Missouri
Missouri’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 Missouri in the timeline below, or download the timeline as a printable PDF.
Missouri’s Suffrage Timeline
1867
Missouri’s women formed the state’s first suffrage organization, the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri (WSAM).
1869
Following the ratification of the 14th Amendment, WSAM’s first president, Virginia Minor, spoke at the National Woman Suffrage Convention in St. Louis.
1872
Like Susan B. Anthony, Minor attempted to register to vote in that year’s presidential election and was rejected. Minor and her husband, a University of Virginia law school graduate, filed a court challenge arguing that the 14th Amendment gave women the right to vote.
1874
The U.S. Supreme Court heard the Minors’ case and ruled unanimously against them, holding that being a citizen did not entitle a person the right to vote.
1914
After Missouri included suffrage on the ballot, the Missouri Woman Suffrage Association hosted speakers and campaigned at local and state fairs. In spite of this hard work, voters defeated the initiative with 322,463 votes in opposition and 182,257 in support.
1916
Edna Gellhorn,* a physician and medical school professor at Washington University, organized 8,000 women wearing white dresses with gold sashes and parasols to line the St. Louis street leading up to the Democratic National Convention hall. Dubbed the “Golden Lane,” the women silently stared at the delegates for two hours as they came to and from the convention to symbolize the silencing of women due to their lack of enfranchisement.
1919
The Missouri State Legislature passed a suffrage bill, granting Missouri’s women the right to vote for President and Vice President in the 1920 election.
July 3, 1919
Missouri ratified the 19th Amendment, becoming the 11th state to ratify.**
* After ratification of the 19th Amendment, Gellhorn helped found the National League of Women Voters and served as an officer in the Missouri Equal Suffrage League. She also lobbied for clean drinking water and increased safety standards for milk in Missouri.
** Jim Crow laws were enforced in Missouri 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.
Leisinger, B., & Harper, K. (n.d.). Edna Gellhorn. Historic Missourians. https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/edna-gellhorn/
Missouri Amendment 13, Women’s Suffrage Initiative (1914). (n.d.). Ballotpedia. https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Amendment_13,_Women%27s_Suffrage_Initiative_(1914)
Missouri and the 19th Amendment. (2019, August 9). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/missouri-and-the-19th-amendment.htm
Missouri and the 19th Amendment. (2020, March 3). The Missouri Bar. https://news.mobar.org/missouri-and-the-19th-amendment/
Missouri Women: Suffrage to Statecraft. (2020). Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection. https://mhctc.missouri.edu/exhibitions/missouri-women-suffrage-to-statecraft/
The Suffragists of St. Louis: Part 1 of 3. (2022, April 13). GOTLaw. https://gotlawstl.com/the-suffragists-of-st-louis-part-1/
Virginia Minor and Women’s Right to Vote. (2022, September 30). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/jeff/learn/historyculture/the-virginia-minor-case.htm