On this day in 1909, a group of women, including Ellen Glasgow, Mary Johnston, Kate Langley Bosher, Adèle Clark, Nora Houston, Kate Waller Barrett, and Lila Meade Valentine, founded the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. Aligned with the national woman suffrage movement, the league worked for more than ten years lobbying the public and the General Assembly alike, until its efforts paid off when three-fourths of the United States state legislatures ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. The league failed, however, to persuade the General Assembly, which did not vote to ratify until 1952.
IMAGE: Equal Suffrage League of Virginia poster, 1910s (Library of Virginia)
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Also, last Tuesday (Nov. 20) representatives of VCU, the League of Women Voters and the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources dedicated a state historical marker commemorating the founding of the Equal Suffrage League, which was founded in the Crenshaw House, not part of the VCU Monroe Campus. See: http://www.news.vcu.edu/news/Virginia_recognizes_VCUs_historic_landmark_for_womens_rights
Addendum to my comment above. The marker was dedicated on the 103 anniversary of the ESL’s founding. And to correct the typo above, the Crenshaw House is NOW part of the VCU campus.
Many thanks, Randy.