Dallas Equal Suffrage Association

DESA was different from many other suffrage organizations in the United States in that it adopted a campaign which matched the social expectations of Dallas at the time.

"[8] The Dallas Equal Suffrage Association had its beginnings on March 15, 1913, when forty-three women from socially elite white families gathered in a private home.

[9] The second president of DESA was wealthy widow and Mary Hardin–Baylor alumnus Erwin Armstrong,[11] who visited New York and New Jersey in order to gather ideas about conducting successful suffragist campaigns.

[15][14] They again hosted a suffrage event in 1916 with nationally recognized suffragists such as Elizabeth Freeman of New York and Florence Cotham of Little Rock.

[21] The DESA's goal of votes for women was beginning to see substantive support in 1918 from both corporate entities and Texas political leaders.

[17] Suffragist Nona Mahoney of the DESA targeted the outspoken opposition, visiting with Texas State Representative Barry Miller in February.

[23] HB 105 was signed into law on March 26, 1918, giving Texas women the partial right to vote, that is, only at political party conventions and in primary elections.

[25] She was present that year when Governor, William P. Hobby, signed the February 5 voter referendum for the constitutional state amendment authorizing full suffrage for women.

Present at that signing was also Minnie Fisher Cunningham, the president of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA).