It took 72 years for (non-Native) women to get the right to vote after the concept was proposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in New York in 1848. It took even longer for all women to get their rights: 1924 for Native Americans to get citizenship, and 1965 for the reduction of barriers for women of color. Most of us wouldn’t join a cause today if we thought it would take that long to see the fruits of our labor. Yet that’s exactly what democracy calls for.
The League of Women Voters continues to fight for full enfranchisement of all people within our democracy today. Each vote we take, each candidate forum we attend, each public committee we join or office we run for, each letter we write to our elected officials: it makes a difference.
Here is how we stand on the shoulders of Minnesota’s voting rights leaders.
1858
Mary Colburn gives first public lecture on suffrage, Champlin, MN
1860
Jane Grey Swisshelm, St. Cloud journalist, presents to MN House on “Women and Politics”
1868
350 women present suffrage petition to MN House
1869
Suffrage societies are organized by Sarah Burger Stearns in Rochester and Mary Colburn in Champlin
1870
Petition passes MN House and Senate, but vetoed by the Governor
1876
MN Legislature approves Constitutional amendment allowing women to vote in school elections;
several women elected to school boards
1875
MN Senate and House approve amendment “to allow women to vote on the whiskey question;”
male voters defeat it
1881
Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) first incorporated in Hastings
1898
Women granted right to vote and serve on library boards
1893
MWSA suffrage bill fails to pass
1907
MN Senate suffrage amendment fails
1911
MN Senate bill fails by two votes
1913
MN House bill passes but fails by three votes in the Senate
1914
25 Black MN women hold a charter meeting of the Everywoman Suffrage Club
1915
MN Senate bill fails by one vote
1919
MN House and Senate overwhelmingly pass bill giving women the right to vote for president,
and MN Legislature ratifies the 19th amendment. MWSA becomes League of Women Voters
1920
19th Amendment becomes law throughout the United States
1924
Native Americans are granted citizenship, making Native women eligible to vote
1965
Voting Rights Act is passed to reduce barriers to voting for people of color
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