Mary Ellen Lawson Dabbs was born in Rusk County, Texas. Her family owned a cotton plantation, and she participated in activities usually reserved only for men. She received her education at the county school and later attended the Furlow Masonic College in Georgia. She graduated first in her class. Back in Texas, she met her husband – a widower merchant with four children who was twenty years older than her. While taking care of his children and giving birth to five more, she helped him in his business. When his sons were older enough, he deeded over his property to them, and Dabbs realized she needs to be independent with an income of her own, so at the age of 33, she decided to end her tempestuous marriage and pursue medicine. The first step was not to have more children, and she stopped having sex with her husband. He physically abused her for that until she reported him to the authorities and moved to Sulphur Springs filing for divorce on the grounds of cruelty. Next, she began to study at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa, then midwifery in St. Louis. At the age of 37, she completed her medical degree. At the time, her divorce was not finalized, and her husband bribed the local sheriff and the district clerk not to notify her about the date of the final hearing, which caused the dismission of the divorce case. She moved to Dallas to practice medicine, but that attempt was unsuccessful, so she returned to Sulphur Springs, where she set up a practice presenting herself as a widow. With her own experience of the unequal results of the divorce prosses, Dabbs began to pay interest in the women’s rights movement. She moved to Fort Worth, where there were already seven women who practiced medicine. She was Texas delegate at the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and was chosen as the state chair of the Woman’s Southern Council. A year later, she co-founded the Texas Equal Rights Association –the Texan women’s suffrage society. At age 41, she was chosen as the president of the “Women’s Congress,” and promoted legislation concerning women’s welfare, such as age-of-consent and the establishment of a women’s industrial school, that became Texas Woman’s University. During the Spanish–American War, Dabbs volunteered for six months as a contract nurse at Camp Cuba Libre, where she contracted tuberculosis. It affected her health for the rest of her life. In 1899, after her house was destroyed by fire, she returned to Rusk, but eventually, she traded her farm and moved to Oklahoma, where she continued to practice medicine. When her tuberculosis was getting worse, she moved to New Mexico in the hope of being cured, but she took her own life when she realized the stage of the disease. She is buried in an anonymous grave for victims of tuberculosis. Read more...

Born in La Vernia, Texas. She received education in county schools, and at 15 years old, she attended Dr. Zealey’s Female College in Mississippi. At age 18, she married Arthur McCallum, and the couple settled in Austin, where he served as a school superintendent. Her first steps into politics were campaigning for woman suffrage and prohibition. She convinced the owner of the newspaper “The Austin American” to publish a regular column in which she wrote editorials against the women’s rights movement’s opposition. At the age of 35, she attended the University of Texas at Austin and became one of the first mothers to study at the university. She dropped out after three years and registered again a few years later, but never completing her degree. In 1915, she was chosen as president of the Austin Women Suffrage Association. Together with Minnie Fisher Cunningham, the president of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association, she led a statewide campaign for the women’s suffrage movement, giving speeches and publishing articles. In 1920, after the ratification of the 19th amendment, McCallum shifted her focus toward other political reforms. She became active in the League of Women Voters in Texas and served as its first vice president. She also served as executive secretary of the Women’s Joint Legislative Council, also known as the “Petticoat Lobby,” promoting legislation of women’s and social issues such as school funding, maternal and child health care, restrictions on child labor, illiteracy, prison reform, and stricter prohibition laws. After supporting Dan Moody’s campaign for state governor, asking women to vote for him, she was appointed the Secretary of State, a position she served for six years. McCallum is the only person in Texas to serve in this position under two governors and for more than one term. While in office, she discovered an original signed copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence and helped restore it. She remained active in politics throughout her life, giving speeches, writing her column, and leading women’s demonstrations. She served as an elector during the 1940 presidential election and as a state Democratic committeewoman during the next two presidential elections. She was appointed as the first city planning commission of Austin and leading women. In 1954, after women won the right to serve on juries, 77 years old, McCallum became the first female commissioner of a Travis County Grand Jury. Read more...

Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up on an unpaved street “in the biggest ghetto in the biggest state.” Jordan graduated with a B.A. from Texas Southern University and later received a law degree from Boston University. After two failed attempts at running for the Texas House of Representatives, she won a seat in the 1966 Texas Senate, the first black woman in the position – among 30 white men. In 1972 she was the first black person elected to the National Congress from Texas since the Reconstruction era, after the Civil War. She served only six years due to ill health and spent the rest of her life teaching at the University of Texas in Austin. Barbara Jordan was a great orator, a skill that gained her national recognition when addressing the Judiciary Committee in 1974 on national television – she spoke in praise of the constitution when calling for the impeachment of President Nixon after the Watergate scandal. Her talent for speaking in public made her the first woman and the first black keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention in 1976. At the same time, her nature as a politician was a pragmatic negotiator, which led to criticism from black and feminist activists. In Jordan’s last public service position, she was appointed Head of the Commission on Immigration Reform, for which she had to travel to Mexico and the Dominican Republic in a wheelchair. She died at the age of 59 from pneumonia. Her death made her the first African American woman buried in the Texas State Cemetery.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Barbara Jordan with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...