"With what high hopes and enthusiasm we entered a world in which we were citizens at last."

— Jane Y. McCallum, on the occasion of her first vote in Texas in 1918.

One hundred years ago, women in Texas and Angelina County could not vote. The battle to win the vote was fought in Texas over a 51-year period as part of a century-long national struggle.

The first apparent interest in woman suffrage came at the Texas Reconstruction Constitutional Convention of 1868. In January 1869, the delegates rejected a proposal which would have granted suffrage to every person without distinction of sex, race or previous condition of servitude by an overwhelming 52 to 13 vote. W.H. Mullins and M.A. Gaston represented Angelina and Cherokee counties at the Convention and both voted with the majority — no.

At the post-construction 1875 Constitutional Convention (which wrote the 1876 Constitution which Texas still has, though it's much amended), woman suffrage was again an issue. Mr. Weaver offered a resolution extolling woman's virtues and stating "... she is a citizen of these United States ... and inasmuch as woman is of the people, and must be governed by the laws made by the people, and is often a taxpayer, there is no reason, political, human or divine, why she should not have the same rights at the ballot box that man has." His amendment was referred to the Committee on Suffrage.

Mr. Russell also introduced a contrary resolution which demanded that "the suffrage resolution recommending the incorporation of woman suffrage in the organic law of this state be expunged from the journals of this Convention by drawing a black mark around said resolution"! Mr. Russell's amendment joined Mr. Weaver's in the Committee on Suffrage.

The Convention later disposed of woman suffrage by ignoring it. The State Affairs Committee report recommended that voting privileges be extended to all male persons except minors, paupers, lunatics, felons, soldiers and sailors. Aliens could vote if they lived in the state for one year and had declared their intention of becoming citizens. The Convention adopted this report by vote of 61 to 20, and it became part of the Constitution of 1876.

Organized efforts to amend the 1876 Constitution to give Texas women the right to vote began in the 1890s.

And in the spring of 1895, A.C. Tompkins of Hempstead introduced the first woman suffrage resolution in the Texas House. His resolution to enfranchise women by amending the state constitution was referred to the Committee on Constitutional Amendments but never reported.

Again in 1911 and 1913 woman suffrage resolutions were introduced but died in Committee. Lobbying efforts by the Texas Equal Rights Association and then the Texas Woman Suffrage Association (later known as the Texas Equal Suffrage Association) had failed.

By 1913, the Texas Equal Suffrage Association held a convention every year and organized on the local level. By 1918 there were 98 local associations which served to educate their communities and influence legislators with rallies and letters. There were chapters in Nacogdoches and San Augustine but none in Angelina County. The Association established a headquarters in Austin and lobbied during the regular 1915 Legislative session. The 1915, 34th session finally had its first chance to vote on a resolution to amend the Texas Constitution to grant Texas women the vote.

Passions ran high. The Speaker put a call on the House, which meant the sergeants were to lock the doors and no member could leave without written permission from the Speaker. Nevertheless, the resolution failed with 90 for; 32 against; 10 absent; seven absent-excused. Two-thirds of votes (100 votes of the 150 House membership) are required for passage of a resolution to submit a state constitutional amendment to the people. With only 90 votes, the resolution failed. It did not come up for vote in the Senate.

Angelina County's state representative at the time was B. A. Calhoun of Lufkin, who served in 1915 but later died in office. Mr. Calhoun voted yes — for woman suffrage.

Again in 1917, at the 35th Legislative session, those for woman suffrage made another effort to amend the state constitution. Mr. Jess Baker, the sponsor, argued: "Our present Constitution classes women, as far as franchise is concerned, with children, idiots, lunatics, paupers, and felony convicts. We are only asking you to submit an amendment of the Constitution to the qualified voters of the entire State, which shall take our women out of the above mentioned classes and lift them to a higher place, where their intelligence and patriotism may have full play."

In the House the resolution failed to get the necessary two-thirds for adoption with 76 for; 56 against; the rest absent. Two East Texas representatives — Stewart of Jasper, Sabine and Newton counties, and Thomason of Nacogdoches — voted yes for woman suffrage. I.D. Fairchild of Lufkin, who had replaced Calhoun and represented Angelina and San Augustine Counties voted no. The Senate did not consider the resolution.

The 1917 session of the Legislature impeached Gov. James A. Ferguson, who was against woman suffrage, and removed him from office. Suffragists had supported his removal and rejoiced when Lt. Gov. William P. Hobby, who they had persuaded to support woman suffrage, became governor.

Since suffragist efforts to amend the Texas Constitution had failed in 1915 and 1917, the suffragists tried a different approach. The plan was to pass a law allowing women to vote in primary elections in Texas. Such an act could be passed by a simple majority vote of the House and Senate. It would not require the two-thirds that an amendment to the Constitution requires before submission to the people for their vote.

Gov. Hobby called the Legislature into special session in March 1918. C. B. Metcalfe of San Angelo introduced the bill providing that women could vote in primary elections and nominating conventions in Texas. After rejecting amendments to the bill, members finally passed it on March 12. The House vote was 84 for; 34 against; 16 absent. Fairchild of Angelina, Thomason of Nacogdoches and Stewart of Newton all voted for the bill.

Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, a leader in the Texas fight and then the national battle for woman suffrage, described the drama of that final vote: "We rose to leave the gallery of the House .... the men saw us ... and gave us a perfect ovation, cheering for some minutes .... It was a surprising and greatly appreciated tribute to the work that the women have been doing."

The bill passed the Senate 18 to four. Gov. Hobby signed it. For the first time, women could vote in Texas primary elections.

Since the act exempted women from the poll tax in 1918, they were eligible to vote in the July primary of that year. The Association organized a massive effort and in the 17 days to register before the election, 386,000 women did so, dispelling any doubts about whether women wanted the vote.

July 1918 articles in the Lufkin Daily News indicate that Angelina County women were very excited about the prospect of voting in the July 27 primary. By July 3, 823 Angelina County women had already registered and 1,500 were expected to do so.

The Hobby Clubs, formed to support Gov. Hobby against the impeached former Gov. Ferguson, were the main focus of the women's campaigning. The clubs held meetings in Diboll and Lufkin to discuss candidates for state and local offices, attended rallies and speakings, ran ads for favored candidates, and on election day provided transportation to the polls and baby sitting at Hobby headquarters in Lufkin.

Political ads in the Lufkin Daily News in July 1918 were designed to appeal largely to the new women voters. Congressional to sheriff candidates begged the ladies to consider them. With so many East Texas men off to World War I, the woman's vote was going to make a difference.

Ferguson barely carried Angelina County with 2,145 votes while Hobby got 2,045. Hobby carried the state, which was a great victory for the suffragists.

After passage of the 1918 law, women participated actively in Texas politics.

Since at that time Texas politics was dominated by the Democratic Party, its primary vote usually determined the outcome of the general election. Women attended party conventions, and they soon began the move to try once again to gain full enfranchisement for women in Texas with a state Constitutional amendment. Some suffrage leaders opposed this move because they expected the suffrage amendment to the National Constitution to be approved by Congress during 1919 and wanted to concentrate on winning each states' ratification.

But when the Legislature convened in January 1919, Gov. Hobby pushed for an amendment to the state constitution to enfranchise women for all elections. His amendment also recommended the disenfranchisement of aliens who under the Texas Constitution could vote if they lived in the state for one year.

The resolution passed the House with 105 for; 0 against; 36 absent. I. D. Fairchild voted for the amendment. It also passed the Senate 28 to 0.

Thus the proposed state constitutional amendment to give women the vote was finally submitted to Texas voters.

The battle was on. The suffragists put on an intensive campaign. Fifteen hundred speakers fanned out over Texas, and supporters circulated more than 3 million flyers.

Those opposed to woman suffrage distributed 100,000 or so flyers and argued that women did not want to vote and that enfranchisement would destroy the home.

Unfortunately the issues became confused. Enfranchisement of women and disenfranchisement of aliens had to be voted on together. Women could not vote on the proposed amendment since they had only primary suffrage, but aliens who were fully franchised could vote on it.

On May 24, 1919, the votes were cast and the amendment failed by 25,000 votes. Angelina County voted 711 for and 937 against.

But the undaunted suffragist argued that the alien plank caused confusion and defeated the amendment; that the vote should not be construed as a mandate against woman suffrage. Opponents argued that the vote clearly showed that the legislature should not ratify the federal amendment.

One month after the state woman suffrage amendment failed, the U.S. Congress voted to submit a federal suffrage amendment to the state legislatures for ratification.

Gov. Hobby called a special session of the Legislature to convene on June 23, 1919. On June 24, the ratification resolution passed the Texas House 96 to 20. I.D. Fairchild of Angelina County voted against passage. Texas was the first southern state to ratify the amendment.

During the remainder of 1919, 13 other states ratified the amendment. And in August 1920, the required three-fourths of the state legislatures had voted for ratification.

The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads as follows:

"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."

The federal amendment culminated a century of effort, state by state, county by county. Texas women had won the right to vote in all elections.

Ellen Temple is a local publisher of children's books as well as a leader in higher education, having served on The University of Texas board of regents and, more recently, as a current member of the Angelina College board of trustees.