Minnie Fisher Cunningham (March 19, 1882 – December 9, 1964) was an American suffrage politician, who was the first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters, and worked for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women the right to vote. A political worker with liberal views, she became one of the founding members of the Woman's National Democratic Club. In her position overseeing the club's finances, she assisted in the organization's purchase of its Washington, D.C. headquarters, which is still in use.
Cunningham was descended from wealthy plantation slaveholders who had moved to Texas from Alabama. By the time she was born in 1882, the family fortunes had been dissipated by the Civil War and Reconstruction, forcing her mother to sell vegetables to make ends meet. She holds the distinction of being the first female student of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to earn a Graduate of Pharmacy degree.
As a member of the National American Women's Suffrage Association, Cunningham helped persuade Senator Andrieus Aristieus Jones of New Mexico, chair of the Senate Woman Suffrage Committee, to introduce the amendment for a vote. Cunningham was part of a team who met with President Woodrow Wilson in the Oval Office, successfully coaxing the President into releasing a statement expressing a leaning towards suffrage. When Texas Governor James E. Ferguson actively opposed the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Cunningham formed a coalition that helped impeach the governor.
She was active for decades in both national and Texas state politics. In 1928, Cunningham became the first woman from Texas to run for the United States Senate. She supported the New Deal policies and programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and sought to uplift the status of the disenfranchised in the country. Cunningham saw the connection between poverty and nutrition, and worked for government legislation to require nutrient enrichment of flour and bread. Cunningham's 1944 Texas gubernatorial candidacy against incumbent Coke Stevenson garnered her second place in a field of nine candidates. To meet the expenses of running a county campaign office for John F. Kennedy's presidential race, she sold used clothing.
Early life and background Minnie Fisher was born the seventh of eight children to Horatio White Fisher and his wife Sallie Comer Abercrombie Fisher on March 19, 1882, in New Waverly, Texas, on land that would become known as Fisher Farms. Sallie Comer Abercrombie was the only child of John Comer Abercrombie and Jane Minerva Sims Abercrombie, who had moved to Texas in the 1850s from Macon County, Alabama to become one of the largest land holders in Walker County. Minnie's paternal grandfather William Phillips Fisher had moved to Walker County from Lowndes County, Alabama and enslaved 92 people. Minnie's father Horatio enslaved at least 72 people and was elected to Texas State Legislature in 1857. When Civil War broke out, Horatio raised a cavalry company for the Confederate States Army. On furlough during the war, Horatio married Sallie. Of their eight children, seven survived to adulthood.McArthur, Smith (2005) pp.8,9
Waverly had been settled in Walker County in 1835 by an Alabama plantation owner named James W. Winters. When San Jacinto County was formed in 1870, Waverly became a part of the new county. The Houston and Great Northern Railroad was denied right-of-way through Waverly, and instead laid tracks ten miles to the west in Walker County where it placed Waverly Station. Many from the original Waverly were attracted to the locale, and it became New Waverly. The Waverly in San Jacinto became known as Old Waverly. The war and reconstruction stripped Horatio and Sallie of their wealth, and they were forced to move in with Sallie's parents. It was at the Abercrombie plantation where Minnie and her siblings grew up. By that point in time, slave labor had been replaced by sharecroppers. The children were home schooled by Sallie until 1894. The family business became selling produce to railroad workers, eventually expanding to marketing the produce in Houston. Sallie used the proceeds of the produce business to finance formal schooling for her children.McArthur, Smith (2005) pp.10,11,12
Minnie received her spiritual grounding from the Methodists and was instrumental in helping found a Methodist church in New Waverly. After the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Minnie and her mother Sallie held a fund raising effort in New Waverly. Her political interests stemmed from her father. Although she passed the state teacher certification examination, Minnie chose medicine as her field of study. She enrolled at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston School of Pharmacy. In 1901, Minnie became her alma mater's sole female to earn a Graduate of Pharmacy Degree. She found employment in Huntsville, but earned less than half the wages of her less-educated male co-workers. Minnie would later cite this experience as her motivation in elevating the status of women.McArthur, Smith (2005) pp.14,20,21,22
First involvement with suffrage issues After her 1902 marriage to B. J. Cunningham, she became involved in volunteer organizations. One of these in 1912 was the Wednesday Club, which in part focused on women's suffrage and children's rights. She further became interested in women's issues as a member of the Women's Health Protective Association (WHPA) and the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association (GESA).McArthur, Smith (2005) pp.27,28,29 It was in these organizations where Cunningham developed her skill for public oratory, accepting speaking engagements at public events and before groups of legislators McArthur, Smith (2005) p.31 Cunningham became involved with the Texas Woman Suffrage Association (TWSA). In 1913, the organization became affiliated with the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1914, Cunningham was elected president of GESA. She began networking with other prominent suffrage persons such as TWSA president Mary Eleanor Brackenridge of San Antonio, British politician Ethel Snowden and TWSA co-leader Annette Finnigan of Houston,Texas Through Women's Eyes (2010) p.27 who became Cunningham's mentor.McArthur, Smith (2005) p.32 Under Cunningham's guidance, GESA held a public department store event on May 2, 1914, that included speeches by Chicago attorney and lobbyist Annette Funk.McArthur, Smith (2005) p.33 Cunningham organized GESA events during the Galveston Cotton Carnival, featuring speaker Perle Penfield, a Galveston university medical student hired by Finnigan as a summer intern.
Cunningham broadened her network base by reaching out to labor union organizers such as Eva Goldsmith, president of Texas District Council of United Garment Workers Union. In 1915, Cunningham contributed five women's suffrage articles to the Texas State Federation of Labor (TSFL) publication Labor Dispatch. She devoted considerable time and effort to promote the TWSA petition to the Texas State Legislature for an amendment to the state constitution to enable women to vote.McArthur, Smith (2005) p.38 Towards the amendment push, Californian Helen ToddTexas Through Women's Eyes (2010) p.52 was brought in to speak at events, as was Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Although the amendment was defeated, Cunningham continued to work tirelessly on suffrage, hosting physician, minister and suffrage supporter Anna Howard Shaw.
In 1915, TWSA elected Cunningham as its president.McArthur, Smith (2005) p.43 Over the long haul, Cunningham would serve as president until 1919. In 1916, TWSA changed its name to Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA).McArthur, Smith (2005) p.44 Finances of TESA and how to make the organization self-sustaining were at the forefront of Cunningham's agenda. She often borrowed money to fund TESA.McArthur, Smith (2005) p.45 She ran TESA from her own home, using it as the organization's headquarters.McArthur, Smith (2005) p.46 International Woman Suffrage Alliance president Carrie Chapman Catt sent freelance organizer Elizabeth Freeman and NAWSA freelance organizer Lavinia Engle from Maryland to rally support.McArthur, Smith (2005) p.47
James E. Ferguson Texas Governor James E. Ferguson and former United States Senator from Texas Joseph Weldon Bailey stood in staunch opposition to a Constitutional amendment for women's suffrage in 1916, lumping it together with prohibition as a states' rights issue. They spoke against it at the state Democratic convention in San Antonio, and as part of the minority report presented at the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri. As part of the NAWSA contingent at the convention, Cunningham led a protest against Ferguson. When Cunningham returned to Texas, she and Lavinia Engle toured south Texas urging people to vote against Ferguson in the primary.McArthur, Smith (2005) pp.50,51
Cunningham moved the TESA headquarters to Austin in 1917 when the Texas State Legislature began considering a primary suffrage bill that ultimately failed to pass. At the same time, there was a growing possibility of impeachment of Governor Ferguson over numerous practices that included appropriations and appointments at the University of Texas. Cunningham made an alliance with university professor Mary Gearing and Austin suffrage people to form the Women's Campaign for Good Government (WCGG). The organization was joined by the Ex-Students Association and William Clifford Hogg, son of former Governor Jim Hogg. The coalition deluged legislators with letters and telegrams. The legislature called a special investigative session, and the WCGG took to the streets and handed out a flyer listing what it believed were impeachable acts of Ferguson.McArthur, Smith (2005) pp.52–55 Ferguson was impeached on ten counts, and forbidden to hold office in Texas. He resigned from office on August 25, 1917.
After the American entry into World War I, Cunningham involved TESA in patriotic work, such as the campaign for Liberty bonds. The organization became involved in an anti-vice campaign focused on military bases. The Woman's Anti-Vice Committee was aimed at providing wholesome alternatives to bars and a deterrent to prostitution, as was the Texas Social Hygiene Association. In 1918, Cunningham received an appointment to the Texas Military Welfare Commission.McArthur, Smith (2005) pp.56,57,58
In spite of the terms of his impeachment banning him from elected office, Ferguson announced his candidacy for governor in 1918. Acting governor William P. Hobby was likely to be voted out of office in the wake of Ferguson's illegitimate candidacy. Cunningham worked behind the scenes with state representative Charles Metcalfe to cut a deal for primary suffrage, which would allow women in Texas to vote in the primary elections but not in the general elections. If he would get a primary suffrage bill passed, and signed by Governor Hobby, she would deliver him the women's votes. Metcalfe got the bill passed and Hobby signed the bill on May 26.McArthur, Smith (2005) pp.61,62 The women conducted a grass roots campaign named Women's Hobby Clubs to deliver promised votes.McArthur, Smith (2005) p.64 The group persuaded university professor Annie Webb Blanton to run for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The women's vote helped propel Blanton to a primary victory. Blanton went on to win in the November general election and became the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office.
Passage of the 19th amendment