Pioneering Feminists of the Civil Rights Movement

 

Early History

Christia Daniels Adair was born in Victoria, Texas, on October 22, 1893. She attended school in Edna and then at Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson College) in Austin, Texas. She also attended Praire View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View A&M University). Later on,she taught school in both Edna and Vanderbilt, Texas (6).

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Sufferage

Christia Daniels married Elbert Adair in 1918 and moved with him to Kingsville. At this time, Christia was one of the few African American suffragists in Texas. After the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, she tried to vote, but the rules of the Texas Deocratic Party allowed only party members to vote in primaries. African Americans were excluded from party membership at the time (6).

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Civil Rights Activist and NAACP

Being turned away at the polls caused Adair to focus on racial issues. IN 1920 Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding visited Kingsville. Before his speech, Adair placed several African American children nearest to Harding's podium. When he finished, he reached over the heads of the African American children to shake hands with Anglos. This infuriated Adair (6).

 

In 1925, the Adairs moved to Houston and Christia became an early member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People (NAACP). When her husband died in 1943, she remained a loyal member of the NAACP for the rest of her life and served as executive secretary for 12 years (6).

During these years, the houston branch of the NAACP was involved in two important court cases.Smith v. Allwright ended the race barrier in state primary voting nationwide. The other case involverd the 1957 attempts of the Houston police to find the membership list of the Houston chapter of the NAACP. Both of these cases were argued before the U.S. Supreme Court (6).

 

Adair helped desegregate the Houston airport, the Houston Public Library, city buses, the veterans' hospital, and a local department store dressing room.Other efforts led to jury service for African Americans and the eligibility of African Americans for county government jobs. She helped found the Harris County Democrats, served as one of the first African American precinct judges in Houston, and was one of the first two African Americans to be chosen for the state Democratic committee (6).

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Works and Legacy

Adair was also active in her church and in the National Association of Colored Women’s and Girls’ Club. When Radcliffe College’s Schlesinger Library decided to do an oral history of African American women, Adair was one of 50 women interviewed. In 1974 she received honors from the local chapter of the National Organization for Women for her activities with women’s suffrage. Even into her eighties, Adair worked as the clerk of absentee voting for the county. A Houston county park was dedicated in her name on her eighty-fourth birthday (6).

 

Christia Adair died on December 31, 1989.

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Bibliography

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