Browse Items (215 total)

After the Civil War, Black Virginians faced both opportunities and challenges. State law segregated public schools. As a result, a class of Black educators emerged to become leaders not only of their schools, but also of their communities whose…

Early in the 20th century, thousands of European immigrants worked in the coalfields of southwestern Virginia. After the Civil War, rail companies had expanded westward as entrepreneurs and industrialists opened coal seams in the region. Beginning in…

Antonio Sansone was born in 1856 in Termini Imerese, Sicily. He immigrated to the United States in 1880 at the start of a wave of Italian immigration to America that lasted until about 1920. By 1899, he had established Antonio Sansone & Company,…

At the turn of the twentieth century, many Black women advocated women's voting rights, but their voices often went unheard and their actions were ignored or unwelcomed by the larger white-dominated woman suffrage movement. This was particularly true…

After the Civil War, the temperance movement swept the nation. Starting with Maine in 1851, states and localities around the country held referendums to let its citizens vote on whether or not to ban alcohol. In 1886, Virginia adopted the “Local…

This pamphlet was one of many produced by the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL) to advocate voting rights for women during the 1910s. About twenty women met in Richmond in 1909 to establish the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. Many of the…

For a significant portion of American history, women did not have the right to vote. State legislatures determined who could vote, and Virginia did not extend voting rights to all white men until 1851. The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S.…

Founded in 1909, Virginia's Equal Suffrage League sought support for the vote in many ways. Members lobbied legislators, gave public speeches, and published editorial letters, broadsides, and pamphlets. They advanced many arguments about why women…

Circulated in Staunton, Virginia, the broadside dates to sometime between 1900 and 1919. In it, the women of Staunton asked the men in their community to vote in favor of prohibition or the legal elimination of alcohol consumption and sale. The…

Late in the 19th century, some Virginians became interested in preserving historic buildings and landscapes that documented the state's illustrious past. White women led the effort to establish the Association for the Preservation of Virginia…