Richard Lewis Brewer Jr. (May 27,1864 –April 5,1947) was a Virginia politician. He represented Nansemond County in the Virginia House of Delegates,and served as that body's Speaker from 1920 until 1926.
In 1924 Brewer's nomination was seconded by Sarah Lee Fain,one of the first two female members of the Virginia House of Delegates;upon her recognition from the floor she received over a minute's worth of cheers and applause. [1]
Brewer advised the Equal Suffrage League on suffrage strategy. He predicted that an amendment to the state constitution had a better chance to pass than the proposed 19th amendment to the federal constitution and urged the League to help introduce such an amendment. [2]
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 went into effect,on August 18,1920. The Nineteenth Amendment's adoption was certified on August 26,1920.
Edmund Pendleton was an American planter,politician,lawyer,and judge. He served in the Virginia legislature before and during the American Revolutionary War,becoming the first speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. Pendleton attended the First Continental Congress as one of Virginia's delegates alongside George Washington and Patrick Henry,signed the Continental Association,and led the conventions both wherein Virginia declared independence (1776) and adopted the United States Constitution (1788).
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia,the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere,and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30,1619.
The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly,the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years;unlike most states,these elections take place during odd-numbered years. The House is presided over by the Speaker of the House,who is elected from among the House membership by the Delegates. The Speaker is usually a member of the majority party and,as Speaker,becomes the most powerful member of the House. The House shares legislative power with the Senate,the upper house of the General Assembly. The House of Delegates is the modern-day successor to the colonial House of Burgesses,which first met at Jamestown in 1619. It is the first and oldest continuous English-Speaking representative legislative assembly in the Western Hemisphere. The House is divided into Democratic and Republican caucuses. In addition to the Speaker,there is a majority leader,majority whip,majority caucus chair,minority leader,minority whip,minority caucus chair,and the chairs of the several committees of the House.
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions,it is supreme over Virginia's laws and acts of government,though it may be superseded by the United States Constitution and U.S. federal law as per the Supremacy Clause.
The Virginia Conventions were assemblies of delegates elected for the purpose of establishing constitutions of fundamental law for the Commonwealth of Virginia superior to General Assembly legislation. Their constitutions and subsequent amendments span four centuries across the territory of modern-day Virginia,West Virginia and Kentucky.
Edward Watts Saunders was a Virginia lawyer,politician and judge,who served as Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates,U.S. Representative and justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Richard Henry Cardwell was an American politician and jurist. He was Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates 1887–1895,and a justice of the state Supreme Court of Appeals 1895–1916.
William Osborne Goode was an American politician,slave owner,and lawyer from Virginia.
Albert Lee Philpott was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates for 33 years starting in 1958,and was its Speaker from 1980 until his death.
John Tyler Sr. was an American lawyer,planter,politician and judge who served in the Virginia House of Delegates and became 15th Governor of Virginia and later United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Virginia. He was the father of U.S. President John Tyler.
Thomas Mathews was an American Revolutionary War general and Virginia lawyer and politician. For almost two decades,Mathews represented variously Norfolk Borough and Norfolk County in the Virginia House of Delegates,and served as that body's Speaker from 1782 until 1793. He also represented Norfolk at the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788.
William Duval Cardwell was a Virginia politician. He represented Hanover County in the Virginia House of Delegates,and served as that body's Speaker from 1906 until 1908.
Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. was a Virginia lawyer,politician and newspaperman. He was the father of politician Harry Byrd and aviator Richard Byrd Jr.
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.
Edward Griffith Dodson was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who was Clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1934 to 1962,and author of much-used biographical compilations of Virginia public officials.
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.
The Eighteenth Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 11,1865,to April 10,1865,in regular session.