Ratified and Released

With the final ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (Tennessee's ratification in August 1920 provided the necessary three-fourths majority of the states) women were free to focus on a wider range of political activities.

The final Texas Equal Suffrage Association Convention--the Victory Convention--was held in San Antonio on October of 1919. From that meeting the Texas League of Women Voters emerged, with long-time suffrage activist Jessie Daniel Ames of Georgetown as its first president.

The TESA's old Ratification Committee evolved into the Joint Legislative council, a coalition of the Texas League of Women Voters, the Texas Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, the Texas Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women. With Jane Y. McCallum at its head, the group, dubbed the "Petticoat Lobby" by the Texas legislators, became a powerful force which pushed through legislation dealing with issues such as education, prison reform, and health. In McCallum's own words, "with high hopes and enthusiasms, women stepped forth into a world in which they were citizens at last."

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