Local News: Creating Change

Paving the Way
Lena Bristol Fought So Her Daughter Could Be an Aggie
By: Madiha Rizvi

From the Texas A&M University Battalion

Lena Ann Bristol sat in the living room of her Bryan home, a room filled with pictures of her family, as she recounted her story of being one of the first women to take legal action against Texas A&M 50 years ago.

According to "Texas A&M University" by Henry Dethloff, Bristol was one of the first, along with Barbara Tittle, to file a discrimination lawsuit against A&M in spring 1958. Her efforts paved the way for women to attend A&M. The local court ruled in her favor, but the appellate court in Waco reversed the decision. The plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court, but it refused to hear the case.

"One day word came to me that someone in town, John Barron, who was an Aggie ex, said that if any woman in Bryan wanted to go to A&M, he would sue the school and it would not cost her a thing, if she would be willing. A newspaper reporter from The Bryan Eagle came and told me what was happening and what exactly to say," Bristol said.

Bristol and Tittle decided to file suit against A&M. Bristol said she can recall the experience of stepping into the registrar's office and asking to register for classes in spring. At the time, women were only allowed to take summer classes at A&M.

"When I walked in and said I would like to register for the spring semester and [the employee] asked if I wanted to register for the summer," Bristol said. "I was like, no, I want to register for spring. She had the attitude like you can't do that."

Bristol said that after the encounter with the registrar, she met with the president of the A&M system, Marion Harrington, to ask him if she could graduate with a degree from the University.

"I went to see the president and told him what my interest was. He said 'Oh no, we don't have girls come here for a long term. Just for the summer you are welcome to come and go,'" Bristol said. "I was like let me ask you this, suppose I come here summer after summer and I accumulate enough hours to graduate, will you give me a degree?"

Bristol said Harrington answered with a no. Bristol asked Harrington if she could petition in front of the board to allow women to come in, and he told her to forget about it.

She thanked him and said she wanted to attend A&M because it was 7 miles from her house and she paid school taxes.

"I was like why should be I excluded just because I [am] a female?" she said.

Bristol said the episode made her determined and she went to see the attorney, Barron. He asked her if she was sure about filing the lawsuit.

"I was like 'Oh yes, I want to definitely go [through with the lawsuit],'" Bristol said.

She remembered how the Sunday paper came out with a picture of her and Tittle coming down the steps of A&M.

"The headline was women sue to get into A&M - it was a Sunday paper and I went to church," she said. "Several people met me and said 'Aww, you did this and then several people were like what do you mean, how dare you think you can get into A&M?

"So I went through a lot. It gave me confidence though. I felt like I could do anything I wanted to after all this happened," Bristol said.

Bristol and Tittle won in the district court under Judge William McDonald, Class of 1933, who ordered A&M to open to women. Because of his ruling, effigies of him were hung twice on the A&M campus, according to the Cushing Library's exhibit, "Intended For All."

Then McDonald's ruling was reversed.

"Believing that the court erred in granting appellees the relief he did by awarding them a mandatory injunction, [McDonald's] action in so doing is reversed and the judgment is rendered for appellants," said Jake Tiry, associate justice in Waco. The judgement reversed McDonald's decision.

After co-education at A&M lost its cause in the appellate court, the women decided to try it in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

According to the April 7, 1959, edition of The Battalion, John Barron said, "I've been approached by two or three women who want to get into A&M and it is possible the whole thing may start all over again." He said this after the appeal of the U.S. Supreme Court was turned down.

It did happen again, and because of Bristol's lawsuit, many women came forward to fight for admittance into A&M.

In 1965 the Board of Regents voted to allow any woman to attend the University.

The shift was gradual, and in the decades that followed, enrollment shot up. There were 2,713 women enrolled in 1972, and that figure became 21,439 in 2002, according to the Office of Institutional Planning. In 2008, women made up 22,474 of 48,039 students enrolled.

Bristol said part of the reason she sued A&M was that she wanted her daughter, Annette Bristol, to attend college at A&M.

"She was in the first class in which women were admitted. She got her master's but she could not get her doctorate," she said.

Bristol gazed upward and remembered her childhood, with her bright blue eyes glazed with the memories of her 85 years.

"My mother was over 40 when I was born. My father died when I was four so she raised a house full of kids by herself and this was during the crash of 1929. I never knew that I was poor all that time. I can't explain it and all my life, even though we did not have things, we had each other and my life was happy," Bristol said.

Bristol's memories have become more than something to reflect on, they have become part of her future.

"I am writing a book and I hope I can stick to it. It will be fiction but not really, because you've got to write about something you know about. It is going to be the story of my life," she said.

Her eyes were brimming with tears as she said goodbye, standing up slowly as if her memories bore a heavy load.

"I am sorry, I am very sentimental," Bristol said. "I would like to say that I have had a blessed life and I just like to be happy and remember the funny things. I want to be remembered as a happy person."

Published on Wednesday, November 12, 2008