Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event

Location

213 Magnolia St, Spartanburg, SC 29306, USA

Lat/Long

34.95218, -81.935054

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

On May 15, 1914, the South Carolina Equal Suffrage League was organized at the Kennedy Free Library on Magnolia Street in Spartanburg, SC. The group adopted a platform that asserted its “purpose of existence” was to “safeguard and advance the legal, industrial and educational rights and interests of women, and to obtain the franchise for women on equal terms with men.” They organized for suffrage throughout the state, advocating for women’s suffrage by distributing suffrage literature, hosting suffrage lectures, and organizing a suffrage parade at the state fair.

In 1919, the U.S. Congress voted in favor of the Nineteenth Amendment, which would give women the right to vote once ratified by the necessary 36 states. Despite efforts of suffragists in South Carolina, the state rejected the amendment. However, by August 1920, 36 states had ratified the amendment, securing women’s right to vote across the United States, including in South Carolina.