This is a list of Virginia suffragists, suffrage groups and others associated with the cause of women's suffrage in Virginia.
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Politicians
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Mary Johnston was an American novelist and women's rights advocate from Virginia. She was one of America's best selling authors during her writing career and had three silent films adapted from her novels. Johnston was also an active member of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, using her writing skills and notability to draw attention to the cause of women's suffrage in Virginia.
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.
Sarah Lee Odend'hal Fain was a Virginia schoolteacher and Democratic politician who became one of the earliest female members of the Virginia General Assembly and later assisted with New Deal reforms in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Texas and California. In 1923, Fain and fellow schoolteacher Helen Timmons Henderson became the first two women elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.
Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis was the founder of the Lynchburg Equal Suffrage League and vice-president of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. She was also one of the founders of the Virginia League of Women Voters.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Virginia. While there were some very early efforts to support women's suffrage in Virginia, most of the activism for the vote for women occurred early in the 20th century. The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia was formed in 1909 and the Virginia Branch of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage was formed in 1915. Over the next years, women held rallies, conventions and many propositions for women's suffrage were introduced in the Virginia General Assembly. Virginia didn't ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until 1952. Native American women could not have a full vote until 1924 and African American women were effectively disenfranchised until the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.
Alice B. Overbey Taylor was an American suffragist. She was the manager of the short-lived Virginia Suffrage News.
Mary Ellen Pollard Clarke (1862–1939) was an American suffragist. She was the editor-in-chief of the short-lived Virginia Suffrage News and the author of essays on public policy, literature, and suffrage.
Edith Clark Cowles was an American suffragist. She was one of the founders of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia.
Ida Mae Thompson was an American suffragist. She was active in the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and later worked for the Works Progress Administration's Historical Records to obtain and archive records from the suffrage movement in Virginia.
Jessie Fremont Easton Townsend was an American suffragist. She was active in the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and was an early member of the Norfolk branch of the organization.
Janet Stuart Oldershaw Durham was an American suffragist, clubwoman, lawyer, and politician. She twice ran as a Democrat for the Virginia House of Delegates, in 1921 and 1923, but was not elected. She passed the bar exam in Virginia in 1925 and went on to practice law. Durham was active in the women's suffrage movement as a member of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and the League of Women Voters.
Janetta R. FitzHugh was a women's suffragette. She was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she helped to found the Fredericksburg Civic Betterment Club in 1911 and was elected president. Her early work with the club focused on sanitation and public health. She was better known, however, for her work in the suffragette movement.
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