Arkansas Ratifies the 19th Amendment, July 28, 1919

Discussion of women’s suffrage began in Arkansas after the Civil War but did not spread widely to rural areas. Early reform focus remained on temperance in the state, although many women used the temperance movement to also advocate for suffrage. In 1868 Miles Ledford Langley proposed a motion to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention that “all citizens 21 years of age, who can read and write the English language, shall be eligible to the elective franchise and entitled to equal political rights and privileges.” Langley addressed the convention on the need of women’s suffrage but was laughed at by his colleagues. After this initial attempt to advance women’s suffrage, the movement ebbed and waned over the decades as several organizations tried to gain traction. The Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association organized between 1881 and 1885, the Arkansas Equal Suffrage Association between 1888 and 1899, and the Political Equality League in 1911. A new reiteration of the Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) formed in 1914 and partnered with the Political Equality League and national suffrage organizations to campaign more actively in the state. In the late 1910s Arkansas women gained the support of Governor Charles Brough and his wife Anne and in 1917 the state legislature voted to allow women to vote in primary elections. More than 40,000 women voted in the 1918 primaries and 50 women were elected as delegates to the Democratic State Convention. Suffragists tried to get full suffrage included in the constitution again that year, but their attempt failed when it went to a popular vote. Governor Brough remained an open supporter of full women’s suffrage and when Congress passed the 19^th Amendment he called a special session of the General Assembly to ratify it. Arkansas ratified the 19^th Amendment on July 28, 1919.

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