Minnie Fisher Cunningham

Eleanor Roosevelt recalled that with Cunningham "you had no right to be a slacker as a citizen, you had no right not to take an active part in what was happening to your country as a whole.” 

Cunningham was the top suffrage leader in Texas, originally from New Waverly and later Galveston. Her father served in the House of Representatives in the Texas legislature and introduced her to politics early by taking her to his meetings. Cunningham graduated from UT Medical Branch at Galveston in 1901, becoming the first women to receive a degree in pharmacy in Texas. She worked as a pharmacist for one year but when she realized that the uneducated men she worked with earned more than she, she turned her focus on women’s rights. She married Bill Cunningham, a lawyer whose successful run as Walker County Attorney gave her the first-hand experience in campaigning that she would apply in the suffrage movement. 

In 1914, Cunningham was elected as president of the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association, then became the president of the revived Texas Suffrage Association in 1915, building it to a membership of 10,000 with representation in every district and a strong lobbying presence in Austin.  

Cunningham was took advantage of a split in the Texas Democratic party to craft a bill in 1918 granting women the right to vote in Primary Elections. Because of this, Cunningham was asked to lead lobbying efforts in DC for the federal suffrage amendment, as well led a delegation to meet with President Wilson. 

In 1917, Cunningham mobilized the Texas Suffrage Association members rally against anti-suffragist Governor Jim Ferguson who had been indicted for embezzlement and abuse of power. Her plan was to have Ferguson removed from office for his lack of ethics and have enthusiastic Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby become Governor. This brilliant strategy was key in Texas becoming the first State in the south to vote for the 19th Amendment.  

Late in 1918, Cunningham returned to DC to lobby full time. After the 19th Amendment passed Congress, Cunningham successfully led the ratification efforts in the western and southern states to secure the majority votes necessary for the amendment to be officially adopted into the Constitution.

After the 19th Amendment was made law, Cunningham helped found the National League of Women Voters, and continued to lobby in DC. The Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act, the nation’s first social welfare measure was passed in large part due to Cunningham’s leadership.  

Eleanor Roosevelt recalled that with Cunningham "you had no right to be a slacker as a citizen, you had no right not to take an active part in what was happening to your country as a whole." 

In 1928, Cunningham returned to Texas and became the first woman in the state to run for the United States Senate. She was appalled that the incumbent, Earle P. Mayfield, had been elected with heavy Ku Klux Klan backing and regretted not challenging him on that point. Like others in the first generation of women to run for a political office, financial support and male endorsements were a handicap. Cunningham ran an issues-based campaign and avoided personally attacking her opponent; it won her praise but not votes. Her husband, from whom she had been separated for a decade, died during the campaign. 

In 1944, Cunningham ran for Texas Governor against incumbent Coke Stevenson after trying to persuade J. Frank Dobie to run as a pro-Roosevelt candidate. Cunningham did well, finishing second in a field of nine candidates.

For the rest of her life, Cunningham was an activist, organizer, and campaigner for the state Democratic party. She and labor lawyer Robert Eckhardt founded the People's Legislative Committee in 1946 to push back against corporate influence in politics and white supremacy. Abolishing the poll tax was a top goal of the committee.  

Cunningham helped to found the Texas Observer in 1954, a publication which serves as a voice for truth and issues concerning class and racism. She and Randolph were also part of the coalition to oppose the change in control of the Democratic party in 1956. In 1960, at the age of seventy-eight, she managed the campaign headquarters for John F. Kennedy in New Waverly and carried Walker County for him. She died on December 9, 1964, and was buried in Hardy Cemetery in New Waverly.