Lifting as we climb: Shining a light on a woman who helped shaped the Houston we all love

At just 25 years old, Christia Adair, a teacher from Edna, Texas, went door-to-door collecting petitions for women’s right to vote in Texas. Despite the success of her campaigning work and the woman’s suffrage movement,  she was prevented from voting in Texas and turned away from a polling place after registering to vote because of her race. This rejection led to a lifelong commitment to service Adair held, serving the charge to establish equity and expand access in Houston for all. 

A Catalyst for Progressive Movement Work

Before she moved to Houston, Adair was an active member of the Republican party. This wasn’t uncommon as many people of color were active members of the Republican party after emancipation and well into the 1960s. However, when presidential candidate Warren G. Harding appeared in Kingsville in 1920, Adair took her students on a field trip to watch him speak and carefully situated her students close to Harding, in hopes that he would interact with them. However, when he finished speaking he reached over them to shake the hands of White listeners behind them. "I was offended and insulted...", she later recalled. 

The Black Suffragettes Movement

At the beginning of the movement, many Black women, like Adair, worked along white women to push for the right to vote.  And yet, when the women’s voting act was adopted by the United States in August of 1920, Black women, particularly those in the south, were still barred from making their voices heard at the ballot box through a myriad of ways, including poll taxes- a unregulated and often changing “fee” that was required to pay before voting, literacy tests and direct threats from hate groups like the KKK. 

As the suffrage movement splintered over the issue of race in the years leading up to Jim Crow, Black women formed their own organizations to continue their efforts to secure and protect the rights of all women, and all men. Many Black women crafted images and messages that became critical moving the needle forward on on racial equity and agency.  

These social clubs were a robust network of black women’s clubs that actively worked to win women the vote and promote other social reforms.  Adair joined the Federated Club Movement  in Houston, joining other women in providing arts and crafts classes and supplies for a girls home in Houston’s Acres Homes.  Soon after, she was one of the first members of the Houston branch of the National Association of Colored Women's and Girls' Clubs,  whose famous members included Ida B Wells, Harriet Tubman and Mary Church Terrell and whose tagline was “Lifting as We Climb”, reflecting the struggle of Black suffragists who were fighting a battle on behalf of both their race and their gender.

Although national membership in these clubs have dwindled significantly in recent years, their formats and impact can still be seen in organizations like the Links Inc, and the Divine Nine, Black Greek Letter Organizations focused on service and sisterhood. 

The ongoing fight for equality in Texas

Adair desired to become more involved in her community after her husband’s death and eagerly volunteered to the be the Houston NAACP Branch’s executive secretary and administrator in the early 1940s, leading membership growth and voter registration. In an ongoing effort to suppress the voting efforts of people of color, The Democratic Party had effectively excluded minority voter as a device for for legal disenfranchisement across the south. This issue reached a turning point when Lonnie Smith, a prominent Black doctor from Houston’s Fifth Ward, sued county election official S. S. Allwright for the right to vote in a primary election being conducted by the Democratic Party. 

Smith Vs Allright, which was brought to court by the Houston NAACP when Adair was the branch’s executive secretary, was argued by NAACP special counsel Thurgood Marshall.  During the trial, local authorities made a strong effort to find and leak the names of the local branch members as an intimidation tactic. Christia Adair hid the roles at home, often facing several death threats, and testified in the case about her experience. Smith VS Allright made its way to the United States Supreme Court, where it was was decided in favor of Smith in 1944.  This case, which Thurgood Marshall later cited as his most important case as a lawyer,  was important in the history of civil rights law because it ended the use of race as a barrier to voting in Texas Democratic primaries. This decision started the revival of active Black participation in Texas politics, growing the number of registered Black voters in southern states from 200,000 in 1940 to over a million by 1952. 

After playing a role in the success of that case, Adair co-founded the first integrated branch of the Harris County Democrats, with her friend and progressive organizer, Frankie Randolph. The branch held a county-wide public meeting held March 2, 1953, which was the first integrated political meeting ever held in Houston. During the 12 years she served as the NAACP executive secretary and administrator, she worked for and often took the lead on efforts to desegregate the Houston Public Library, public schools, Hobby airport, veterans' hospital, city buses and department store dressing rooms.

Honoring Christia Adair through service

We can honor the work of Christia Adair, and others, known and unknown, who over the years, committed their work and volunteer efforts  to ensuring our voice is heard. That work continues to this day- as we’ve seen voter suppression efforts at various levels of government in recent years.  If you want to know more about how you ensure that everyone has an equal chance of getting their voice heard in upcoming elections, check out and support these organizations doing the work:

• League of Women Voters
• Texas Organizing Project
• NAACP-Houston Branch
• MOVE Texas
• Fair Fight