Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Site

Location

300 Randolph Ave SE, Huntsville, AL 35801, USA

Lat/Long

34.731402, -86.583681

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Initially organized around 1894, the Huntsville Equal Suffrage Association experienced a hiatus which lasted nearly 20 years. However, as the woman suffrage movement gained momentum across the state, the need for an association in Huntsville was realized and, in 1912, the Huntsville Equal Suffrage Association was reorganized at the YMCA. The events of the reorganization were described in a November 13, 1912 edition of the Huntsville Daily Democrat:

A large and enthusiastic number of ladies met this morning in the lecture room of the Y.M.C.A and reorganized the Huntsville Suffrage Association. Mrs. Oscar R. Hundley of Birmingham headed the movement for reorganization having behind her the entire membership of the old Association, which was organized here some 20 years ago. In addition to this, some thirty new names were added to the Association’s membership, after a preliminary organization was perfected.

Just two years later in 1914, this site hosted the Equal Suffrage Association Convention, as stated in a February 15, 1914, edition of The Birmingham News:

The second annual convention of the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association was held in Huntsville Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, February 3,4, and 5. Twenty-seven delegates were present. The meeting was a brilliant success from every point of view. All the Huntsville suffragists as well as many unbelievers received the convention with open arms, and every other marker of most cordial hospitality. The Y.M.C.A. very kindly permitted the use of its handsome, spacious, gymnasium as a meeting place for the convention, and the hostesses decorated the hall most beautifully in smilax and evergreen, and streamers of purple and gold.

Over the course of the convention, gifted speakers detailed the ground being gained across Alabama for woman suffrage, as well as stressing the importance of this fundamental right that all women deserved.

As of 2021, the old YMCA building still stood and served as commercial space.