As a follow-up to Joans great post regarding womens suffrage, I wanted to add this: April 5, 1919, Missouri Governor, Frederick Gardner, signed the law, giving women the right to vote, but only in Presidential elections. On May 8, 1867, St Louisan, Virginia Minor created, & became president of the Womens Suffrage Association of Missouri, the first organization in the world dedicated solely to the political rights of women. Starting a petition, she gathered 355 signatures asking the state to include women in the proposed amendment which would allow blacks to vote. The state legislature voted against her suggestion, 89-5. The 14th Amendment, granting full rights of citizenship to former slaves said that all persons born or naturalized in the United States & subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the US, & the state where they reside. Using this as the basis of her case, on October 15, 1872, she attempted to register for the upcoming Presidential election. St. Louis election registrar, Reese Happersett, refused, citing Missouris Constitution, which only allowed males to vote. Since state law also forbid married women to sue in their own name, Virginias husband, Francis Minor filed suit in St Louis County Circuit Court, with his wife as co-plaintiff. Asking for $10,000 in damages, they claimed that Happersetts decision deprived her of her rights as a native-born, property owning, tax paying citizen. Losing the case, they appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, where they also lost, in March 1873. Taking their case to the United States Supreme Court, a decision in Minor v. Happersett was rendered on March 29, 1875. By unanimous decision, the Court ruled that If the law is wrong, it ought to be changed, but the power is not with us. The Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone, nor does it prevent states from giving that important trust to men alone. Undaunted, the following year she petitioned St Louis City government that women shouldnt have to pay property tax, since they werent allowed to vote. It was turned down. In 1879, she refused to pay her taxes, telling city leaders, that since her property is denied representation, it is not taxable. Virginia Minor would die in 1894. The Courts ruling in Minor v. Happersett was effectively overturned with passage of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920, granting women the right to vote in all elections, nationwide. Missouri had become the 11th state to ratify on July 3, 1919, passing by a vote of 21-12 in the Senate, & 122-8 in the House. Photo: (Left) Mellcene Smith, of St Louis; and Sarah Lucille Turner, of Kansas City; the first women elected to the Missouri State Legislature, in 1922. Both were defeated in 1924. (Right) Virginia Minor In 1953, Leonor K. Sullivan became the first woman to represent Missouri in Congress, & in 1984, Harriet Woods, as Lieutenant Governor, became the first woman to hold state-wide office.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 22:44:18 +0000