Maude Sampson Williams - El Paso Suffrage Leader and Civil Rights Activist

Maude Sampson Williams, a teacher at the Douglass School, organized the El Paso Negro Woman's Civic and Equal Franchise League (NWCEFL) in June 1918 to mobilize African American women to vote and served as the president of the league. In June 1918, she requested membership for the NWCEFL in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA), but was denied membership. No African American suffrage organization was ever admitted to membership in the NAWSA, and the El Paso chapter’s request was the only one ever received by state leadership. Black suffragists in El Paso under the leadership of Sampson Williams were active in the suffrage movement until the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in August 1920. In May 1919, she served as precinct chairman for three precincts in South El Paso and organized a team of women to telephone voters on the day of a state referendum to give women the vote. In 1920, Sampson Williams served as the precinct campaign organizer for the gubernatorial candidacy of R. Ewing Thomason, a Democrat running for Texas governor. Maude Sampson Williams continued to fight for civil rights in El Paso by serving as the Vice President of the El Paso Chapter of the NAACP and advocating for the desegregation of El Paso County Schools. She was instrumental in the desegregation of Texas Western College, now The University of Texas at El Paso, in 1955.

Creator: Family photo; explicit permission given to user

Area: Central / Downtown

Uploaded by: Janine Young