The Chicago Womxn’s Suffrage Tribute Committee, in conjunction with the Wabash Arts Corridor, announces the completion and dedication of Speak Up! by Dorian Sylvain. This work completes a monumental new mural series in Chicago’s loop celebrating the work of Illinois women activists to obtain the right to vote and recognizing the ongoing struggle for women’s … Continue reading Speak Up!

By Julia Flynn, Evanston Women's History Project, Research Volunteer In the late 1860's, the Civil War had ended and the Reconstruction Era was well under way, attempting to redress the inequalities arising from the legacy of slavery.  The Fourteenth Amendment passed in 1868 recognizing all US-born and naturalized individuals, including slaves emancipated after the Civil … Continue reading Naomi Talbert Anderson and the 1869 Suffrage Convention in Chicago

By Mark W. Sorensen Note: This guest essay comes to us from Mark Sorensen whose 2004 essay “AHEAD OF THEIR TIME: A brief history of woman suffrage in Illinois,” https://www.lib.niu.edu/2004/ih110604half.html provided the foundations for the research and work of this website. Thanks Mark for all your work to save and tell the Illinois suffrage story! … Continue reading Women’s Suffrage in Decatur, Illinois

By Joan Linsenmeier, Evanston Women's History Project Research Volunteer. The Cities and Villages Act adopted by Illinois in 1872 specified how city governments could be structured, the actions they could take, and what powers were retained by the state. Many Chicagoans opposed this act. Chicago was much larger than other Illinois cities, more diverse, and … Continue reading Municipal Charter Reform in Chicago: Civic Duty, Women’s Role, and Women’s Suffrage

By: EWHP 2020 Intern Annie Cebrzynski and EWHP Director Lori Osborne In 1913, the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) announced a suffrage “procession” or parade to coincide with the March 4th inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. The parade would take place the day before and the parade’s purpose, as stated in the official program, … Continue reading The 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington D.C. – An Illinois Perspective

By Jennifer Duvall – Loyola University Chicago, Masters in Public History Program, Fall 2019.  Mrs. George Welles demonstrating with other suffragists in Chicago, Illinois, before going to Washington, DC, to participate in a suffrage demonstration on March 3, 1913. DN-0060283, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum. In March of 1919, the United States was … Continue reading Voting Was Only the Beginning for American Women

By Matthew Norvell – Loyola University Chicago, Masters in Public History Program, Fall 2019.  The women’s suffrage movement and the temperance movement were two of the largest reform campaigns of the Progressive Era. Although at first glance these two political movements appear to have had little reason for crossover, they were in fact closely related. To … Continue reading The Illinois WCTU and Suffrage

By Ve’Amber D. Miller – Loyola University Chicago, Masters in Public History Program, Fall 2019.  “However much the white women of the country need suffrage, for many reasons which will immediately occur to you, colored women need it more,” Mary Church Terrell wrote, encouraging black women to vote for the Republican ticket [1]. African American women … Continue reading The Two-Fold Struggle: African American Republican Women’s Clubs

By Casey Terry - Loyola University Chicago, Masters in Public History Program, Fall 2019. Women at the founding of the National Woman's Party at the Blackstone Theater, 1916. Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922), Jun 06, 5. One of the most important groups formed in the U.S. to fight for women’s political rights was the National Woman’s Party. … Continue reading The Founding of the National Woman’s Party

By Lucas Bensley - Loyola University Chicago, PhD in History, Fall 2019 On the afternoon of June 7, 1916, 5,000 women marched through a torrential rainstorm to the Republican National Convention site in downtown Chicago. Their goal: to compel the delegates of the Grand Old Party to add a woman’s suffrage plank to the party platform. … Continue reading Suffer Not the Rain: The 1916 Suffrage Parade in Chicago

By Miranda Ridener - Loyola University Chicago, Masters in Public History Program, Fall 2019 On May 2, 1914 women and men took to the Chicago streets to parade in support of woman’s suffrage. The Illinois Equal Suffrage Association organized the parade under Grace Wilbur Trout’s presidency. The parade highlighted the national suffrage movement and coincided with … Continue reading 1914 Suffrage Parade: Celebration and Call to Action

By Dana Gordon - Loyola University Chicago, Masters in Public History Program, Fall 2019 Today, Americans take roads for granted as they commute to their destinations. In Illinois, the Interstate system and U.S. Route system currently create a web of steady automobile traffic throughout the state. What about the history of the Illinois roads themselves? There … Continue reading The Women’s Suffrage Movement and the “Good Roads” Movement

by Leslie Cole, member League of Women Voters of Highland Park/Highwood The Ossoli Club of Highland Park started in the rooms of the Highland Park Club House in 1894.  Originally known as “The Monday Club, “the organization settled on the name Ossoli in honor of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, a 19th Century American journalist, women’s rights activist … Continue reading Highland Park Suffrage History

By Elizabeth Schmidt - Loyola University Chicago, Masters in Public History Program, Fall 2019. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) set its sights on two objectives: the prohibition of alcohol and the vote for women.  The woman leading this charge was Illinois’ Frances Willard. Willard was the president of WCTU for nineteen years and was a … Continue reading On the Road to Women’s Suffrage: The Home Protection Ballot

By Hannah Lahti - Loyola University Chicago, Masters in Public History Program, Fall 2019 In 1818 the Illinois State Constitution extended citizenship to all white men over the age of twenty-one years [1].  Thirty years later, the second Illinois State Constitution still denied suffrage to women [2]. It was not until the third Illinois State Constitution … Continue reading Early Suffrage in Illinois: A.J. Grover and the Earlville Suffrage Association

How do you teach the history of female suffrage so that it resonates with students? This is the question I wrestled with over the winter and spring of 2019 while developing the online suffrage curriculum for the Suffrage 2020 Illinois website. After many years of teaching women’s history at Lake Forest College, I knew firsthand … Continue reading Introducing Rethinking Suffrage 2020

On June 17, 1919 the Illinois legislature voted for a second time to ratify the 19th Amendment. They did this to ensure that the original vote on June 10th would not be questioned due to a procedural error. On June 10th the language that the legislature voted on included one incorrect word. Suffragists in the … Continue reading Abundant Caution: the Vote on June 17, 1919