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Fort Worth, TX 76185
 
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History of the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County

Clota Boykin and daughters

On January 8th, 1915 the Women's Suffrage Club of Fort Worth was formed and Mrs. Stanley Boykin was elected president. The last of the big cities in Texas to be organized, Clota Boykin led the women of Fort Worth in talking to citizens about giving women the vote.


She memoralized her work in a scrapbook now housed at the Tarrant County Archives.


Mrs. Boykin worked closely with state and national organizers to bring hearts and minds around to support " Votes For Women!" Dr. Anna Shaw, a national leader of the movement after the death of Susan B. Anthony, would come to Fort Worth twice to hold everyone together. Dr. Shaw too would not live to see votes for women accomplished. The club worked for five years educating the women and men of Fort Worth about the necessity to enfranchise women. The League of Women Voters of Fort Worth was formed the same day state and national formed, February 14, 1920.


Mrs. Boykin served as president of the local Fort Worth chapter and was the first Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Texas.

History of the League of Women Voters

Carrie Chapman Catt

In her address to the National American Woman Suffrage Association's (NAWSA) 50th convention in St. Louis, Missouri, President Carrie Chapman Catt proposed the creation of a "league of women voters to finish the fight and aid in the reconstruction of the nation." The League of Women Voters was formed within the NAWSA, composed of the organizations in the states where suffrage had already been attained. The next year, on February 14, 1920 - six months before the 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified - the League was formally organized in Chicago as the national League of Women Voters.
 

Maud Wood Park became the first national president of the League and the first League leader to rise to the challenge. She had steered the women's suffrage amendment through Congress in the last two years before ratification and liked nothing better than legislative work. From the very beginning, however, it was apparent that the legislative goals of the League were not exclusively focused on women's issues and that citizen education aimed at all of the electorate was in order.


During the postwar period, the League helped lead the effort to establish the United Nations and to ensure U.S. Participation. The League was one of the first organizations in the country officially recognized by the United Nations as a non-governmental organization; it still maintains official observer status today.


SeeLeague of Women Voters of the US History page.

SeeLeague of Women Voters of Texas History page.