Women's suffrage in Alabama
[1] The first women's suffrage group in Alabama was created in New Decatur in 1892 and led by Ellen Stephens Hildreth.
[1] The next year, a statewide group, the Alabama Woman Suffrage Organization (AWSO) was founded by Hildreth and Griffin.
[5] Hobbs' and Watson's work influenced other suffragists in Selma, including Carrie McCord Parke.
[7] Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt spoke to various Alabama women's suffrage groups in 1895.
[6] Griffin spent a good deal of time in Montgomery, Alabama attempting to sway constitutional delegates on women's rights issues.
[13] Mary Partridge wrote to Anna Howard Shaw for advice and received encouragement to start a suffrage group in Selma.
[13][14][16] In 1911, several women were inspired by the speeches given by Jane Addams and Louisiana suffragist, Jean Gordon, at the National Child Labor conference in Birmingham.
[13][15] Following the conference, Pattie Ruffner Jacobs and other women created the Birmingham Equal Suffrage League on October 22, 1911.
[21] AESA had a traveling library of suffrage materials and the headquarters served as a place in the city for women to meet.
[21][22] The Huntsville Equal Suffrage Association was created in 1912 after Jacobs put out the call for more local organizing.
[19] AESA knew that Joseph Green, state representative of Dallas County, wanted to introduce a women's suffrage bill for the next legislative session in 1915.
[23][24] In 1914 Bossie O'Brien Hundley began work as the AESA legislative committee chair to lobby the state legislature for women's suffrage.
[21] During the 1915 legislative session in January, a bill for a women's suffrage amendment was introduced and sent into Committee where it sat until July.
[21] Suffragists in Alabama began to feel that their best chance of getting the vote was to support a federal suffrage amendment.
[31] At the 1918 state convention in Selma, AESA formally endorsed the federal amendment route to women's suffrage.
[33] The Women's Anti-Ratification League, with Marie Bankhead Owen as a leader, led a strong opposition to ratifying the amendment.
[33] At the last state suffrage convention in April 1920, the AESA was dissolved and the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Alabama was formed.
[41] This came to the attention of the Democratic National Committee's Women's Division which was led by Mary Dewson and Eleanor Roosevelt.
[44] Women involved in professional organizations in Alabama worked to change local laws regarding the poll tax during the 1930s.
[47] Another study, published in 1942 by Eleanor Bontecou, showed that white women faced "disproportionate disenfranchisement" because of the poll tax.
[48] On a local level, white Alabama women continued to fight the poll tax and lobby legislators.
[50] By the late 1940s, white women in Alabama realized they had to face the issue of racial discrimination and the poll tax.
[51] In 1953, a bill to reduce the back tax accumulation period was passed in the state legislature and approved by the voters.
[59] In Tuskegee, Alabama, Black suffragists worked on a variety of issues to improve the lives of people in their community.
[60] Logan also worked as the head of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs' (NACWC) suffrage department.
[62] Voters had to fill out a four-page application form, swear an oath, pass a literacy test and pay a poll tax.
