Call Her a Citizen: Progressive-Era Activist and Educator Anna Pennybacker

INTRODUCTION

introduction mrs. percival v. pennybacker, born Anna McLaughlin Hardwicke, was a Texas educator, clubwoman, writer, lecturer, and social and political activist whose influence in the early twentieth century extended nationwide. As an educator and social activist, Pennybacker was influential in promoting public education, women’s suffrage, social reform, and the League of Nations. Born in the American South in 1861, she was certainly influenced by nineteenth century ideals of southern womanhood, which demanded that a southern lady be a moral force exercising indirect influence over southern culture by her actions within a subordinate, domestic sphere. However, the Reconstruction years brought about changes for women in the South that increased their educational and career opportunities and allowed some women the leisure to participate in voluntary associations.1 Even as a young woman in the waning years of the Victorian Era, Pennybacker’s ideas and activities leaned toward the progressive, as she took full advantage of the opportunities becoming available for southern women. Pennybacker would reach her most productive middle years at the peak of the Progressive Era, and she would become one of the leading progressive women of her time. The Progressive Era, roughly 1895 to 1920, brought a wave of social, political, and economic reforms, as Americans struggled to understand and adapt to the immense changes wrought by industrialization and urbanization. Gilded Age laissez-faire policies had brought about growing disparities among the wealthy and the working people, and the Progressive Era brought to the fore questions about the role of government in regulating industry and protecting citizens. Americans of the era rethought the meanings of democracy and citizenship.2 Anna Pennybacker both shaped and was shaped by xi introduction xii the many ideas and movements of the era, and these themes shaped her life and work. Anna spent the early years of her life in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Kansas. Having graduated from high school in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1878, she moved to Texas with her family that same year. In 1879 she won a scholarship to attend the first Normal School for Teachers in Huntsville, Texas, where she met Percival V. Pennybacker, her future husband. Together they worked to develop fledgling public school systems in Bryan, Tyler, and Palestine, Texas.3 In 1888, as a young teacher, Pennybacker wrote A New History of Texas, which was to become the state-adopted textbook for Texas history for many years. Pennybacker’s husband published and marketed the book until his death in 1899. That year, Pennybacker took over the family’s financial affairs, including those related to the textbook. In 1900, she and her three young children moved to Austin as she and Percy had earlier planned. Prior to this move, Pennybacker had become involved in the growing women’s club movement. Subsequently, in the early 1900s, she held several elected positions, including the presidency, in the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs. Her role in the Texas federation led her to national prominence as the president of the largest women’s organization in the country, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Women’s clubs wielded surprising political power in their day as they pushed for social reforms, education, and cultural improvement. The Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs, for example, claims credit for establishing more than 70 percent of the libraries in Texas, building a women’s dormitory at the University of Texas, and founding Texas Women’s University.4 During World War I, she worked with the War Camp Community Service to better conditions for the nation’s military personnel. In the teens and twenties, she supported the woman’s suffrage movement in Texas and nationwide. She served as a trustee of Carrie Chapman Catt’s Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission and worked with the Texas Equal Suffrage Association and the National American Woman Suffrage Association to gain for American women the right to vote, although her dedication to this cause was sometimes questioned. In 1919, prior to and in preparation for women’s suffrage, she attended the Democratic National Committee as an associate member. She supported the founding of the World Court and League of Nations and regularly attended meetings of the latter organization in Geneva. She also supported a wide range of progressive causes, including increasing government support for women and children through programs such as the federal Children’s introduction xiii Bureau, the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act, and vocational...