At a Dec. 15 board meeting, the board of trustees voted to name its 12th elementary school after Jessie Daniel Ames—a women’s suffrage and civil rights leader in Texas whose activism had deep ties to the Georgetown community, said Wes Vanicek, chief of construction and future readiness initiatives.
“Ames’ played a pivotal role in expanding voting rights for women locally and across Texas and later became a leading voice in the anti-lynching movement in the American South,” Vanicek said.
The history
Suffragist and anti-lynching reformer Ames was born in Palestine, Texas, in 1883, according to the Texas State Historical Association. At age 13, she began attending the Ladies Annex of Southwestern University in Georgetown and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1902.
Ames started the Georgetown Equal Suffrage League in 1916 and helped women register to vote in Williamson County for the first time, Vanicek said. As treasurer of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association, she helped make Texas the first Southern state to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1919, according to the TSHA.
Ames became the first president and founder of the League of Women Voters of Texas in 1919. During that same year, Georgetown ISD held its first bond election to fund the construction of its first high school, which now serves as the Hammerlun Center for Leadership and Learning, Vanicek said.
In 1930, Ames led thousands of women in publicly opposing racial violence by forming the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching. The anti-lynching platform was endorsed by 81 state, regional and national groups or organizations by 1937, according to the TSHA.
Ames died of pneumonia in 1972 and is buried at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Georgetown.
Southwestern University recently named its new first-year residence hall after Ames, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
The Jessie Daniel Ames Hall is slated to open to Southwestern students this spring alongside the new second-year residence hall Ella Sedwick Hall.
How we got here
Community members were invited to submit their name nominations for Elementary School No. 12 and Middle School No. 5 this fall. The facilities had to be named after a historical place, person or event as well as a significant figure or person who has significantly contributed to the district.
A district committee reviewed more than 25 name nominations for each campus before recommending to name Elementary School No. 12 after Ames, Vanicek said.
At the Dec. 15 meeting, the board tabled an agenda item to name Middle School No. 5 after Superintendent Devin Padavil recommended delaying the vote. The new middle school is scheduled to open next to Ames Elementary off Patriot Way and SH 130 next school year.
