Tag: Suffrage Centennial

Women's Suffrage Activists Influenced by Anti-Slavery Movement

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

Many got their start as leaders in the anti-slavery movement.  But when women delegates attended the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention, they were relegated to the gallery.   This humiliation led to the seneca falls convention with broad goals for women’s rights, including the vote.

After the Civil War, suffragists expected legal changes to include women’s voting rights.  A series of constitutional amendments abolished slavery, granted citizenship to persons born in the us, including former slaves, and guaranteed a right to vote regardless of race. However, the 14th  Amendment inserted “male” into the US Constitution for purposes of voting.  The suffragists felt bitterly betrayed; some campaigned against the 14th and 15th Amendments.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote: “If that word ‘male’ be inserted, it will take us a century … to get it out.” Shamefully the former slaves enjoyed less than a decade of voting rights. Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to prevent black voting.

Another century passed before the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 accomplished what the 14th and 15th Amendments had not.  So, in effect, white women got  to vote nearly half a century before black citizens did.

This message is a produced by the Kanawha valley National Organization for Women with funding from the WV Humanities Council.

Susan B. Anthony Organizes National American Women's Suffrage Association

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

Part of the remarkable history of the suffrage movement is the lifelong friendship and partnership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. While Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the philosopher of the women’s movement, Susan B. Anthony became its most visible and prominent leader. Of the partnership between the two, it is said that Cady Stanton fashioned the thunderbolts and Anthony threw them. While Cady Stanton was bound to house and home with pregnancy and childbirth, Anthony traveled the country to spread the message.

Travel in the 19 Century was not comfortable. Campaigning in Kansas, Susan wrote home about rugged conditions and bed bugs, “We have not slept a wink for several nights, but even in broad daylight our tormentors are so active that it is impossible. We find them in our bonnets, and this morning i think we picked a thousand out of the ruffles of our dresses.”

In 1890, Anthony organized the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and became its first president. The organization had 2,000 members that year and grew to two million members by 1920, becoming the largest voluntary association in the United States. 

This message is produced­­­­ by the Kanawha Valley Chapter of the National Organization for Women with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

100 Years Ago – Elizabeth Cady Stanton Writes the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the most consequential women in the battle for women’s rights. She fought for equality on all fronts. In her later years, she even took on the Bible as the root cause of women’s subordinate status in society. She came from a highly educated and wealthy New York family. Marriage and motherhood, with seven children, did not deter her from making equality for women her life’s work. On her honeymoon in 1840, in London, she and her husband attended the World Anti-Slavery convention. When she was relegated to the balcony because she was a woman, she joined with Lucretia Mott, another anti-slavery crusader, to fight for women’s equality.

Together they planned the first women’s rights convention in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. Attended by about 300 women and men, the convention delivered the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments and marked the beginning of the women’s movement for equal rights. Cady Stanton wrote most of that document and based it on the Declaration of Independence. Channeling Thomas Jefferson, she wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.”

This message is produced by the Kanawha Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

West Virginia Celebrations Mark 100th Anniversary Of Women’s Right To Vote

The 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, is Wednesday, Aug. 26. Across the state, in-person and virtual commemorations will honor the day.

Congress passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919, with West Virginia becoming the 34th state to ratify it. It was added to the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920.

Renate Pore, the president of the Kanawha Valley Chapter of the National Organization of Women and an historian, said women marched and protested for nearly 75 years before they gained the right to vote. And it is important to remember that. 

“I think it’s important to remind people that social change takes a long time, and it takes an ongoing struggle,” she said. 

For Pore, it is important to remember the sacrifices of the women involved.

“I want people to acknowledge that these women were real heroes in our struggle for a more perfect democracy,” she said. “Many of them gave their lives and their livelihoods. In the latter part of the struggle in the 20th century, women were arrested, they were thrown in jail, they were forced fed. I want people to understand that the vote is really important and how long people struggled to get this important right.”

Pore thinks that if West Virginia had not ratified the amendment, the push would likely have lost momentum and it might not have passed in 1920 at all. 

Planned Activities

Gov. Jim Justice and Secretary of State Mac Warner will host a special presentation on Wednesday at 2 p.m. about the history of women’s suffrage in West Virginia. It will include the presentation of a proclamation commemorating the anniversary. The ceremony will be broadcast live to the Secretary of State’s Facebook Page.

Several organizations are also hosting events across West Virginia including:

Aug. 25 from 5-6 p.m. in Dunbar – GFCW Woman’s Club of Dunbar hosts the 100th Celebration March. Open to the public. Period attire and signs are encouraged. The march will begin at Econo Lodge (100 Dunbar Ave, in Dunbar) and end at the 13th Street Parking Lot.

Aug. 26 at 11 a.m. (Virtually) – The WV Women’s Commission announces the 2020 Legacy of Women Award winners. These awards are given to women who have participated in shaping the state or the nation and our role as women achievers for tomorrow’s female leaders. The awards are named for outstanding women in West Virginia’s history. The event will take place live on the Women’s Commission Facebook page.

Aug. 26 at 11:00 a.m. in Clarksburg – The Progressive Women’s Association of Harrison County will host a presentation on women’s suffrage and will feature women who are current or former elected officials. The Harrison County Commission will also present a proclamation declaring “Women’s Equality Day” in Harrison County.

Aug. 26, at noon (Virtually) – Kanawha Valley NOW will sponsor a virtual presentation on suffrage and ratification of the 19th Amendment in West Virginia. Zoom Link: Zoom Meeting ID: 894 3702 8485. Passcode: 326070.

Aug. 26, at noon in Berkeley Springs – Members of Eastern Panhandle NOW and Daughters of the American Revolution will host a speech regarding suffrage on the Morgan County Courthouse steps. Additionally, the Berkeley Springs Museum will unveil a suffrage display at the event. The display features many women involved in the movement, including local suffragist Georgia McIntire, a lawyer who had many firsts, including the first woman to try a case in the WV Supreme Court of Appeals.

Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m. (Virtually) – Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council will host Courage, Cookies and Cocktails – a virtual event. Learn more and register here.

Aug. 26 at 6 p.m. (Virtually) – WVU Libraries hosts a virtual talk with Barbara Evans Fleischauer & Eleanor Smeal – Barbara Evans Fleischauer, member of the West Virginia House of Representatives will introduce Eleanor Smeal, former president of the National Organization for Women and publisher of Ms. Magazine. This program will be hosted virtually on Zoom. Register to participate.

For more events and information about the Coordinating Committee, visit https://sos.wv.gov/about/Pages/WV19Amend.aspx. 

100 Years Ago – Abigail Adams Advocates for Women's Suffrage

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

Abigail Adams, wife of one president and mother of another, was one of the first voices for women’s rights. She had a long and loving correspondence with her husband, John, who would become the second president of the new American republic. On March 31, 1776, she wrote to him, “I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

John Adams and the other founders did not take her seriously. In fact, it would be another 144 years before Congress would remember the ladies and pass the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote.

This message is produced­­­­ by the Kanawha Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

100 Years Ago – The Constitution Originally Denies Suffrage to Women

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

Though its first sentence begins “we the people,” the U.S. Constitution’s principles didn’t include all people. When it came to apportioning representatives, enslaved people counted as three-fifths of a person; Native Americans were excluded altogether; and it would be 143 years before the word “sex” appeared in the Constitution.  

In the early 1770’s, British colonists in North America met to consider rejecting royal edicts as a form of government. In July 1776, the delegates to the Continental Congress signed a declaration of independence asserting “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Ironically, they also degreed that governments should derive their powers from the consent of the governed.

Following the war for independence, the thirteen states met to discuss rules on which they could jointly agree to form a single nation. Delegates gathered in Philadelphia in 1787, successfully producing a constitution. A new form of government, representative democracy, was born. Despite the lofty aspirations of the new laws, women and many others were not included in in their protections and privileges, nor were they represented in the new government. It would be nearly a century and a half before they were. Government—to be credible—must derive their powers from the consent of the governed.  

This series, 100 Years Ago,  is produced by the Kanawha Valley National Organization for Women with funding from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

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