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Trailblazer changed the face of politics in Texas, beyond
by L.A. Shively
“All politics is local,” ~ Byron Price (1891-1981)
Local politics often gets lost in the proverbial shuffle of national issues. Like a pyramid, community government – the base – is crucial for building regional, state and national governments.
Recognizing the importance of a strong, home-grown voter base, Lois Cooper White deeply involved herself in Bexar County, Texas politics and, as a result, she became a forceful vehicle for change in the state and the nation.
Higher education and her family legacy were the geneses of Lois White's conservative values.
Her political vision began in a one-room schoolhouse in Corsicana, Texas. She went on to receive a bachelor's degree in English Literature in 1940 and a Master of Arts degree in English in 1946.
Texas history was also fundamental in forming Lois White's conservative ideals.
My mother's grandparents were enslaved, and she knew people who had been enslaved," Doris Helene White, a distinguished attorney in San Antonio, said with pride and reverence in her voice.
"This Black woman, who was born in 1921, who was a descendant of formerly enslaved brought here to Texas from Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia by their owners, got educated and fully participated in this American dream. For her generation, education was a way to get up and out, a way for all Americans," said Lois White's daughter
Entering politics was a natural progression from education for her mother, Doris White explained. "In terms of the electorate, we should know what voting means and what politics is about at the local, state and national levels.
"What really did it for her – a fifth-generation Texan – was living in a one-party state. It didn't matter what color you were. You could be purple or alien, you were not going to vote Republican," said Doris White, remembering her mother opining that the southern democrat temperament overruled all conservative ideas during that time.
From the post-Civil War era to the late 1970s, Democrats dominated the Texas political landscape, a holdover from the slave trade.
Doris White recalls her mother joking with a chuckle, "We Republicans could hold a primary in a telephone booth. That one party had all the power, all the benefits and that is so un-American. It became a symbol of what needed to be changed.".
Lois White joined other grassroots Republican activists in 1963. She founded a Republican club on the east side of San Antonio and led change with support from her neighbors as a precinct chairman for some 50 years.
She became the first Black female candidate for the Texas Legislature from Bexar County. Though not elected, Lois White created quite a stir with her candidacy.
"People were asking her if she'd lost her mind. This woman from the east side (of San Antonio) is running? She should be home baking!" Doris White remembered others saying. "My mother said she was here to break barriers and opposition did not deter her. It was not conservative to be a Republican in those days. In fact, it was the most radical, liberal thing a woman could do, because they were challenging the status quo. Imagine the vilification these young upstarts received."
She fought poll taxes and all other barriers to voting. Texas adopted poll taxes in 1902 originally to pay for public schools. But the practice came to be used to keep Black, Hispanic, Native American and poor White citizens from voting. Many could not afford the couple of dollars required to vote.
The poll tax practice persisted in Texas until 1966, when it was finally abolished via a special resolution of the Texas Legislature for state and local elections. The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, prohibited taxes imposed on voters in federal elections.
Texas also required a voter registration procedure, referred to as a "literacy test." Its primary purpose was to deny the vote to minorities without a certain level of education. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended literacy tests in Texas.
Finally, in 1966, all barriers to voting were removed. Black voter registration soared in Texas from 35.5 percent in 1960 to 59.1 percent in 1984, according to the National Archives' blog "Rediscovering Black History."
Lois White's influence in Texas has continued to reverberate throughout the state and the country. Black voters turned out at the polls in unprecedented numbers during the 2008 and 2012 elections according to CBS Austin.
The Pew Research Center states that Black voters made up 12 percent of the U.S. electorate in 2020, while WalletHub reports that black voters in Texas are among the most politically engaged in the country.
"She was a strong Republican," said Judge Kelly Cross, adding that Lois White was resolved to see conservativism in action in Texas. "Her ideas included a pro-life stance and limited government," said Cross, previously a Probate Judge and attorney in Bexar County, who ran for Justice of the Peace in Guadalupe County where she currently resides.
"I give Republican women a lot of credit because they helped show my mother how, even those who have been marginalized, can get in there, work hard and find their own power," Doris White said.
Lois White’s success in Bexar County garnered attention in Washington D.C. She was offered positions in the administrations of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and later, George H. W. Bush.
Lois White declined both in favor of caring for her family.
"She did not want us to get lost in the shuffle as adolescents," her daughter said. "She was right. It was a tumultuous time. But she never regretted it because she was still very active locally."
Lois White was appointed to fill a vacancy as Bexar County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4 in 1995. Judge White presided over housing disputes, truancy cases and other local matters. She oversaw a dedicated team of court personnel during her term her daughter explained.
In 1995 Lois White was also inducted into the Bexar County Republican Party Hall of Fame. In 2014, she received the Texas Federation of Republican Women's Lifetime Leadership Achievement Award.
"It was a huge celebration in an auditorium full of Republicans honoring her for her longevity in the Republican Party," Cross said.
Though she passed away in 2020, Judge Lois White’s personal commitment to passionate conservative values lives on through her family.
"She taught me and my sister Lois Diane White that it was OK to be masters of our own destinies," Doris White said. White also credits her mother with her own daughter, Dr. Leigh Alexandra Soares' success as an assistant professor of African American History at Mississippi State University.
“I am proud of her,” said Doris White about her mother. “She stood on her own two feet, formulated her own ideas and, against tremendous odds, achieved them."
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