TEXAS SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

the law and society, unmarried women (and to a lesser extent, widows) had more rights than married women.As illustrated in Mariana’s correspondence with women’s suffrage leaders and law makers, she wantedbold action and not incremental changes. In a 1907 letter to H.B. Blackwell, Mariana suggested that startingsmall would not help women get absolute political equality because of the lack of attention the movementwould receive. 9 In her estimation, a modest approach ensured that any political equality women received wouldbe limited and inconsistent. Unfortunately Mariana died sometime around 1910—before she saw the results ofher efforts.From an early age, Mariana’s daughter, Erminia, followed in her mother’s footsteps. Erminia joinedthe Texas Equal Rights Association in 1895, at the age of seventeen. TSLAC holds this membership certificateas well as meeting programs and ribbons collected by Erminia from various suffrage, temperance, and prisonreform organizations. Her papers illustrate how the women’s suffrage movement connected with other socialreforms.Like her mother, Erminia corresponded with women’s suffrage leaders and lawmakers. With thiscorrespondence came advice. In a 1910 letter, suffragette leader Anna Howard Shaw suggested that local andstate pro-suffrage leaders take advantage of aroused sentiments in the issue and organize. 10 As an experiencedorganizer, Shaw referenced her past experiences with community activism and emphasized the necessity torecruit good officers to spearhead the work. Along with other National American Woman Suffrage Associationmembers, Erminia wrote to lawmakers and candidates to identify who was in favor of introducing a stateconstitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. She did so because she felt that enfranchisementencouraged good government. 11By corresponding with legislators, Erminia determined which lawmakers opposed female suffragebecause they believed that granting women rights would distract them from their domestic duties. She knewthat some legislators believed that the vote would unsex women so that they could no longer be the “flower ofhumanity.” 12One item currently displayed as part of the Texans’ Struggle for Freedom and Equality exhibit demonstratethat women’s suffrage opponents linked female suffrage to race. A 1910 letter from U.S. Representative ChoiceBoswell Randell, for example, declares that the time was not right for women’s suffrage, especially in Texas. 13Throughout the letter, Randell asked Erminia rhetorical questions such as “would the presence of negro womenas voters very much complicate conditions about the polls during the election” to illustrate that all women wouldbe able to vote and not just educated white women. 14 In other words, opponents of women’s suffrage voiced theopinion that allowing all women to vote would create more problems than it would solve.9Mariana Thompson Folsom to H.B. Blackwell letter, April 2, 1907, Mariana Thompson Folsom correspondence, Erminia ThompsonFolsom papers, TSLAC.10Letter from Anna Howard Shaw to Erminia Thompson Folsom, March 15, 1910, Erminia Thompson Folsom, incoming correspondence,Erminia Thompson Folsom papers, TSLAC.11Letter from Erminia Thompson Folsom to E.L. Dohoney, December 18, 1914, Erminia Thompson Folsom, outgoing correspondence,Erminia Thompson Folsom papers. Archives and Info. Servs. Div., TSLAC.12Copy of Rufus Hardy’s response to National American Woman Suffrage Association questionnaire, Erminia Thompson Folsompapers. Archives and Info. Servs., TSLAC.13Brian Hart, “Randell, Choice Boswell,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fra32,accessed June 30, 2015.14Letter from C.B. Randell to Erminia Thompson Folsom, November 25, 1910.64