CHAPTER XVII.
LOUISIANA. PART I.[57]
The history of woman suffrage in Louisiana is unique inasmuch as it records largely the activity of one club, an influence, however, which was felt in the upbuilding of sentiment not alone in Louisiana but in almost every Southern State. When in 1900 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt on her accession to the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage Association called for conventions in the Southern States it was found that in Louisiana the State Suffrage Association, formed in 1896 by the union of the Portia and Era clubs, had lapsed because the former was no longer in existence. The Era Club, however, was flourishing under the stimulus and prestige gained by the successful Drainage, Sewerage and Water Campaign of 1899.[58] Mrs. Catt decided that, while it was a new precedent to recognize one club as a State association, it would be done in this case. Mrs. Evelyn Ordway was made president, Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, vice-president; Miss Jeannette Ballard and Miss Jean Gordon, secretaries, and Mrs. Otto Joachim, treasurer of the new association at a meeting in May, 1900, at New Orleans. It went on record at this first meeting as a State's rights organization, which Mrs. Catt ruled was permissible under the dual character of the National Association's constitution.
The secretary entered into active correspondence with individuals in all sections of the State known to be favorable to suffrage, but all efforts to secure clubs were unsuccessful. The Era Club, therefore, extended its membership over the State in order that representation in the national suffrage conventions could be state-wide. It had a standing Legislative Committee and for thirteen years its activities constituted the work of a State association. In 1904, Mrs. Merrick, Louisiana's pioneer suffragist, was made honorary president; Miss Kate M. Gordon, president; Mrs. James McConnell, vice-president; Mrs. Armand Romain, corresponding secretary; Miss Jean Gordon, recording secretary; Mrs. Lucretia Horner (now Mrs. James McBride), treasurer. There was no change in this board until 1913 except that on the death of Mrs. Romain in 1908 Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas was appointed in her place.
Clubs were formed during the years in various towns, but did not survive, until in 1913 a league was organized in Shreveport which did excellent work under its presidents, Mrs. S. B. Hicks, Mrs. S. P. Weaver and Mrs. J. M. Henry. The first State convention was held Nov. 12, 1913, in New Orleans, and the following officers were elected: Miss Jean Gordon, president; Mrs. George Wesley Smith, Rayville; Mrs. James C. Wooten, Monroe; Mrs. Louis Hackenjos, Alexandria, vice-presidents; Mrs. R. M. Carruth, New Roads, corresponding secretary; Miss Lois Janvier, New Orleans, recording secretary; Miss Olivia Munson, Napoleonville, treasurer; Mrs. Fannie Wolfson, Coushatta, auditor.
This board was unchanged until 1915, when Mrs. Clarence King of Shreveport became treasurer and Mrs. M. H. Lawless of Garden City and Mrs. D. C. Scarborough of Natchitoches, auditors. There was no further change until 1920, when Mrs. McBride became treasurer and Mrs. Horace Wilkinson took Mrs. Scarborough's place. State conventions met in Alexandria in 1914 and in Shreveport in 1915. Conferences were held in twenty-five parishes in anticipation of the proposed constitutional convention of 1915. A convention was held in Alexandria in July, 1918, and chairmen were appointed in forty-eight parishes in preparation for the State amendment campaign.
In reviewing the history of woman suffrage in Louisiana three factors stand out prominently as influences that molded a favorable public opinion. These are the national suffrage convention in 1903; the inauguration of charity campaigns on the lines of political organization and the forming of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference, the object of which was to place the Democratic party on record for woman suffrage in this Democratic stronghold of the "solid South."
In public opinion woman suffrage was largely associated with the Abolition movement. In 1900 Miss Gordon had accepted an invitation to address the convention of the National Association in Washington on the famous Sewerage and Drainage Campaign of women in New Orleans. Then and there she decided that the most important work before Louisiana suffragists was to bring this conservative State under the influence of a national convention. In 1901 she attended another convention and was elected corresponding secretary of the National Association. In 1903 she brought its convention to New Orleans and it proved to be one of the most remarkable in the history of the association.[59] So impressed was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president at large, with the possibilities in the South that she volunteered a month's series of lectures in the next autumn and many places in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas came under the spell of her eloquence.