Alabama
Alabama’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 Alabama in the timeline below, or download the timeline as a printable PDF.
Alabama’s Suffrage Timeline
1893
Ellen Stephens Hildreth and six other women from New Decatur founded Alabama’s first women’s suffrage group, the Alabama Woman Suffrage Organization.
1895
Adella Hunt Logan, a Black suffragist and National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) member, organized suffrage debates for the Tuskegee Woman’s Club.
1901
The Alabama Legislature amended the state’s constitution to restrict voting to male citizens and expanded literacy and poll taxes to further restrict voting to white men.
1912
Pattie Ruffner Jacobs founded and served as the first president of the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association (AESA). Advocating for suffrage, equal pay, and better working conditions, AESA encouraged individuals from all social, political, and gender backgrounds to join the organization. AESA only advocated for white women’s right to vote.
1915
AESA scored a major victory: Representative Joseph Green introduced the first suffrage bill in the House of Representatives. Leading up to the vote, AESA hosted luncheons and lectures, with its members writing supporting newspaper pieces. The AESA also hosted Suffrage Day at Birmingham’s Rickwood Baseball Field the same year.
After Representative Green withdrew his bill support in response to anti-suffragists claiming that suffrage would double the Black vote, the Alabama House of Representatives defeated the suffrage bill just a week later. After this, AESA began to advocate for a federal suffrage amendment alongside NAWSA.
1919
After the passage of the 19th Amendment, forces such as the Woman’s Anti-Ratification League of Alabama argued that any support of the 19th Amendment was treasonous.
The Alabama Legislature voted against ratification of the 19th Amendment.
1920
Nineteenth Amendment supporters held a Birmingham parade celebrating the amendment’s ratification by Tennessee. Thirty-six decoration-festooned cars representing the ratifying states drove the parade route surrounded by over 1,500 suffrage supporters.
September 1953
The Alabama Legislature ratified the 19th Amendment.*
* Jim Crow laws were enforced in Alabama until passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and Black women were not able to vote post-1920.
References
Alabama and the 19th Amendment. (2020, January 14). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/alabama-and-the-19th-amendment.htm
Colvin, A. (2022). Suffrage Day at Rickwood Field, 1915. Alabama Humanities. https://alabamahumanities.org/app/uploads/2022/07/Mosaic_Suffrage_2022.pdf
Conlon, R. (2024, June 7). ‘We can play baseball, we can also vote’: How Rickwood Field played a part in the Women’s Suffrage Movement. WVTM 13. https://www.wvtm13.com/article/rickwood-field-women-suffrage-alabama.
Cooney, Robert. (2005). Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement. American Graphic Press.
Harper, Ida Husted (1922). The History of Woman Suffrage. New York: J.J. Little & Ives Company.
University of Alabama Libraries. (2020). Alabama Suffragists. https://apps.lib.ua.edu/blogs/digitalexhibits/woman-suffrage-in-dixie/alabama-suffragists/
University of Alabama Libraries. (2020). The Suffrage Battle. https://apps.lib.ua.edu/blogs/digitalexhibits/woman-suffrage-in-dixie/the-suffrage-battle/
Warren, Sarah A (2011). Alabama Constitution of 1901. Encyclopedia of Alabama. https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/alabama-constitution-of-1901/?utm_source=chatgpt.com