Last updated The Golden Lane, suffragists in St. Louis, June 14, 1916
The women's suffrage movement was active in Missouri mostly after the Civil War. There were significant developments in the St. Louis area, though groups and organized activity took place throughout the state. An early suffrage group, the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri, was formed in 1867, attracting the attention of Susan B. Anthony and leading to news items around the state. This group, the first of its kind, lobbied the Missouri General Assembly for women's suffrage and established conventions. In the early 1870s, many women voted or registered to vote as an act of civil disobedience. The suffragist Virginia Minor was one of these women when she tried to register to vote on October 15, 1872. She and her husband, Francis Minor, sued, leading to a Supreme Court case that asserted the Fourteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote. The case, Minor v. Happersett, was decided against the Minors and led suffragists in the country to pursue legislative means to grant women suffrage.
Women's suffrage groups continued to fight in Missouri and also outside of the state. The Marysville Ladies Marching Band was featured in the Woman Suffrage Procession on March 13, 1913. It was the only all-female marching band and helped quiet the angry crowds. During the 1916 Democratic National Convention, suffragists Emily Newell Blair and Edna Gellhorn planned a silent, motionless parade. This event received national attention and helped gain some support from the Democratic delegates.
Women in Missouri gained the right to vote in presidential elections in April 1919, a few months before Governor Frederick D. Gardner called for a special legislative session to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. Missouri ratified the amendment on July 3, 1919, making Missouri the eleventh state to ratify. Soon after, Missouri's groups formed the Missouri League of Women Voters and other local chapters of the League of Women Voters.
Much of the women's suffrage activity in Missouri took place after the Civil War and was centered in St. Louis.[1][2] However, other areas, such as Columbia and Kansas City also played a key role in working towards women's suffrage.[1] A group that was important early on in Missouri women's suffrage history was the Ladies Union Aid Society of St. Louis (LUAS).[3][3] On May 8, 1867, the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri was created by former members of LUAS who met at the Mercantile Library Hall.[4][5] It was the first political organization in the United States formed solely to advocate for women's suffrage.[4] Among the founders were Anna Clapp and Lucretia Hall.[5]Virginia Minor became its first president.[6][7]Susan B. Anthony, impressed with the immediate success of the group, visited them in 1867.[3] In October 1867, a women's suffrage convention took place in St. Louis, drawing a large attendance.[8] The Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri also attracted attention in news coverage around the state.[9]
One of the first actions the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri took on was to collect signatures for a petition for women's suffrage.[3] The group succeeded in obtaining more than 350 signatures which it presented to the Missouri General Assembly.[3]Phoebe Couzins spoke before the legislature for women's suffrage.[10] The St. Joseph Gazette reported that the women from the Woman Suffrage Association were received with "favor".[11] Legislators talked about combining women's suffrage with suffrage for African-American people in the state.[11] However the proposition was voted down.[12]
The first suffrage convention in Missouri was held in St. Louis in 1869 at the Mercantile Library Hall.[13][14] The Missouri Woman Suffrage Convention hosted a number of speakers and influential suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe.[13] It drew women from out of state, including one woman from Kansas who was arrested and briefly detained for wearing bloomers.[15] At the convention, Virginia Minor put forth the idea that the Fourteenth Amendment already provided women the right to vote.[16] Virginia's husband, Francis Minor, wrote up resolutions and pamphlets were printed up based on this idea.[17] These pamphlets were circulated around the country and the idea it spawned was called the "New Departure".[17][18] Much of the work on these legal ideas was based on the law that Francis Minor had practiced to protect his wife in case he died before she did.[19]
In this same year, the Missouri Woman Suffrage Association decided not to affiliate with any national groups, though they did send two delegates to a national convention in Washington, D.C.[20][21] Meetings were well attended by both men and women and were held twice a month.[9] Other active groups at the time included the St. Louis branch of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).[22]
"An Important Decision" from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 31, 1875
In the early 1870s, across the United States, Black and white women were attempting to register to vote or to vote in various elections, many of them inspired by Virginia Minor.[17][18] Virginia Minor attempted to register to vote on October 15, 1872 in St. Louis and was denied by the registrar, Reese Happersett, on the basis of sex.[17] Her husband, Francis Minor, sued on her behalf since women could not file suits in Missouri until 1889.[17] Based on the argument that she was a United States citizen, he argued, Virginia Minor should be allowed to vote.[17] The case went to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in 1874 as Minor v. Happersett.[17] The court ruled against Minor in a unanimous decision, stating that citizens are not guaranteed the right to vote by the United States Constitution.[16] Chief Justice Morrison Waite wrote: "If the law is wrong, it ought to be changed; but the power for that is not with us."[16]Minor v. Happersett showed suffragists across the country that the path to women's suffrage would be through changing the laws, not challenging them in the courts.[16]
In 1875, Missouri considered women's suffrage during the state constitutional convention.[23] Couzins went on a lecture tour to support women's suffrage in 1876.[24] Women brought petitions to the Missouri General Assembly asking for a women's suffrage amendment to the state constitution in 1881.[25] In 1883, women again petitioned the assembly for general and presidential suffrage.[25] The Missouri Woman Suffrage Association seems to have lost momentum around 1886 while other groups in the state remained fairly active.[22]
The Missouri Equal Suffrage Association (MESA) was formed in 1895 after delegates from Missouri attended the Mississippi Valley Congress of Women.[29] In 1896, MESA organized a convention in St. Louis to take place concurrently with the 1896 Republican National Convention.[29] Delegates from women's suffrage groups across the country came to try to influence the Republicans to add a women's suffrage plank in their platform.[29] They were unsuccessful, and in addition, there was a lot of infighting between MESA and the St. Louis suffrage group.[29]
Suffrage efforts gain visibility
Missouri Ladies Military Band from Marysville marches in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913
In 1910, Emmeline Pankhurst came to tour the United States.[30] Her visit inspired women in St. Louis to create the Equal Suffrage League (ESL).[31] Pankhurst was not able to come to St. Louis, but the effort of getting together and inviting her to talk had given the suffragists more strength and helped grow the movement again in Missouri.[32] On April 10, 1910, the ESL of St. Louis was formed with Florence Wyman Richardson as president.[32] In 1911, three other clubs merged into the Missouri Equal Suffrage Association (MESA).[33] MESA divided the state into districts.[33]
Missouri was represented in the Woman Suffrage Procession on March 3, 1913. The Maryville Ladies Marching Band, from Maryville, Missouri, was the only all-women band in the parade.[34] When the parade became violent with men pushing and harassing the women, the band was used to calm the crowd.[35] It was reported that the men were "shocked at the sight of women playing such 'wonderful music.'"[36] That spring, in the state of Missouri, MESA collected more than 14,000 signatures in support of women's suffrage.[36] Representative Thomas J. Roney brought the petition to the Missouri General Assembly and helped create a women's suffrage bill.[36] The bill was defeated in the Senate, and its defeat was discouraging for many women in Missouri.[37]
In the fall of 1913, the St. Louis managers of the Merchants and Manufacturers Street Exposition helped the suffragists plan a car parade for September 30, 1913.[38] The parade had 30 cars with men and women waving yellow "Votes for Women" pennants.[38] One car was covered with the purple banner of MESA.[38] After the car procession, the women marched again on the street behind a marching band.[39] They ended the parade at Franklin Avenue where the suffragists gave speeches on soap boxes.[39]
During a 1913 suffrage conference in Missouri, Black suffragist, Victoria Clay Haley, attended as a representative of the Federated Colored Women's Club.[40] It took place in a hotel that was fairly segregated and Haley, while asked to leave, did not, showing she had just as much right to be there as the white suffragists.[40] Haley also went to the Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference in 1914.[41]
Throughout 1913 and 1914 suffragists in Columbia gave speeches at every women's organization in the city.[42] The Columbia suffragists also brought in suffragists from other states.[42] An amendment to add women's suffrage to the state constitution was up for a vote in November 1914.[43] After the defeat of the women's suffrage amendment in 1914, Emily Newell Blair accepted a position as the first editor of the suffrage magazine The Missouri Woman.[44] Later, in April 1916, Mary Semple Scott took over as editor of the magazine.[45]
Delegates to the Democratic National Convention walk on the Golden Lane 1916
During the 1916 Democratic National Convention, suffragists staged a demonstration.[46] The idea for the silent protest came from Emily Newell Blair in February earlier that year.[47] More than 3,000 women lined twelve blocks along Locust Street, wearing white dresses, "votes for women" sashes and holding yellow umbrellas.[46][48][47] They did not move or talk and the event, which was organized by Edna Gellhorn, was called a "walkless, talkless parade," or the "Golden Lane".[46][49] The demonstration was meant to show how women had been silenced by not being allowed to vote.[49] The event gained national attention in the media.[50] The Democratic delegates voted to support women's suffrage on a state by state basis.[51] Also in June, during the 1916 Republican National Convention, women sent telegrams to the Missouri electors to convince them to support women's suffrage in the Republican platform.[52] The Republican convention declined to support a federal suffrage amendment, but instead supported suffrage by state.[52]
In 1916, ten Missouri women went to the National Suffrage Convention in Atlantic City as delegates.[53] They pledged Missouri's suffragists to work towards passage of a federal suffrage amendment.[53] Missouri women organized themselves into congressional districts.[54] Suffragists in Missouri opened up headquarters in Jefferson City in order to lobby members of the Missouri General Assembly.[55] Eventually, a bill to provide women the right to vote in a presidential election was proposed in both the Senate and the House.[55] In attempting to influence lawmakers, suffragists provided politicians with maps showing how suffrage had increased throughout the U.S.[56] They also took out ads in the newspapers.[56] Unfortunately, the bill did not pass.[57]
Suffragists again tried to petition for limited suffrage in 1917.[58] While it passed the House, it did not pass the Senate in the general assembly.[59] Later in the year, suffragists in Missouri worked to petition Missouri members of the House Rules Committee to create a House Committee on Women Suffrage.[59] Suffragists continued to communicate with Missouri politicians and let them know that they expected them to support women's suffrage.[60]
During World War I, suffrage groups in Missouri worked to help aid the war effort.[46] The suffrage magazine, The Missouri Woman offered space to the Missouri Women's Division of the Council of National Defense where they printed war propaganda and news.[61] Suffragist, Victoria Clay Haley, who chaired the Colored Women's Unit of the Council of National Defense, hosted a patriotic rally in St. Louis where more than 5,000 Black people attended.[62]
Presidential suffrage and ratification
Ratifying suffrage in Missouri July 3, 1919
On January 8, 1919, the first bill introduced in the Missouri General Assembly was to allow women in Missouri to vote in presidential elections and was called "Bill Number One".[63] The bill was introduced by a Jasper County representative, Walter E. Bailey in the House and in the Senate by James McKnight from Gentry County.[63] In the Senate, there was some controversy over whether the bill would be able to pass and three women, Marie Ames, Alma Sasse, and Mrs. Wm. Haight, watched the proceedings and made sure that senators who might vote for suffrage would be on the floor during any votes.[63][64] Bill Number One passed the Senate and on February 11, it passed the House with a vote of 122 to 8.[64] After this, the bill went back for the final write up.[64] Some anti-suffrage senators tried to attach amendments in hopes of killing the legislation, but they were unsuccessful.[64] The proceedings stretched into March.[64] In the week of March 23 to 29, 1919, NAWSA held their Golden Jubilee Convention in St. Louis.[48] The final vote for the presidential bill was on March 28.[65] Suffragists worked together to procure a special train for one of the senators who was pro-suffrage and was out-of-town.[64] The bill passed the senate again by 21 to 12.[66] On April 5, 1919, the Presidential Suffrage bill was signed by Governor Frederick D. Gardner while suffragists watched.[48][66]
When the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, suffrage leaders urged the states to call special legislative sessions for state ratification.[67] In Kansas City on June 16, 1919, suffragists met at the Grand Avenue Temple to work on strategies to influence the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment by Missouri.[68] Suffragists lobbied the state government and met with Governor Gardner.[69] They were able to persuade the governor to call a special legislative session in July.[70] Missouri suffragists also contacted the state legislators to persuade them to ratify the amendment.[70]
The day before the special session convened, suffrage groups, along with members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) hosted a suffrage luncheon and dinner.[71] The dinner was also accompanied by speeches and had a general sense of celebration.[72] On July 2, women lined the streets from the New Central Hotel to the Missouri Capitol, holding yellow umbrellas and wearing sashes and yellow flowers.[73] That day the amendment passed the Missouri house by 125 to 4 and in the Senate by 29 to 3.[73] During the proceedings the galleries were filled with suffragists.[73] The next day, Governor Gardner signed the ratification bill.[73]
Women like Madeleine Liggett Clarke and Mary A. Kennedy began to hold "school for voters" which included classes on citizenship, history, law and other topics.[74][75]Fannie C. Williams set up a suffrage school at the city's Black YWCA.[76] Paid organizers went to women's homes to help prepare them for voting.[77] The Missouri League of Women Voters (LWV Missouri) was created in October 1919 with Edna Gellhorn as the first president.[78] The Missouri Woman Suffrage Association met at the Statler Hotel in St. Louis where the group changed its name to the LWV.[79] The meeting had 500 attendees, both men and women, and was accompanied by speeches.[79] The National League of Women Voters was established on February 14, 1920.[78]Marie Ruoff Byrum became the first woman voter in Missouri on August 31, 1920.[10]
Anti-suffragists in Missouri
The anti-suffrage arguments in Missouri were often based on adhering to women's traditional roles. An 1872 letter to the editor published in the Warrenton Banner described suffragists as "Free Lovers and loose divorced people," and asserted that there were different roles for men and women.[80] In 1887, Senator George G. Vest argued on the Senate floor that a women's place was "at home, not the ballot box."[81]
In 1914, arguments against giving women the vote included the idea that it would cause an imbalance between rural and urban communities.[43] It was proposed that urban areas would get a disproportionate amount of the vote and that this was undesirable.[43]Minnie Bronson came to Missouri in 1916 in order to persuade state legislators against passing women's suffrage bills.[55] She spent time with Missouri lawmakers telling unflattering, but interesting anecdotes about women.[56]
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States and its states from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex, in effect recognizing the right of women to vote. The amendment was the culmination of a decades-long movement for women's suffrage in the United States, at both the state and national levels, and was part of the worldwide movement towards women's suffrage and part of the wider women's rights movement. The first women's suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878. However, a suffrage amendment did not pass the House of Representatives until May 21, 1919, which was quickly followed by the Senate, on June 4, 1919. It was then submitted to the states for ratification, achieving the requisite 36 ratifications to secure adoption, and thereby go into effect, on August 18, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment's adoption was certified on August 26, 1920.
Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1875), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that citizenship does not confer a right to vote, and therefore state laws barring women from voting are constitutionally valid. The Supreme Court upheld state court decisions in Missouri, which had refused to register a woman as a lawful voter because that state's laws allowed only men to vote.
Virginia Louisa Minor was an American women's suffrage activist. She is best remembered as the plaintiff in Minor v. Happersett, an 1875 United States Supreme Court case in which Minor unsuccessfully argued that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote.
The 1916 Democratic National Convention was held at the St. Louis Coliseum in St. Louis, Missouri from June 14 to June 16, 1916. It resulted in the nomination of President Woodrow Wilson and Vice President Thomas R. Marshall for reelection.
Edna Fischel Gellhorn was an American suffragist and reformer who helped found the League of Women Voters.
This timeline highlights milestones in women's suffrage in the United States, particularly the right of women to vote in elections at federal and state levels.
Women's suffrage was established in the United States on a full or partial basis by various towns, counties, states and territories during the latter decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. As women received the right to vote in some places, they began running for public office and gaining positions as school board members, county clerks, state legislators, judges, and, in the case of Jeannette Rankin, as a member of Congress.
The St. Louis Equal Suffrage League was formed in 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri with the aim of "bring[ing] together men and women who are willing to consider the question of Equal Suffrage and by earnest co-operation to secure its establishment."
The Missouri League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization to inform women voters in the American state of Missouri and encourage their participation in the political process. It was founded in 1919 as a successor to the Equal Suffrage League, a campaign for women's suffrage in the state, and appointed Edna Gellhorn as its first president. It is affiliated to the U.S.-wide League of Women Voters and organizes local branches in different parts of the state.
Francis Minor, husband of suffragist Virginia Minor, was a lawyer and a women's rights advocate. Turning Point Suffragist Memorial lists Francis along with six others as "Suffragist Men" and "the Importance of Allies."
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Missouri. Women's suffrage in Missouri started in earnest after the Civil War. In 1867, one of the first women's suffrage groups in the U.S. was formed, called the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri. Suffragists in Missouri held conventions, lobbied the Missouri General Assembly and challenged the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). The case that went to SCOTUS in 1874, Minor v. Happersett was not ruled in the suffragists' favor. Instead of challenging the courts for suffrage, Missouri suffragists continued to lobby for changes in legislation. In April 1919, they gained the right to vote in presidential elections. On July 3, 1919, Missouri becomes the eleventh state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
Even before women's suffrage efforts took off in Rhode Island, women were fighting for equal male suffrage during the Dorr Rebellion. Women raised money for the Dorrite cause, took political action and kept members of the rebellion in exile informed. An abolitionist, Paulina Wright Davis, chaired and attended women's rights conferences in New England and later, along with Elizabeth Buffum Chace, founded the Rhode Island Women's Suffrage Association (RIWSA) in 1868. This group petitioned the Rhode Island General Assembly for an amendment to the state constitution to provide women's suffrage. For many years, RIWSA was the major group providing women's suffrage action in Rhode Island. In 1887, a women's suffrage amendment to the state constitution came up for a voter referendum. The vote, on April 6, 1887, was decisively against women's suffrage.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Montana. The fight for women's suffrage in Montana started early, before Montana became a state. In 1887, women gained the right to vote in school board elections and on tax issues. In the years that followed, women battled for full, equal suffrage, which culminated in a year-long campaign in 1914 when they became one of eleven states with equal voting rights for most women. Montana ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on August 2, 1919 and was the thirteenth state to ratify. Native American women voters did not have equal rights to vote until 1924.
The first women's suffrage group in Georgia, the Georgia Woman Suffrage Association (GWSA), was formed in 1892 by Helen Augusta Howard. Over time, the group, which focused on "taxation without representation" grew and earned the support of both men and women. Howard convinced the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to hold their first convention outside of Washington, D.C., in 1895. The convention, held in Atlanta, was the first large women's rights gathering in the Southern United States. GWSA continued to hold conventions and raise awareness over the next years. Suffragists in Georgia agitated for suffrage amendments, for political parties to support white women's suffrage and for municipal suffrage. In the 1910s, more organizations were formed in Georgia and the number of suffragists grew. In addition, the Georgia Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage also formed an organized anti-suffrage campaign. Suffragists participated in parades, supported bills in the legislature and helped in the war effort during World War I. In 1917 and 1919, women earned the right to vote in primary elections in Waycross, Georgia and in Atlanta respectively. In 1919, after the Nineteenth Amendment went out to the states for ratification, Georgia became the first state to reject the amendment. When the Nineteenth Amendment became the law of the land, women still had to wait to vote because of rules regarding voter registration. White Georgia women would vote statewide in 1922. Native American women and African-American women had to wait longer to vote. Black women were actively excluded from the women's suffrage movement in the state and had their own organizations. Despite their work to vote, Black women faced discrimination at the polls in many different forms. Georgia finally ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on February 20, 1970.
Women's suffrage began in Illinois began in the mid-1850s. The first women's suffrage group was formed in Earlville, Illinois, by the cousin of Susan B. Anthony, Susan Hoxie Richardson. After the Civil War, former abolitionist Mary Livermore organized the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association (IWSA), which would later be renamed the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA). Frances Willard and other suffragists in the IESA worked to lobby various government entities for women's suffrage. In the 1870s, women were allowed to serve on school boards and were elected to that office. The first women to vote in Illinois were 15 women in Lombard, Illinois, led by Ellen A. Martin, who found a loophole in the law in 1891. Women were eventually allowed to vote for school offices in the 1890s. Women in Chicago and throughout Illinois fought for the right to vote based on the idea of no taxation without representation. They also continued to expand their efforts throughout the state. In 1913, women in Illinois were successful in gaining partial suffrage. They became the first women east of the Mississippi River to have the right to vote in presidential elections. Suffragists then worked to register women to vote. Both African-American and white suffragists registered women in huge numbers. In Chicago alone 200,000 women were registered to vote. After gaining partial suffrage, women in Illinois kept working towards full suffrage. The state became the first to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, passing the ratification on June 10, 1919. The League of Women Voters (LWV) was announced in Chicago on February 14, 1920.
Early women's suffrage work in Alabama started in the 1860s. Priscilla Holmes Drake was the driving force behind suffrage work until the 1890s. Several suffrage groups were formed, including a state suffrage group, the Alabama Woman Suffrage Organization (AWSO). The Alabama Constitution had a convention in 1901 and suffragists spoke and lobbied for women's rights provisions. However, the final constitution continued to exclude women. Women's suffrage efforts were mainly dormant until the 1910s when new suffrage groups were formed. Suffragists in Alabama worked to get a state amendment ratified and when this failed, got behind the push for a federal amendment. Alabama did not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until 1953. For many years, both white women and African American women were disenfranchised by poll taxes. Black women had other barriers to voting including literacy tests and intimidation. Black women would not be able to fully access their right to vote until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The first women's suffrage effort in Florida was led by Ella C. Chamberlain in the early 1890s. Chamberlain began writing a women's suffrage news column, started a mixed-gender women's suffrage group and organized conventions in Florida.
While women's suffrage had an early start in Maine, dating back to the 1850s, it was a long, slow road to equal suffrage. Early suffragists brought speakers Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone to the state in the mid-1850s. Ann F. Jarvis Greely and other women in Ellsworth, Maine, created a women's rights lecture series in 1857. The first women's suffrage petition to the Maine Legislature was also sent that year. Working-class women began marching for women's suffrage in the 1860s. The Snow sisters created the first Maine women's suffrage organization, the Equal Rights Association of Rockland, in 1868. In the 1870s, a state suffrage organization, the Maine Women's Suffrage Association (MWSA), was formed. Many petitions for women's suffrage were sent to the state legislature. MWSA and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Maine worked closely together on suffrage issues. By the late 1880s the state legislature was considering several women's suffrage bills. While women's suffrage did not pass, during the 1890s many women's rights laws were secured. During the 1900s, suffragists in Maine continued to campaign and lecture on women's suffrage. Several suffrage organizations including a Maine chapter of the College Equal Suffrage League and the Men's Equal Rights League were formed in the 1910s. Florence Brooks Whitehouse started the Maine chapter of the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1915. Suffragists and other clubwomen worked together on a large campaign for a 1917 voter referendum on women's suffrage. Despite the efforts of women around the state, women's suffrage failed. Going into the next few years, a women's suffrage referendum on voting in presidential elections was placed on the September 13, 1920 ballot. But before that vote, Maine ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on November 5, 1920. It was the nineteenth state to ratify. A few weeks after ratification, MWSA dissolved and formed the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Maine. White women first voted in Maine on September 13, 1920. Native Americans in Maine had to wait longer to vote. In 1924, they became citizens of the United States. However, Maine would not allow individuals living on Indian reservations to vote. It was not until the passage of a 1954 equal rights referendum that Native Americans gained the right to vote in Maine. In 1955 Lucy Nicolar Poolaw (Penobscot) was the first Native American living on a reservation in Maine to cast a vote.
Women's suffrage began in North Dakota when it was still part of the Dakota Territory. During this time activists worked for women's suffrage, and in 1879, women gained the right to vote at school meetings. This was formalized in 1883 when the legislature passed a law where women would use separate ballots for their votes on school-related issues. When North Dakota was writing its state constitution, efforts were made to include equal suffrage for women, but women were only able to retain their right to vote for school issues. An abortive effort to provide equal suffrage happened in 1893, when the state legislature passed equal suffrage for women. However, the bill was "lost," never signed and eventually expunged from the record. Suffragists continued to hold conventions, raise awareness, and form organizations. The arrival of Sylvia Pankhurst in February 1912 stimulated the creation of more groups, including the statewide Votes for Women League. In 1914, there was a voter referendum on women's suffrage, but it did not pass. In 1917, limited suffrage bills for municipal and presidential suffrage were signed into law. On December 1, 1919, North Dakota became the twentieth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
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