Born: March 19 1882, United States
Died: 9 December 1964
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
Minnie Fisher Cunningham was an American suffrage activist, who was the first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters and who worked for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution giving women the vote. A political worker with liberal views, she became one of the founding members of the Woman’s National Democratic Club. In her position overseeing the club’s finances, she helped the organization purchase of its Washington, D.C. headquarters, which is still in use. She was also the first female student of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to earn a Graduate of Pharmacy degree. She was active in both national and Texas state politics for decades. In 1928, Cunningham became the first Texan woman to run for the United States Senate. She supported Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and programs, and sought to improve conditions for the disenfranchised in the U.S. Seeing the connection between poverty and nutrition, Cunningham worked for government legislation to require nutrient enrichment of flour and bread. Her 1944 Texas gubernatorial candidacy against incumbent Coke Stevenson earned her second place in a field of nine candidates.