HomeMy WebLinkAboutJessie Daniel Ames Day_11.2022
PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS, Jessie Daniel Ames was nine years old when her family moved to Georgetown in 1893, and
at the age of 13 enrolled in Southwestern University, where women were segregated in the Women’s
Annex. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1902; and
WHEREAS, in 1914, Ames’ Army surgeon husband died, leaving her a widow at 31 with three children.
Out of financial necessity, she went to work at the Georgetown Telephone Company, owned by her
mother, also a widow. Both emerged as competent, tough-minded competitors in a male-dominated
business community; and
WHEREAS, sensitive to the inequalities suffered by women, Ames entered the public world of politics.
She organized the Georgetown Equal Suffrage League in 1916. In 1918, the State of Texas passed a bill
allowing women to vote in state primaries. Ames and her co-workers rallied 3,800 women to register in
17 days. She was elected the first president of the Texas League of Women Voters, and provided voting
instructions and mock elections to prepare women to responsibly use their new franchise; and
WHEREAS, Jessie Daniel Ames founded the Association of Southern W omen for the Prevention of
Lynching, which succeeded in reducing racial violence. She devoted 30 years of her life to the public as a
crusader for racial justice and gender equality in a time when neither topic was accepted by the society in
which she lived. Her pioneering efforts helped lay the groundwork for the flowering of Black rights and
women’s rights movements in the 1960’s and 70’s; and
WHEREAS, the Williamson County League of Women Voters acknowledges Ames’ contributions to the
rights of women today, and honors the contributions she made by celebrating her 139th birthday,
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSH SCHROEDER, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TX
do hereby proclaim November 2, 2022, as
JESSIE DANIEL AMES DAY in GEORGETOWN, TEXAS