SAPL : March 7 In San Antonio History...

Press release from the San Antonio Public Library:

Andrew Crews

7 March 2022

1939
In observance of the birthday of the late M. Eleanor Brackenridge of San Antonio, a leader in the national suffrage movement, the temperance movement and various philanthropic enterprises, the national M. Eleanor Brackenridge Club of Washington, D. C. is seeking the designation of March 7 as Texas State Friendship Day.

1954
Thurgood Marshall (right), NAACP’s chief counsel in the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case, speaks at Second Baptist Church.

1960
Mary Lillian Andrews, a freshman at Our Lady of the Lake and the President of the Youth Council of the San Antonio chapter of the NAACP, sends letters to local businesses urging desegregation:
“Youth of all races in San Antonio go to school, ride the buses, enjoy municipal recreational facilities together, but they cannot sit down and eat together in your store. Help the youth of San Antonio realize that the principles stated in the Holy Bible and the Constitution of the United States can be a living reality in San Antonio by abolishing this discriminatory practice in your store. We feel the citizens of San Antonio are intelligent enough to accept such change.”

This press release was produced by the San Antonio Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.