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| Founded | 1896 |
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| Founder | Grace A. Johnson |
| Focus | Women's rights, feminism, women's suffrage, suffrage [1] |
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The Cambridge Political Equality Association (CPEA) was an American women's suffrage organization founded in 1896 which was dissolved in 1920. [2]
The CPEA was founded by Grace A. Johnson, otherwise known as Mrs. Lewis J. Johnson, in order "to extend study and discussion with a view to securing political equality for American citizens". [1] The organization was centered on suffrage for women and worked toward its goal with meetings and lectures around the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. After 1900, CPEA also organized parades and rallies in addition to raising money through rummage sales and bazaars for women's suffrage. Although the group's main goal was women's suffrage, CPEA also worked on issues of suffrage for African American women and proportional representation of all American citizens. [1]
The organization held annual business meetings in order to present reports about the CPEA and also to elect new officers or to re-elect current officers. The meetings often took place at the home of one of the members and would end with dinner or a skit. [3] The organization also held conferences reporting on the work of Cambridge suffragists done over the preceding months or past season. These meetings also were a platform to recognize elected officials who supported women's suffrage, such as Massachusetts Governor David I. Walsh in 1914, and to memorialize the number of suffragists enrolled in the city, 1758 in 1914. [4]
The CPEA became associated with the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, which was a state chapter of the National Woman Suffrage Association (later to become the National American Woman Suffrage Association, as it merged with the American Woman Suffrage Association), and also worked with the Cambridge Woman Suffrage Party. Grace A. Johnson, who served as the president of CPEA until 1916, was also an officer in the Cambridge Public School Association, which played a significant role in CPEA's campaign to encourage women to register and vote in school committee elections. [2]
The CPEA was the forerunner of the Cambridge League of Women Voters, which formed in 1920 after the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, and was a local offshoot of the national organization, the League of Women Voters. [1]
The following women have been part of the Cambridge Political Equality Association: [5]
President:
First Vice President:
Honorary Vice President:
Directors:
Treasurer:
Recording Secretary:
Corresponding Secretary:
Alice Stone Blackwell was an American feminist, suffragist, journalist, radical socialist, and human rights advocate.
Anti-suffragism was a political movement composed of both men and women that began in the late 19th century in order to campaign against women's suffrage in countries such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. To some extent, Anti-suffragism was a Classical Conservative movement that sought to keep the status quo for women. More American women organized against their own right to vote than in favor of it, until 1916. Anti-suffragism was associated with "domestic feminism," the belief that women had the right to complete freedom within the home. In the United States, these activists were often referred to as "remonstrants" or "antis."
Grace Belden Wilbur Trout was an American suffragist who was president of two prominent Illinois suffrage organizations, the Chicago Political Equality League and the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA). She was instrumental in getting the Illinois legislature to pass the presidential and municipal suffrage law, also known as the "Illinois Law," a law giving women partial suffrage by allowing them to vote in local and national elections. Though inexperienced with legislative work, she implemented a strategic lobbying plan in the state legislature that succeeded. She also organized public campaigns to build support for suffrage and secured favorable statewide media coverage.
Nina Evans Allender was an American artist, cartoonist, and women's rights activist. She studied art in the United States and Europe with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri. Allender worked as an organizer, speaker, and campaigner for women's suffrage and was the "official cartoonist" for the National Woman's Party's publications, creating what became known as the "Allender Girl."
This timeline highlights milestones in women's suffrage in the United States, particularly the right of women to vote in elections at federal and state levels.
Women's suffrage was established in the United States on a full or partial basis by various towns, counties, states and territories during the latter decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. As women received the right to vote in some places, they began running for public office and gaining positions as school board members, county clerks, state legislators, judges, and, in the case of Jeannette Rankin, as a member of Congress.
The Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) was an American organization devoted to women's suffrage in Massachusetts. It was active from 1870 to 1919.
The Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government (BESAGG) was an American organization devoted to women's suffrage in Massachusetts. It was active from 1901 to 1920. Like the College Equal Suffrage League, it attracted younger, less risk-averse members than some of the more established organizations. BESAGG played an important role in the ratification of the 19th amendment in Massachusetts. After 1920, it became the Boston League of Women Voters.
The Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA) was an organization founded in 1903 to support white women's suffrage in Texas. It was originally formed under the name of the Texas Woman Suffrage Association (TWSA) and later renamed in 1916. TESA did allow men to join. TESA did not allow black women as members, because at the time to do so would have been "political suicide." The El Paso Colored Woman's Club applied for TESA membership in 1918, but the issue was deflected and ended up going nowhere. TESA focused most of their efforts on securing the passage of the federal amendment for women's right to vote. The organization also became the state chapter of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). After women earned the right to vote, TESA reformed as the Texas League of Women Voters.
The National Association Opposed to Women Suffrage (NAOWS) was founded in the United States by women opposed to the suffrage movement in 1911. It was the most popular anti-suffrage organization in northeastern cities. NAOWS had influential local chapters in many states, including Texas and Virginia.
Minnie Bronson was an American anti-suffragist activist who was general secretary of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.
Oreola Williams Haskell was an American activist for suffrage, author, and poet in the early twentieth century.
Women's suffrage, the legal right of women to vote, has been depicted in film in a variety of ways since the invention of narrative film in the late nineteenth century. Some early films satirized and mocked suffragists and Suffragettes as "unwomanly" "man-haters," or sensationalized documentary footage. Suffragists countered these depictions by releasing narrative films and newsreels that argued for their cause. After women won the vote in countries with a national cinema, women's suffrage became a historical event depicted in both fiction and nonfiction films.
Women's suffrage in Virginia was granted in 1920, with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. The General Assembly, Virginia's governing legislative body, did not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until 1952. The argument for women's suffrage in Virginia began in 1870, but it did not gain traction until 1909 with the founding of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. Between 1912 and 1916, Virginia's suffragists would bring the issue of women's voting rights to the floor of the General Assembly three times, petitioning for an amendment to the state constitution giving women the right to vote; they were defeated each time. During this period, the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and its fellow Virginia suffragists fought against a strong anti-suffragist movement that tapped into conservative, post-Civil War values on the role of women, as well as racial fears. After achieving suffrage in August 1920, over 13,000 women registered within one month to vote for the first time in the 1920 United States presidential election.
Women's suffrage in California refers to the political struggle for voting rights for women in the state of California. The movement began in the 19th century and was successful with the passage of Proposition 4 on October 10, 1911. Many of the women and men involved in this movement remained politically active in the national suffrage movement with organizations such as the National American Women's Suffrage Association and the National Woman's Party.
Harriet Taylor Treadwell, also seen as Harriette Taylor Treadwell, was an American suffragist and educator.
Women's suffrage in Florida had two distinct phases. The first women's suffrage effort in Florida was led by Ella C. Chamberlain in the early 1890s. Chamberlain began writing a women's suffrage news column, started a mixed-gender women's suffrage group and organized conventions in Florida. After Chamberlain left Florida in 1897, most women's suffrage activities ceased until around 1912. That year, the Equal Franchise League of Florida was organized in Jacksonville, Florida. Other groups soon followed, forming around the state. Whenever the Florida Legislature was in session, suffragists advocated for equal franchise amendments to the Florida Constitution. In October 1913, property-owning women in Orlando, Florida attempted unsuccessfully to vote. However, their actions raised awareness about women's suffrage in the state. In 1915, the city of Fellsmere allowed municipal women's suffrage and Zena Dreier became the first legal women voter in the South on June 19. By 1919, several cities in Florida allowed women to vote in municipal elections. Florida did not take action on the Nineteenth Amendment, and only ratified it years later on May 13, 1969.
Laura Gregg Cannon was an American lecturer and organizer in the women's suffrage movement. Over the course of almost three decades, she led or supported suffrage activities in fifteen different states. She was a Life Member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Cannon edited a suffrage publication and wrote on labor issues. She was a national speaker for the Socialist Party.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in South Dakota. The early history of women's suffrage in the state is shared with North Dakota. When South Dakota became a state, it held a voter referendum in 1890 on an equal suffrage amendment. This effort failed, but suffragists continued to organize and lobby the legislature to pass voter referendums. None passed until 1918. South Dakota ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on December 4, 1919.
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