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The World Anti-Slavery Convention is held in London. Abolitionists Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton attend, but they are barred from participating in the meeting. This snub leads them to decide to hold a women's rights convention when they return to America. Importance : Women realize the discrimination that men had against them in political equalities.
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The Civil War. Suffrage efforts nearly come to a complete halt as women put their enfranchisement aside and pitch in for the war effort. Importance : Women put aside their needs for help in the war.
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Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Clarina Nichols, and others travel to Kansas to agitate for women's suffrage. After months of campaigning, suffragists are defeated on the fall ballot.
At the American Equal Rights Association annual meeting, opinions divide sharply on supporting the enfranchisement of black men before women.
Importance : Even though women are of white skin, they are still treated as less important than black people. -
The 14th amendment passes granted former slaves the right to vote. The amendment specifies the word “male” officially excluding women’s suffrage. Anthony and Stanton are outraged. Arguments lead to a split in the movement.
Importance : Althought women were a great apart of the anti-slavery movement, only black men were allowed to vote. It showed that women were inferior to men. -
The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified. Although its gender-neutral language appears to grant women the vote, women who go to the polls to test the amendment are turned away Importance: The law states that women are allowed to vote, women are still excluded from voting.
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Susan B. Anthony is arrested in Rochester N.Y. for illegal voting. Anthony refused to pay her streetcar fare to the police station because she was "traveling under protest at the government's expense.” Importance: Anthony voted and became arrested, despite the law stating that women have the right to vote.
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Anthony retires as the president of the National American and, to the surprise of many, recommends Carrie Chapman Catt as her successor; Catt is elected.
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Suffragist Alice Paul organizes 8,000 women for a parade through Washington.
She becomes the leader of the Congressional Union (CU), a militant branch of the National American association. -
President Wilson issues a statement supporting a federal amendment to grant woman's suffrage. President Wilson addresses the Senate in support of the Nineteenth Amendment, but it fails to win the required 2/3 majority of Senate votes.
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Despite the political subversion of anti-suffragists, particularly in Tennessee, three quarters of state legislatures ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on 26 August. American women win full voting rights. Importance : After amount of work, women finally have the right to speak in their goverment through years of dedication.
