Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People

Location

8328 Court Ave, Ellicott City, MD 21043, USA

Lat/Long

39.26802, -76.79847

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Suffragist Laura Laurenson Byrne (1855-1938), from Ellicott City, Maryland, led a local campaign for women’s right to vote as president of the Just Government League of Howard County. She was also a writer and contributing editor for the Maryland Suffrage News, a weekly newspaper that served as the voice of the Just Government League of Maryland, a statewide suffrage organization. As president of the Just Government League of Howard County, Byrne went on automobile tours of the county, traveling to rural areas to speak about suffrage and to distribute suffrage literature. In a June 13, 1914 edition of the Maryland Suffrage News Byrne discussed the experience she gained from these trips through the county:

The sentiment for suffrage in the county has steadily increased, but to have it increase as rapidly as it should, the interest of those who live in remote communities must be stimulated. Suffrage must be shown to be a part and parcel of their daily lives, that it affects them personally and vitally, and is not a thing apart in which they have no share. … To have heart-to-heart talks with these women, who rarely get beyond their kitchen doors, would be to them a stimulus that would be lasting.

Byrne continued to organize, speak, and write advocating for women’s suffrage. In June 1919, the United States Congress passed 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 ratification of the amendment. However, by August 1920, 36 states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, securing women’s right to vote across the United States, including in the state of Maryland.