We Demand: Women's Suffrage in Virginia

This year marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing women's right to vote. The story of Virginia's suffragists and their contributions to the fight for woman suffrage is little known. We Demand: Women's Suffrage in Virginia reveals how women created two statewide organizations to win the right to vote. Virginia suffragists were a remarkable group of talented and dedicated women who have largely been forgotten. They were artists and writers, business and professional women, and educators and reformers who marched in parades, rallied at the state capitol, spoke to crowds on street corners, staffed booths at state and county fairs, lobbied legislators and congressmen, picketed the White House, and even went to jail. At the centenary of woman suffrage, these remarkable women are at last recognized for their important achievements and contributions.

Items on display will include suffrage postcards and memorabilia such as pinback buttons and badges, as well as banners from the Virginia branch of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, photographs, and film footage. This exhibition is a project of the Task Force to Commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote.