Suffragist of the Month

Suffragist of the Month - September 2015

Suffragist of the Month – September 2015

Mary Church Terrell, 1863 – 1954 The efforts of African-American women in the woman suffrage movement are often overlooked, sometimes because there were not as many involved, but also because many often faced blatant discrimination from leading white suffragists. But a firm belief in the importance of the vote for black women as well as […]

Suffragist of the Month - August 2015

Suffragist of the Month – August 2015

Mary Garrett Hay, 1857 – 1928 The 1915 campaign for a suffrage amendment to the New York State Constitution was one of the most highly organized campaigns in political history. The State was divided into twelve campaign districts and the district of Greater New York was under the management of Mary Garrett Hay. Under her […]

Suffragist of the Month, July 2015

Suffragist of the Month, July 2015

Lucy Burns, 1879 – 1966 When the story of the woman suffrage movement is told there is no woman more devoted, who gave more of her personal freedom to the cause than Lucy Burns. She was the first on the picket line, the first and most frequently imprisoned and force-fed, and the brave and creative […]

Suffragist of the Month - June, 2015

Suffragist of the Month – June, 2015

Crystal Eastman, 1881 – 1928 Crystal Eastman was born June 25, 1881 into a modest family in Glenora, New York. Her parents, both ordained ministers, held the unusual belief (for the time) in the education of girls as well as boys, and encouraged Crystal to think for herself from a young age. She took this […]

Suffragist of the Month - May 2015

Suffragist of the Month – May 2015

Katherine Duer Mackay 1878 – 1930 Suffragists were often accused of being unattractive, unfeminine, and terrible mothers. None of these slurs were ever flung at Katherine Duer Mackay, however. She was decidedly one of the most beautiful, gracious and feminine suffrage leaders of the day. When Harriot Stanton Blatch, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s daughter, took up […]

Suffragist of the Month - February 2015

Suffragist of the Month – February 2015

Lavinia Lloyd Dock, 1858 – 1956 Lavinia Lloyd Dock was born Feb. 26, 1858 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Despite a privileged family upbringing, she chose the rigors of training as a nurse at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, and worked as a visiting nurse among the poor. An early advocate of women’s rights, she was arrested for […]

Suffragist of the Month – January, 2015

MAUD WOOD PARK Maud Wood Park was born in Boston January 25, 1871. In her senior year at Radcliffe College she heard a speech by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, daughter of Lucy Stone, which inspired her to join the Massachusetts Suffrage Association. She and fellow student Inez Haynes Irwin later founded the Equal College Suffrage League, […]

Suffragist of the Month – December 2014

Fanny Garrison Villard 1844 – 1928 When Helen Frances Garrison was born in Boston, December 16, 1844, women enjoyed few rights, and political equality was just a dream. But Helen Frances (called Fanny) was fortunate  to claim as her parents Helen Eliza Garrison and noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Both Garrisons valued education for girls as […]

Suffragist of the Month - November

Suffragist of the Month – November

Sarah Moore Grimké,  1792 – 1873 Sarah Moore Grimké was born in Charleston, South Carolina November 26, 1792, to a wealthy and influential family, one of fourteen children. From an early age she railed against the strictures imposed upon the girls of the family, particularly the lack of a comprehensive education. While her brothers learned mathematics, […]

Suffragist of The Month - October

Suffragist of The Month – October

Belva Ann Lockwood 1830 – 1917  Today, in October of 2014 with three women sitting on the Supreme Court it seems unbelievable that until 1879 women attorneys (of which there were few) were not even permitted to present cases before the Supreme Court. Women were discouraged from becoming attorneys, since most law schools would not […]

Suffragist of the Month - September

Suffragist of the Month – September

Jane Addams 1860 – 1935   Laura Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illinois on September 6, 1860 youngest of nine children. Her father was a state senator, and a wealthy industrialist, but her childhood was not without challenges. Her mother died when she was two years old, and two years later she suffered from […]

Suffragist of the Month – August

Lucy Stone August 13, 1818 Lucy Stone represented women active in the early days of the suffrage battle. Born in West Brookfield, MA, in 1818, she first worked for abolition, and later for suffrage. A colleague of both Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she worked with them at the National Woman Suffrage Association, […]

Suffragist of the Month - July

Suffragist of the Month – July

Sarah J. Smith Thompson Garnet, July 31, 1831 African-American Champion of Voting Rights for Women Sarah Garnet was born on Long Island July 31, 1831 to Sylvanus Smith and Ann Eliza Springsteel Smith.  Her parents were of mixed race, Native-American, black and white, and had lived for a time on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation on […]

Suffragist of the Month - June

Suffragist of the Month – June

Jeanette Rankin Jeanette Rankin is probably best known for being the first woman elected to the United States Congress, but few people know that she began her life of public service as a suffragist, a campaign that helped her hone skills that would carry her to the House of Representatives in Washington in 1916. There […]

Suffragist of The Month - April

Suffragist of The Month – April

Mary Louise Booth Mary Louise Booth was born in Millville, Long Island (later known as Yaphank) April 19, 1831. Her father, William  Booth was the local miller and schoolteacher who believed strongly in the value of education for girls. Through diligent study she became fluent in seven foreign languages and later, when her father became […]