Rhode Island Ratifies the 19th Amendment, January 6, 1920

Members of the abolitionist movement started the women’s suffrage movement in Rhode Island prior to the Civil War. Paulina Wright Davis was the first suffrage leader in the state, chairing the 1850 national women’s rights convention in Massachusetts and publishing a newspaper devoted to women’s issues. Davis and Elizabeth Buffum Chace (another abolitionist) founded the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association (RIWSA) and helped found the New England Woman Suffrage Association. Suffragists attempted to pass a suffrage constitutional amendment in 1887; the amendment was passed by the state legislature but defeated by voters. Through the next few decades reformers continued to press for women’s suffrage and other reform issues. In addition, African American suffragists formed their own suffrage organizations. The suffrage movement continued in the early twentieth century with the creation of a College Equal Suffrage League chapter, the formation of a Woman Suffrage Party in 1912, and the activism of Alva Belmont. In 1917 Rhode Island women gained partial suffrage and were able to vote in presidential elections, but full suffrage would not come until the 19^th Amendment. Rhode Island ratified the 19^th Amendment on January 6, 1920. 

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Stevens, Elizabeth C. "The Struggle for Woman Suffrage in Rhode Island." EnCompass. Accessed July 9, 2021. http://library.providence.edu/encompass/the-struggle-for-woman-suffrage-in-rhode-island/the-struggle-for-woman-suffrage-in-rhode-island/.

"Women's Suffrage Timeline." Rhode Island Department of State. Accessed July 9, 2021. https://www.sos.ri.gov/divisions/civics-and-education/for-educators/themed-collections/women-suffrage-timeline.