky & Bruce A. Glasrud (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press), Copyright 2017 (Texas A&M University