South Carolina
South 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 South Carolina in the timeline below, or download the timeline as a printable PDF.
South Carolina’s Suffrage Timeline
1890s
Eulalie Salley founded the South Carolina Equal Rights Association (SCERA). Salley was so devoted to the suffrage cause that she rode in one of the state’s first airplanes to drop suffrage flyers.
1892
Virginia Young, editor of the Fairfax Enterprise where she promoted suffrage and Prohibition, convinced State Senator Robert Hemphill to introduce a suffrage bill. Legislators rejected the bill, but Young persevered and established suffrage clubs throughout the state. Young also persuaded Senator Hemphill to introduce a suffrage petition by arguing that taxes on women were unlawful because they had been denied representation.
1895
In a significant blow to voting rights and equality, South Carolina’s governor signed a new state constitution that incorporated severe voting restrictions for Black residents and excluded women from voting altogether.
1914
After SCERA dissolved in 1906, the South Carolina Equal Suffrage League (SCESL) was created. In its parade at that year’s state fair, SCESL campaigned, distributing pamphlets and other literature—and raised funds for the suffrage cause. SCESL established 25 offices around the state and listed 3000 members by 1917.
1919
Following congressional passage of the 19th Amendment, South Carolina suffragists felt a new wave of optimism.
January 1920
The South Carolina legislature soundly defeated ratification by a vote of 93 to 21 in the House and 32 to 3 in the Senate.
After the 19th Amendment received the final state ratification needed to become law, South Carolina enacted legislation granting women the right to vote but also passed a law prohibiting women from serving on juries which lasted until 1967.*
July 1, 1969
South Carolina ratified the 19th Amendment.
* Jim Crow laws were also enforced in South Carolina until passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and Black women were not able to vote post-1920.
References
Bland, S. & Yarbrough, C. (2016, July 7). Women’s Suffrage. South Carolina Encyclopedia. https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/women’s-suffrage.
Ivey, P. (2020, August 6). 100 Years of Suffrage. University of South Carolina. https://sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2020/08/womens_suffrage_movement_in_sc.php
Jensen, F. (2020, August 11). August 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment is Ratified. South Carolina Historical Society. https://schistory.org/august-1920-the-nineteenth-amendment-is-ratified/
South Carolina and the 19th Amendment. (2019, August 27). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/south-carolina-women-s-history.htm