Legislator Who Stood Up to Sexism in '73 Sees Some Progress

Colleagues warned Senfronia Thompson that speaking out would jeopardize her political future.

It was the spring of 1973, and 34-year-old Thompson had just started her first term in the Texas House of Representatives. Earlier that day, she was walking into a popular lunch place near the Capitol in Austin when Democratic state Rep. C.C. “Kit” Cooke saw her and said loudly, for everyone to hear, “Oh, here comes my beautiful black mistress.”

She was infuriated. That same afternoon, Thompson, a Democrat, stepped onto the House floor to tell her mostly white, male colleagues she would not tolerate racist or sexist insults.

“We will never root these maladies out of Texas,” she said, “unless we start with ourselves in this House of Representatives.

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