North Carolina
North Carolina’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 North Carolina in the timeline below, or download the timeline as a printable PDF.
North Carolina’s Suffrage Timeline
1894
Helen Morris Lewis held the first public suffrage meeting in Asheville. Lewis served as President of the new Equal Suffrage Association.
1897
A suffrage bill was introduced in the Senate, but it was referred to the Committee on Insane Asylums where it died.
1913
Barbara Henderson and Gertrude Weil led the Equal Suffrage League of North Carolina (ESLNC) with branches in Raleigh, Goldsboro, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Asheville. The ESLNC orchestrated lectures and speaker tours and lobbied state legislators on the need for suffrage.*
1915
The General Assembly considered a limited municipal suffrage bill but the bill did not progress beyond committee consideration. The process repeated itself two years later.
1919
The General Assembly considered three different suffrage bills: municipal voting, primary election voting, and full voting rights for women. All three failed. Strong opposition came from the textile industry, which feared that women voting would result in child labor restrictions, and white supremacists believing that Black women voting would upend Jim Crow restrictions on Black voting in the state.
1920
Following passage of the 19th Amendment, the North Carolina State Senate prepared to vote on ratification on August 17th. If successful, North Carolina would become the 36th and final state needed to ratify the amendment. State Senator Lindsay Warren convinced the Senate to postpone its vote until the next legislative session.
Tennessee provided the 36th, and final vote needed to amend the U.S. Constitution just nine days later.
1971
North Carolina ratified the 19th Amendment as a symbolic gesture.**
*After passage of the 19th Amendment, the ESLNC transformed itself into the League of Women Voters to urge North Carolina’s women to exercise their new right to vote.
** Jim Crow laws were enforced in North Carolina until passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and Black women were not able to vote post-1920.
References
Cooney, Robert. (2005). Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement. American Graphic Press.
Cotten, A. (1994). Stafford, Lillian Exum Clement. NCPedia. https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/stafford-lillian
Hansan, J. (2011). National Woman’s Party. Social Welfare History Project. Retrieved from https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/woman-suffrage/national-womans-party/
Hartman, S., Caron, S., & Foster, A. (n.d.). Biographical Sketch of Barbara Bynum Henderson. Alexander Street. https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1009656443
Molloy, J. (n.d.). Timeline of Women’s Suffrage. NCPedia. https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/timeline-womens-suffrage
North Carolina and the 19th Amendment. (2019, August 27). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/north-carolina-and-the-19th-amendment.htm
North Carolina History Project. (n.d.). North Carolina Equal Suffrage Association. North Carolina History Project. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/north-carolina-equal-suffrage-association/
North Carolina History Project. (n.d.). Second-to-the-Last in Freedom (for Women). North Carolina History Project. https://northcarolinahistory.org/commentary/second-to-the-last-in-freedom-for-women/
Pruden, C. (2006). Women Suffrage. NCPedia. https://www.ncpedia.org/women-suffrage
Taylor, A. (1991). Lewis, Helen Morris. NCPedia. https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/lewis-helen