Even in the late 1800s and early 1900s, suffragists understood the power of the press. They paraded, picketed and gathered in public spaces with the intention of drawing attention to their cause.  More recently, when we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, authors, educators and history lovers worked to bring light to sometimes-forgotten women.

Books

Articles by MWHC Board and/or volunteers

Black Women and The Vote: Lifting as We Climb by Jean Thompson, Journalist and Maryland Women’s Heritage Center volunteer

Retracing the Steps of Baltimore Suffragists, by Jean Thompson (MWHC volunteer writer and researcher), Maryland Humanities, November 19, 2019

The DuBois Circle and the Suffrage Movement, by Dr. Ida Jones, MWHC board member and volunteer, Winter 2018 Baltimore Gaslight, a publication of the Baltimore City Historical Society

Augusta Chissell and Margaret Hawkins lived and worked side-by-side for women’s suffrage, by Kathi Santora, Dying to Tell Their Stories 

Other articles of interest

‘Brilliant and politically savvy:’ The roles of African American women in the fight to vote 100 years ago by Jessica Bliss and Jasmine Vaughn-Hall, USA TODAY, published 02/26/2020; Updated 08/16/2020

How Black Suffragists Fought for the Right to Vote and a Modicum of Respect by Martha S. Jones, PhD.

Maryland and the 19th Amendment, National Park Service

The Very Queer History of the Suffrage Movement

Special Publications

To the Front: Black Women and the Vote, a joint publication from AFRO and Afro Charities
Explore the suffrage movement through the voices of Black women. This is a special edition publication that connects the suffragists’ activism with that of their 21st century counterparts. The publication includes reprinted AFRO news articles covering the suffrage movement, as well as photographs of early Black suffragists. It also includes current reflections on the movement from historians, archivists, essayists and independent researchers who explore the contributions of Black women in the historic national suffrage movement and the continuing struggle against voter suppression.

Contributors include Martha S. Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and professor of history at Johns Hopkins University; Jean Thompson, an independent researcher with the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center; Lisa Snowden McCray, journalist; Savannah Wood, archivist at The AFRO; Beverly Carter, archivist of the Du Bois Circle, an historic Baltimore women’s club associated with the Niagara Movement and many more.

Research Resources

Online Biographical Dictionary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States

State of Maryland 19th Amendment Commission 

National Organization of Women (NOW)- Sisters of Suffrage

League of Women Voters – Suffrage Toolkit