Women's suffrage in Missouri
This group, the first of its kind, lobbied the Missouri General Assembly for women's suffrage and established conventions.
She and her husband, Francis Minor, sued, leading to a Supreme Court case that asserted the Fourteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote.
During the 1916 Democratic National Convention, suffragists Emily Newell Blair and Edna Gellhorn planned a silent, motionless parade.
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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[9] Other active groups at the time included the St. Louis branch of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).
[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.
"[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.
[25] The Missouri Woman Suffrage Association seems to have lost momentum around 1886 while other groups in the state remained fairly active.
[25] More areas of the state were represented here with women from Bloomfield, Brookfield, Cameron, Fayette, La Monte, Maryville, Montgomery, and Wentzville elected as officers in the Missouri branch of NAWSA.
[27] The Mississippi Valley Congress held a convention in St. Louis in 1895 and was sponsored by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
[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.
[36] Representative Thomas J. Roney brought the petition to the Missouri General Assembly and helped create a women's suffrage bill.
[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.
[39] During a 1913 suffrage conference in Missouri, Black suffragist, Victoria Clay Haley, attended as a representative of the Federated Colored Women's Club.
[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".
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[78] The Missouri Woman Suffrage Association met at the Statler Hotel in St. Louis where the group changed its name to the LWV.
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.
[43] Minnie Bronson came to Missouri in 1916 in order to persuade state legislators against passing women's suffrage bills.
