Okay so this is about a year late, as August 2020 was the anniversary. But I wrote this to be published in a printed publication, and now it has been, so I feel like I can put it online on my blog.
The 19th
Amendment, granting women the right to vote, is celebrating its 100th
anniversary this August 2020.
Women in
Nebraska actually could vote in school district elections starting in 1869,
then lost that 6 years later, and regained it 6 years after that IF they lived
in the district and owned taxable property or had school-age children.
The Nebraska
suffrage campaign started in Omaha on November 15, 1867 with the assistance of
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Miss Susan B. Anthony and George Francis Train.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton later came to Hebron, Nebraska in April 1879 and
organized the first Woman’s Suffrage Association in Nebraska. The Thayer
Association grew from fifteen to seventy-five members and eventually included
many leading businessmen.
In January
1881, the suffragists formed a state association with Harriet S. Brooks as the
first president.
Clara Bewick
Colby was prominent in women’s suffrage while living in Beatrice, and also
interestingly enough, was instrumental in forming the city’s first public
library, which is where the NSGS’ collection is currently held.
She was born
in England in 1846. She immigrated to the United States in 1865 with her
grandparents, settling first in Wisconsin. She met Leonard Colby while a
teacher in Wisconsin, and married him in 1872. They came to Beatrice, Nebraska shortly
after. They adopted three children. She and her husband divorced in 1906 after
a period of separation.
Clara helped
form the state association in 1881, and wrote and produced the women’s
suffragists newspaper from her home in Beatrice starting in 1883. She produced
this newspaper for 25 years, but later did move production to Washington, DC.
It was the first daily newspaper written and produced by a woman. She served as
president of the state suffragist association from 1885 to 1889. She spoke
regularly at conventions from 1886 to 1914. Susan B. Anthony called her “a
suffragist lieutenant, one of the women who was not themselves a national
officer, but influenced movement leaders and members.” She also said no one
wrote, edited or spoke better than Clara.
She died at
the home of her sister in Palo Alto, California in 1916, so unfortunately did
not get to see the result of all her hard work.
The other
woman instrumental in women’s suffrage in Nebraska was Rheta Childe Dorr. She
was born in Omaha, Nebraska on 2 November 1866. Her father was a druggist
(pharmacist).
One night at
the age of 12 years old, she and her sister snuck out to hear Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony speak on women’s suffrage. She seemed to become
committed to the cause even at this early age.
She studied
for 2 years at the University of Nebraska before moving to New York City in
1890 where she worked as a journalist. She met John Dorr, a conservative
businessman from Seattle. They were married in 1892 and moved to Seattle.
Rheta
continued to work as a journalist even as a married woman. This caused some
friction in their relationship, and they separated in 1898. She returned East
then with a 2-year old son to raise and support as a single mother.
In 1902 she
worked at the New York Evening Post where she wrote articles on women’s issues.
She made special investigations to women’s workplaces to study and report on
the labor conditions they endured. She notes that she was fortunate to work for
the most distinguished newspaper in New York, but her wages were still half
that of her male colleagues.
She left the
Evening Post in 1906 and traveled in Europe for a while. There she became more
interested in the international right for women’s suffrage. She returned to
America and wrote investigative features on the grim situation working women
faced.
In 1914 Dorr
became the first editor of The Suffragist, the official paper for the
Congressional Union for Women Suffrage.
Doris
Stevens is also a Nebraska-born suffragist who achieved national prominence.
Another
woman to lead women’s suffrage was Edna Barkley who left her unpaid position at
the University of Lincoln as Dean of Women in 1909 to lead the suffrage
movement.
Not all
women were in favor of women’s suffrage. Many women thought that women should
stay in the home, raising children and doing domestic duties. Some women also
did not want to serve on a jury, and men thought that too violent crimes should
not be heard by women on a jury.
Women
received partial suffrage in 1917, being able to vote for presidential
electors, city and village offices, county offices (but not county judges) and
other offices not created by the state constitution.
Even when
women could vote, sometimes they were not able due to several reasons: poll
tax, literacy and fear or feelings of duplicating their husband’s vote or
cancelling it out.
Nebraska was
the fourteenth state to ratify the 19th Amendment on 2 August 1919 with a
unanimous vote from the Nebraska Senate and the same by the House two days
later. Governor McKelvie (boy governor) signed the bill in chambers while being
filmed. He was called the “boy governor” as he was elected at 38 years old.
History
Nebraska has had an exhibit called “Votes for Women” celebrating women’s
suffrage in Nebraska. The museum in Lincoln is open again, and it’s worth a
visit.
Some books
on women’s suffrage in Nebraska are available:
“Votes for
Women: The 19th Amendment in Nebraska” by David Bristow (on Amazon
or from History Nebraska gift shops)
“A Dangerous
Class: a History of Suffrage in Nebraska and the League of Women Voters in
Nebraska” by Betty Stevens
“What Eight
Million Women Want” by Rheta Childe Dorr
“Clara Colby:
The International Suffragist” by John Holliday
YouTube
videos:
The Legacy
of Nebraska’s Suffrage Movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mJE04IMo4
Brown Bag:
Nebraska’s Suffragist Journalists Clara Bestwick Colby and Rheta Childe Dorr by
Dr. Eileen Worth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxt5dqAsvZo
