The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia was founded in 1909 in Richmond, Virginia. Like many similar organizations in other states, the league's goal was to secure voting rights for women. When the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920, enabling women to vote in all states, the Equal Suffrage League dissolved and was reconstituted as Virginia League of Women Voters, associated with the national

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...

. The 19th Amendment was not ratified in Virginia until 1952. Lila Meade Valentine was the first presidentBernice Colvard. 2009. ''Virginia Women & The Vote, 1909-2009: The Equal Suffrage League & The League of Women Voters in Virginia''. The League of Women Voters of Virginia Education Fund. and

Kate Waller Barrett Kate Waller Barrett (January 24, 1857 – February 23, 1925), née Katherine Harwood Waller, was a prominent Virginia physician, humanitarian, philanthropist, sociologist and social reformer, best known for her leadership of the National Florence ...

was vice president.

Adele Goodman Clark Adele Goodman Clark (September 27, 1882 – June 4, 1983) was an American artist and suffragist. Early life Clark was born in 1882 in Montgomery, Alabama to Robert Clark, a railroad worker originally from Belfast, and Estelle Goodman Clark, a J ...

served as the secretary for one year and headed the group's lobbying efforts in the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

. Other cofounders included

Nora Houston Eleanora (or Eleanor) Clare Gibson Houston ( ; June 24, 1883 – February 20, 1942) was an American painter, women's rights advocate, and suffragist. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Houston studied art at an early age, traveling to New Y ...

Ellen Glasgow Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 – November 21, 1945) was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942 for her novel ''In This Our Life''. She published 20 novels, as well as short stories, to critical ac ...

, and

Mary Johnston Mary Johnston (November 21, 1870 – May 9, 1936) was an American novelist and women's rights advocate from Virginia. She was one of America's best selling authors during her writing career and had three silent films adapted from her novels. Jo ...

History

Founding

The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia was formed out of a series of meetings in November 1909 at the home of the Anne Clay Crenshaw, daughter of Kentucky suffragist

Mary Jane Warfield Clay Mary Jane Warfield Clay (January 20, 1815 – April 29, 1900) was an American socialite, suffragist, abolitionist, and political activist. An early leader in the suffrage movement in Kentucky, she began by forming a suffrage club at her home in 18 ...

. Located at 919 West Franklin Street in Richmond, the home is part of the West Franklin Street Historic District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.National Register of Historic Places, Crenshaw House, Richmond, VA, 127-0228-0029, 2010. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/VLR_to_transfer/PDFNoms/127-0228-0029_Crenshaw_House_2010_NR_FINAL.pdf Crenshaw House Richmond VA

The minutes of the first meeting on November 20 describe the attendees as "women interested in the formation of the Virginia Suffrage League" At a second meeting held one week later, officers and a board of directors were elected. Among the original eighteen founders were Lila Meade Valentine (president),

(vice president),

(secretary), Nora Houston,

, and

. In the first year, the league enrolled 120 members, mostly in Richmond. The majority of its members were socially prominent women. On January 21, 1910, the league hosted their first major public event, a guest lecture by Dr.

Anna Howard Shaw Anna Howard Shaw (February 14, 1847 – July 2, 1919) was a leader of the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was also a physician and one of the first ordained female Methodist ministers in the United States. Early life Shaw ...

, president of the

National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National ...

Opposition

By 1909 when the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia was founded, the national suffrage movement had gained considerable traction. The movement lagged behind in Virginia as elsewhere in the South where both supporters and opponents sought to safeguard white dominance.

Anti-suffragists Anti-suffragism was a political movement composed of both men and women that began in the late 19th century in order to campaign against women's suffrage in countries such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. To ...

argued that extending the vote to women would threaten white hegemony by giving more African Americans the right to vote while supporters of woman suffrage countered, not by condemning white supremacy, but by arguing that woman suffrage would not have a significant racial impact at the polls.

Growth

Although affiliated with the

from the early days, the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia found itself struggling to catch up to the progress of the national movement. Where the NAWSA had moved on to lobbying and direct political activism, the Virginia movement had to focus on education and awareness. Effectively, the ESL was about 20 years behind the national movement, which meant the state initiative was off to a slow start. Early efforts of the group included canvassing, distributing leaflets, and public speaking events. Leaders across the state visited women’s colleges, schools, fairs, and union meetings. In Richmond, a group of businessmen were encouraged to join the effort and founded the Men’s Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. These efforts paid off in a rapidly expanding movement. By 1914, the league included 45 chapters across the state, a number that increased to 115 by 1916. In 1919, ten years after the founding, the ESL reached 30,000 members. By this time, efforts toward changes in the state constitution intensified with the ESL actively lobbying for an amendment to the state constitution that would permit women to vote.

Failure and success

Disbanded shortly after the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia was reconstituted as the Virginia

. Their stated purpose was to register women voters, to educate them on the issues, and to advocate for social reform. With the passage of the 19th Amendment, women in Virginia gained the right to vote, but the amendment was not ratified by the

until 1952.

Notable members

* Lila Meade Valentine * Elizabeth Langhorne Lewis

References

{{reflist

External links

* https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Equal_Suffrage_League_of_Virginia_1909-1920#start_entry * https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/VLR_to_transfer/PDFNoms/127-0228-0029_Crenshaw_House_2010_NR_FINAL.pdf * http://edu.lva.virginia.gov/online_classroom/shaping_the_constitution/doc/valeague Organizations established in 1909 Women's suffrage advocacy groups in the United States Virginia suffrage

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...