State of Delaware Women's Suffrage Timeline

1868
Greenwood’s Mary Ann Sorden Stewart begins the fight for women’s rights
1869
Wilmington’s first women’s rights convention Abolitionist Thomas Garrett presided Lucy Stone spoke
1870s
Married women in Delaware receive the right to make wills, own property, and control their own earnings
1871
Mary Ann Sorden Stuart testifies before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of woman’s suffrage.
1881
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony address Delaware General Assembly in an attempt to amend the state constitution to allow woman’s suffrage
1888
Delaware Woman’s Christian Temperance Union endorses woman’s suffrage.
1895
Wilmington Equal Suffrage Club organized (African American Women organize)
1896
Delaware Equal Suffrage Association (DESA) founded, affiliated with National American
Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
Delaware General Assembly votes on the Suffrage Amendment and it fails; the seven Sussex County legislators walk out in protest
1897
(Jan. 13) Carrie Chapman Catt, Martha Cranston, Emalea Pusey Warner, Margaret White Houston, and Emma Worrell address hearing at Delaware Constitutional Convention favoring suffrage. The Committee on Elections votes against woman’s suffrage.
1898
Alice Paul becomes chair of Congressional Committee of NAWSA; bring new life to the suffrage movement
The focus switches from a state-by-state approach to an amendment to the United States Constitution
1912
Equal suffrage amendment to state constitution fails in Delaware General Assembly
1913
Alice Paul breaks from NAWSA to form Congressional Union (CU)
1913
(Summer) Series of suffrage meetings in Wilmington
1913
(September)
Florence Bayard Hilles hears Mabel Vernon speak and is converted to the suffrage cause
1913
(September) Join CU-DESA headquarters open on Seventh and Shipley streets in Wilmington with Mabel Vernon in charge
1913
(Nov. 23) Mrs. Emmaline Pankhurst, noted English suffragist, speaks in Wilmington
1914
(April 25) DESA plants suffrage tree a pin oak, at north end of Van Buren Street Bridge in Wilmington
1915
(May 2) Big Suffrage Parade in Wilmington
1916
(Summer) Florence Bayard Hilles and Miss Hill speak in seven towns on a two-day tour of Delaware
1917
(Jan-Feb.) The “Votes for Women Flyer” Florence Bayard Hilles’ gaily decorated car, tours the state taking the suffrage message to many small towns
1918
(March) Equal suffrage amendment to State Constitution fails in Delaware General Assembly
1915
(June) DESA and CU split, with DESA moving out of joint headquarters at 305 Delaware Avenue in Wilmington
1916
(June) CU becomes National Woman’s Party
1917 (July 8) Mabel Vernon heckles Woodrow Wilson from the platform at an event in Washington
1916
(Dec) Delaware CU has 36 branch organization
1916
(Dec.) Mabel Vernon and Florence Bayard Hilles are in a group that unfurls a suffrage banner in Congress during a speech by Woodrow Wilson
1917
(Jan. 10) Silent Sentinels begin to picket the White House
1918
(Feb. 18) 15 women from Delaware go to Washington to do picket duty at the White House
1917
(March 1) Delaware Day: all White House pickets are from Delaware
1917
(June 22) First arrest of suffrage pickets at the White House
1917 (June 25)
12 women arrested, including Mabel Vernon and Annie Arneli of Delaware, on charge of “obstructing traffic.” Sentenced to three days in jail, Sixteen women, including Florence Bayard Hilles, arrested at the White House; sentenced to 60 days in the workhouse; Pardoned by Woodrow Wilson after serving three days of their sentence
1917 (July 14)
Washington Court of Appeals declares all suffrage arrests, trials, punishments illegal
1918 (June)
A group of suffragist munitions workers from Delaware, led by Florence Bayard Hilles, who also worked in the factory, wait at the White House for two weeks in a futile attempt to see Woodrow Wilson
1919 (Aug. 6)
Arrests of White House pickets resume
1918(Dec. 16)
Suffragists begin to burn Woodrow Wilson’s words in watch fires in front of the White House
1919(Jan. 1)
Perpetual watch fire lit at the White House
1919(Feb. 9)
President Woodrow Wilson burned in effigy at the White House
1919 (June 19)
Suffrage amendment wins Congressional approval
1919(Aug. 9)
Ratification rally in Dover
1920 (March-June)
Delaware General Assembly called into Special Session to consider the Suffrage Amendment. National interest, if successful, Delaware could be the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment and enfranchise women
1921 (Aug. 26) Tennessee is the 36th state to ratify the Susan B. Anthony Amendment (19th Amendment)