User:Megalibrarygirl/Women's suffrage in Connecticut

Women's suffrage in Connecticut is... (description)

Early efforts
Frances Ellen Burr was one of the earliest suffragists to begin activity in Connecticut. Burr collected enough petitions in 1867 to introduce a woman's suffrage bill in the Connecticut General Assembly. The bill was defeated, but by a fairly narrow margin, and it gave Burr hope for the future. In the fall of 1869, Burr, Isabella Beecher Hooker, John Hooker, and others, called for a women's suffrage convention. The convention was held in late October in Hartford, Connecticut. Suffragists from New England and from the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) attended. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were among the attendees. The Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA) was founded after the convention. Nathaniel J. Burton served as the first president and then, in 1871, Isabella Hooker took over as the president of CWSA for the next thirty years. The Hookers were very involved with suffrage and CWSA, with John Hooker giving speeches and writing letters to the editor of the Hartford Courant in favor of women's right to vote. John also wrote the bylaws for CWSA. Isabella Hooker remained the president until 1906, when the vice-president of CWSA, Elizabeth Bacon took over.

"Taxation without representation" was a major argument for a women's right to vote in Connecticut. Julia and Abby Smith, also known as the "Maids of Glastonbury," refused to pay their taxes in the 1870s because they were not allowed to vote. This led to their property being seized by the town and sold for collection of their tax revenue.

Burr and Emily Parmely Collins started the Hartford Equal Rights Club in 1885.

Burr was a speaker at the 1890 founding convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

In 1893, women in Connecticut were finally able to vote for school officials. Women in many parts of the state exercised their right to vote. In Willimantic, in 1895, members of the equal rights club unseated a member of the board and went on to consolidate the school districts. The women in that city accomplished their goals by increasing the women's voter turnout by 500 percent. In 1897 the state legislature amended the school voting law to make voter registration more complication, presumably in order to discourage women voters.

Even though women earned the right to vote in limited elections, they felt that they were not making real progress. This led to a decline in participation in the CWSA, which had only 50 members by 1906.

Continued efforts
Emmeline Pankhurst, a famous suffragette from England, visited Hartford in October of 1909. Pankhurst's visit sparked off a new campaign that led to the creation of the Hartford Political Equality League, which later became the Equal Franchise League of Hartford. This group started working with a young group of suffragists from Greenwich who had formed their own Equal Franchise League. Caroline Ruutz-Rees was active in the Greenwich group.

Emily Pierson started creating "cutting-edge campaign strategies" for the CWSA starting in 1910. She organized a winter trolley campaign in 1912. The Trolley Campaign had an excellent reception in Southington on February 20, 1912. The trolley and automobile campaigns that Pierson championed helped to dispel common stereotypes of suffragists as "unladylike spinsters" because residents of the towns and cities that were visited could meet the activists face-to-face. As Pierson did more organizing, she created five local branches of the CWSA, called the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women, which were centered in major cities in the state. Pierson campaigned in French, German, and Italian while giving speeches. She also reached out to Jewish women, speaking at the Hartford Council of Jewish Women in January of 1915. Pierson advocated for women to govern themselves, pointing out that women best understood the issues that affected them.

The CWSA opened new headquarters in Hartford in 1913.

Connecticut activists celebrated National Suffrage Day on May 2, 1914 with demonstrations, parades, and speeches. In Hartford, there were more than 1,000 participants for their successful and large suffrage parade. Around 2,000 suffragists of all ages took part in the event. The parade was photographed and the pictures were sold as souvenirs and also to create a newsreel shown at theaters. Overall, the Hartford parade generated excitement for the suffrage movement in Connecticut and was recognized as a "spectacular" event by the Hartford Courant.

In February of 1917, the Connecticut House judiciary committee heard from both suffragists and anti-suffragists on the issue of allowing Connecticut women to vote. Members of CWSA, represented by Hepburn and Pierson testified for women's suffrage.

In March of 1919, during the hearing on the Presidential Suffrage Bill, suffragists marched from the CWSA headquarters to the Connecticut Capitol where they presented a petition with 98,000 signatures to the state legislators.

Connecticut was a battleground state for ratifying the 19th Amendment and activists in the state were eager to win. An "emergency week," May 3-7, 1920, was declared and 46 prominent suffragists formed the Suffrage Emergency Corps. Connecticut finally ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on September 14, 1920.

After the 19th Amendment was passed, the CWSA dissolved and formed the Connecticut League of Women Voters on January 18, 1921.

African American women and suffrage in Connecticut
After being influenced by Alva Belmont, and her push for including African American suffragists, the CWSA began to do their own outreach in Connecticut. Around 500 African American women came together in New Haven in 1918 to form their own suffrage group. Mary Townsend Seymour was very involved with members of the CWSA in Hartford, and took part in organizing and in demonstrations.

Anti-suffragism in Connecticut
The Connecticut Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (CAOWS) was formed in 1910 and led by Grace Markham. The group expanded into 161 Connecticut cities and towns. CAOWS would host events and demonstrations against women's suffrage. Prominent business owners opposed women's suffrage because they worried that women's enfranchisement would affect their own local businesses. Some businesses, such as saloons and brothels, were already targeted by the CWSA. In addition, the CWSA supported worker's rights and opposed exploitative labor practices in the state.