Browse Items (15 total)
- Tags: State Spotlight
Sort by:
Wyoming was first
Women could vote in Wyoming from 1869, when it was not yet a state. Notably, Wyoming women who joined the voting rolls briefly served on juries. When WY joined the union 21 yrs later, women kept suffrage in the state constitution, pictured here. See…
Tags: 1869, State Spotlight, Wyoming
Washington could've been first
Washington becomes a separate territory from Oregon in 1853. At the first meeting of its independent legislature, a man named Arthur Denny proposes “to allow all white females over the age of 18 years to vote.” The bill fails 9-8. #StateOfTheWeek…
Tags: 1854, Native rights, State Spotlight, Washington
Voting rights & plural marriage: The Utah Story
In Utah, suffrage was politically entwined w/polygamy. Women 1st voted in 1870, when UT was a territory seeking to preserve plural marriage vs a hostile federal govt. Giving women the vote demonstrated their independence while enlisting them in…
Tags: 1870, 1887, 1896, State Spotlight, Utah
Vote, Virginia!
TODAY is the last day to register to vote in Virginia for Nov 5. If just 4 state legislative seats flip, VA will be the 38th state to ratify the ERA. That would pay an old debt: VA didn’t ratify the 19th Amendment until 1952. #StateoftheWeek…
Tags: ERA, State Spotlight, Virginia
Utah sesquicentennial minus 9
Happy sesquicentennial Utah! Women voted in Utah beginning 150 years ago tomorrow - with a gap from 1887-1896. Why? B/c women's votes were endlessly a political football in the anti-Mormon nat'l politics of the 19th c. Read more from @BetterDays2020…
Tags: 1870, State Spotlight, Utah
Tye Leung Schulze
Tye Leung Schulze was the first Chinese-American woman to take the civil service exam and become a federal government employee. She was also the first Chinese-American woman known to vote. Not in 1920 -- in 1912. 🧵 When Tye was born in 1887, the…
The first men to vote for women
In 1893, men in Colorado voted to let women vote - the first time such a thing had ever happened. 16 years earlier a referendum failed in CO - just like in KS, MI, NE, OR, RI, WA & SD. So how'd we finally win? [1/2] #StateOfTheWeek…
Tags: 1893, Black Suffragists, Colorado, labor, State Spotlight
South Dakota
South Dakota became a state in 1899. Its motto: “Under God the People Rule.” National suffrage leaders converged on the state immediately to campaign for a doomed suffrage amendment. Its motto: “Women Are People.” A #StateOfTheWeek thread White women…
North Dakota
North Dakota is #StateoftheWeek! I took the quiz 👇and learned that ND was the 1st to elect a woman to statewide office. ðŸ‘
Find out more about women’s suffrage history in North Dakota! Test your knowledge with this state quiz!…
Tags: 1893, 1913, Indigenous History, State Spotlight
New Jersey stood alone
Everything is legal in New Jersey. Including, til 1807 voting by white women who owned property & were unmarried. If married, their legal existence (and property) disappeared into their husband. If Black, they were likely enslaved: NJ clung to…
Tags: New Jersey, Slavery, State Spotlight