1848
The modern women's suffrage movement begins at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York.
1870
The 15th Amendment is ratified, barring voter discrimination based on race — though Texas and other states would spend decades undermining it in practice.
1893
The Texas Equal Rights Association, the state's first suffrage organization, forms in Dallas.
1902
Texas adopts a poll tax, charging citizens a fee to vote.
1903–1916
Suffrage organizing revives and grows into the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA).
1918
Texas women win the right to vote in primary elections.
May 1919
A state suffrage amendment is defeated at the ballot box — Texas women still can’t vote in that election.
June 28, 1919
The Texas Legislature ratifies the federal 19th Amendment — Texas becomes the 9th state in the nation, and the first in the South, to do so.
October 19, 1919
TESA dissolves and reorganizes as the League of Women Voters of Texas, alongside five founding local Leagues.
February 14, 1920
The national League of Women Voters is formally organized in Chicago.
August 26, 1920
The 19th Amendment is certified as ratified nationwide.
1927
The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Texas’s white primary law; the Legislature responds by letting political parties set their own rules, and the white primary continues.
1944
Smith v. Allwright ends the white primary in Texas.
1949
LWV Texas helps secure legislation protecting the secrecy of the ballot, after 8 years of advocacy.
1954
A constitutional amendment LWV Texas championed allows Texas women to serve on juries.
1964
The 24th Amendment bans poll taxes in federal elections.
1965
The Voting Rights Act becomes federal law.
1966
The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Texas’s poll tax in state elections.
1971
The 26th Amendment lowers the voting age to 18; Texas drops its annual voter re-registration requirement.
1974
LWV Texas opens membership to men, following the national League’s lead; the same year, its permanent Austin office is established.
2002
LWV Texas holds the first Spanish-language debate for a statewide office.
2011–2013
Texas enacts a voter ID law; after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision lifts federal preclearance requirements, the law takes effect immediately.
