ALABAMA[1]
In 1902 Miss Frances Griffin of Verbena sent to the national suffrage convention the following report as president of the State suffrage association: "Two clubs in Alabama, in Huntsville and Decatur, are auxiliary to the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The State president did some aggressive work within the year, speaking in many different towns before women's clubs and at parlor meetings. She devoted much time to work of this character in Montgomery, hoping to bring to bear sufficient influence upon members of the Constitutional Convention to secure some concessions for women citizens. The results were bitterly disappointing, for it not only refused to grant suffrage to tax-paying women but it gave to the husbands of tax-payers the right to vote upon their wives' property! Women in the larger towns are taking an interest in municipal and educational affairs. Some have been placed on advisory boards in State institutions, such as the Girls' Industrial School, the Boys' Reform School and others. All this means a gradual advance for the suffrage sentiment, a general modifying of the anti-sentiment."
There were also short reports for 1903 and 1904, which, while showing no practical, tangible results of the efforts of that earnest pioneer worker, are interesting as evidences of the backward, unprogressive spirit against which the women of Alabama have had to contend. These reports mark the end of the first period of suffrage activity in the State, which had been maintained by a few devoted women. The new era was ushered in by the organization in Selma in 1910 of an Equal Suffrage Association which was the beginning of an aggressive, tireless fight. Miss Mary Partridge, after seeing the defeat of a constitutional amendment for prohibition in Alabama despite the earnest but ineffectual efforts of the women who besieged the polls begging the men to vote for it, decided that the time was ripe for a woman suffrage organization and wrote for advice to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, who answered in part: "I cannot express to you how happy I am that you are willing to begin the work in your State where very little has been done for suffrage because of the great conservatism among the women of the South. I am very glad if they are now beginning to realize their absolutely helpless and unprotected position. We have the temperance agitation to thank for arousing a great many women over all the country...."
Shortly after the receipt of this letter Miss Partridge sent out a "call" in the Selma papers and on March 29, 1910, Mrs. Frederick Watson, Mrs. F. T. Raiford, Mrs. F. G. DuBose, Mrs. F. M. Hatch and Miss Partridge met at the Carnegie Library and organized the association. This action was reported to Dr. Shaw and she extended the greetings of the National Association with "thanks and appreciation."
The Birmingham Equal Suffrage Association was the outgrowth of a small group of women who had been holding study meetings in the home of Mrs. W. L. Murdoch. The enthusiasm and earnest conviction resulting from them found expression in a "call" for a woman suffrage organization and on Oct. 22, 1911, the association was formed at a meeting held in the Chamber of Commerce, where the following officers were elected: President, Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs; first vice-president, Miss Ethel Armes; second, Mrs. W. L. Murdoch; third, Mrs. W. N. Wood; corresponding secretary, Miss Helen J. Benners; recording secretary, Mrs. J. E. Frazier; treasurer, Mrs. A. J. Bowron.
Special mention is made of these two societies because they constituted the nucleus on which the State organization was formed. An urgent "call" was sent out by the officers of the Birmingham society to "all men and women who wish to further the cause of woman suffrage to unite in a State organization at a meeting in Birmingham Oct. 9, 1912." Selma sent six delegates who met with the Birmingham suffragists at the Parish House of the Church of the Advent, where the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association was organized and a constitution and by-laws adopted. Mrs. Jacobs was elected president; Miss Partridge, first vice-president; Mrs. Raiford, second; Mrs. Murdoch, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Julian Parke, recording secretary; Mrs. C. M. Spencer, treasurer; Miss Partridge, State organizer.[2]
The following delegates were appointed to attend the national convention in Philadelphia in November; Mrs. Jacobs, Miss Amelia Worthington, Mrs. O. R. Hundley, Mrs. DuBose, Miss Partridge, Mrs. Chappel Cory. The new State organization affiliated at once with the National Association.
The first annual convention was held in Selma Jan. 29, 1913, with twenty-five representatives from Selma, Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomery. Mrs. Jacobs was re-elected president and a splendid program of constructive work was outlined for the ensuing year. The association was represented at the meeting of the International Suffrage Alliance held in Budapest in June of this year by Mrs. T. G. Bush of Birmingham.
The second State convention, held in Huntsville Feb. 5, 1914, was made notable by the inspiring presence of three of Alabama's pioneer suffragists—Mrs. Annie Buel Drake Robertson, Mrs. Humes, and Mrs. Virginia Clay Clopton. The following local societies were represented by their presidents, named in the order in which they were organized: Selma, Mrs. Parke; Birmingham, Mrs. Hundley; Montgomery, Mrs. Sallie B. Powell; Huntsville, Mrs. Clopton; Cullman, Mrs. Ignatius Pollak; Greensboro, Miss S. Anne Hobson; Tuscaloosa, Mrs. Losey; Vinemont, Miss Mary Munson; Pell City, Miss Pearl Still; Coal City, Mrs. J. W. Moore; Mobile, Miss Eugenie Marks. Mrs. Jacobs was re-elected despite her wish to retire from office and her report of the past year told of a great amount of work done by all the members of the board.
In January, 1915, a resolution to submit a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution to the voters was for the first time introduced in the Legislature. It was referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections in the House and the Legislature afterwards adjourned until July. In the meantime the women worked to secure pledges from the members of the committee to report the bill favorably and 14 of the 16 gave their promise to do so. Instead of this it was "postponed indefinitely." The women did not rest until they persuaded the House to compel a report and then a hearing was granted to them. Among those who worked in the Legislature were the legislative chairman, Mrs. O. R. Hundley; Mrs. Jacobs, the State president; Mrs. Chappel Cory, president United Daughters of the Confederacy; Miss Mollie Dowd, representing the wage earners, and Miss Lavinia Engle of Maryland, field organizer for the National Association. The bill came to a vote late in the session, when Representative Joe Green, who had asked for the privilege of introducing it, spoke and voted against it. The vote stood 52 ayes, 43 noes, a three-fifths majority being necessary to submit an amendment. As the Legislature meets only once in four years this was the only action ever taken on a State amendment.