100 years after the 19th Amendment: Mary Eleanor Brackenridge

SAN ANTONIO – As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, did you know that San Antonio’s own Mary Eleanor Brackenridge was the first woman to register to vote in Bexar County?

A leader in Texas suffrage organizations, Brackenridge was considered a “late bloomer” when it came to activism.

She was in her 70s when she published a pamphlet called, “The Legal Status of Women in Texas” and worked hard to revive the Texas Woman Suffrage Association.

Because of Brackenridge’s tireless efforts in the suffrage movement, Texas was the first southern state to give women the right to vote and became the ninth state in the union to ratify the 19th Amendment.

If the Brackenridge name sounds familiar – her brother, also a philanthropist, donated the land that is now known as Brackenridge Park.

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