Women's Suffrage in Dallas County

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Women's Suffrage in Dallas County. Now settle in, because this story starts with a single spark and builds into something that changed the whole country. May 1893.

Dallas, Texas. The Windsor Hotel. Forty-eight women walk into a convention and walk out as charter members of the Texas Equal Rights Association — TERA — an organization that would one day be known as the League of Women Voters of Texas.

Fourteen of those forty-eight charter members were Dallasites. Home turf. And right from the start, Dallas was in the middle of it.

Just a few months later, in October of that same year, TERA leaders helped organize the Texas Woman's Congress, which met at the State Fair right there in Dallas. While all this was stirring, a weekly column called 'Women in Public' was running in the Dallas Morning News — suffrage advocates making their case in print, week after week, right alongside the box scores and the cattle prices. Now, you might think a movement that energetic would've wrapped things up quick.

It did not. Decades of work still lay ahead. March 13, 1913 — mark that date — forty-three Dallas women gathered to establish the Dallas Equal Suffrage Association.

DESA. Many of them had already been in the fight through earlier organizations. The younger members came in hungry to carry the cause forward.

And for their first president, they elected Margaret Bell Houston Kaufman, granddaughter of Sam Houston himself. That's the kind of name that carries weight in Texas, and apparently the weight was well-placed. Then the world caught fire.

World War I. While the nation turned its attention overseas, DESA officers stepped up as leaders in local wartime organizations — and they did not set down the suffrage banner to do it. They carried both.

And here's where the story gets real momentum. During the 1918 Texas Gubernatorial Campaign, DESA members went door to door, block to block, across Dallas County and gathered the signatures of over ten thousand women on a petition backing a primary suffrage bill. Ten thousand signatures.

That bill passed. Texas women could now vote in primary elections. And Dallas County suffragists didn't stop there — they registered over sixteen thousand women to vote in the July 1918 primary election.

Sixteen thousand. Then came August 26, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Women's right to vote, nationwide, written into the law of the land. The marker calls it the culmination of years of struggle and effort put forth by the suffragists of Dallas County and the nation. And that's exactly what it was — not a gift handed down, but something fought for, organized for, petitioned for, registered for, year after year, starting in a hotel ballroom in Dallas back in 1893.

That's how a movement moves.

What the marker says

The first organized effort on behalf of women's suffrage in Texas occurred in May 1893, when the Texas Equal Rights Association (TERA), later known as the League of Women Voters of Texas, was formed at a convention held at Dallas' Windsor Hotel. Of the forty-eight charter members of the organization, fourteen were Dallasites. In October of that year, TERA leaders helped to organize the Texas Woman's Congress, which met at the State Fair in Dallas. During this period, a weekly suffrage column, entitled "Women in Public" was published in the Dallas Morning News. Suffrage advocates continued their work into the 20th century. On March 13, 1913, forty-three Dallas women gathered to establish the Dallas Equal Suffrage Association (DESA), which became the League of Women Voters of Dallas in October 1919. Many of the women had participated in previous suffrage organizations; younger members were eager to contribute to the cause. The group elected Margaret Bell Houston Kaufman, granddaughter of Sam Houston, as its first president. During World War I, DESA officers served as leaders in local wartime organizations while continuing to advocate the cause of women's suffrage. During the 1918 Texas Gubernatorial Campaign, members of DESA procured signatures of over 10,000 Dallas County women on a petition backing a primary suffrage bill. The bill passed, enabling Texas women to vote in primary elections. Dallas County suffragists registered over 16,000 women to vote in the July 1918 primary election. The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowed women to vote on August 26, 1920. This act was the culmination of years of struggle and effort put forth by the suffragists of Dallas County and the nation.