Under the auspices of the league the first national suffrage May day was observed in Little Rock with speeches from the steps of the Old State House. Seventy-five letters were sent out to prominent men in the State, asking them to make five-minute speeches and after ten days Dr. L. P. Gibson, the well-known physician, was the first to accept. The next morning the Arkansas Gazette told that Dr. Gibson of Little Rock would be one of the speakers and then every man who could arrange to be in town that day accepted his invitation. Among the women who spoke were Mrs. George Pratho, Mrs. Fuller, Mrs. C. E. Rose, Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, Miss Julia Warner, Miss Josephine Miller, Mrs. George E. Cunningham, Mrs. Terry, Mrs. S. S. Wassel, Mrs. E. W. Gibb, Mrs. W. G. Whipple, Mrs. A. Marinana. The intensely interested crowd stood two hours and a half earnestly listening to these leading citizens asking the right of suffrage for Arkansas women.
It had been the custom to disband during the summer months but the summer of 1914 the Political Equality League opened a class for the purpose of studying all the questions of the day and learning something about speaking extemporaneously. In response to a call from the president, Little Rock and Hot Springs sent representatives to a conference held in the former city for the purpose of devising ways and means of forming a State association. An organization committee was formed of the following: Mrs. Ellington, Miss Fletcher, Miss Mary House, Mrs. Rose, Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Jennings, all of Little Rock; Miss Adele Johnson of Hot Springs. In October the State Woman Suffrage Association was formed in Little Rock at Hotel Marion, with six leagues represented by the following presidents: Hot Springs, Miss Mary Spargo; Pine Bluff, Mrs. L. K. Land; Augusta, Mrs. Rufus Fitzhugh; Malvern, Mrs. Mary Jackson; Hardy, Mrs. S. A. Turner; Fayetteville, Mrs. LeRoy Palmer. The officers elected were, President, Mrs. Ellington; first vice-president, Mrs. Fuller, Magazine; second, Mrs. N. F. Drake, Fayetteville; corresponding secretary, Mrs. P. J. Henry, Hot Springs; recording secretary, Mrs. Cunningham, Little Rock; treasurer, Mrs. Cotnam, Little Rock.
In October, 1915, the first annual meeting took place in Little Rock, eleven counties being represented, and this board was re-elected. The principal business of this convention was to lay plans for the legislative work early in the following year.
In October, 1916, the second annual convention was held in Pine Bluff, its principal work being to devise ways and means of raising money for continuing the organization of the State. Mrs. Cotman presented a feasible plan for raising money which was accepted by the convention. New officers elected were second vice-president, Mrs. J. D. Head, Texarkana; third vice-president, Mrs. J. H. Reynolds, Conway; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Maud O. Clemmons; recording secretary, Mrs. G. D. Henderson, both of Little Rock. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Suffrage Association, had come to Little Rock in April and spoken most acceptably to a large audience. She held a conference with the State officers and later the association financed a two-months' campaign for organization. Miss Gertrude Watkins and Miss Josephine Miller of Little Rock gave their services for their expenses only and organized sixty committees.[7]
The new Primary law was almost equal to the full suffrage, as where one party is so largely in the majority the primaries decide the elections, and it gave a great impetus to the movement throughout the country, especially in the southern States.
After the Primary bill passed the suffragists re-organized along the lines of the State Democratic party. Where it had a State Central Committee they had an Equal Suffrage State Central Committee and so on through the organization. The object was to teach women how to work through and with political parties but they were not fully enfranchised and could not give up their suffrage organization, therefore they held together on semi-political but non-partisan lines until such time as they could go into the various parties.
At the close of Mrs. Ellington's administration in August, 1917, seventy-eight papers in the State were handling news items each week. Eighty-five organizations had been completed. The Primary bill had been passed by the Legislature and thousands of women had assessed themselves and paid their poll tax of one dollar a year preparatory to voting in the spring elections. Under the law the assessor can put this tax only on male citizens and the women in asking for the Primary suffrage voluntarily assumed it, as no one can vote until it is paid. This was held to be legal by Attorney General John D. Arbuckle.
Mrs. Ellington left Arkansas on August 1 and Mrs. Cotnam was elected by the State Board to take charge of affairs. On November 28 she was elected chairman of the State Suffrage Central Committee upon the receipt of Mrs. Ellington's formal resignation. Mrs. Cotnam appeared before the State Farmers' Union in August and secured a unanimous endorsement of woman suffrage and in September at the meeting of its executive committee she secured a resolution calling on Arkansas Senators and Representatives to vote for the Federal Amendment. She went to New York City in September to take part in the State suffrage campaign. After six weeks she returned to Little Rock, where the great victory won in New York was celebrated at a luncheon in the Marion Hotel. Governor Charles H. Brough was a speaker and prophesied a similar victory in Arkansas.
Dr. Shaw visited Arkansas for the first time on April 3, 1918, and spoke to an immense audience. She came under the auspices of the National Council of Defense, as chairman of the Woman's Committee, but she won many friends for suffrage and the sincere admiration of all.
Active work to assure the writing of woman suffrage in the new State constitution culminated at the first annual meeting of the Equal Suffrage Central Committee on April 2, 1918, when a close organization covering the State was perfected. At this meeting Mrs. Cotnam was re-elected chairman; Mrs. C. T. Drennen of Hot Springs first vice-chairman; Mrs. Stella Brizzolara of Fort Smith second vice-chairman; Mrs. Frank W. Gibb, secretary; Mrs. R. W. Walker of Little Rock, treasurer. The National American Association contributed $1,675 to the campaign. The constitutional convention met the first Monday in July and the suffrage clause was adopted on the third day of the session. Only one man spoke and finally voted against this clause but it was not acceptable to the majority until amended to make jury service for women optional. The suffragists were consulted and agreed because it was plain that a refusal might cause a long drawn out debate. The constitution was defeated at a special election on Dec. 13, 1918, but it was generally conceded that the opposition caused by the suffrage amendment was negligible.