Women's Civil Rights in North Carolina

  • Abigail Adams

    Abigail Adams

    Abigail Adams asks her husband, John, to "remember the ladies" when he and the Continental Congress begin writing the laws for the new country. "If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation".
  • Dolley Madison

    Dolley Madison

    North Carolina native Dolley Madison becomes First Lady when James Madison is inaugurated as the fourth president. She remains one of the most popular First Ladies in the nation's history.
  • Frankie Silver

    Frankie Silver

    Frankie Silver is convicted for the murder of her husband in present-day Mitchell County. She becomes the first woman in North Carolina to be executed by hanging.
  • Abigail Carter

    Abigail Carter

    Invents a pair of overalls designed for her husband, who was a railroad engineer. These sturdy overalls wore so well that other railroad men began asking for them. Carter opened a business and became the first manufacturer in the United States.
  • New Constitution

    New Constitution

    North Carolina legislature passes a new constitution that grants women the right to own property and business, to work for their own wages, to sue in courts, to make wills, and to make contracts without their husbands' consent. The National Labor Union supports equal pay for equal work.
  • Anna Julia Heywood Cooper

    Anna Julia Heywood Cooper

    The fourth African American woman to earn a Ph.D.; hers is earned from Sorbonne University in France. Retired as principal of the M Street School in Washington D.C. and focuses on the Washington Negro Folklore Society which she helps found and continues to work for the black feminist movement.
  • Title IX

    Title IX

    Title IX opens the way for women's increased participation in athletic programs and professional schools, and enrollment leaps in both categories. U.S. military academies open admissions to women.
  • Equal Rights Amendment

    Equal Rights Amendment

    Some 100,000 people march in support of the Equal Rights Amendment in Washington D.C. For the first time in history, more women than men enter college