Sarah Bell, Watkins Museum Development Director, made a return engagement to talk abut women’s suffrage in Kansas history. Kansas women were active in community affairs in the early years and by 1861 women were serving on school boards. Susanna Salter was elected mayor of Argonia in 1889. Two years later Lucy Sullivan was elected mayor of Baldwin and served with an all woman city council. Together they undertook an ambitious community development program. Soon a number of other communities elected women to local office.
In 1867 a proposal to enfranchise black men and white women failed. This set off a debate about whether one group should be advanced ahead of the other. The rise of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in 1874 introduced prohibition as a progressive cause. The WCTU became identified with women’s suffrage. Full women’s suffrage was passed in Kansas in 1912, eight years before the national amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Kansas played a leadership role in the fight to secure the right to vote for women.
