Houston Heights Woman's Club

The plaque says members fought the bar on women serving on juries, a fight that lasted until 1954. After the Nineteenth Amendment, Texas law still defined a lawful jury as twelve men, so only a state constitutional amendment could seat women. The Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs led the campaign from the 1920s. A first referendum in 1949 narrowly failed, and supporters then stressed exemptions for women caring for small children or other dependents. Voters approved the amendment in November 1954, thirty-four years after women won the vote.

What the plaque says

Houston Heights Woman's Club The Houston Heights Woman's Club has remained a pillar in the community since its founding in 1900 and even constructed its own club building in 1912, still in use. The club gave women the opportunity to make an impact in their community and move away from traditional women's roles. Members were active with such issues as the lack of women's property rights, and opposition to their voting, holding office, or serving on juries. They also focused on education by establishing a library at Houston Heights High School in 1905, and being valued volunteers at the Heights Public Library. During World War I, the club volunteered to make surgical bandages for the Red Cross. When World War II erupted, the ladies again volunteered their time and clubhouse to the Red Cross, earning a special citation from the U. S. Secretary of the treasury for their service. The Houston Heights Woman's Club has also been dedicated to helping those less fortunate within the community. Members donated time and money to various organizations such as the united fund, care international, and the veterans hospital. They also brought toys to sick children at Ben Taub and Jeff Davis hospitals. Today the club continues to volunteer in an effort to improve the Heights neighborhood. Members spend many hours mentoring students, assisting the elderly and providing quilts to children in protective custody. The Houston Heights woman's club has grown to be an invaluable force in stimulating the intellectual pursuits of women and always striving to place the needs of others as their foremost concern. (2011)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 3.4 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Rothko Chapel — 4.6 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.
• The Menil Collection — 4.6 mi
  John and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 4.8 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.

More markers nearby

• Daniel Denton Cooley — steps away
• St. Andrew's Episcopal Church — steps away
• Reagan Masonic Lodge No. 1037 A. F. & A. M. — 0.3 mi
• Heights Church of Christ — 0.3 mi