NATIONAL SUFFRAGE LEADERS
The women’s suffrage movement in the United States was carried forward by extraordinary leaders who dedicated their lives to equality. Their voices, strategies, and sacrifices helped secure the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
A National Movement, A Shared Victory
These national leaders, along with thousands of grassroots activists, carried the suffrage cause for 72 years. Only one person who attended Seneca Falls Convention lived long enough to legally vote. The courage and persistence of early suffragists paved the way for Tennessee’s decisive vote in 1920 — and for the future of American democracy.
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
One of the most recognizable figures of the suffrage movement, Anthony co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and later presided over the National American Woman Suffrage Association as well. She traveled the country for decades organizing, giving speeches, lobbying lawmakers, and laying the groundwork for future generations to succeed.
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
Carrie Chapman Carr succeeded Susan B. Anthony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Ever the optimist, she later found the League of Women Voters. shortly before the final ratification was complete.
Alice Paul (1885–1977)
Leader of the National Woman’s Party, Paul organized parades, pickets, and hunger strikes. She was arrested for her activism and endured harsh isolation, force feeding, and other forms of torture in prison. Her bold tactics kept suffrage in the headlines and pressured lawmakers to act.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
Stanton was central to the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848 and authored it’s Declaration of Sentiments. A powerful writer and thinker, she provided much of the philosophical foundation for women’s equality.
Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)
The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Terrell, born in Memphis, was a charter member of the NAACP and an outspoken advocate for universal suffrage. She led efforts to link civil rights, education, and voting rights.
Sojourner Truth (1797–1883)
Born into slavery, Truth became a renowned abolitionist and advocate for women’s rights. Her 1851 speech (just two years after Seneca Falls Convention) “Ain’t I a Woman?” remains one of the most powerful calls for equality in American history.
Ida B. Wells (1862–1931)
Tennessean for a time and journalist, she was an anti-lynching crusader, and suffragist. Wells founded the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, one of the first organizations for Black women voters and co-founded the NAACP. She challenged racism within the suffrage movement while fighting for universal rights.
Mable Pinghua Lee (1896-1966)
A Chinese immigrant worked with the Suffrage Movement, for example, riding in the horseback brigade at the front of the 1912 New York City parade when she was only 14 years old. Her speeches and writings urging fairness in voting are credited with assisting the Suffrage Movement when her when she, herself, was excluded from voting due to her Chinese origin by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. She had to wait for the Act’s repeal in 1943 to vote.
María Adelina Isabel Emilia Otero-Warren (1881-1965)
Of Latina heritage, was born in New Mexico so she was considered a citizen by birth, but because of her sex she had to wait until 1920 to gain her right to vote. She was a leader in New Mexico’s woman’s suffrage movement. She spearheaded the lobbying effort to ratify the 19th Amendment in New Mexico. In 1916, Otero-Warren was elected vice-chair of the newly formed New Mexico branch of the Congressional Union, soon to be the National Woman’s Party. In 1917, Otero-Warren took over the role of chair at the request of leader Alice Paul. Otero-Warren used her political connections and leverage to campaign for woman’s suffrage and to forcefully lobby the state legislature to ratify the 19th Amendment, which it did on February 21, 1920. She became the first Latino woman to run for Congress.
Laura Cornelius Kellogg (1880 – 1947)
Was an Oneida leader, author, orator, activist and visionary. She was born on the Oneida Indian Reservation at Green Bay Wisconsin. Kellogg became the voice of the Oneidas and of the Six Nations of the Iroquois on the national and international scene. Early newspapers dubbed Kellogg "Princess Neoskalita" and "The Indian Joan of Arc." Later press articles billed Kellogg "Indian Princess Wynnogene."
The Iroquois had an amazing balance of power between the women and the men in the community. The Council or women selected, advised (and could remove) the Chiefs. The women owned and controlled the land. The men joined the women’s clan upon marriage and the societies were matrilineal.
Kellogg advocated in favor of the Suffrage Movement, stressing the fact that Native American societies were much more equalitarian than the settlers’ society. In an interview she explained: