Description: This letter was written on April 7, 1914, by Minerva K. Brooks, a suffragist from Cleveland, to Lucile Atcherson, a women's suffrage leader in Columbus and executive secretary of the Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association. Brooks was writing to Atcherson to send congratulations for Mrs. W.O. Thompson's role in the college women of the Ohio State University's endorsement of the suffrage movement. Brooks admited to Atcherson that she thought college women were delayed in their support of women's suffrage. The Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1912, after the Ohio Constitutional Convention elected to bring to a vote the question of removing the words "white male" from the state constitution with regard to voting rights. Headquartered in the Chamber of Commerce building in Columbus, Ohio, the organization put out regular publications, organized public speeches and meetings, distributed literature and held parades in support of the suffrage movement. Women's suffrage in Ohio was defeated in a special election in 1912 and again in 1914 and 1916 before a resolution narrowly passed in 1917 allowing municipal voting by women in Columbus. In 1920, the 19th Amendment passed, extending the vote to women and prohibiting state and federal government from denying suffrage on the basis of sex. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS1025_B01F01_09
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association; Ohio State University--History
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio);