Terry v. Adams

In 1924 Lawrence A. Nixon, a Black physician in El Paso, challenged the state's white primary law with NAACP help, and in Nixon v. Herndon the Supreme Court struck it down in 1927; Nixon won again in 1932 when the party's executive committee tried the same thing. Houston barber Richard R. Grovey lost in 1935, when the court called the party private. Houston dentist Lonnie E. Smith won Smith v. Allwright in 1944, and Black voter registration in Texas rose from 30,000 in 1940 to 100,000 in 1947.

What the plaque says

Terry v. Adams During the first half of the 20th century, the U. S. Supreme Court heard a series of significant Texas voting rights cases which collectively ended the "white primary" system established in many areas of the South after the Civil War. White primaries were unofficial, pre-election polls barred to African Americans that effectively prevented them from having any political influence. In 1950, African Americans Willie Melton, a farmer, and Arizona Fleming, a businesswoman, began a suffrage movement in Fort Bend County that led to legal action. John Terry and other black county residents agreed to lend their names as plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit filed against A. J. Adams and other officers of the Jay Bird Democratic Association. The Jay Birds functioned as a whites-only political organization that operated unofficial "straw elections" to select Democratic nominees for local elections. Since most Texans consistently voted for Democratic candidates, any nominee selected by the Jay Birds invariably won in the general elections. The case was heard in U. S. District Court in Houston, and the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, because the Jay Birds were operating as a political party and therefore subject to state and federal laws protecting voters' rights. The ruling enabled the county's African Americans to vote in an upcoming Jay Bird primary election. An appeal filed by the Jay Birds was heard in 1951 by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, who overturned the original judgment. In 1952, local supporters raised funds to enable an appeal to be filed. The U. S. Supreme Court heard arguments in January 1953 and in Terry v. Adams upheld the original ruling in favor of the plaintiffs. By 1959, the Jay Bird Democratic Association had suspended activities. (2009)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazos Bend State Park — 24 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 29 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.

More markers nearby

• Kendleton — 0.3 mi
• Powell Point School — 2.6 mi
• Beasley — 6.2 mi
• Snake Creek Cemetery and Church — 7.7 mi