What Are Minnie Fisher Cunningham's Accomplishments

Veronica Torres

Professor John Perdue

GOVT 2306

5 October 2015

Minnie Fisher Cunningham Minnie Fisher Cunningham was an extraordinary women who had many accomplishments. Throughout her life time (March 19, 1882 – December 9, 1964) she became known as a suffragist, a politician and the first executive secretary for the league of women voters’. A political worker with liberal views, she became one of the founding members of the Woman 's National Democratic Club in 1924. In her position overseeing the club 's finances, she helped the organization purchase of its Washington, D.C. headquarters, which is still in use. Minnie Fisher Cunningham had one accomplishment that is well known and is what made her become a well-known historical figure

In 1902 was when Minnie really became more involved with suffrage issues. After marrying B. J. Cunningham in 1902 she began to get more involved with volunteer organizations. In 1912 one of the many volunteer organizations was the Wednesday Club which focused on women’s suffrage and children’s rights. When she first found that she had a passionate interest about suffrage she was able to realize that it was women who were truly the ones that deserved equality she was able to further become interested in women’s issues as a member of the Women’s Health Protective Association also known as the WHPA and the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association also known as GESA. It was in these organizations that Minnie was able to develop skills for public speaking because she was always the one to volunteer to speak at public events and in front of groups of legislators. Minnie also became involved with the Texas Women’s Suffrage Association also known as TWSA. In 1913 the organization became associated with the National American Women’s Suffrage Association also known as NAWSA. In 1914 Minnie was elected president of the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association (GESA). As president of the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association (GESA) she began networking with other prominent suffrage persons such as Texas Women’s Suffrage Association (TWSA) president Mary Eleanor Brackenridge of San Antonio, British politician Ethel Snowden and Texas Women’s Suffrage Association (TWSA) co-leader Annette

Minnie had finally achieved what she had spent so much time fighting for but this accomplishment was great and it was a milestone for women in the state of teas but it wasn’t enough for Minnie she set her sights out for something bigger and better which was an amendment that would grant women throughout America the right to vote. In order to achieve this Minnie made arrangements with United States Senator from Texas Morris Sheppard in 1917 for a conference in his Washington, D.C. office for women to state their perspectives on the proposed suffrage amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Minnie and NAWSA lobbyist Maud Wood Park, who would become the first president of the League of Women Voters, initiated a campaign for constituents to flood the offices of their representatives with telegrams in favor of passage. The United States House of Representatives passed the first version of the Nineteenth Amendment on January 10, 1918, but it failed in the United States Senate. This failure did not stop Minnie nor her supporters in fact it inspired them more. Minnie teamed up with a professor at the University of Texas who had been fired by Governor Ferguson, Alexander Caswell Ellis. Together Alexander and Minnie would try to pressure Texas newspapers to run editorials in favor of the amendment. Minnie and her supporters had reached many obstacles on their quest to ratify the 19th amendment however there weren’t any they were not able to overcome. On June 28,