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Elizabeth Cady Stanton formulated the first organized demand for woman suffrage in the United States in 1848. Her fight for women's rights extended beyond the right to vote. She advocated for liberalized divorce laws, reproductive self-determination, and increased legal rights for women. -
Organizers and prominent women’s rights activists headed up the first US women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Around 300 women and men showed up, including Frederick Douglass, who was the only black person who was there. The Convention passed a “Declaration of Sentiments”, they also passed a series of resolutions calling for equal rights. However, the most controversial resolution and the only one that didn’t pass was for women’s right to vote. -
Abby Kelley Foster helped develop plans for the first National Woman’s Rights Convention in Worcester, MA. In October of 1850, Foster was an organizer of the founding convention of the New England Woman Suffrage Association, and under the authority of the American Anti-Slavery Society. She also undertook the effort of organizing and financing the passage of the 15th Amendment. -
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After the Civil War, Lucy Stone joined Frederick Douglass and others who supported the 15th Amendment as a partial gain, as they continued to work for women’s rights. Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe led others to form the American Women's Suffrage, which chose to focus on state suffrage amendments. By 1871, Stone had helped organize the publication of The Woman's Journal and was co-editing the newspaper with her husband Henry Blackwell. -
Matilda Joslyn Gage is known for her contributions to women’s suffrage in the United States. One of the foremost theorists of the women's rights movement in the mid-1800s, she criticized organized Christianity for its role in the oppression of women. She served as president of the National Woman's Suffrage Association from 1875 - 1876 while supporting women's rights to divorce and reproductive autonomy. -
During the Women's Suffrage Parade, there were more than 5,000 women who marched in Washington the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration to push for the right to vote. White organizers tried to make the event segregated however they refused. The parade brought new energy and national attention to the suffrage movement. -
Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress. She represented Montana. She also continued to fight for voting rights while in Congress, serving on the Committee on Woman Suffrage. She introduced the issue for debate on the House Floor. -
Tennessee became the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment. Despite the 19th Amendment, many people of color were still blocked from voting for years. -
The 24th Amendment banning poll taxes in federal elections was ratified. Poll taxes were one of the ways Southern states in the Jim Crow era tried to prevent Black Americans from voting. Many other discriminatory practices continued. -
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In 1988, she helped merge the two largest suffrage associations into one, the National American Women’s Suffrage Association, in which she led this group until 1900. She traveled around the country giving speeches, gathering thousands of signatures on petitions, and lobbying Congress every year for women. She spent all her life working for women’s rights. -
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