VOTES FOR WOMEN
- Program
- Subject
- Location
- Lat/Long
- Grant Recipient
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National Votes for Women Trail
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People, Site
- 110 Shipcarpenter St, Lewes, DE 19958, USA
- 38.776711, -75.142841
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National Collaborative for Women's History Sites
VOTES FOR WOMEN
Inscription
VOTES FOR WOMENLEAH BURTON, 1878-1968.
STATE & SUSSEX CO. ORGANIZER
AND ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN’S
RIGHT TO VOTE, 1915-1920.
LIVED HERE UNTIL 1920.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2020
Delaware State and Sussex County Equal Suffrage Association organizer, Leah Burton, once lived here in Lewes, DE. Born in 1878, the daughter of former U.S. congressman, Hiram R. Burton, was no stranger to politics. She was ardent advocate of women having the right to vote. A February 8, 1915 article published in The Morning News, documents Miss Burton’s early involvement with the suffrage movement:
Miss Leah Burton moved that the resolution be passed favoring the granting of franchise to the woman of Delaware and the motion was seconded by Mrs. Thompson, wife of Mayor Thompson, of that town. The resolution was passed unanimously.
For the next five years Miss Burton continued, along with many others, to fight for women’s suffrage. Finally, on August 18, 1920, women across the United States were give the right to right to vote with the passage and subsequent ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
