Sara Andrews Spencer

Nation’s birthday party, 1876. Huge party planned. No women speaking. No women mentioned. So women stormed the stage.

One of them was Sara Andrews Spencer.

#July4 thread.

The day before the event, Spencer hand-delivered a letter from ElizabethCadyStanton on behalf of women, asking for a moment to present this >> Declaration of Rights. The head of the Centennial Commission apologized that it was too late to change the program.

Spencer's reply was printed in newspapers nationwide: "We are aware that your programme is published, your speakers engaged, your entire arrangements decided upon, without consulting with the women of the United States; for that very reason we desire to enter our protest."

Sara Andrews Spencer also brought one of the first voting rights lawsuits. She was the chief lobbyist for the 1878 introduction of the women's suffrage amendment in Congress. Pictured above about 15 years later, after the deaths of her husband and namesake granddaughter. 

I am grateful to Prof. Tom Dublin for publishing my biographical essay about Spencer in the Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the U.S. Thanks to @KatCKitt for helping me find and understand Spencer’s long connection to LDS suffragists.

Here’s the link to the whole essay - she’s worth it!

#Suffrage101 #VotingRights