Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event, People, Site

Location

500 N Esplanade St, Leavenworth, KS 66048, USA

Lat/Long

39.3231497, -94.9102743

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

In 1867, the state of Kansas held a referendum on women’s suffrage. Prior to the referendum, national suffragists, including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Olympia Brown, Lucy Stone, and Henry Blackwell, campaigned throughout the state. In attempts to increase public support for women’s right to vote, they made speeches and distributed suffrage literature. However, the 1867 women’s suffrage referendum was defeated.

Thanks to the continued efforts of suffragists, in 1887, the Kansas state legislature approved women’s suffrage in local municipal elections and by 1894, a proposed women’s suffrage amendment to the state constitution went before voters of the state. While the 1894 women’s suffrage amendment was defeated at the polls, women in Kansas eventually achieved full suffrage through the passage of an amendment to the state constitution in 1912, a significant achievement in the fight for women’s right to vote across the country.

During the Kansas women’s suffrage campaigns from 1867 to 1894, national suffragists often spoke in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas. Prominent Leavenworth residents, Daniel and Annie Anthony were host to Daniel’s sister, Susan B. Anthony, while she was on campaign in the state. A national suffrage leader, Anthony’s name would come to be used for the proposed federal women’s suffrage amendment that would eventually secure women’s right to vote across the country.

The Susan B. Anthony Amendment was passed by the United States Congress as the Nineteenth Amendment in June 1919 after decades of activism by suffragists. By August 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment had been ratified by the necessary 36 states, finally securing women’s right to vote in every state across the country.