Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event, People

Location

Rivermont Ave. (Westbound, In Front Of Randolph College), Lynchburg, VA 24503, USA

Lat/Long

37.435912, -79.172288

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

In 1913, students at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, later named Randolph College, located in Lynchburg, Virginia, formed a chapter of the National College Equal Suffrage League with the help of Nellie Virginia Powell (1872-1967), a professor of English at the college and a member of the Equal Suffrage League of Lynchburg. Powell was an alumna of the college, having graduated in 1900, and had taught there starting in 1904. She remained at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College her entire career, retiring in 1945.

While attending Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Lucy Robinson Somerville served as president of the college suffrage league. Somerville was the daughter of Nellie Nugent Somerville, a Mississippi suffragist and temperance advocate. In the December 1, 1914 edition of the Virginia Suffrage News, a newspaper published by the State Equal Suffrage League, Somerville reported that after its first year of existence, membership in the college suffrage league numbered around 125. The group held meetings twice a month, had a regular column in the college paper, distributed suffrage literature, and hosted public lectures on women’s suffrage.

After decades of activism by suffragists, finally, on June 4, 1919, the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment which reads, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” On February 12, 1920, the state of Virginia voted against ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. However, by August of that year, the necessary 36 states had ratified the amendment, securing women’s right to vote across the United States, including in the state of Virginia.