Marie Stuart Edwards was a suffragist and social reformer from Peru, Indiana. She served as president of the Woman's Franchise League of Indiana (1917-1919); publicity director of National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) during the Nineteenth Amendment's passage in 1920; and vice president of the National League of Women Voters (1921-1923). [1]
Edwards was born to Thomas Arthur and Ada (Ellsworth) Stuart in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana on September 11, 1880. [1] She had a younger brother, Allison Ellsworth Stuart, who would become a lawyer. [2] [3] She graduated from Smith College in 1901, where she was involved in theatre, societies and clubs, and social activities. [2] [4] Edwards married Richard Elbert Edwards in 1904 and they had one son, Richard Arthur (1909-1984). [5] In 1914, the family moved into the Shirk-Edwards House, a Classical Revival and Victorian dwelling located at 50 North Hood Street, Peru, Miami County, Indiana, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. [6]
During the 1910s, Edwards campaigned for women's suffrage in Indiana and nationally. In 1917, she became the president of the Woman's Franchise League of Indiana (WFL), succeeding Dr. Amelia Keller, serving until 1919. [3] The same year Edwards was elected, the Indiana General Assembly passed the Maston-McKinley Partial Suffrage Act, granting Hoosier women the right to vote in municipal, school and special elections. [3] [7] Between 30,000 and 40,000 women registered to vote in Indianapolis alone within a few months. [3] However, on October 26, 1917, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled the law was unconstitutional, denying Hoosier women the right to vote. [3] As amending the Indiana constitution required both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly to pass a joint resolution in two different years before Indiana voters—all men—could cast a ballot for its ratification, Indiana women's greatest hope for suffrage lay with a national amendment. [3] [7] [8]
The United States entering World War I on April 2, 1917, led most suffragists, with the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) at the helm, to pivot to the war effort. Suffragists hoped demonstrating their patriotism and civic duty would lead to a federal amendment. The WFL followed suit with Edwards and Helen Boyd serving on the committee of the Indiana League for Woman's Service, which recruited women to make 2 million shirts for the army and registered 50,000 women for war work by October 1, 1917. However, suffrage work did not cease during the war and Edwards still had hope for women's suffrage in Indiana. At a WFL meeting in 1918, Edwards entreated members to resume lobbying for the passage of a constitutional amendment, as the "withdrawal of voting privilege has enormously increased the number of women interested in suffrage" and "we can never again be the negligible quantity we were before." Under her guidance, the organization undertook an extensive membership drive and a petition for the federal amendment, training speakers and canvassers, which had 283 branch leagues across the state by October 1918. These efforts led to a new partial suffrage law, with a new constitutional amendment passing the first hurdle in the General Assembly in early 1919. Meanwhile, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment had finally passed the U.S. Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. When Indiana became the 26th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on January 16, 1920, Edwards was sitting in each chamber of the General Assembly while each body voted. [7]
After the war, Edwards resigned as president of the Women's Franchise League to resume suffrage work in Washington, D.C. She was the publicity director of NAWSA when the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote finally passed on August 18, 1920. Two months after the amendment's passage, she attended Social Justice Day, which she helped organize, in Marion, Ohio on October 1, 1920. There, more than 12,000 women from 40 states listened to the next president, Senator Warren G. Harding, give a front porch campaign speech. Edwards was a founder of the National League of Women Voters, and served as its first treasurer in 1920 and later, as the organization's vice president. [9] As part of her duties as treasurer and manager of the national speakers bureau for the League, she traveled across the United States for speaking engagements. [5]
Besides suffrage, Edwards involved herself in other personal and civic pursuits, which included designing a window screen that was manufactured by her husband's chair factory in Peru, Indiana and managing said factory in his absence during World War I. [5] She was the first woman to sit on the Peru Board of Education and in 1921, she was appointed to the Indiana State Board of Education by Governor Warren T. McCray. In the latter position of authority, she served as a member of the Indiana Committee on Mental Defectives, a state-sponsored eugenics organization pushing a "better babies" agenda and conducting studies of families in more than 20 counties. [10] [11] Edwards led the local Works Progress Administration board in Miami County during the Great Depression, while also serving as chairman of the 10th Anniversary and Memorial Fund of the League. [5] ??? In 1937, she served as vice-president of the Indiana Board of Public Welfare, as well as chairman of the drafting committee for the Indiana Civil Service bill. [1] [5]
"Marie made a 1930 nationwide tour on behalf of the League to increase fund raising; this committee reached the goal of $250,000 despite the onset of the Depression. She was chairman of the Department of Government of the Indiana League of Women Voters in 1934. In 1937, she was vice president of the newly created Indiana Board of Public Welfare and chairman of the drafting committee for the Civil Service Bill in Indiana. She was also very involved in trying to improve the state's penal system, serving on the state Board of Corrections and writing the laws for this board." (from Regine blog post - find better sources)
Edwards died at her family home in Peru, Indiana on November 17, 1970 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Peru. [12]
Marie Stuart Edwards was honored with a bronze statue in front of the Peru Public Library, where she trained and organized fellow suffragists in her hometown. Dedicated on August 26, 2021, the statue depicts Edwards as a young woman standing by her bicycle as she was recorded as the first woman to ride a bicycle in her birthplace of Lafayette. [13] [14]
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States and its states from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex, in effect recognizing the right of women to vote. The amendment was the culmination of a decades-long movement for women's suffrage in the United States, at both the state and national levels, and was part of the worldwide movement towards women's suffrage and part of the wider women's rights movement. The first women's suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878. However, a suffrage amendment did not pass the House of Representatives until May 21, 1919, which was quickly followed by the Senate, on June 4, 1919. It was then submitted to the states for ratification, achieving the requisite 36 ratifications to secure adoption, and thereby go into effect, on August 18, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment's adoption was certified on August 26, 1920.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Its membership, which was about seven thousand at the time it was formed, eventually increased to two million, making it the largest voluntary organization in the nation. It played a pivotal role in the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which in 1920 guaranteed women's right to vote.
Carrie Chapman Catt was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900 to 1904 and 1915 to 1920. She founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1904, which was later named International Alliance of Women. She "led an army of voteless women in 1919 to pressure Congress to pass the constitutional amendment giving them the right to vote and convinced state legislatures to ratify it in 1920". She "was one of the best-known women in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century and was on all lists of famous American women."
Lucy Burns was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate. She was a passionate activist in the United States and the United Kingdom, who joined the militant suffragettes. Burns was a close friend of Alice Paul, and together they ultimately formed the National Woman's Party.
Women's suffrage, or the right to vote, was established in the United States over the course of more than half a century, first in various states and localities, sometimes on a limited basis, and then nationally in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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.
Mary Jane (Whitely) Coggeshall was an American suffragist known as the "mother of woman suffrage in Iowa". She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.
The Women's Franchise League of Indiana was a suffrage group organized in 1911, as a merger of the Indianapolis Franchise Society and Legislative Council of Indiana Women. The organization was associated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NASWA) and was the prominent suffrage group of Indiana. The Women's Franchise League of Indiana would expand to one thousand, two hundred and five memberships in thirteen districts.
Women's suffrage was granted in Virginia in 1920, with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. 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.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in New Mexico. Women's suffrage in New Mexico first began with granting women the right to vote in school board elections and was codified into the New Mexico State Constitution, written in 1910. In 1912, New Mexico was a state, and suffragists there worked to support the adoption of a federal women's suffrage amendment to allow women equal suffrage. Even after white women earned the right to vote in 1920, many Native Americans were unable to vote in the state.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Missouri. Women's suffrage in Missouri started in earnest after the Civil War. In 1867, one of the first women's suffrage groups in the U.S. was formed, called the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri. Suffragists in Missouri held conventions, lobbied the Missouri General Assembly and challenged the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). The case that went to SCOTUS in 1874, Minor v. Happersett was not ruled in the suffragists' favor. Instead of challenging the courts for suffrage, Missouri suffragists continued to lobby for changes in legislation. In April 1919, they gained the right to vote in presidential elections. On July 3, 1919, Missouri becomes the eleventh state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
The first women's suffrage group in Georgia, the Georgia Woman Suffrage Association (GWSA), was formed in 1892 by Helen Augusta Howard. Over time, the group, which focused on "taxation without representation" grew and earned the support of both men and women. Howard convinced the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to hold their first convention outside of Washington, D.C., in 1895. The convention, held in Atlanta, was the first large women's rights gathering in the Southern United States. GWSA continued to hold conventions and raise awareness over the next years. Suffragists in Georgia agitated for suffrage amendments, for political parties to support white women's suffrage and for municipal suffrage. In the 1910s, more organizations were formed in Georgia and the number of suffragists grew. In addition, the Georgia Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage also formed an organized anti-suffrage campaign. Suffragists participated in parades, supported bills in the legislature and helped in the war effort during World War I. In 1917 and 1919, women earned the right to vote in primary elections in Waycross, Georgia and in Atlanta respectively. In 1919, after the Nineteenth Amendment went out to the states for ratification, Georgia became the first state to reject the amendment. When the Nineteenth Amendment became the law of the land, women still had to wait to vote because of rules regarding voter registration. White Georgia women would vote statewide in 1922. Native American women and African-American women had to wait longer to vote. Black women were actively excluded from the women's suffrage movement in the state and had their own organizations. Despite their work to vote, Black women faced discrimination at the polls in many different forms. Georgia finally ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on February 20, 1970.
Early women's suffrage work in Alabama started in the 1860s. Priscilla Holmes Drake was the driving force behind suffrage work until the 1890s. Several suffrage groups were formed, including a state suffrage group, the Alabama Woman Suffrage Organization (AWSO). The Alabama Constitution had a convention in 1901 and suffragists spoke and lobbied for women's rights provisions. However, the final constitution continued to exclude women. Women's suffrage efforts were mainly dormant until the 1910s when new suffrage groups were formed. Suffragists in Alabama worked to get a state amendment ratified and when this failed, got behind the push for a federal amendment. Alabama did not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until 1953. For many years, both white women and African American women were disenfranchised by poll taxes. Black women had other barriers to voting including literacy tests and intimidation. Black women would not be able to fully access their right to vote until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Women's suffrage began in Delaware the late 1860s, with efforts from suffragist, Mary Ann Sorden Stuart, and an 1869 women's rights convention held in Wilmington, Delaware. Stuart, along with prominent national suffragists lobbied the Delaware General Assembly to amend the state constitution in favor of women's suffrage. Several suffrage groups were formed early on, but the Delaware Equal Suffrage Association (DESA) formed in 1896, would become one of the major state suffrage clubs. Suffragists held conventions, continued to lobby the government and grow their movement. In 1913, a chapter of the Congressional Union (CU), which would later be known at the National Woman's Party (NWP), was set up by Mabel Vernon in Delaware. NWP advocated more militant tactics to agitate for women's suffrage. These included picketing and setting watchfires. The Silent Sentinels protested in Washington, D.C., and were arrested for "blocking traffic." Sixteen women from Delaware, including Annie Arniel and Florence Bayard Hilles, were among those who were arrested. During World War I, both African-American and white suffragists in Delaware aided the war effort. During the ratification process for the Nineteenth Amendment, Delaware was in the position to become the final state needed to complete ratification. A huge effort went into persuading the General Assembly to support the amendment. Suffragists and anti-suffragists alike campaigned in Dover, Delaware for their cause. However, Delaware did not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until March 6, 1923, well after it was already part of the United States Constitution.
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Delaware. Suffragists in Delaware began to fight for women's suffrage in the late 1860s. Mary Ann Sorden Stuart and national suffragists lobbied the Delaware General Assembly for women's suffrage. In 1896, the Delaware Equal Suffrage Association (DESA) was formed. Annual state suffrage conventions were held. There were also numerous attempts to pass an equal suffrage amendment to the Delaware State Constitution, but none were successful. In 1913, a state chapter of the Congressional Union (CU) was opened by Mabel Vernon. Delaware suffragists are involved in more militant tactics, including taking part of the Silent Sentinels. On March 22, 1920, Delaware had a special session of the General Assembly to consider ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. It was not ratified by Delaware until 1923.
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.
While women's suffrage had an early start in Maine, dating back to the 1850s, it was a long, slow road to equal suffrage. Early suffragists brought speakers Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone to the state in the mid-1850s. Ann F. Jarvis Greely and other women in Ellsworth, Maine, created a women's rights lecture series in 1857. The first women's suffrage petition to the Maine Legislature was also sent that year. Working-class women began marching for women's suffrage in the 1860s. The Snow sisters created the first Maine women's suffrage organization, the Equal Rights Association of Rockland, in 1868. In the 1870s, a state suffrage organization, the Maine Women's Suffrage Association (MWSA), was formed. Many petitions for women's suffrage were sent to the state legislature. MWSA and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Maine worked closely together on suffrage issues. By the late 1880s the state legislature was considering several women's suffrage bills. While women's suffrage did not pass, during the 1890s many women's rights laws were secured. During the 1900s, suffragists in Maine continued to campaign and lecture on women's suffrage. Several suffrage organizations including a Maine chapter of the College Equal Suffrage League and the Men's Equal Rights League were formed in the 1910s. Florence Brooks Whitehouse started the Maine chapter of the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1915. Suffragists and other clubwomen worked together on a large campaign for a 1917 voter referendum on women's suffrage. Despite the efforts of women around the state, women's suffrage failed. Going into the next few years, a women's suffrage referendum on voting in presidential elections was placed on the September 13, 1920 ballot. But before that vote, Maine ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on November 5, 1920. It was the nineteenth state to ratify. A few weeks after ratification, MWSA dissolved and formed the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Maine. White women first voted in Maine on September 13, 1920. Native Americans in Maine had to wait longer to vote. In 1924, they became citizens of the United States. However, Maine would not allow individuals living on Indian reservations to vote. It was not until the passage of a 1954 equal rights referendum that Native Americans gained the right to vote in Maine. In 1955 Lucy Nicolar Poolaw (Penobscot) was the first Native American living on a reservation in Maine to cast a vote.
Women's suffrage had early champions among men in Arkansas. Miles Ledford Langley of Arkadelphia, Arkansas proposed a women's suffrage clause during the 1868 Arkansas Constitutional Convention. Educator, James Mitchell wanted to see a world where his daughters had equal rights. The first woman's suffrage group in Arkansas was organized by Lizzie Dorman Fyler in 1881. A second women's suffrage organization was formed by Clara McDiarmid in 1888. McDiarmid was very influential on women's suffrage work in the last few decades of the nineteenth century. When she died in 1899, suffrage work slowed down, but did not all-together end. Both Bernie Babcock and Jean Vernor Jennings continued to work behind the scenes. In the 1910s, women's suffrage work began to increase again. socialist women, like Freda Hogan were very involved in women's suffrage causes. Other social activists, like Minnie Rutherford Fuller became involved in the Political Equality League (PEL) founded in 1911 by Jennings. Another statewide suffrage group, also known as the Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was organized in 1914. AWSA decided to work towards helping women vote in the important primary elections in the state. The first woman to address the Arkansas General Assembly was suffragist Florence Brown Cotnam who spoke in favor of a women's suffrage amendment on February 5, 1915. While that amendment was not completely successful, Cotnam was able to persuade the Arkansas governor to hold a special legislative session in 1917. That year Arkansas women won the right to vote in primary elections. In May 1918, between 40,000 and 50,000 white women voted in the primaries. African American voters were restricted from voting in primaries in the state. Further efforts to amend the state constitution took place in 1918, but were also unsuccessful. When the Nineteenth Amendment passed the United States Congress, Arkansas held another special legislative session in July 1919. The amendment was ratified on July 28 and Arkansas became the twelfth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
In 1893, Colorado became the second state in the United States to grant women's suffrage and the first to do so through a voter referendum. Even while Colorado was a territory, lawmakers and other leaders tried to include women's suffrage in laws and later in the state constitution. The constitution did give women the right to vote in school board elections. The first voter referendum campaign was held in 1877. The Woman Suffrage Association of Colorado worked to encourage people to vote yes. Nationally-known suffragists, such as Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone spoke alongside Colorado's own Alida Avery around the state. Despite the efforts to influence voters, the referendum failed. Suffragists continued to grow support for women's right to vote. They exercised their right to vote in school board elections and ran for office. In 1893, another campaign for women's suffrage took place. Both Black and white suffragists worked to influence voters, gave speeches, and turned out on election day in a last-minute push. The effort was successful and women earned equal suffrage. In 1894, Colorado again made history by electing three women to the Colorado house of representatives. After gaining the right to vote, Colorado women continued to fight for suffrage in other states. Some women became members of the Congressional Union (CU) and pushed for a federal suffrage amendment. Colorado women also used their right to vote to pass reforms in the state and to support women candidates.
Women's suffrage began in North Dakota when it was still part of the Dakota Territory. During this time activists worked for women's suffrage, and in 1879, women gained the right to vote at school meetings. This was formalized in 1883 when the legislature passed a law where women would use separate ballots for their votes on school-related issues. When North Dakota was writing its state constitution, efforts were made to include equal suffrage for women, but women were only able to retain their right to vote for school issues. An abortive effort to provide equal suffrage happened in 1893, when the state legislature passed equal suffrage for women. However, the bill was "lost," never signed and eventually expunged from the record. Suffragists continued to hold conventions, raise awareness, and form organizations. The arrival of Sylvia Pankhurst in February 1912 stimulated the creation of more groups, including the statewide Votes for Women League. In 1914, there was a voter referendum on women's suffrage, but it did not pass. In 1917, limited suffrage bills for municipal and presidential suffrage were signed into law. On December 1, 1919, North Dakota became the twentieth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.