Celebrate Women’s History with Citizens at Last: Texas Women Fight for the Vote
Did you know that Texas was the first southern state to ratify the 19th amendment? Credit is due to the tireless Texas suffragists like Minnie Fisher Cunningham (pictured) who never gave up the fight for women’s right to vote. Join us on Thursday March 16th at 6pm at the Lake Travis Community Library for a free screening of the acclaimed documentary “Citizens at Last“ directed and produced by UT Professor Nancy Schiesari and based on the book of the same name by Ellen Temple.“With what high hopes and enthusiasms women stepped forth into a world in which they were citizens at last! ” – Texas Suffragist, Jane Y McCallum
About the Documentary:
Citizens at Last follows the early days of organizing, explores the strategic role Texas suffragists played in the national movement, and exposes the pro-Jim Crow policies of the anti-suffragists who stood in their way. Like all the former Confederate states, Texas saw women’s suffrage as a threat to white male supremacy. Because of Texans such as Minnie Fisher Cunningham, Annette Finnigan, Marianna Folsom, Jovita Idar, and Maude Sampson, Texas became the first state in the South and the ninth in the nation to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. But it was a segregated victory. While white suffragists celebrated in major American capitols, African American women were left without the vote in Jim Crow Texas, and Tejanas were ruled by the South Texas bosses. Exasperated but undaunted, African American women and Tejanas continued their fight for equal voting rights until long after 1920. Citizens at Last elucidates the crucial role Texas women played in the long struggle for equal voting rights.
