User:Megalibrarygirl/Women's suffrage in Kentucky

Women's suffrage in Kentucky...

Early efforts
In some parts of rural Kentucky in 1838, some women earned the right to vote on issues relating to taxes and education. This law, which was very limited in scope and did not allow women from Lexington, Louisville, and Maysville to vote, was nevertheless the first statewide law for women's suffrage passed in the United States since women in New Jersey lost their right to vote in 1807. In November of 1853, Lucy Stone visited Louisville and spoke to full halls on the issue of women's rights.

In October of 1879, Susan B. Anthony spoke in Richmond. This visit helped establish a strong connection between the suffragists in the Clay family and led to the founding of the Madison County Equal Rights Association, which was the first permanent women's rights group started in Kentucky. Several members of the Clay family became very active in working towards women's suffrage. Both Sallie Clay Bennett and Annie Clay wrote women's rights articles for the Richmond Register and the Kentucky Gazette respectively.

Mary Clay and Bennett attended the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) convention held in Chicago in 1880, where Bennett spoke to a large group. Mary Clay later became the president of AWSA and she especially advocated for suffragists to not forget to work in the South. In 1881, the first national suffrage convention held south of the Ohio River took place in Louisville. The Association for the Advancement of Women (A.A.W) held its annual meeting in Louisville in October where Laura Clay brought up women's suffrage, the first time the group had tackled the topic publicly. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) convention held there was well attended with a mixed group of suffragists. After the convention, the first state-wide suffrage group in the South, the Kentucky Woman Suffrage Association (KWSA) was formed. Laura Clay served as the first president with Colonel John H. Ward as vice president. This group was active until 1888.

Later, Laura Clay became the president of the Fayette County Equal Rights Association (FCERA) which was formed in 1888. FCERA absorbed members of KWSA and began lobbying the state legislature in Frankfort. When the state had a constitutional convention in 1890 and 1891, Sarah Clay Bennett, Laura Clay, Eugenia B. Farmer, Josephine Henry, and Isabella H. Shepard traveled to Frankfort to lobby the convention delegates. Their legislative work led to the creation of a special Committee on Woman's Rights. Bennett, Clay, and Shepard addressed an audience of interested delegates on October 9. Henry spoke in front of the Woman's Rights Committee and later the Committee on Elections when the lobbyists returned to Frankfort on December 8.

In 1889, the Louisville Equal Rights Association (LERA) was formed and had thirty-one members by 1895.

Three different cities, Covington, Lexington, and Newport, passed school-suffrage measures for women in 1894.

Continuing efforts
Anna Howard Shaw attended the state suffrage convention in Louisville in 1909. During her visit, she spoke to working class women who worked in the textile mills about women's suffrage.

In October of 1911, NAWSA held their annual convention in Louisville. Virginia Pollard Robinson worked on the programming for the event and invited Emmeline Pankhurst to serve as the Keynote speaker.

One of the first times women's suffrage appeared in a parade in Kentucky was in 1912 when activists entered a float in a Louisville parade.

From 1912 to 1913, the membership in the KERA almost doubled and represented 21 counties in the state.

The state legislature considered allowing women to vote in primary elections for county school supervisors in 1914, though it eventually didn't pass.

The Kentucky state Republican party added an endorsement for women's suffrage to their platform in 1915. Republicans in the state legislature also caucused to support women's suffrage in the 1916 legislative session. Madeline McDowell Breckinridge and Mrs. Murray Hubbard lobbied the legislature. While there was a majority of support for women's suffrage in that year's session, the legislature wasn't able to get the bill out of the state House committee. In 1916, both state Republicans and Progressive parties endorsed women's suffrage.

In 1919, the KERA publicly came out against picket lines and other radical tactics of some suffragists.

African-American women
African Americans in Kentucky started a Black Convention in March of 1866 in Lexington in order to discuss the rights of Black Americans. In 1867 on July 4, Black women organized a barbecue which included speeches in favor of Black suffrage.

In 1902, the state legislature removed the limited rights of women to vote in school-related issues because politicians were worried about African American women voting for Republican candidates for the school boards. After this reversal, suffragists campaigned for "school suffrage with an educational qualification" which would only allow literate women to vote, which would reduce the number of Black voters.

When the NAWSA annual convention was held in Louisville, no Black speakers were invited. NAWSA organizer, Martha Gruening, petitioned the program committee for the convention to resolve solidarity with all people who could not vote, including Black men. This was denied, as well as her request to invite Mary Church Terrell as the keynote speaker. Later, W. E. B. Du Bois would write a critical editorial on white suffragists in Kentucky called "Suffering Suffragettes," because Gruening reported her own experiences with the convention.

Anti-suffragism in Kentucky
Arguments against women's suffrage in Kentucky often revolved around questions of gender roles and the fears that suffrage would lead to radicalism. The editor of the Courier-Journal, Henry Watterson wrote that women who voted would become "he-women." Watterson also wrote that when African American men did "harm" and allowing women to vote would only make things worse. Like him, many white supremacists believed that after African American men had become enfranchised that the electorate was "compromised" and allowing women to vote would make it worse.