When the Equal Rights Association was formed in 1888 Kentucky was the only State that did not permit a married woman to make a will; a wife's wages might be collected by the husband; property and inheritance laws between husband and wife were absolutely unequal; fathers were sole guardians of their children and at death could appoint one even of a child unborn; the age of consent was 12 years and it was legal for a girl to marry at 12. An infinitesimal number of women had a bit of School suffrage. In the rest of that century, under the leadership of Miss Laura Clay, with the able assistance of such women as Mrs. Josephine K. Henry, Mrs. Eliza Calvert Obenchain and many others, much was accomplished in the improvement of the laws and in other ways beneficial to women.

No State convention was held in 1900. Conventions took place annually in the autumn from 1901 to 1917 inclusive in the following cities: Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Newport, Richmond, Ashland, Owensboro, most often in Lexington. The convention of 1918 was postponed on account of the influenza epidemic and held in Louisville March 11-12, 1919. The convention which should have been held in the fall of this year was postponed because of work for ratification and became a "victory" convention held Jan. 6-7, 1920, in Frankfort and Lexington.

The first president of the Equal Rights Association, Miss Laura Clay of Lexington, elected in 1888, served until November, 1912. The constitution was then amended at her desire to prevent a president from succeeding herself and to provide for a three-year term. Mrs. Desha Breckinridge of Lexington was elected in November, 1912, and in 1915 Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith of Frankfort. In 1916, Mrs. Smith resigning because of her election to the National Board, Mrs. John Glover South of Frankfort was elected to fill out the unexpired term. In March, 1919, Mrs. Breckinridge was again elected.

For many years the association worked on a non-dues-paying basis and was supported by voluntary contributions. Increase of activity is indicated by the following figures: The financial report for 1903 shows that $359 were spent; that for 1917 gives an expenditure of $7,838. In 1912 there were 1,779 members, with organizations in 11 counties; 4,655 members were reported in November, 1913, and 10,577 in November, 1914, with completely organized suffrage leagues in 64 counties; partially organized leagues in 23; a roll of members in 32 and but one county in which there was no membership.

Many suffrage addresses have been made in the State by eminent Kentucky men and women and in later years by outside speakers including Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Senator Helen Ring Robinson, Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, Max Eastman, Walter J. Millard, Mrs. Beatrice Forbes-Robertson; Mrs. Philip Snowden, Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence and Mrs. Pankhurst of England, and Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary.

Propaganda work has been done by means of the press and the lecture bureau, by the offering of prizes in schools and colleges for the best essays on woman suffrage and at the State, Blue Grass and county fairs through speaking and circulating literature. In recent years many newspapers have given editorial support and many more have given space for frequent articles furnished by the press bureau. Notable among those of recent date is the Louisville Courier-Journal, in which for many years Colonel Henry Watterson inveighed against woman suffrage in immoderate terms. From the time it passed into the hands of Judge Robert W. Bingham, and "Marse Henry's" connection with it ceased, it consistently and persistently advocated suffrage for women, including the Federal Amendment. Miss Clay writes: "The paper with the largest circulation of any in the State outside of Louisville and of great influence in central Kentucky, the Lexington Herald, owned and edited by Desha Breckinridge, has from the beginning of the century editorially advocated and insisted upon suffrage for women, including School, Presidential and full suffrage, whether through 'State rights' or Federal Amendment. It has given unlimited space to suffrage propaganda and is largely responsible for making the question one of paramount political moment." The Herald of Louisville has been also a valued supporter of the cause.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which Mrs. Frances E. Beauchamp, always a prominent suffragist, has for thirty years been president, and the Federation of Women's Clubs have continually worked with the State Equal Rights Association for the improvement of conditions affecting women. By mutual agreement bills in the Legislature have been managed sometimes by one and sometimes by the other.

In addition to organizing the suffrage forces and creating favorable sentiment the principal work of the State Association has been to secure action by the Legislature for suffrage and better laws and conditions for women. This work was under the direction of Miss Clay until the end of her presidency, with a corps of able assistants, and she continued to help the legislative work. She was always sustained by the interest and generosity of her sister, Sallie Clay (Mrs. James) Bennett of Richmond, Ky. Mrs. S. M. Hubbard of Hickman was the largest contributor and was a strong factor in the western part of the State. As early as 1902 a bill for the franchise for presidential electors was presented. In 1904, to the amazement of the suffragists, the act of 1894 was repealed which gave School suffrage to the women of the three third-class cities, Lexington, Covington and Newport. The reason given was that too many illiterate negro women voted. It was made a strict party measure, but one Democrat voting against the repeal and but one Republican for it.

Following this action the women went to work to obtain School suffrage for all women in the State able to read and write. In organizing this protest against the repeal Mrs. Mary C. Roark, afterwards head of the Eastern Kentucky Normal School, was a leader. Mrs. A. M. Harrison, member of the school board in Lexington, was prominently identified with the effort. This proved a long, hard struggle, as it was considered an entering wedge to full suffrage by the liquor interests and ward politicians of the cities and was bitterly fought. Year after year the bill was defeated in the Legislature. At the request of the suffrage association in 1908 the State Federation of Women's Clubs took charge of it as a part of its work for better schools, but it was defeated that year and in 1910. The Federation did not cease its work and in 1912 the Democratic party included a School suffrage plank in its platform. It already had the support of the Republican party and this year the bill passed both Houses by a vote of more than two to one. The Democrats were in control of the two Legislatures that rejected it and also of the one that passed it. Mrs. Breckinridge was legislative chairman for the federation during the years covering these three sessions.

In 1912 the suffragists accepted the invitation of the Perry Centennial Committee to have a suffrage section in the parade in Louisville and their "float" attracted much attention. This is believed to have been the first suffrage parade in the South.

In 1914 amendments to the new primary law were made by the Legislature securing the right of women to vote in the primary elections for county superintendent of schools. This right was in doubt the year before and was denied in many counties. Much work was done by the association in acquainting the women of the State with their rights under the new law. This year after many efforts a resolution to submit to the voters an amendment to the State constitution giving full suffrage to women was before the Legislature, presented by Senator J. H. Durham of Franklin and Representative John G. Miller of Paducah, both Democrats. Favorable reports were obtained from Senate and House Committees, it was placed on the Senate calendar, but after its defeat in the House by 52 noes, 29 ayes, was not considered.

In 1915 a plank was obtained in the Republican State platform endorsing woman suffrage, largely through the work of Mrs. Murray Hubbard, chairman of a committee from the Federation of Women's Clubs. When the Legislature met in January, 1916, the Republicans, under the leadership of Edwin P. Morrow, caucused and agreed to support solidly the resolution to submit a suffrage amendment to the State constitution. The legislative work of the State association was managed by Mrs. Breckinridge, chairman, and Mrs. Hubbard, vice-chairman. The resolution was presented in the Senate by Thomas A. Combs and in the House by W. C. G. Hobbs, both of Lexington and both Democrats. It passed the Senate by 26 ayes, 8 noes. In the House it was held in the committee and although three test votes were made in an effort to bring it out and a majority was obtained on one of them, a two-thirds vote was necessary and it was not allowed to come to a vote. No Republican in the Senate gave an adverse vote and only three in the House. Governor A. O. Stanley (Democrat) used the full strength of the administration, even invoking the aid of the Kentucky delegation in Congress, to kill the measure in the House.

This year the Republican and Progressive State conventions endorsed woman suffrage, the Democrats refusing to do so. At the national Republican convention in Chicago the Kentucky member of the Resolutions Committee voted for the suffrage plank in its platform. At the national Democratic convention in St. Louis all the twenty-six delegates, on account of the "unit ruling," cast their votes for the State's rights suffrage plank.

During 1917 suffrage work was displaced by war work, of which Kentucky suffragists did a large share. They were asked to raise $500 for the Women's Oversea Hospitals of the National Association and more than doubled the quota by the able management of Mrs. Samuel Castleman of Louisville. Under the direction of Mrs. E. L. Hutchinson of Lexington a plan to raise money for an ambulance to be named in honor of Miss Laura Clay, the pioneer suffragist, was successfully carried through.

In 1918 for the first time there was every reason to believe that a resolution to submit a State amendment would pass the Legislature, but a majority of the State suffrage board voted to conform to the desire of the National Association to avoid State campaigns and concentrate on the Federal Amendment and no resolution was presented.

At the State convention, held March 11, 1919, resolutions were adopted calling upon all Kentucky members of Congress to vote for the Federal Suffrage Amendment; calling on the Legislature to ratify this amendment, when passed, at the first opportunity and asking it to enact a law giving to women a vote for presidential electors. Miss Clay, who for over thirty years had been the leader of the suffragists, withdrew from the State association, which she had founded, and formed a new organization to work for the vote by State action alone, as she was strongly opposed to Federal action. It was called the Citizens' Committee for a State Suffrage Amendment and opened headquarters in Lexington. It issued an "open letter to the public," an able argument for the State's control of its own suffrage and an arraignment of interference by Congress, which it declared would "become possessed of an autocratic power dangerous to free institutions." It conducted a vigorous campaign against every move for a Federal Amendment and met the representatives of the old association at the Republican State convention in May to prevent their securing an endorsement of it. In an eloquent speech before the platform committee Miss Clay urged it to reaffirm the State's rights plank in the National platform and pledge the party to secure the submission to the voters of a State suffrage amendment and to support it at the polls. The plank adopted was as follows: "We reaffirm our belief in the justice and expediency of suffrage for women and call upon our representatives in the Congress of the United States, in the Legislature and in all executive positions to use their votes and their influence for all measures granting political rights to women."

The Federal Suffrage Amendment was submitted by Congress June 4. Both organizations urged their claims at the Democratic State convention in September and the platform contained the following plank:

We favor the ratification by the Legislature of Kentucky at its next session of the amendment to the Constitution of the United States extending to women the right of suffrage and we urge our representatives in the Legislature and all executive or other officers to use their votes and influence in every legitimate way to bring about the ratification of the same. We pledge ourselves to support in the next General Assembly, if the Federal Amendment has not become operative by that time, the submission of an amendment to the State Constitution granting suffrage to women on the same terms as to men and when the amendment is submitted to support it at the polls as a party measure.

Every candidate for the nomination for Governor had stood on a suffrage platform and the successful Democratic candidate, Governor James D. Black, defeated at the election by Edwin P. Morrow, was a staunch and life-long suffragist. When he was filling out Governor Stanley's unexpired term and he received a telegram in June, with all other Governors of Southern States, from the Governor of Louisiana, asking him to oppose ratification of the Federal Amendment, he gave to Mrs. Breckinridge a ringing interview for use in the press to the effect that he would not oppose it. Governor Morrow, a Republican, had always been a friend of woman suffrage in whatever form it was asked.

Kentucky suffragists could easily remember when they could poll but one vote in Congress—that of John W. Langley. When in 1919 the final vote was taken on the Federal Amendment but one of the State's ten votes in the Lower House, that of A. B. Rouse of Covington, was cast against it. There was one vacancy. Senator George B. Martin voted for the resolution and Senator J. C. W. Beckham against it. He had voted against it in February, when, having passed the House, it was lost in the Senate by a single vote.

Ratification. The November legislative election in 1919 resulted in a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. The Republicans caucused and agreed to vote for ratification. Governor Morrow urged it in a vigorous message personally delivered to the Legislature in which he said:

A government "of the people by the people" can not and does not exist in a commonwealth in which one-half of its citizens are denied the right of suffrage. The women of Kentucky are citizens and there is no good or just reason why they should be refused the full and equal exercise of the sovereign right of every free people—the ballot. Every member of this General Assembly is unequivocally committed by his party's platform declaration to cast his vote and use his influence for the immediate enfranchisement of women in both nation and State. Party loyalty, faith-keeping with the people and our long-boasted chivalry all demand that the General Assembly shall break all previous speed records in ratifying the Federal Suffrage Amendment and passing all measures granting political rights to women.

By agreement, a Democrat, Senator Charles M. Harriss, presented the resolution for ratification in the Senate, and a Republican, Joseph Lazarus, in the House. On Jan. 6, 1920, the first day of the session, it was passed by a vote of 30 ayes, 8 noes in the Senate and 72 ayes, 25 noes in the House. The affirmative vote by parties was as follows: In the two Houses 39 Democrats out of a possible 65, and 63 Republicans out of a possible 73. That any measure should pass on the first day of the session was unprecedented in Kentucky legislative history. Democrats were in control of the two Legislatures—1914 and 1916—which defeated the full suffrage measures. Democrats were in control of the Legislature in 1918 which undoubtedly would have passed a resolution for a State amendment, a Presidential suffrage bill, or would have ratified the Federal Amendment had Congress acted in time. The leaders of both parties by this time had seen a great light!

The delegates who had gathered in Frankfort for the State convention were entertained at a buffet luncheon by the local suffrage organization, went in a body to the State House and had the gratification of seeing the Federal Amendment ratified. A glorification meeting was held that night at Lexington, twenty-five miles away, at which Governor Morrow told why the new women voters should enter the Republican party and Judge C. S. Nunn and Senator Harriss, leader of the Senate, told why they should enter the Democratic party. The latter were introduced by former Senator Combs, who had sponsored the suffrage cause among the Democrats in the last two Legislatures. The convention closed with an address by Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England the following night, and on the next day the officers and members of the association went to Frankfort again to see the Governor sign the ratification.

As it was not certain that the amendment would be completely ratified before the general election in November the Legislature decided to pass a bill giving to women the right to vote for presidential electors. On March 11 it passed the House and on the 15th the Senate by almost the same vote given on the Federal Amendment. Only three Senators voted against it—Thomas J. Gardner of Bardwell, Hayes Carter of Elizabethtown and C. W. Burton of Crittenden. On the 16th bills were passed making necessary changes in the election laws to insure the voting of the women in the primaries and at the regular elections.

Kentucky women who rendered conspicuous service in the lobby work at Washington under the auspices of the National Suffrage Association were Mrs. John Glover South, Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith, Mrs. Edmund M. Post, Mrs. Samuel Castleman, Mrs. Charles Firth and Mrs. Samuel Henning. They were equally helpful in the State political work and among many others who deserve especial mention are Mrs. James A. Leech, Mrs. J. B. Judah and Mrs. Robinson A. McDowell. The association is indebted to Mr. McDowell for legal assistance. An important factor was the press work of Miss Eleanor Hume.[56]

The organizing of classes in citizenship was begun in the summer of 1919 and the services of a specialist in politics and history, Miss Mary Scrugham, a Kentucky woman, were secured to prepare a course of lectures for their use. These were published in the Lexington Herald and supplied to women's clubs, suffrage associations and newly formed Leagues of Women Citizens, soon to become Leagues of Women Voters.

The Equal Rights Association voted at its convention in January, 1920, to change its name to the League of Women Voters as soon as ratification of the Federal Amendment was complete or Presidential suffrage granted. The league was fully organized on December 15, with Miss Mary Bronaugh of Hopkinsville chairman.

The first vice-president of the State Equal Suffrage Association, Mrs. South, was elected as chairman of the Women's Division of the National Republican Committee, and the second vice-president, Mrs. Castleman, as Kentucky member of the National Democratic Woman's Committee.

[55] The History is indebted for this chapter to Madeline McDowell (Mrs. Desha) Breckinridge, president of the State Equal Rights Association 1912-1915 and 1919-1920; vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association 1913-1914.