The Missouri History Museum tells the story of the fight for suffrage in St. Louis
Events in Missouri, and in St. Louis in particular, played a major role in the national suffrage movement.
The Golden Lane Parade. Missouri Historical Society Collections.
August 18, 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. New books, exhibits, and television specials have been devoted to telling a more complete story of the women’s suffrage movement than ever before. In most national histories of suffrage, however, the story of Missouri women’s fight for political representation is overlooked or only receives a brief mention. The Missouri History Museum’s exhibit, Beyond the Ballot: St. Louis and Suffrage explores St. Louis' role in the national suffrage movement. At four significant moments, St. Louis was at the center of the country’s suffrage story.
Freedom Suits
Lucy Delaney, ca. 1888. Missouri Historical Society Collections.
The earliest legal battles for women’s equal representation under the law began in the Missouri court system. Under Missouri law, an enslaved woman (or man) could bring a case to court to argue that she was being held illegally. St. Louis court records show that beginning in 1805, at least 300 enslaved people pursued these cases. Over half of them were women, including Lucy Delaney, who sued for her freedom as a young teenager.
Under Missouri law, the legal status of a child was determined by the status of his or her mother. If a woman could prove that she was being enslaved illegally, then not only would she be declared free but her children would as well. For many women, the future freedom of their children made the risk worth it.
These brave women, often illiterate and uneducated, risked taking legal action against those who claimed to own them in the hope of being recognized as human under the law. A successful freedom suit changed their status from “property” to person, a foundational first step in the struggle for equal rights.
Virginia Minor
Virginia Minor, date unknown. Missouri Historical Society Collections.
The second significant moment is tied to the story of one person: Virginia Minor. Often a footnote in suffrage history, her groundbreaking court case was at the center of the earliest attempt to secure national voting rights for women. Minor's significant contributions to the suffrage movement began in 1867, when she organized the first national organization dedicated entirely to women’s securing the right to vote, the Woman’s Suffrage Association.
Two years later, the group organized the first national suffrage convention, held at the Mercantile Library. At the convention, Minor, along with her husband, attorney Francis Minor, presented her groundbreaking philosophy, called the New Departure, which was based on the newly ratified 14th Amendment and outlined the following reasoning:
- Women are citizens of the United States.
- One of the rights of citizenship is voting.
- Therefore, women have the right to vote.
The Old Courthouse, 1865. Missouri Historical Society Collections.
Suffragists across the country, including Susan B. Anthony, who had attended the convention, embraced the simple argument. Many attempted to vote in the next election. Minor, knowing that her philosophy needed to be tested, attempted to register to vote in 1872 at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis but was denied. As a woman, she was unable to take her own case to court; instead, her husband sued for her. After losing in Missouri, Francis appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The entire nation awaited the Supreme Court’s decision. In late 1874, their unanimous decision against Minor devastated the suffrage movement. Had the Supreme Court decided differently, all American women would have had the right to vote in 1875.
Golden Lane Parade
Several decades after the defeat of Virginia Minor’s case, the suffrage movement again gathered momentum. In St. Louis, the Equal Suffrage League organized in 1910 and slowly gathered support. By 1916, the suffragists were ready to make a bold statement—without saying a word.
The Coliseum, 1947. Missouri Historical Society Collections.
In June, thousands of delegates traveled to St. Louis to take part in the Democratic National Convention, held at the newly completed Coliseum. Most delegates stayed at the Jefferson Hotel, walking down Locust Avenue to the convention site.
Taking advantage of this plan, the suffragists organized a “walkless, talkless” event, also known as the Golden Lane Parade. Instead of walking down the street as they had done countless times before, the suffragists, wearing white dresses with yellow “Votes for Women” sashes and holding yellow umbrellas high, silently lined both sides of Locust on the first morning of the convention.
As the delegates made their way to the Coliseum, an estimated 8,000 women stared them down. Their primary goal was to have a suffrage plank added to the presidential platform, and they succeeded. The event made national headlines.
The Final Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
Flyer for the 1919 National American Woman Suffrage Association Convention. Missouri Historical Society Collections.
During the event, national suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt urged the suffragists to “raise up a league of voters,” which sparked the creation of the League of Women Voters.
What none of the attendees could have known is that the 1919 St. Louis suffrage convention would also be the last; in just a few months, the suffrage amendment passed through both the House and Senate, and it was fully ratified in August 1920.
Learn more about the groundbreaking St. Louis women who paved the way for the vote in the new exhibit, Beyond the Ballot: St. Louis and Suffrage, now open at the Missouri History Museum. Admission is free. Advance reservations are required.
This post was created by SLM Partner Studio on behalf of the Missouri History Museum. For more information, visit mohistory.org/exhibits/beyond-the-ballot.
