Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People, Site

Location

335 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA

Lat/Long

39.293615, -76.615387

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Edith Houghton Hooker (1879-1948) led the Just Government League (JGL) of Maryland in a statewide campaign for women’s suffrage. From 1910-1912, the JGL had an office in the Federated Charities building at 15 East Pleasant Street in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1912, Edith Houghton Hooker presented a statement before a joint committee of the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Woman Suffrage of the United States Senate. She was introduced as a “leader of the movement in Baltimore” and that due to her experience, she was “able to speak of the situation as regards the whole State of Maryland.”

As part of her statement she said:

All we want is the power to protect ourselves, other women, and little children.

She continued:

Every true woman is burning with a desire to bring about a better morality, and yet without the vote they can do nothing.

The JGL continued to fight for women’s suffrage by distributing suffrage literature, including the weekly newspaper the Maryland Suffrage News, sponsoring suffrage events, and active lobbying of lawmakers. In 1919, the United States Congress voted in favor of the Nineteenth Amendment, which would give women the right to vote once ratified by the necessary 36 states. Despite the efforts of Maryland suffragists, 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 the state of Maryland.