This post is the second of two posts dedicated to learning about the women and men behind the suffrage movement in the United States. Some are names you have heard before, but some might be new to you. Hope you enjoy reading about these players and are inspired by their stories.

Nina Otero-Warren (1881-1965) Her fluency in Spanish and English persuaded women in New Mexico to become suffrage activists through the militant Congressional Union, of which she was the advisory council’s vice president.

Alice Paul (1885-1977) Chief strategist of the militant wing, Paul founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the National Woman’s Party. Organizer of the White House pickets in 1917, she was jailed three times and force-fed. Paul authored the Equal Rights Amendment.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) Brilliant women’s rights leader and forceful writer, Stanton authored the 1848 “Declaration of Sentiments” declaring “all men and women are created equal.” She and Anthony were political partners for 50 years.
Lucy Stone (1818-1893) An eloquent speaker, founder of the American woman Suffrage Association and leading spirit in New England, Stone published and edited the influential weekly, The Woman’s Journal, for 21 years.

Jeannette Rankin (1880 – 1973) Visiting Montana, Rankin became the first woman to speak before the Montana legislature, she also organized and spoke for the Equal Franchise Society. She went to work for the New York Woman Suffrage Party and in 1912 she became the field secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Rankin returned to Montana to help organize the successful Montana suffrage campaign in 1914. Rankin was the first woman to be elected to the United States Congress in 1916.

Sojourner Truth (c.1797-1883) born into slavery, Isabella Van Wagener changed her name in 1843 and began preaching against slavery and for women’s rights. She is best remembered for her dramatic “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech at the 1851 Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) Wells-Barnett founded the first suffrage club of African-American women, the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago. She marched in the 1913 Washington, D.C. parade and led a contingent of Black suffragists in the famous 1916 Chicago parade.

Emma Hart Willard (1787-1870) founds the Troy Female Seminary in New York--the first endowed school for girls.

Victoria Woodhull (1838 – 1927) was an American suffragist who was described by Gilded Age newspapers as a leader of the American woman's suffrage movement in the 19th century. She became a colorful and notorious symbol for women's rights, free love, and spiritualism as she fought against corruption and for labor reforms. She was the first woman along with her sister to operate a brokerage firm in Wall Street and then open a weekly newspaper. She is most famous for her declaration and campaign to run as the first woman for the United States Presidency in 1872.

Sources: National Women’s History Project and National Association Woman Suffrage Collection