The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Kansas
August 20, 2021
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By: Kaysey A. Richardson
August 18, 2021 marked the 101st anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment which prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. Although women did not gain the right to vote on a national level until 1920, Kansas recognized the right of women to vote eight years prior. On November 5, 1912, Kansas voters accepted the Equal Suffrage Amendment to the state constitution and became the eighth state to grant full suffrage (the right to vote) to women. There are many women and politicians who helped make women’s right to vote possible on not only a national level, but right here in Kansas. Here are a few notable Kansas women that helped pave the road to women’s suffrage:
Clarina Irene Howard Nichols: Known as the “forgotten feminist of Kansas,” Clarina Irene Howard Nichols was a suffragist, abolitionist, and journalist. Nichols contributed to the women’s rights movement before Kansas was officially a state and attended the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention in 1859. There, she helped to achieve Kansas women’s liberal property rights, equal guardianship of their children, and the right to vote on all school questions. In Susan B. Anthony’s book, History of Women’s Suffrage, Anthony paid tribute to Nichols and her early efforts in Kansas.
Susanna Madora Salter: Susanna Madora Salter moved to a Kansas farm with her parents in 1872 where she attended the 
Kansas State Agricultural College. Later in life, Salter moved to Argonia, Kansas with her husband and children and became an officer in the “Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.” On April 4, 1887 she was elected as mayor by mistake after Argonia men jokingly nominated her on the Prohibition Party ticket. Salter was elected mayor only weeks after women had obtained the right to vote in local city elections. Although she reportedly performed well as mayor, she did not pursue politics after her time in office. Susanna Madora Salter is significant because she served as mayor twenty-five years before women had the right to vote on a state level and thirty-three years before the Nineteenth Amendment.
Lucy B. Johnston: Lucy B. Johnston was the President of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association and participated in many Kansas reform movements and organizations. Additionally, she served as the president of Kansas Federation of Women’s Clubs and played a role in the 1912 amendment that gave women in Kansas the right to vote. Not only did Johnston play a part in the women’s suffrage movement, but she also helped in passing a bill for a Traveling Libraries Commission, which was established in 1899 and supported bringing new library services to rural towns in Kansas.
Annie Diggs: Annie Diggs made her way to Kansas in 1873, where she attended a local Unitarian 
Church in Lawrence. At church, she grew to have a sense of moral responsibility which would lead her to work for the temperance and women’s suffrage movements. She and her husband were responsible for publishing the newspaper, Kansas Liberal, and she attached herself to the Farmer’s Alliance. The Farmer’s Alliance soon would lead to the creation of the Populist Party, the party being an early advocate for women’s suffrage. As a member of the Populist Party, Diggs worked vigorously for women’s voting rights and attended the Kansas Equal Suffrage Convention. Diggs remains important to Kansas women’s history because she was one of the leading figures of the suffrage movement in the state.
Mary Elizabeth Lease: Well-known for her active role in the Populist Party, Mary Elizabeth Lease became attracted to the
members of the party through shared opinions and criticisms of the railroads and big businesses. She became most famous for her assertion that farmers need to “raise less corn and begin raising hell.” In her later years she shifted her focus to women’s suffrage and prohibition. She is significant because she played an important role in the formation of the Populist Party and was an early strong female figure in Kansas history.
Although we have reached the end of the road, the journey is not over. Following the Nineteenth Amendment, women continued to fight for equality regarding their right to birth control, equal treatment and pay in the workforce, and the right to divorce. The right to vote was a monumental step in women’s history and would only mark the beginning of the fight for equality.
