Frances Farenthold

Overview

Frances “Sissy” Farenthold (née Tarlton) born Corpus Christi, TX October 2, 1926. Politician, lawyer, peace activist; opposed Vietnam War 1969, as only Texas legislator to reject commending Johnson; President Wells College 1976-80; active in aid to El Salvador 1982; leader of Third World Women’s Project; solidarity visits to women’s peace camps Greenham, Comiso, Seneca 1983; sponsored Peace Tent Nairobi 1985; arrested for trespass at South African consulate Houston for Apartheid protest 1985; co-founded Women for a Meaningful Summit 1986; member WILPF, winning its Jane Addams Award 2000; opposed Iraq War, torture.

Quotations

On Nixon’s war, 1973: “We cannot remain a free republic at home and an arrogant empire abroad.”

“Feminist logic expands the meaning of logic in that it involves persons and the human context in its knowing. It also honors such non-logical faculties as imagination, vision, and emotion. There is a woeful lack of imagination in U.S. foreign policy. Imagination invites one to envision possibilities other than the status quo. We have had the expansion of 'respectable thought' to include imagination and vision. Actually, they offer the world peace in the only place it can begin:  the heart, the mind, and the dream.” (“Women’s Search for Peace”, 1988, Univ. Iowa archives; photo law.utexas.edu)