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Better Days Reading Club – Week Two: Utah Women Had the Right to Vote Long Before Others, Then Had It Taken Away
March 31, 2020 Welcome to week two of the Better Days Reading Club! We hope you enjoyed the wonderful article from Dr. Tetrault last week, as well as our discussion guide. If you missed it, they’re linked the sources below. This week we’re getting into Utah’s voting history specifically, and it’s something you won’t want […]Read More -
Black Women’s Political Participation in Early Utah
by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director January 31, 2020 The 150th anniversary of Utah’s first women’s suffrage law is this February. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting more on the context behind Utah’s 1870 suffrage law and the effects it had for Utah women. It’s important to remember this year that […]Read More -
Rival Suffrage Organizations: Utah’s Place in the National Movement (Part 1)
by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director December 6, 2019 Utah women were involved in the national suffrage movement for 50 years, from the time they first cast ballots in 1870 until the Nineteenth Amendment became law in 1920. Suffragists in Utah learned from suffrage leaders in the eastern United States, and those leaders […]Read More -
Meet the Women Who Led Utah in Ratifying the 19th Amendment
by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director October 3, 2019 Utah ratified the 19th Amendment 100 years ago today, on October 3, 1919. Unlike women elsewhere, Utah women had already been voting for 40 years, and in fact, four female lawmakers led the way for Utah to ratify the amendment extending women’s voting rights […]Read More -
Jennie McCargar Jones: “Women Know Their Own Convictions”
by Amy Tanner Thiriot Mrs. William Henry Jones was a slender woman, married, but without any living children. She put on a black dress that day in 1900, fastened its white trim with a plain gold band, and went from her hotel to the Exposition Auditorium in Philadelphia, where she became one of the […]Read More -
Utah’s Woman Suffrage Song Book
by Kenzi Christensen, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern August 9, 2019 “Sisters, brave of heart and true, now for simple justice sue, claim the birthright of the free–Equal Rights and Liberty.” – “Equal Rights,” by Emily Woodmansee From 1889 to 1895, women across Utah founded local suffrage associations and held meetings in small towns […]Read More -
This Day in History: Women Voted Across Utah for the First Time
by Tiffany Greene, Better Days Historical Research Consultant August 1, 2019 Monday, August 1, 1870: Having already voted in several municipal (city/town) elections across Utah Territory, female citizens participated in a territory-wide election for the first time on August 1, 1870. It was the first time in the post-Seneca Falls era that women voted to […]Read More -
The Transcontinental Railroad and Utah Women’s Suffrage
by Katherine Kitterman, Better Days Historical Director May 8, 2019 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad. Completed with a ceremonial golden spike driven at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869, the railroad brought technological, economic, and cultural changes to Utah Territory. Despite the fact that women do not appear in […]Read More -
Doctors Debate Suffrage
by Tiffany Greene March 18, 2018 On Feb 18, 1894, a full-house crowd gathered at the Salt Lake Theatre for the closing event of the Sunday night charity series hosted by the Salt Lake Press Club. Part of the program for the evening was devoted to a debate on equal suffrage between two local female […]Read More -
Contention At The Convention
Contention at the Convention By Sarah Hancock Jones October 18, 2018 Filing into the Salt Lake City and County building in the spring of 1895, Utah women thought they had it in the bag. They had been working for years to build support for universal suffrage in the state constitution: collaborating with national leaders […]Read More -
Answering Questions About Voting Firsts
By Katherine Kitterman, Better Days 2020 Historical Director September 13, 2018 Our mission at Better Days 2020 is to share the stories of Utah women – who were the first women citizens in the U.S. to vote under a women’s equal suffrage law! We’re pretty proud of that fact, so let’s take a closer […]Read More -
On This Day: A Mother’s Influence
On This Day: A Mother’s Influence By Candace Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern August 18, 2018 On this day in history, August 18, 1920, Tennessee’s youngest state representative, Harry T. Burn, sat in his Nashville hotel room, poring over a letter from his mother. Postmarked August 17, most of the seven-page note was […]Read More -
The Suffrage Resolution at Seneca Falls
The Suffrage Resolution at Seneca Falls By Candace Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern July 27, 2018 On July 19, 1848, in the opening speech of the Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared, “We [women] now demand the right to vote.” Her audience applauded her gumption. But when she later presented the ninth […]Read More -
On This Day: Seneca Falls Convention
On This Day: Seneca Falls Convention By Candace Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Intern July 19, 2018 One hundred seventy years ago today, on July 19, 1848, thirteen-year-old Daniel Cady Eaton broke into the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel with both his aunt’s blessing and her assistance.Once inside, he made his way to the front of the […]Read More -
“None Of The Unpleasant Results Have Occurred”
“None Of The Unpleasant Results Have Occurred” By Katherine Kitterman, Historical Director, Better Days 2020 July 10, 2018 On February 15, 1898, Susan B. Anthony led a delegation of women and men up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to speak in support of women’s suffrage. It was her 78th birthday, and the fifteenth […]Read More -
Gaining, Losing, and Winning Back the Vote: The Story of Utah Women’s Suffrage
Gaining, Losing, and Winning Back the Vote: The Story of Utah Women’s Suffrage By Barbara Jones Brown, Naomi Watkins, and Katherine Kitterman When Utah became a U.S. territory in 1850, all free white male inhabitants over the age of 21 had the right to vote if they were U.S. citizens. This meant many […]Read More -
Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon: First Female State Senator
By Rebekah Clark, Better Days 2020 Historical Research Associate January 23, 2018 Martha “Mattie” Hughes Cannon (1857 – 1932) blazed trails for women as a skilled physician, ardent suffragist, progressive public health reformer, and most notably, the first female state senator in the United States. Born in Wales, young Mattie immigrated with her family […]Read More -
Susan B. Anthony and Her Strong Utah Ties
Susan B. Anthony and Her Strong Utah Ties By Barbara Jones Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Director December 15, 2017 Like many American suffragists, Susan Brownell Anthony (1820 – 1906) began her activism by working to abolish slavery. Raised in upstate New York in the Quaker tradition, she became passionate about social equality and […]Read More -
Zitkála-Šá And The Struggle For Minority Voting Rights
Zitkála-Šá And The Struggle For Minority Voting Rights By Barbara Jones Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Director November 7, 2017 Ratified in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State […]Read More -
In Behalf Of The Ladies: Eliza R. Snow (1804–1887)
In Behalf Of The Ladies: Eliza R. Snow (1804–1887) By Jennifer Reeder October 31, 2017 Eliza Roxcy Snow, one of Utah’s earliest settlers, worked to empower women. She encouraged women to act independently, speak publicly, participate in civic activity, and defend religious freedom. In February 1870, one week after territorial governor Stephen A. Mann signed […]Read More -
Winning Back the Vote: Ruth May Fox
Winning Back the Vote: Ruth May Fox Congress Took Away Utah Women’s Voting Rights in 1887. But Utah Suffragists Like Ruth May Fox Won Them Back. September 20, 2017 In February 1870, Utah women became the first to vote in the modern nation. For the next seventeen years they cast their ballots in high […]Read More -
2020 Marks Monumental Anniversaries In Suffrage History
2020 Marks Monumental Anniversaries In Suffrage History August 28, 2017 August is a banner month in the nation’s voting history. On August 18, 1920, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, making women’s suffrage national law. Forty-five years later, on August 6, 1965,President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act, protecting suffrage rights for women and […]Read More -
Emmeline B. Wells: A Leading Suffragist In Utah And The Nation
Emmeline B. Wells: A Leading Suffragist In Utah And The Nation By Barbara Jones Brown, Better Days 2020 Historical Director August 28, 2017 After receiving the franchise in 1870, Utah women enthusiastically voted and worked alongside Eastern leaders in advocating for national women’s suffrage. Thrilled at the enfranchisement of Utah women, the president and […]Read More