Lesson Plan - Woman Suffrage Movement in Virginia

The American woman suffrage movement is traditionally dated to the first women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and others called for women's equality in the home, education, employment, and politics. At this time, women were a dependent class under the responsibility of their fathers or husbands. In Virginia, for example, married women could not control their own property until 1877. Most Americans—men and women—believed that the proper place for women was managing their households and families instead of participating in politics or voting.  Two Virginia women, Anna Whitehead Boedeker and Orra Gray Langhorne, created two short-lived statewide suffrage organizations in the 1870s and 1890s, but it was not until the 20th century that Virginia women began fighting actively for voting rights. In Virginia the fight was dominated by white women, although Black Virginians such as entrepreneur Maggie L. Walker worked separately to promote women’s voting rights.

In 1909, a group of prominent white women in Richmond organized the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL). Author Ellen Glasgow, artist Adèle Clark, wealthy social reformer Lila Meade Valentine and others convened the group, which elected Valentine president and  affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which at that time advocated amending state constitutions to authorize women's voting rights.  To persuade male voters and legislators to support their cause, Virginia suffragists publicized their cause in many ways. Their campaign included door-to-door canvassing, lobbying legislators, signing petitions, hosting rallies and “street meetings”—or demonstrations—staffing booths at local and state fairs, and starting local chapters throughout the state. They even persuaded men to start their own league. By 1919, the ESL had 32,000 members and was one of the largest organized pro-suffrage groups in the south.

Suffragists argued that as women they had an intrinsic responsibility to vote. To create laws that protected children, funded schools and civic projects that would benefit society, and promoted efforts to help Virginians be healthy and safe, suffragists argued that they needed to be able to hold politicians accountable. Too often, they claimed, male politicians ignored these important issues. It was up to voting women, they said, to make the world better and safer for their children—and to raise children who would be civic-minded. How better to do that they asked, than to be voters themselves?

As the ESL membership grew, Virginia’s antisuffragists also organized. In 1912, they formed the Virginia Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage. They argued that suffrage was a socialist plot that threatened to fundamentally change the roles women played in society. They believed that women inhabited a “private” sphere, unsullied by corruption and politics, which made them inherently more moral than men. They believed that women would lose their power to persuade men to reform society. Antisuffragists also feared that enabling women to vote would increase the number of Black voters overall and dilute the power of the white vote.

Many Black Virginians supported woman suffrage, but their voices were muted in Virginia as they were excluded from the groups organized by white women.  Black women's clubs organized political study groups and they read about woman suffrage in local and national African American newspapers. In 1912, members of the National Association of Colored Women held a suffrage parade at their convention in Hampton.  In 1913, Black women also participated in the national march for woman suffrage despite opposition from white women.

As it became clearer that women's voting rights would be better secured through and amendment to the U.S. Constitution, some Virginians chose to affiliate with the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (renamed the National Woman’s Party in 1917). Organized by Pennsylvania Quaker Alice Paul, the National Woman's Party used more dramatic tactics to raise awareness of woman suffrage and build support for a constitutional amendment that would guarantee women the right to vote nationwide. Members of the Virginia branch of the National Woman's Party boldly castigated political parties whose members refused to support the amendment and picketed in front of the White House to shame President Woodrow Wilson who urged Americans to fight for democracy abroad during World War I while denying it to women at home. Many of the picketers, who were almost entirely white women, were arrested for during their peaceful demonstrations, which horrified many Americans and brought new attention to the suffrage fight.

Virginia's General Assembly voted three times against a woman suffrage amendment to the state constitution in 1912, 1914, and 1916. When the 19th Amendment granting woman suffrage was sent to the states for ratification, Virginia's legislature voted against it twice before Tennessee ratified the amendment in August 1920. Because Virginia suffragists had convinced legislators that woman suffrage was on the verge of becoming reality, the General Assembly did approve a bill allowing women to register to vote even if the 19th Amendment was ratified after the state's deadline for registering. Virginia women took advantage and in September 1920 approximately 75,000 women registered to vote, including more than 3,000 Black women. The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia disbanded and many of its members formed the Virginia League of Women Voters, which remained segregated for many years. Black women formed the short-lived Virginia Negro League of Women Voters. In 1952, the General Assembly voted to ratify the 19th Amendment for reasons that are unclear.

These primary source documents found in Document Bank of Virginia can be used together to understand the women's suffrage movement. They are attached to this lesson plan as pdfs in the Files. Find more information about each document at the individual Document Bank entry link:

“The Age of Brass: Or the Triumphs of Woman's Rights,” Lithograph, 1869 

Twelve Reasons Why Mothers Should Have the Vote, Equal Suffrage League flyer, 1910s 

Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, Voting Qualifications in Virginia, 1910s

Virginia Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage, Broadside, 1910s

Anti-Suffrage Arguments, Danger!, Broadside, circa 1918

Black Women and Voting Rights, 1914 and 1920

Suffragists Arrested and Imprisoned, Letter to the Editor, 1917 

USII.3, USII.5, CE.6, CE.9, VUS.12, GOVT.10

Goals and Guiding Principles
Students will be able to evaluate the Progressive movement’s effect on the woman’s suffrage and describe some of the local leaders and key events that led to ratification of the Ninteenth Amendment. Students will be able to explore how activists peacefully worked for change, even in the face of violent opposition, and how pro- and anti-suffragists used media and the printed word to express their public opinions. Students will understand how women’s political roles in society expanded and changed as a result of the suffrage movement and the Ninteenth Amendment, and will be able to explain how groups can exert influence on local, state, and national politics.

The Wheel of Reasoning (30 minutes)
USII and VUS, CE AND GOVT

Construct a wheel with these “slices” and answer the questions below:

1. Identify the key components of the suffrage debates as posited in “Twelve Reasons Mothers Should Have the Vote,” “Voting Qualifications in Virginia,” “Anti-Suffrage Arguments,” and “Virginia Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage, Broadside.”
2. What is the purpose of each document? What was the author's motivation in presenting the information like this?
3. Identify three key points each author makes.
4. Evaluate the evidence. Are these authors using assumptions to make their claims, or are their claims based on evidence provided by the author?
5. Point of view—identify the point of view of each author based on what they are saying.
6. Concepts—What are the key theories presented in the suffragist and antisuffragist arguments? Are the points of evidence logical? Why or why not? What do you think of these concepts?
7. Implications—What were the implications of white women writing about Black voters as they did? What were the implications of suffragists focusing on women as mothers? What would have happened if antisuffragists had prevailed?
8. Inferences/Conclusions—Why did suffragists and antisuffragists use the arguments they did? What does that tell you about society at the time? Did the issues they wrote about actually happen? What does that tell you about their fears?

 

Story Map (15 minutes)
VS, USII, CE

Use "The Age of Brass" lithograph and identify the following in a chart:

• Who is the protagonist?
• Who are the supporting characters?
• What are they doing?

Once you have the chart, read “Twelve Reasons Mothers Should Have the Vote.”  Use the chart and the article to consider these questions: What were the traditional views about women’s role in society? Why did women's voting rights challenge those perceptions? How did the suffragists indirectly respond to the caricatures in "The Age of Brass?"

 

Discuss Across the Divide (15 minutes)
USII, VUS, GOVT

Create a chart outlining the arguments presented in “Voting Qualifications of Virginia” and the reaction to white women suffragists as explained by the author of the St. Luke Herald editorial in "Black Women and Voting Rights." Imagine a discussion that could have been held between Black and white leaders  about voting rights. What might they have said to each other, and why? Ultimately, did the argument of white women about the Black vote help them to secure suffrage?  Why or why not?

 

Debate (20 minutes)
USII, VUS, GOVT

Suffragists did not all agree on the most effective way of achieving women's voting rights. Taking either the side of the Equal Suffrage League and the National American Woman Suffrage Association or the Congressional Union/National Woman's Party, debate whether working for woman suffrage amendments to each state constitution or the U.S. Constitution would be most effective and whether or not more aggressive tactics would be effective. What arguments can they formulate for/against each issue/type of activism? Have them determine a conclusion—what ultimately do they think made the difference, and why?

 

Artistic Endeavor (15 minutes)
VS, USII, CE

Draw or create a suffragist image as a response to "The Age of Brass" lithograph. Use the arguments in “Twelve Reasons Mothers Should Have the Vote” as a starting point for refuting "The Age of Brass" claims.

 

Exit Ticket (20 minutes)
USII, CE, VUS, GOVT

List three things you learned about woman suffrage, two things that you found interesting, and one thing you still have questions about. Explain how the story of woman suffrage illustrates the ways in which people can peacefully organize for change and how people can be active, informed citizens in their community.