Texas Woman's Magazine - Fall 2022

DONOR IMPACT
The Woman Behind
Roe V. Wade
Legal trailblazer’s
collection at TWU
will enhance research
and teaching
I
n 1973, Sarah Weddington,
a 26-year-old lawyer
from West Texas,
made history when she
successfully argued the
landmark Roe v. Wade
case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
When that case was overturned
earlier this year, it — and one of the
women behind it — once again became
relevant to another generation of
educators, students, journalists and
researchers.
Now TWU’s Jane Nelson Institute
for Women’s Leadership and the Mary
Evelyn Blagg-Huey Library will play a
central role in future research about
the historic case.
Before her passing in December 2021,
Weddington — a former TWU professor
— donated her papers, photographs,
books and other archival materials to
the university. For much of the year,
library staff have been busy organizing,
inventorying and digitizing the millionplus
documents that make up the Sarah
Weddington Collection. They aim to
Boldly go
Learn how you can
support TWU libraries at
advancement@twu.edu
make it navigable to students and
researchers for generations to come.
“Archivists have the gift of learning
people’s stories and preserving them,”
says Director of Special Collections
Kimberly Johnson ’93, ’07. “That’s what
we do every day and are working hard
to do with this collection.”
A TRAILBLAZING FIRST
The collection paints a portrait
of a trailblazer who made history:
as the first woman from Travis
County to be elected to the Texas
House of Representatives, the first
woman general counsel for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and as an
adviser on women’s issues to President
Jimmy Carter.
“Women have an enormous power
to effect change, and Weddington’s
collection is the preservation of her
activism,” says Johnson. “Through the
collection, you get to know her as a
young girl growing up in West Texas, as
a student in law school at UT … you see
her at each stage in her life and career.”
Weddington’s commitment to
education and her belief that all people
should have equal access to education
are evident in the collection.
“She also mentored TWU
students, inspiring some to pursue
law careers,” said the late Phyllis
Bridges, a TWU Cornaro Professor
of English, administrator and friend
of Weddington who helped bring the
collection to the university system.
“When it came time to decide where she
wanted to place her papers, Weddington
had many offers. She chose to donate
them to TWU.”
A digital archive featuring selections
from the collection will be available
online next year. Special Collections
staff have given talks to TWU students
about the significance of the collection,
and they’ve received inquiries from
other universities about using the
materials in history, women’s studies,
political science and health classes.
6 TEXAS WOMAN’S