Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event, People, Site

Location

600 Heyward St, Columbia, SC 29201, USA

Lat/Long

33.983305, -81.036276

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

On August 13, 1914, the Equal Suffrage League (ESL) of Columbia, South Carolina held a rally in support of women’s suffrage at the Olympia Mill Village, the employee housing for workers at the Olympia Mill. The August 14, 1914 edition of the Columbia, South Carolina newspaper, The State reported on the event, and quoted one of the leaders of the Columbia ESL as saying that this meeting marked the beginning of a suffrage campaign in the mill villages, and that more mill meetings had been planned.

The State reported that over 350 women and men attended the suffrage meeting at Olympia Mill Village. An opening address was given by the president of the Columbia ESL, Mary (Mrs. Henry) Martin, in which she explained the goals of the suffrage league and provided reasons why women were demanding the right to vote. Additional addresses were given by Mrs. James E. Poore on the connection between women’s suffrage and prohibition and social reform work, and by two men, Bran Stetter and John J. McMahan. The State noted that Stetter’s talk was “directed especially to the men in the audience” and that McMahan discussed how the ESL platform related to workers’ rights advocacy “for eight hours a day and compulsory education.”

After decades of suffrage activism, finally, on June 4, 1919, the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment which reads, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” While the state of South Carolina rejected the amendment, by August 1920, 36 other states had ratified it, securing women’s right to vote across the United States.