Events - Future Events View

Join us in celebrating the birthday of Titus Howard Mundine, who was the 1st Texas Legislator to propose enfranchisement of women and blacks.

"Every person, without distinction of sex, who shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years...shall be deemed a qualified elector." -- Titus H. Mundine

Learn More:
-- https://lrl.texas.gov/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=5124
-- Titus – http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmuvf
-- Woman Suffrage – http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/viw01

Meet local league members. Celebrate achievements for the year. Celebrate election workers.

Join us in celebrating the birthday of Eliza Eubanks Peterson Johnson. Eliza was a suffragist and civil-rights activist.

Learn more:

-- TSHA: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fjohn

-- TSHA: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/viw01

-- Austin Library: http://www.austinlibrary.com/ahc/suffrage/early.htm

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin. Marie was a suffragist and lawyer who worked as an advocate for the Ojibwa/Chippewa Nation in Minnesota and North Dakota.

Learn more:

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

-- National Parks Service: https://www.nps.gov/people/marie-louise-bottineau-baldwin.htm

-- MNHS: https://www.mnhs.org/historycenter/activities/museum/votes-for-women/profiles/marie-baldwin

-- National Archive: https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2020/04/02/19th-amendment-at-100-mary-louise-bottineau-baldwin/

-- LWV: https://my.lwv.org/california/diablo-valley/meet-suffragist-marie-louise-bottineau-baldwin

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Ruza Wenclawska (also known as Rose Winslow). Rose was a Polish-American suffragist and trade union organizer. She was a member of the National Women‘s Party and fought for the rights of immigrant and working-class women. Along with Alice Paul, she participated in a hunger strike to bring attention to the suffrage movement.

Learn more:

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

-- LOC: https://www.loc.gov/collections/women-of-protest/articles-and-essays/selected-leaders-of-the-national-womans-party/officers-and-national-organizers/

-- Turning Point: https://suffragistmemorial.org/rose-winslow-d-1977

-- Historical Snapshot: https://historicalsnaps.com/2018/03/19/rose-winslow-talks-about-her-hunger-strike

Discuss changes to Local Program

Discuss information presented from Housing Study Report.

Zoom meeting opens at 6:00. Meeting starts at 6:30 PM.
Contact Kelley if you have any issues with the link.

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Harriet Taylor Upton. Harriet was a founding member of the National League of Women Voters and the first woman to become a vice-chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Learn more:

-- PBS: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-vote-part-1-3kph5d (53 mins in)

-- Upton House: http://www.uptonhouse.org/HTayor.html

-- Ohio History: https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Harriet_T._Upton

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Martha Goodwin Tunstall. Martha became the vice-president from Texas of the newly-formed National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).

Learn more: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ftuns

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Jane McCallum. Jane was the first vice president of the League of Women Voters of Texas. She had the longest term as the Secretary of State of Texas.

Learn more:

-- TSHA: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmc07

-- Texas Secretary as State: https://www.sos.state.tx.us/about/history.shtml

Every even year inJanuary VDRs need to renew their certification


VDRs serve for two-year terms expiring on December 31 of even-numbered years.

https://my.lwv.org/texas/volunteer-deputy-registrar

First day to apply for a ballot by mail using Application for a Ballot by Mail (ABBM) or Federal Postcard Application (FPCA) https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/important-election-dates.shtml

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Helen Edmunds Moore. Helen was a nurse, suffragist, and a member of the 41, 42, and 44th legislatures. In the 44 Legislature, she was the only woman.

Learn more:
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/moore-helen-edmunds

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Lucretia Coffin Mott. Lucretia was a suffragist and human rights activist. She was one of the organizers of the 1st Woman’s Rights Convention Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Learn more:

NWHM: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/lucretia-mott

PBS: Video: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-vote-part-1-3kph5d/

NPS: https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/lucretia-mott.htm

Meet to review the Scope and Work planned for the Recycling Study Committee

1) Organize unit meetings, prepare topic information and report members discussions.
2) Guide members through local program review and updates

Discuss changes to Local Program

Discuss information presented from Housing Study Report.

Zoom meeting opens at 6:00. Meeting starts at 6:30 PM.
Contact Kelley if you have any issues with the link.

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Harriet Staton Blatch (2nd generation suffragists).
Voting rights was a family affair

** Daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1st generation suffragist)

She founded the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women, later called the Women‘s Political Union, whose membership was based on working women, both professional and industrial. The Equality League initiated the practice of holding suffrage parades and organized the first open-air suffrage rallies in thirty years. As many as 25,000 people marched in these parades.

Learn more:
-- PBS: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-vote-part-1-3kph5d/ (28 minutes in)

#OnThisDay the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case and made a controversial decision that reversed existing campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections. #DarkMoney

"Prevention of improper corporate influence in the electoral process...is a pillar of our modern democracy" -- LWV Amicus Brief #DarkMoney

"Voters are supposed to be at the center of our political process. For more than two centuries, America’s constitutional democracy has been moving in the direction of broader enfranchisement and more meaningful political participation by American citizens. After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed the right to vote to citizens regardless of race or color. The 19th Amendment provided voting rights to women, the 24th to poor citizens and the 26th to young adults.
On the other hand, our Constitution does not reflect a similar solicitude for corporate participation; indeed our constitutional history reflects a growing concern over the influence of corporations, and the distinction between the legal protections afforded to living persons and corporations has been part of our constitutional law from the Founding." -- LWV Commentary on Citizens United


LWVUS Amicus Brief: https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/Amicus_cfr.CitizenUnited.pdf
LWVUS Commentary on Citizens United: https://www.lwv.org/money-politics/league-commentary-citizens-united-v-fec-case-supreme-court
Brennan Institute: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Charles Curtis, of Kaw, Osage, and Pottawatomie ancestry. Curtis was sworn in as the U.S. Senator from Kansas. Charles was also the 1st person of color and 1st person of Native American ancestry to hold the office of vice president under President Hoover.

Learn more:

-- Senate History: https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/vice-president/VP_Charles_Curtis.htm

-- Kansas Historical Society: https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/charles-curtis/12029

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Maud Wood Park. Park was the 1st president of the National League of Women Voters.

Learn more:

-- Suffragist Memorial: https://suffragistmemorial.org/november-2015-suffragist-of-the-month/

-- Harvard: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collection/papers-maud-wood-park-in-womans-rights-collection

-- LOC: https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbnawsa.n8361/?sp=8

Black History Month is celebrated in the United States and Canada each February. Black History Month traces its origins to Negro History Week which was first created in 1926 with the week chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12th) and Frederick Douglass (February 14th). An annual monthlong celebration of black history was later proposed by students and educators at Kent State University in 1969, and adopted one year later. By the mid-1970s, Black History Month was celebrated across the United States and officially recognized by US President Gerald Ford in 1976. Originally intended to celebrate black history and culture in the United States, Black History Month has since spread to Canada, as well as the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands, where it is celebrated in October.

#OnThisDay in 1870, the 15th Amendment, which granted black men the right to vote, was ratified. Unfortunately, Southern states continued to disenfranchise black voters through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests, threats of physical harm, etc. Therefore, the promise of the 15th Amendment was not fully realized until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965--almost a century later.

The amendment was passed (proposed) by Congress on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870.

Learn more:

-- National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27

-- LOC: http://www.loc.gov/rr//program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html

-- Teaching resources: https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/elections/voting-rights-african-americans.html

Environment Committee Meeting

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Juanita Jewel Craft. Juanita and Lulu Belle White of Houston organized 182 branches of the NAACP in Texas over a period of eleven years. Following the Smith v. Allwright ruling, in 1944 Juanita became the first black woman in Dallas County to vote in the Democratic Party primary. In 1946, she was the first black woman deputized in the state to collect the poll tax. Juanita was also a member of the League of Women Voters of Texas.


The Smith v. Allwright U.S. case ended the white primary.

Learn More:
-- http://www.juanitacrafthouse.org/
-- TSHA: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fcr59
-- TxPolProject - Smith v. Allwright: https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/archive/html/vce/features/0503_01/smith.html

Join us in celebrating the birthday of Lawrence Aaron Nixon. Lawrence...

The Smith v. Allwright case ended the white primary, which suppressed the Black vote.

Learn More:
-- @TSHA: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fni10
-- @TxPolProject - White Primary: https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/archive/html/vce/features/0503_01/smith.html

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Adella Hunt Logan.

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

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Nellie May Quande. “In 1913, Nellie Quander, president of the nation‘s oldest Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, wrote to Alice Paul, chair for a major upcoming Washington, D.C., parade, planned to attract national attention for the cause on the day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. "We do not wish to enter if we must meet with discrimination on account of race affiliation," Quander wrote. "Can you assign us to a desirable place in the college women‘s section?”

Learn more:

-- LOC: https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/women-fight-for-the-vote/about-this-exhibition/new-tactics-for-a-new-generation-1890-1915/new-tactics-and-renewed-confrontation/howard-university-sorority-seeks-assurances-of-nondiscrimination

-- Smithsonian: https://womenshistory.si.edu/news/2020/08/19suffragestories-countdown-stories-14-10

-- Facing History:

https://facingtoday.facinghistory.org/suffrage-and-sisterhood-the-origins-and-impact-of-black-sororities

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Fannie Barrier Williams. Fannie was an educator, political activist, and women’s rights advocate. In 1907, she was the only Black woman to eulogize Susan B. Anthony at the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) convention. Also, she helped found the NAACP in 1909.
Learn more:

-- BlackPast: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/williams-fannie-barrier-1855-1944/

-- ISU: https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/frances-barrier-williams/

-- RRLC: https://rrlc.org/winningthevote/biographies/fannie-barrier-williams/

-- SPC: https://www.splcenter.org/news/2019/06/01/weekend-read-challenging-whitewashed-history-womens-suffrage/

-- LOC: https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/women-fight-for-the-vote/about-this-exhibition/more-to-the-movement/fannie-barrier-williams/

#OnThisDay in 1909, the NAACP was founded. The NAACP is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation.

Mission: To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

Learn more:

-- NAACP: https://naacp.org/nations-premier-civil-rights-organization/

-- TSHA: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/national-association-for-the-advancement-of-colored-people

-- UW: https://depts.washington.edu/moves/NAACP_intro.shtml

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Charlotta Spears Bass, who was born on this day in 1874. Charlotta was an educator, newspaper publisher, civil-rights and voting-rights activist. She was also the first Black woman to own and operate a newspaper in the United States and the first Black woman nominated for Vice President.

Learn more:
-- NPS: https://www.nps.gov/people/charlottabass.htm
-- Black Past; https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/bass-charlotta-1879-1969/
-- South California Library: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf6c60052d/

#OnThisDay in 1920, the League of Women Voters was founded. Carrie Chapman Catt shared the following about the founding: "Is the (League) political? Certainly, but not partisan. Its members are as free as other women to join and vote with the party of their choice. They make no pledge otherwise in joining the League."

Mission: Empowering voters. Defending democracy.

Learn more: https://www.lwv.org/league-women-voters-through-decades

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Anna Howard Shaw.

Learn more:
-- PBS: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-vote-part-1-3kph5d/ (1 hr in)

Join us in celebrating the birthday of Susan B. Anthony (1st generation suffragists). She was born in 1820. Susan was a co-founder of the National Woman Suffrage Associate (NWSA), which would later merge with the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890. After the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the NAWSA evolved into the League of Women Voters (LWV) in 1920.

**Susan died in 1906, 14 years before women were given the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. **
Learn more:

-- NWHM: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/susan-b-anthony

-- @susanbhouse: https://susanb.org/her-life/

-- LOC: https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbnawsa.n8361/?sp=7 (p. 7)

-- Seneca Falls Convention:

Discuss changes to Local Program

Discuss information presented from Housing Study Report.

Zoom meeting opens at 6:00. Meeting starts at 6:30 PM.
Contact Kelley if you have any issues with the link.

#OnThisDay in 1929, LULAC was founded. LULAC is the oldest and largest continuously active Latino political association in the US.

Mission: To advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States.

Learn more: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wel01

Join us commemorating the life of Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895)."Frederick was one of the few men present at the woman‘s rights convention held at Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848.

Learn more:

-- Blackpast: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1888-frederick-douglass-woman-suffrage/

-- Smithsonian: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hidden-history-anna-murray-douglass-180968324/

#BHM

1) Organize unit meetings, prepare topic information and report members discussions.
2) Guide members through local program review and updates

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird). "Zitkala-Ša joined the Society of American Indians, a group founded in 1911 with the purpose of preserving traditional Native American culture while also lobbying for full American citizenship."

Learn more: https://www.nps.gov/people/zitkala-sa.htm

Photo: https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_S_NPG.79.26?destination=edan-search/default_search%3Freturn_all%3D1%26edan_q%3DZitkala%2520Sa

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Rosalie Gardiner Jones. In December of 1912, over 200 women joined Rosalie for parts of a 140-mile march from New York City to Albany to support women‘s suffrage. During the march, the women stopped to hold open-air meetings and distribute pamphlets in communities along the way.

Learn More:

-- PBS Doc: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-vote-part-1-3kph5d/ (1 hr 16 mins in)

-- New York Heritage: https://nyheritage.org/exhibits/recognizing-womens-right-vote/%E2%80%9Cgeneral%E2%80%9D-rosalie-jones-and-suffrage-hikes

-- NPS: https://www.nps.gov/people/dr-general-rosalie-jones.htm

#OnThisDay in 1869, Congress passed (proposed) the 15th Amendment, which granted Black male citizens the right to vote.“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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

The amendment was passed (proposed) by Congress on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870.

Learn more:

-- National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27

-- LOC: http://www.loc.gov/rr//program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html
-- Teaching resources: https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/elections/voting-rights-african-americans.html

#OnThisDay, President Ulysses S. Grant, signed the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1875. The CRA was enacted during the Reconstruction era in response to civil rights violations against African Americans. The act provided for equal treatment in public accommodations and transportation. It also outlawing race-based discrimination in jury service.

Over the ensuing years, African Americans began suing businesses that denied them access to segregated facilities. On Oct 15, 1883, the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) heard a group of five cases (known as the Civil Rights Cases), and in an 8-1 decision, struck down the CRA of 1875 as unconstitutional.
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)


Resource:
-- US House of Rep: https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-Civil-Rights-Act-of-1875
-- Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/legal-events-timeline.html
-- Grant‘s Memoirs: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4367/4367-h/4367-h.htm

Women‘s History Month celebrates the everyday contributions of women across the world to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, in connection with International Women‘s Day on March 8th. Women‘s History Month traces its origins to the United States, where it was first designated in 1987. Since then the tradition has spread to other countries around the world.

The "Woman Suffrage Procession" was the first suffragist parade in Washington, DC. Organized by the suffragist Alice Paul for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, it saw thousands of suffragists marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC on Monday, March 3, 1913. Presaging the circumstances surrounding the 2017 Women‘s March just over 100 years later, the 1913 event was scheduled on the day before President Woodrow Wilson‘s inauguration to "march in a spirit of protest against the present political organization of society, from which women are excluded," as the official program stated. While studying in England, Paul had heard the British suffragist Christabel Pankhurst speak and joined the Women‘s Social and Political Union, being jailed a number of times in the process. She returned to the US in 1910 and continued to campaign for women‘s rights leading to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Advocate of women‘s rights.
In February 1912 Brackenridge was elected president of the newly organized San Antonio Equal Franchise Society. The formation of this society stimulated interest throughout the state, and delegates from seven Texas cities met in San Antonio and organized the Texas Woman Suffrage Association in April 1913. Eleanor Brackenridge held the office of president for one year and then became honorary president.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbr04

March 7, 1965: In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery—the state’s capital—in protest of black voter suppression. Local police block and brutally attack them. After successfully fighting in court for their right to march, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reach Montgomery on March 25.

Environment Committee Meeting

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Anna Murray Douglass born in 1813. Anna was the wife of Frederick Douglas, but more than that, she was a participant in the activities necessary to ensure voting rights for all Americans.

Learn more:
-- @SmithsonianMagazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hidden-history-anna-murray-douglass-180968324/
-- @USAToday:https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/06/frederick-douglass-first-wife-anna-murray-made-his-work-possible/5382922002/
-- @librarycongress: https://www.loc.gov/item/mfd.02007/

International Women‘s Day traces its origins to the women‘s rights movement of the early 20th century, having been first proposed by German campaigner Clara Zetkin at an international conference in Copenhagen. The day is a celebration of the social, economic, political and cultural achievements of women worldwide. The annual campaign calls for gender parity and raises funds to support initiatives towards this goal.

Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) was never far from the struggle for equal rights and human liberation throughout her long life, from the work on the Underground Railroad for which she is famous, to her later years as an activist in the women‘s suffrage movement in the early 20th century. Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia in 1849 before immediately returning to rescue her family. Tubman would make some 13 return trips to the South to liberate family, friends, and relatives - at great personal risk to herself - guiding them to freedom in the northern United States and British North America (present-day Canada) using a clandestine network of anti-slavery activists and safe houses to facilitate the journey. Tubman later helped the abolitionist John Brown recruit troops for his 1859 raid on Harper‘s Ferry, and helped lead multiple attacks on Confederate plantations and infrastructure during the Civil War. Toward the end of her life, Tubman joined the campaign for women‘s suffrage. With the struggle against slavery still in living memory, Tubman moved audiences around the country with tales of her heroic actions before and after the Civil War, offering these sacrifices as evidence and living proof that women deserved the same rights as men.

#OnThisDay in 1918, the Texas House (during the 36 legislative sessions) passed HB-105 by a vote of 83-34. The bill granted women the right to vote in (white) Texas Primaries.

The bill was passed by the Texas Senate on March 21, 1918 by a vote of 18-4.
Governor William P. Hobby signed the bill into law on March 26, 1918.

Learn more:
-- https://lrl.texas.gov/whatsNew/client/index.cfm/2018/3/20/Votes-for-Women-The-100th-Anniversary-of-Texas-Womens-Suffrage

Discuss changes to Local Program

Discuss information presented from Housing Study Report.

Zoom meeting opens at 6:00. Meeting starts at 6:30 PM.
Contact Kelley if you have any issues with the link.

Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) was an American civil rights activist who worked as an influential organizer and behind-the-scenes adviser to many causes throughout the civil rights era. Rustin began his organizing career working alongside fellow activist A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement in the early 1940s, which campaigned for the desegregation of the US armed forces. Rustin later played a central organizing role in other key civil rights actions such as the Freedom Rides and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King - whom Rustin had schooled on methods of non-violence and helped elevate to his leadership position in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference - gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Rustin continued his career as an activist following the passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s, promoting the unionization of African American workers and working internationally to aid war refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia while raising awareness to the ongoing plight of Jews living in the Soviet Union. A gay man who chose to play a supporting role in the Civil Rights Movement due to public criticisms of his homosexuality, Rustin spent his final years working on behalf of LGBT causes during the 1980s.

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Minnie Fisher Cunningham born in 1882. Minnie was the first Executive Secretary of the League of Women Voters. The Texas native was also the first female pharmacy student at the University of Texas and the first woman to run for the Texas Senate. Members of the Minnie Fisher Cunningham Society continue empowering voters and defending democracy into the future by naming the League in their wills for a bequest.

Learn More:

-- LWV: https://my.lwv.org/texas/leave-legacy-minnie-fisher-cunningham-society

-- Suffrage Petition: https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/tx-woman-suffrage-petition

--TSHA: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cunningham-minnie-fisher

-- PBS: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/2015/12/19/43918/texas-originals-minnie-fisher-cunningham/

#OnThisDay in 1918, the Texas Senate (during the 36 legislative sessions) passed HB-105 by a vote of 18-4. The bill granted women the right to vote in (white) Texas Primaries.

The bill was firsts passed in the TX House on March 15, 1918 by a vote of 84-34.
Governor William P. Hobby signed the bill into law on March 26, 1918.

Learn more:
-- https://lrl.texas.gov/whatsNew/client/index.cfm/2018/3/20/Votes-for-Women-The-100th-Anniversary-of-Texas-Womens-Suffrage

The 21st of March is the anniversary of events in 1960 when police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid laws in Sharpeville, South Africa. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed an annual observation of the day in 1966.

"We must all work harder to repair the fissures and polarization that are so prevalent in our societies today. We must nurture mutual understanding and invest in making diversity a success. And we must counter and reject political figures who exploit differences for electoral gain." — UN Secretary-General António Guterres”

Learn more:

-- About End Racial Discrimination Day: https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-racism-day

-- History of the League and the UN: https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/The%2520League%2520and%2520the%2520United%2520Nations.pdf

-- Role of the UN Observer: https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/LWVUS%20United%20Nations%20Observer%20Role.pdf

-- Contact the UN Observers at unobserver@lwv.org.


Also World Poetry Day: https://www.un.org/en/events/poetryday/

1) Organize unit meetings, prepare topic information and report members discussions.
2) Guide members through local program review and updates

#OnThisDay in 1972, Congress passed the ERA, but it remains 1 state short of ratification.

#OnThis day in 1971, the 26th Amendment was passed by Congress. This amendment was enacted in response to Vietnam War protests, which argued that soldiers who were old enough to fight for their country should be granted the right to vote.‘

The amendment was passed by Congress (proposed to the states) on March 23, 1971, and ratified on July 1, 1971.

Resources:
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27

Environment Committee Meeting

1) Organize unit meetings, prepare topic information and report members discussions.
2) Guide members through local program review and updates

Environment Committee Meeting

1) Organize unit meetings, prepare topic information and report members discussions.
2) Guide members through local program review and updates

Join us in commemorating the birthday of Oveta Culp Hobby. Oveta was the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, first Director of the Women‘s Army Corps, and a Chairperson of the Board of the Houston Post. Her husband, William Hobby, was the Texas Governor who signed the law allowing women in Texas to vote in a primary election.