Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

House, People

Location

1523 E Moreno St, Pensacola, FL 32503, USA

Lat/Long

30.4321391, -87.198655

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Pensacola suffragist, journalist, and author, Celia Myrover Robinson (1872-1949) advocated for women’s right to vote as chair of the Press Committee of the Florida Equal Suffrage Association (FESA). Robinson also worked for the Pensacola Journal, serving as suffrage editor for the newspaper from 1915 to 1917. In addition to suffrage news, she worked as editor of the paper’s people and events department. Robinson wrote about women’s suffrage events happening at the state and national level, and promoted the work of the FESA in the pages of the Pensacola Journal in attempts to increase public support of women’s right to vote.

On June 4, 1919, after a decades long fight for women’s right to vote, the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment which stated that the right to vote could not be denied on account of sex. After this, the amendment then went to the states for ratification. Despite the efforts of Florida suffragists like Robinson, the state did not vote on the amendment. However, by August 1920, the necessary 36 states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, securing women’s right to vote across the United States, including in the state of Florida.