Voting: It’s one of the most American things we do every two years -- and along with it comes the peaceful transfer of power, democracy in action, and the voices of the people heard in the solemn right of civic duty.

Before the late Willie Velasquez took up the fight for voting rights, “Latinos would go out to vote and vote in large numbers, but their candidates would continually lose,” Velasquez’s longtime friend, Rolando Rios, told KSAT.

On Tuesday, a lawsuit was filed against county election offices across the state, including Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen.

Texas is considered to be the next battleground over voting rights. Community members say they are concerned about the political fallout from a new voting rights bill entering the Texas Legislature, which could affect the Alamo City’s economy.

SAN ANTONIO – In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote, a team of female pilots flew over San Antonio on Friday. The planes then flew over Victor Braunig Lake and landed at Stinson Airport. Dana Perez - She will be flying a 1980 Beechcraft Bonanza A36 and will be piloting aircraft No. Information from Visit San Antonio doesn’t specify what type of aircraft she is expected to fly. To learn more about the women who were involved in the flyover, click here.

SAN ANTONIO – It was inequity in pay between her and her male colleagues that set pharmacist-turned-activist Minnie Fisher Cunningham on a mission to help Texas women get the right to vote in the early 1900s. Cunningham helped create the Texas Equal Suffrage Association and served as the first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters. She worked hard, forming critical political relationships and building grassroots support, which helped her accomplish her mission 100 years ago this month. Cunningham was part of a team, who met with then-President Woodrow Wilson, that successfully encouraged him to release a statement leaning toward suffrage. Cunningham was the first woman in Texas to run for U.S. Senate in 1928.

SAN ANTONIO – After leaving her job as a teacher, Mexican-American journalist Jovita Idar used her father’s weekly newspaper to advocate for women’s rights. Through her writing for La Cronica – and against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution - Idar urged women to educate themselves so they wouldn’t have to rely on men. Her motto – “When you educate a woman, you educate a family.”Idar joined the first Mexican congress in Laredo, and then founded the League of Mexican Women, becoming its first president. When the Texas Rangers arrived to shut down the paper because of her article, Idar stood in front of the door, refusing to allow them to enter. In 1921, she moved from Laredo to San Antonio, where she continued to be a voice for women and established a free kindergarten.

SAN ANTONIO – Rena Maverick Green worked as an artist, but in her spare time, she advocated tirelessly as a proponent for women’s rights. She fought for women’s suffrage in Washington D.C. and as a member of the National Women’s Party of Texas. Green served as president of the San Antonio Equal Franchise Society – helping register women to vote after the 19th Amendment passed. In 1924, Green helped establish the Conservation Society of San Antonio. She and the organization - which is still very active in San Antonio - have been credited for protecting and preserving the city’s natural environments and historic structures, including The Missions.

SAN ANTONIO – As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, did you know that San Antonio’s own Mary Eleanor Brackenridge was the first woman to register to vote in Bexar County? A leader in Texas suffrage organizations, Brackenridge was considered a “late bloomer” when it came to activism. She was in her 70s when she published a pamphlet called, “The Legal Status of Women in Texas” and worked hard to revive the Texas Woman Suffrage Association. Because of Brackenridge’s tireless efforts in the suffrage movement, Texas was the first southern state to give women the right to vote and became the ninth state in the union to ratify the 19th Amendment. If the Brackenridge name sounds familiar – her brother, also a philanthropist, donated the land that is now known as Brackenridge Park.

“The 19th Amendment ensured the vote for women in the United States, Black women and white women. And that is the matter of racism in the women’s suffrage movement in the United States,” she said. It wouldn’t be until 1965′s federal Voter’s Rights Act, that everyone, including Black women, had the right to vote. “That comes as a big split, sense of betrayal, I think, on the part of white women. Meanwhile, white women were attempting to pass women’s suffrage state by state, largely focusing on Southern states.

SAN ANTONIO – If you took a stroll along the San Antonio River Walk on Sunday, you may have noticed some white ribbons wrapped along the trees. Those are placed to honor women gaining the right to vote in 1920. The San Antonio 19th Amendment Centennial Committee is hosting a series of events with support from the city that celebrates these voting rights. More events similar to this one are planned, beginning Tuesday, Aug. 18 to Aug. 26. Tennessee passed the amendment on Aug. 18, but it wasn’t until Aug. 26 that Congress certified the results.

Before women got the right to vote, the 15th Amendment, which passed in 1869 and was ratified the following year, gave Black men the right to vote. St. Mary’s University history professor Teresa Van Hoy says the move didn’t sit well with some white women. “One of the first things they said is that Black men should not receive the vote before white women,” Van Hoy said. Ad“They made many racist remarks about Black men,” Van Hoy said. “The 19th Amendment ensured the vote for women in the United States, Black women and white women,” Van Hoy said.