Blanton & Capps: Badass Women on a Mission

This paper on Annie Webb Blanton and Sallie Brooke Capps was presented at the Snapshot 20/20 Symposium at Meredith College (North Carolina) in October 2020. Due to the ongoing pandemic, I was unable to travel to the campus and had to present in front of a virtual audience via Zoom. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Meredith's students and faculty, and answering many questions from community folk and history enthusiasts who also joined the presentation. I thank Dr. Angela Robbins for her warm hospitality, and I hope that one day I'll be able to accept her invitation to present on campus.

Texas and its political and cultural institutions underwent dramatic changes at the end of the nineteenth century and in the early decades of the twentieth century. The economy was roaring back from the gloomy days of the Civil War and progressive politics became more prevalent in daily routine. Sallie Brooke Capps and Annie Webb Blanton were women who grew up and became part of this rejuvenated Texas story. Capps received a high school diploma from North Texas Female College in Sherman prior to moving to Fort Worth and shaking the status quo in the classroom by funding and operating a kindergarten teacher training college for ambitious women. Capps’s reformist influence spread to various groups after her marriage to William Capps, an esteemed attorney who was known to mix among Fort Worth’s elite circles. In 1911 Capps was selected by Governor Oscar Branch Colquitt to serve on the Board of Regents at the College of Industrial Arts, Texas’s first state-supported college for women. Blanton (who had seven siblings) acquired a Bachelor of Literature degree from the University of Texas and started her career as a teacher on the outskirts of Austin. She moved to Denton in 1901 and was hired as an English professor at North Texas State Normal College, where she took special interest in mentoring female students in the campus’s Literature Club and local Woman’s Shakespeare Club.

Sallie Brooke Capps, c. 1900

While Capps and Blanton were cementing their public service careers at first-rate institutions of higher learning, the Suffrage Movement in Texas was slowly gaining momentum. At the state-level. the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA), headed by the feisty Houstonian Annette Finnigan, mobilized a large grassroots campaign in the state’s major cities, including Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Galveston. The organization, whose members believed that barring women from voting was unjust, paraded the Capitol steps in Austin and tirelessly penned letters to the state representatives, requesting them to hold a voter’s referendum on the subject of white suffrage. Moreover, the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) shared much of the same platform as the TESA and argued for equal professional opportunities for competent, white and middle-class women in academia. Blanton was one of many North Texas educators who were heavily invested in the TSTA and helped host large annual conventions which addressed overriding topics such as “Women as School Board Members” and “Equal Pay for Equal Work.”

Locally, the Dallas Equal Suffrage Association (DESA), principally comprised of young college women and matrons, was established at a private home on March 15, 1913. The organization strived to secure the vote for white women and also “clean up politics, to raise the standards of public life, and to apply the values of home and family to community problems.” DESA members tailored their progressive, colorful campaign to the fairly-conservative communities in Dallas, and frequently wrote newspaper articles, distributed promotional materials on the streets, and presented their justified argument to other North Texas organizations to drum up support. They excitedly formulated their reasoning to explain why women’s roles should expand beyond their private sphere. Historian Elizabeth York Enstam noted the grand, positive ramifications of this expansive campaign: “Mothers could help to shape the world for their children; employed women could vote for candidates who supported laws for improved working conditions and higher wages; and most immediately, activist clubwomen would have new power for sensitizing lawmakers to the effects of policy on public life and private life in the home.” Sallie Brooke Capps was actively involved in the local campaign, passing out flyers to bystanders in the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth, as well as enthusiastically chatting about suffrage with interested students at the College of Industrial Arts.

Suffragists in Dallas, c. 1915

Since the Lone Star State’s Suffrage Movement challenged the long-established social arrangements and threatened people’s deep assumptions about their daily lives, there was much initial opposition. Politicians turned a blind eye to bills that would benefit women, while white patriarchs would install fear and strength in the household. In an effort to reduce public aggression and generate a degree of acceptance, the DESA embarked on the idea of campaigning at social occasions, the perfect locations to disperse their unconventional messages among jubilant partygoers. The State Fair of Texas in the City of Dallas, an annual carnival that was chartered in 1886, provided camouflage for the suffrage cause. And they had many people to spread their suffrage message to at the State Fair in 1913—over 30,000 bankers, working-class laborers, homemakers, business owners, farmers, politicians, and children attended the festivities every day that year. The State Fair was a hub of activity which breathed patriotism, vigor, and life. The DESA women decorated a booth with promotional posters, dressed in simple yet elegant white garments and waved bright yellow flags proclaiming, “Votes for Women,” conversed with all walks of life, and hosted state TESA political events.

As president of the Fort Worth Kindergarten Association, a growing organization which promoted the establishment of nurseries in local school districts, Capps heavily influenced her colleagues to join the DESA and contribute to the 1913 campaign at the State Fair. The Fair Park festivities in 1913 were a resounding success as the DESA were able to subtly argue alternative, even insurgent ideas to a large audience. The DESA continued to have a booth at the State Fair in 1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917. A group of historians believe that one day in 1915, suitably named “Suffrage Day,” was perhaps the largest gathering of suffrage advocates at the State Fair; the Dallas Morning News reported that a group of DESA members [which included a boisterous Capps] met 300 TESA delegates at the train station and drove them to the city’s hotels in parade cars that were clad in yellow pennants. Following a much-enjoyed lunch, the suffragists spread their coverage through Fair Park and addressed the crowds from open-top cars, which Dallas’s Times Herald hailed as “the most unique public speaking [event] in Dallas.” Moreover, the women exhibited an unladylike boldness by drafting men into their movement; every traveling salesman at the State Fair on that energetic day was persuaded to wear a bright yellow “Votes for Women” badge on their suit jacket lapel. The badge-wearing men proudly displayed their support for the Texas suffragists as they strolled the Fair Park grounds and attended sports and cultural events. As we have heard, Texas’s suffrage organizations, which Sallie Capps and Annie Webb Blanton were active participants in, cleverly used the State Fair as an outlet to unroll their radical, yet ethical campaign; the women gradually attracted a mass of supporters and illuminated the pressing political issue of the era.

Capps is buried in Fort Worth. She died in 1946.

The suffragists not only made significant progressives strides in the streets, but also turned the heads of many congressmen who desired a change in Texas politics. After Governor James Ferguson’s bitter dispute with the University of Texas’s administration in September 1917, the state Senate found Ferguson guilty on 10 of 21 charges. Since Ferguson was a loud opponent of woman suffrage, the TESA and DESA allied with angry politicians and organized the Woman’s Campaign for Good Government. The newly-created group launched a crusade to educate the public on Ferguson’s dishonesty by hosting debate contests, and persuading unguarded politicians to dethrone Ferguson. Ferguson was impeached and resigned on September 24, 1917. Lt. Governor William P. Hobby, then 39 years-old (the youngest man to hold the office) moved in to the Governor’s mansion. Despite Hobby’s pre-existing weak stance on suffrage, the suffragists jumped at the opportunity to pursue their causes with a more approachable, friendlier face. The renowned Minnie Fisher Cunningham and Anna Pennybacker introduced Blanton to Hobby (“I have never seen a more handsome gentleman…”), struck a deal with the young governor. If Hobby and his supporters in the Capitol chambers were to endorse a state law that would permit white women to vote in Texas primaries, then the suffragists would use their well-oiled connections to campaign for Hobby in his re-election bid in 1918 (against none other than James Ferguson in the Democratic primaries…!). The pact was made, and William Hobby won in a landslide with 84% of the vote.

Although she was born in Sherman, Capps lived most of her life in Fort Worth. Her house on Penn Street is the current home of the Dent Law Firm.

During his first full-term as Governor, Hobby kept his political promises and instituted an aggressive progressive agenda, which included drought relief, state aid for schools, and a statewide prohibition bill. Also, Hobby cemented his support among the suffragists when he signed the Primary Suffrage Bill (with a gold pen) on March 26, 1918, giving white Texas women the right to vote in state primaries and conventions. This was the first state suffrage bill in the American South, a region that had long enforced distinct gender roles and expectations. Since the bill became effective on June 26, the suffragists had 17 days (until July 11) to register to vote before the July 27 primaries; over 386,000 white women quickly flocked to the registration booths. Shortly after the Primary Suffrage Bill was signed, Blanton, who was becoming a force to be reckoned with in the state’s education system, was approached by the TESA and persuaded to enter the political arena. Ferguson’s inferior comments towards educated people and his “vicious” and “ignorant” support fueled Blanton’s ambition to run for public office. Blanton expressed her frustration with Ferguson’s supporters in the state chambers to Minnie Cunningham: “I am not going to sit back any longer with a matter like this at stake. I don’t believe anyone has a right to hamper me in such a matter…” Yet, the North Texas State professor was concerned about the race; she wondered whether or not she was financially capable to undertake a statewide race. Moreover, she feared the physical and emotional rigors of the campaign—male politicians questioned Blanton’s stamina in the work-place and her lack of graduate training. “If I succeeded,” Blanton wrote to a friend, “I might help the woman’s cause, because I have studied public questions all my life. But I honestly think that if I fail, as is probable, my failure would injure the woman’s cause in Texas.” Despite the personal doubts and the judgement she received from conservative men, Annie Webb Blanton announced her campaign for state superintendent on June 1, 1918, and began a convincing crusade to increase teachers’ salaries, improve the status of women educators, and give system control to local school boards instead of a selective assembly of male politicians.

Annie Webb Blanton, Texas's first woman state superintendent.

The Austin Equal Suffrage Association was one of the first women organizations in Texas to endorse Blanton. They cited Blanton’s distinguished career in Denton, noteworthy connections to the suffragists, and Texas’s likely possibility to elect women in state offices (which Colorado and Washington, among other western states had previously done). “It is especially fitting that the first elective office held by a woman should be an educational one, since women are, after all, the chief educators of our youth.” As a southern Democrat, Blanton maintained a professional, positive, and assertive attitude in the campaign. In her speeches and advertisements, Blanton explained that she was a capable candidate for the state superintendent office and that women already had proven their abilities as game-changing, effective community leaders. Next, she attacked her opponent, the incumbent W.F. Doughty, claiming that he had failed to appoint women to key positions in the state offices. Moreover, Blanton expressed her desire to remove politics from education, and gave many tributes to Governor Hobby’s people’s policies while criticizing Ferguson’s shady politics. Blanton’s speeches reflected a different approach to Texas politics, which included the importance of women’s professional competence, and the many political and social dangers of incompetent men. While her headquarters was in Denton, Blanton visited five to seven towns a week, traveling to all corners of the state. Additionally, she met with Texas suffragist leaders, including Jane McCallum of Austin and Eleanor Brackenridge of San Antonio (who served on the CIA Board of Regents with Capps). The grueling campaign work did not tire Blanton as she raced towards the finish line. On July 27, 1918, Texans voted for Annie Webb Blanton to become the next state superintendent of public instruction. Blanton received nearly 70,000 votes, securing support from white males and females. She was the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office. Blanton had challenged Texas’s patriarchal system and defied all odds. The election was a milestone, and like the passage of the Primary Suffrage Bill a few months prior, demonstrated the Suffrage Movement’s persistence and increasing political savvy.

When she took office, Blanton came face-to-face with a splintered school system and inherited much administrative work that needed completion. Blanton’s duties as the state superintendent of public instruction included managing school laws, supervising record-keeping of school officials, staying informed of educational progresses in Texas, and approving state school finances. Since she had promised to remove the state’s political ties to education, Blanton broke the “ring,” a group of male politicians-turned school administrators who had been appointed by Ferguson. Blanton also promoted gender unity in the State Department of Education, hiring an equal number of men and women to principal divisional posts and encouraged local districts to better utilize their women teachers; the number of women on school boards and as county superintendents increased during Blanton’s time in office. In 1920 Blanton stated, “If the future of our state is to be worthy of its glorious past, we must vitalize our schools…Our children must be taught by the best.” Although communities appeared to recognize and support women administrators, the battle for equalizing salaries between male and female teachers proved to be tough. Yet, Blanton shut down her critics and helped bring about an average increase in annual salaries for women teachers from $570 to $877, an increase of 54%. Moreover, Blanton convinced her male colleagues in the Texas Legislature to pass bills which required county superintendents to previously have been teachers, lengthened school terms from 117 days to 136 days per year, and expanded the academic services at the University of Texas at Austin. Despite having support from colleagues, Blanton refused to run for a third term in 1922. During her four years as the state superintendent, Blanton initiated a series of innovative policies which promoted new approaches to school financing, curriculum progression, and equality for women teachers. Owing to the suffragists’ voices and Annie Webb Blanton’s notable reform efforts, women were establishing themselves as leaders in Texas communities.

Blanton at the end of her distinguished career, c. 1940.

National suffrage appeared to be the next step in the 1910s progressive political agenda. The Sentinels of Liberty, a group of National Woman’s Party members headed by Alice Paul, silently protested outside the White House starting on January 10, 1917, after President Woodrow Wilson bluntly refused to support suffrage. Over 2,000 women (including an assembly of Texans) stood outside the nation’s most distinguished residence for 2.5 years, holding bold-faced banners and picket signs that said, “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” Despite receiving harassment from local authorities and D.C. residents (where 500 protesters were arrested), the women picketers stood their ground and demonstrated their sincere persistence in obtaining their civil liberties. The House of Representatives and Senate took a step in the right direction on June 4, 1919, when both chambers passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which removed sex as a qualifier for voting. The amendment was then submitted to the state governments for approval, where the Texas Legislature convened for a special session and ratified the groundbreaking proposal on June 28, 1919 (the Texas House had a vote of 96 to 21 in approval). Texas became the ninth state and the first Southern state to ratify the amendment; this was a remarkable feat since a majority of Texans still clung on to rigid definitions of gender roles. It took fourteen months for ¾ of the states to ratify the federal amendment and following Tennessee’s approval, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby declared the law in effect on August 26, 1920. Since gender equity was important to her, Sallie Capps cherished the news and expressed her joy in a letter to a friend: “The Suffrage Bill is historic…a desirable victory for our young women.” As a keen Regent, Capps volunteered to spread the significance of the amendment on the College of Industrial Arts campus in Denton; she preached on women’s liberties with representatives from the student government, an organization she passionately helped to create in 1916. Also, at her request, the student bulletin printed on November 1, 1921, offered Capps’s advice to new voters and “encouraged middle-class women to learn about finances and state institutions and recommended laws dealing with compulsory education, labor, liquor, divorce, public health, morals, and safety as special areas of concern for women.” Capps’s instructional efforts prepared the students for future civic involvement.

Capps’s and Blanton’s paths would cross in 1924 when the Regent headed a search committee to find the next president of the College of Industrial Arts. Many Texans nominated Blanton for the top office, citing her impressive credentials and outstanding record in state education. Blanton even wrote a congenial letter to Capps and questioned the situation: “Is it not fitting that a woman should be granted the opportunity of making a success as its President?” Capps supported this endorsement and persuaded her colleagues on the committee and Board of Regents to vote in favor for the former state superintendent, once writing that Blanton “is far-seeking, conscientious, adaptable, sympathetic, and worthy of any honor or distinctions which the Board or citizens of Texas might confer upon her.” Unfortunately, a majority of the search committee and Board were businessmen who ignored Capps’s judgement and tossed aside the fitting idea that a woman should manage an all-women’s college. Blanton was not chosen as president and the college would be plagued with administrative problems for two years during the tenure of Lindsey Blayney—this period of uncertainty is detailed in my new book; it was TWU’s own soap opera. Following this disappointing presidential search and an unsuccessful 1922 bid for Congress, Blanton’s spirit was not dampened as she continued her award-winning teaching career as a professor of education at the University of Texas at Austin. Blanton carried on giving agency to students in the classroom and supporting the careers of women educators as a founder of Delta Kappa Gamma, a professional society for teachers, until her death in 1945. Meanwhile, Capps continued to endorse curriculum rewrites and physical plant project expansions at the College of Industrial Arts until her retirement in 1929. Prior to her death in 1946, Capps inspired young women to pursue their dreams as qualified teachers as an educator at the Fort Worth kindergarten teacher training school she established.

Minnie Fisher Cunningham, the proudest and loudest suffragist, c. 1910.

Texas in the early twentieth century, like most of the South, was embedded with standards which only benefitted the white man. Patriarchal power had spread its oppressive tentacles in government, church, homes, and schools. Despite all the odds stacked against them, Sallie Brooke Capps and Annie Webb Blanton held their chins high, faced the challenges and harassment with persistence, and broke the gender barriers in state politics and education. The 1918 Primary Suffrage Bill and Nineteenth Amendment were monumental milestones in the state’s history and reinforced Capps’s and Blanton’s goals in encouraging young women to freely exercise their civil liberties and enter the top offices of their professions. It is without doubt that Sallie Capps and Annie Blanton were badass women, each with a defined, inspirational mission.

The Nineteenth Amendment was a major stepping stone in the history of the United States, equivalent to other progressive events including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Roe v. Wade in 1973, and the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Although significant in many capacities, the amendment was biased and discriminated against black women, Latinas, Native Americans, and other women groups who were not white. It would not be until decades later when women of color were finally granted the right to vote. Today, historians commemorate the glorious march towards the Nineteenth Amendment, yet acknowledge the once-dark truth behind the law.

 

“Everything that helps to wear away age-old prejudices contributes towards the advancement of women and of humanity.”

- Annie Webb Blanton, May 1922