The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia

SA-86

Eighteen women dedicated to obtaining the vote and expanding women's traditional roles formed the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL) at 919 West Franklin Street on 20 Nov. 1909. Under Lila Meade Valentine’s leadership, the ESL grew to more than 100 local chapters and 30,000 members statewide. The ESL held public suffrage rallies and supported social reform movements to urge the General Assembly to amend the state constitution. Although the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed in 1920, when the ESL became the League of Women Voters, Virginia did not ratify it until 1952.

Department of Historic Resources, 2010

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Equal Suffrage League, Records, 1909-1935. Library of Virginia Archives and Manuscripts number 22002. Bonis, Ray. “100th Anniversary of the founding of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia.” Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives staff paper, 1998. Accessed at: http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/exhibit/crenshaw.html Sarah Hunter Graham, “Woman Suffrage in Virginia: The Equal Suffrage League and Pressure-Group Politics, VMHB vol. 101, no. 2 (April 1993), p. 227-250. Emily Salmon and Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr., The Hornbook of Virginia History, 4th Edition. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1994, p. 66.