Delaware
Delaware’s Fight for Suffrage
Women worked for over 70 years to get the vote. Divisions over race, tactics, and strategy did not stop suffrage efforts. Women kept their eyes on the prize . . . suffrage. Learn more about the fight for suffrage in Delaware in the timeline below, or download the timeline as a printable PDF.
Delaware’s Suffrage Timeline
1869
Wilmington held its first women’s rights convention. The same year, Emma Worrell and John Cameron founded the Delaware Suffrage Association.
1878
Newark resident Mary Ann Sorden Stuart testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of the first federal suffrage bill introduced in Congress.
1914
On Wilmington’s Suffrage Day, suffragists used speeches and rallies across town to create awareness. A suffrage parade served as a centerpiece of Suffrage Day and featured 400 marching suffragists, dressed in white. The Wilmington Equal Suffrage Study Club, founded earlier that year, contributed a sizable delegation to the parade. Black women were relegated to the back of the parade line.
An anti-suffrage group, the Delaware Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (DAOWS), counted women like duPont heiress May duPont Saulsbury (wife of Senator Willard Saulsbury) as active members. The well-connected and wealthy women of DAOWS argued that women did not need voting rights, as women already had access to politicians, through whom they could press their agendas.
1915
Legislators introduced the first suffrage bill in Delaware.
1917
Suffragist activism mirrored the national groups, where some suffragists split off from the mainstream organizations to join the Congressional Union picketing outside the White House.
1918
During midterm elections, suffragists led a successful campaign against anti-suffragist U.S. Senator Saulsbury, and a pro-suffrage senator took his place. This election victory was vital to Senate passage of the 19th Amendment the next year. Delaware’s voters showed sitting senators that opposing suffrage could lead to their political defeat.
1920
After Congressional passage of the 19th Amendment, in a special legislative session, the Delaware Senate approved ratification, but the House voted against suffrage. Delaware missed the chance to become the final state needed for ratification.
March 6, 1923
The General Assembly ratified the 19th Amendment.
References
Boylan, A. (2019). Delaware Women’s Suffrage Timeline. Delaware Historical Society. https://archivesfiles.delaware.gov/womens-vote/Womens-Suffrage-Delaware-Timeline-10.10.19_min.pdf
Cooney, Robert. (2005). Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement. American Graphic Press.
Delaware Today. (2020, July 24). Delaware’s Integral Role in the Fight for Women’s Voting Rights. Delaware Today. https://delawaretoday.com/life-style/delaware-role-womens-voting-rights-19th-amendment/
Delaware and the 19th Amendment. (2020, May 11). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/delaware-and-the-19th-amendment.htm
Delaware Public Archives Dedicates Equal Suffrage Study Club Historical Marker. (2021, October 13). Delaware.gov. https://news.delaware.gov/2021/10/13/delaware-public-archives-dedicates-equal-suffrage-study-club-historical-marker/
Equal Suffrage Study Club. (n.d.). Delaware Public Archives. https://archives.delaware.gov/delaware-historical-markers/equal-suffrage-study-club/
Stopra, D. (2020, August 17). African American Suffragists. University of Delaware. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2020/march/Anne-Boylan-Delaware-suffragists-African-American-votes-for-women-centennial-Nineteenth-Amendment/
Votes for Delaware Women: A Centennial Exhibition. (2020). University of Delaware. https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/votes-for-delaware-women/