Frances Farenthold: Texas' Joan of Arc

145 Pages·2012·0.52 MB·English

FRANCES FARENTHOLD: TEXAS’ JOAN OF ARC

Stephanie Fields-Hawkins

Thesis Prepared for the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

Decemb er 2012

APPROVED:

Elizabeth Hayes Turner, Major Professor
Randolph B. Campbell, Committee
Member
Richard B. McCaslin, Committee Member
and Chair of the Department of
History
Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse
Graduate School
Fields-Hawkins, Stephanie. Frances Farenthold: Texas’ Joan of Arc. Master of
Arts (History), December 2012, 141 pp., bibliography, 179 titles.
Born in 1926, Frances “Sissy” Tarlton Farenthold began her exploration of
politics at a young age. In 1942, Farenthold graduated from Hockaday School for Girls.
In 1945, she graduated from Vassar College, and in 1949, she graduated from the
University of Texas School of Law. Farenthold was a practicing lawyer, participated in
the Corpus Christi Human Relations Commission from 1964 to 1969, and directed
Nueces County Legal Aid from 1965 to 1967. In 1969, she began her first term in the
Texas House of Representatives. During her second term in the House (1971-1972),
Farenthold became a leader in the fight against government corruption. In 1972, she
ran in the Democratic primary for Texas governor, and forced a close run-off vote with
Dolph Briscoe. Soon afterwards in 1972, she was nominated as a Democratic vice-
presidential candidate at the Democratic convention, in addition to her nomination as
the chairperson of the National Women’s Political Caucus. Farenthold ran in the
Democratic primary for governor again in 1974, but lost decisively. From 1976 until
1980, she was the first woman president of Wells College, before coming back to Texas
and opening a law practice. For the next three decades, Farenthold practiced law,
taught at the University of Houston, and furthered her activism for the environment, as
well as women’s, minority’s, gay and lesbian, and immigrant’s rights. She currently lives
in Houston and continues working towards these goals.
Copyright 2012

By

Stephanie Fields-Hawkins
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER 2 THE START OF A LEGEND: 1926 THROUGH 1968 ............................. 22
CHAPTER 3 FIGHTING THE GOOD OL’ BOYS: 1968 THROUGH 1972 .................... 42
CHAPTER 4 CHANGING TEXAS’ GUBERNATORIAL RACE: 1972 ........................... 72
CHAPTER 5 OUT OF ELECTED OFFICE BUT NOT OUT OF THE FIGHT: 1972
THROUGH 2012 ........................................................................................................... 99
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 118
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 130

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Though women were hardly powerhouses in elective American politics before the
1960s and 1970s, they had always managed to create a niche for themselves to
influence political decisions. High profile women such as Montana Senator Jeanette
Rankin, who was the only congressperson to vote against both World Wars, kept
women visible among the public. Women, however, were generally thought to exist in
the background and along the sidelines of the political arena. They were expected to
influence public policy by the power of their purity and good deeds, usually referring to
women’s supposed greater connection to religion.1
This ideal slowly began changing in the twentieth century. While there was no
amendment to the United States Constitution allowing women to vote before 1920,
countless women had a keen interest in politics and reform and managed to force many
of their plans to fruition regardless of the public sentiment against political women. This
culminated in the first wave of feminism, which lasted approximately from 1890 through
1925, and was focused mainly on obtaining woman suffrage, married women’s property
rights, protective legislation for working women, and prohibition. Another strong wave of
feminism broached public consciousness in the mid-1960s. Finally, female politicians
began to appear with greater prominence. This coincided with various other social
movements forcing their way into the public eye, such as the multiple civil rights
1Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: Woman’s Sphere in New England, 1790-1835 (New
H a v e n : Y a l e U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s , 1 9 75); Paula Baker, “The Domestication of Politics: Women and American
Political Society, 1780-1920,” American Historical Review 89 (June 1984), 620-647; Suzanne Lebsack,
Free Women of Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town, 1784-1860 (New York: W. W. Norton
& Company, 1985); Sally McMillen, Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
1
movements and identity politics working for black, Chicano, Asian-American, and Native
American rights. The late 1960s especially saw changes emerging throughout the
political arena. Specifically, in 1968, Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman
elected to the United States House of Representatives, Charlene Mitchell ran for
president of the United States in 1968 on the first Communist party ticket since 1940,
and in 1969 Frances “Sissy” Farenthold was elected to the Texas House of
Representatives from Nueces County, Texas.2
Frances Farenthold was considered a liberal Democrat in a conservative state.
She participated in Texas government from the late 1960s through the 1970s. After
establishing herself as a practicing lawyer, she served in the Texas House of
Representatives from 1969 through 1972, and ran for governor in 1972 and again in
1974. Gloria Steinem, Fanny Lou Hamer, David Lopez, and Allard Lowenstein
nominated her as a Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 1972; she chaired the
National Women’s Political Caucus Conference that same year; became the first
woman president of Wells College in 1976; and remained involved in environmental,
minority, and gay rights, as well as various other activist movements over the years.
She was active in organizations with feminists Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Bella
2 Kathleen Elizabeth Lazarou, Concealed Under Petticoats: Married Women’s Property and the
L a w o f T e x a s , 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 1 3 ( N e w Y ork: Garland Publishing, 1986); Judith Gammage, “Quest for Equality:
An Historical Overview of Women’s Rights Activism in Texas, 1890-1975” (PhD diss., University of North
Texas, 1982); Megan Seaholm, “Earnest Women: The White Women’s Club Movement in Progressive
Era Texas” (PhD diss., Rice University, 1988); Ruth Winegarten and Judith N. McArthur, eds., Citizens At
Last: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Texas (Austin: Ellen C. Temple, 1987); Marjorie Spruill Wheeler,
New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); Ruth Bordin, Women and Temperance: The Quest for Power
and Liberty 1873-1990 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990); Judith N. McArthur, Creating
the New Woman: The Rise of Southern Women’s Progressive Culture in Texas, 1893-1918 (Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 1998); Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary
Edition (Washington, D.C.: Take Root Media, 2010); William Minter, Gail Hovey, and Charles Cobb, Jr.,
eds., No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists Over a Half Century, 1950-2000
(Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2007).
2
Azbug, and Shirley Chisholm. She was a good friend to Hector P. Garcia, founder of
the American G.I. Forum. She fought corruption in Texas government with
Representatives Fred Agnich, Dave Allred, Tom Bass, William J. Blythe, and Lane
Denton, as well as twenty-four other Texas politicians who were part of the bipartisan
coalition known as the “Dirty Thirty.” Yet, in spite of the intriguing story behind her many
accomplishments, an extended biography has not yet been written covering her life.3
It would be impossible to discuss Farenthold’s life and career without
understanding the elements that shaped her environment and era. As with all people,
she is a product of her time, influenced by history and social changes. In addition to a
discussion of her life before politics, a study of southern politics and Texas politics
specifically as well as the role of women in both arenas since the battle for woman
suffrage are important precursors to understanding the various influences at work on
her. Also, a look at women in political offices, and the effects of politics on women and
the women’s movement serve as a foundation for this biography. Women in Texas
politics is a much smaller field and consists mostly of biographies of important women,
but these books offer delectable details regarding women’s changing roles and
expectations, as well as how they were perceived across the massive state. Histories
such as these inform and contribute to an understanding of Farenthold’s unique position
in Texas and in the national political arena.4
3 Sydney Ladensohn Stern, Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique (New York:
B i r c h L a n e P r e s s , 1 9 9 7 ) ; A n n F e ars Crawford and Crystal Sasse Ragsdale, Women In Texas: Their
Lives, Their Experiences, Their Accomplishments (Burnet, TX: Eakin Press, 1982), 285-295; Jean Flynn,
Texas Women Who Dared To Be First (Burnet, TX: Eakin Press, 1999), 57-66; Nancy Baker Jones and
Ruthe Winegarten, Capitol Women: Texas Female Legislators, 1923-1999 (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 2000), 152-158; Patricia Lasher, Texas Women: Interviews and Images (Austin: Shoal Creek
Publishers, 1980), 43-47.
4 For more information on women in Texas and Texas politics, see Fane Downs and Nancy Baker
Smith, eds., Women and Texas History: Selected Essays (Austin: Texas State Historical Association,
3
The South has been known primarily as a one-party region, dominated by the
Democratic party until the late 1960s and since dominated by the Republican party.
After the Civil War, the Republicans were blamed for emancipation and Reconstruction,
which greatly damaged their viability in the South. Until passage of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, when formerly disenfranchised blacks voted
in greater numbers, the Democrats ruled southern politics. Beginning in 1968,
Republicans began to win seats in Congress as well as taking the presidency. But an
unevenly large proportion of presidents still came from the South and Texas, while
Democrats maintained their dominance at the local level until the 1970s. Nicol C. Rae,
a political scientist, discussed this phenomenon in Southern Democrats. Rae
maintained that Republican presidential candidates were more socially acceptable to
white southerners due to their lack of focus on correcting societal imbalances related to
race, yet Democratic politicians used their strong local connections and incumbency to
maintain political control at the local and state levels. Additionally, in The Dixiecrat
Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968, Kari Frederickson gave a
supplementary reason for the end of Democratic control of the South. Frederickson
argued that when the States’ Rights Democratic Party, commonly known as the
Dixiecrats, formed in 1948 as a protest by conservative Democrats toward the
progressive direction of politics, it showed that allegiance to a party, especially one that
1993); Judith McArthur and Harold J. Smith, Texas Through Women’s Eyes: The Twentieth-Century
E x p e r i e n c e ( A u s t i n : U n i v e r s i t y o f T e x a s P r e s s , 2 0 1 0 ) ; B r u c e A . G l a s r u d a n d M e r l i n e P i t r e , B l a c k W o m e n
in Texas History (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008); Ruthe Winegarten, Black Texas
Women: 150 Years of Trial and Triumph (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995); Robert A. Calvert and
Walter L. Buenger, Texas Through Time: Evolving Interpretations (College Station: Texas A&M University
Press, 1991).
4
was changing, was not necessary.5
Focusing more on southern voting patterns, V.O. Key, also a political scientist, in
Southern Politics in State and Nation, discussed the monolithic Democratic party in the
South and argued that in the political structures of eleven southern states, including
Texas, race was the overwhelming factor in politics with institutions such as the poll tax,
literacy test, and white primary playing key roles. Updating Key’s research, political
scientist James F. Lea, in Contemporary Southern Politics, argued that the ability of
blacks to gain public office was greatly restricted by the more conservative outlook of
southern Democrats. Also, even as Democrats have been forced to focus on racial
social issues, those in the South have remained more conservative on economic issues
than their counterparts in the rest of the country. Finally, political scientists Earl Black
and Merle Black, disagreed with the one-party ideal for the South in Politics and Society
in the South because they believed that the changes caused by black voters and federal
legislation strengthened the Republican party enough to create a two-party system.
This two-party system developed as black voters aligned themselves with the
Democrats and large numbers of white voters realigned themselves with the
Republicans. Due to this strengthening of the two-party system and the growth of
industrialization and urbanization, they argued that the South grew to resemble the rest
of the country more in economy, politics, and the treatment of minorities.6
5 Nicol C. Rae, Southern Democrats (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Kari
F r e d e r ic k s o n , T h e D i x ie c r a t R e v o lt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968 (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 2001), 3-5.
6 V.O. Key, Southern Politics in State and Nation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949); James F.
Lea, ed., Contemporary Southern Politics (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988); Earl
Black and Merle Black, Politics and Society in the South (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987).
5
The role of women in politics is not always so easily mapped onto the general
southern political trends. Until ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920,
women in many states could not vote in the general election. Prior to that, though
women were given the right to vote in some elections in some states, predominantly in
the West, but they were mostly expected simply to influence their male relatives’ votes
with their feminine wiles. The woman suffrage movement changed this view as women
fought for their equality under the United States Constitution. Though sexist arguments
were used, such as the idea that women were so noble and pure that they should
remain above the political fray, in reality male politicos feared their votes would
emasculate the political arena. As suffrage related to the South, Lorraine Gates
Schuyler described the roles of southern women’s participation in politics in the 1920s
both as voters and lobbyists in The Weight of their Votes: Southern Women and
Political Leverage in the 1920s. Women’s end goal at this time was to be allowed the
same rights and powers as men. After 1920, however, the push for women to be
involved in politics slowed and fragmented when the goal of suffrage was reached and
women activists splintered over their objectives. That is not to say, however, that some
women did not become involved in politics.7
Woman suffrage grew from the combination of many branches of women’s
growing involvement in society as well as greater access to education. The Progressive
era saw many Texas women becoming involved in general society to better their
communities. These women were no longer content to remain in their homes when
they believed they could do so much good out in the world. Women such as Pauline
7 Lorraine Gates Schuyler, The Weight of their Votes: Southern Women and Political Leverage in
t h e 1 9 2 0 s ( C h a p e l H i l l : U n i v e r s it y of North Carolina Press, 2006).
6