Laura Clay facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Laura Clay
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| Born | February 9, 1849 |
| Died | June 29, 1941 (aged 92) |
| Occupation | Suffragist, orator, politician |
| Political party | Democratic |
Laura Clay (born February 9, 1849, died June 29, 1941) was a very important leader in the American movement for women's right to vote. This movement is called the women's suffrage movement. She helped start the Kentucky Equal Rights Association and was its first president. Laura Clay was a strong speaker and played big roles in politics at local, state, and national levels. In 1920, she made history at the Democratic National Convention. She was one of the first two women ever to be suggested as a candidate for president by a major political party.
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Laura Clay's Early Life and Family
Laura Clay was born at her family's home, White Hall, near Richmond, Kentucky. Her parents were Cassius Marcellus Clay and Mary Jane Warfield Clay. Laura was the youngest of four daughters. Her mother mostly raised her because her father was often away. He was busy with his political work and fighting to end slavery.
When Laura was 15, she started thinking about how women were treated unfairly. She wrote in her diary that she felt her mind was "superior to that of many boys my age." Laura went to school at Sayre School in Lexington, Kentucky. She also studied at the University of Michigan and the University of Kentucky.
In 1878, Laura's parents got divorced. Her mother, Mary Jane Warfield Clay, had managed their home for 45 years. But after the divorce, she had no home of her own. This event made Laura and her older sisters, Mary and Sarah, realize how unfair property laws were for married women. This unfairness made them join the women's rights movement. Laura's younger sister, Annie, also became involved.
Starting the Women's Suffrage Movement in Kentucky
In 1881, a big meeting for women's right to vote happened in Louisville, Kentucky. It was the 11th Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). This was the first time such a national event was held in the Southern United States.
The president of AWSA, Lucy Stone, met with Laura's sister, Mary Barr Clay, in Lexington. Lucy Stone convinced Laura to speak at the meeting. After this meeting, Kentucky got its first group for women's right to vote. It was called the Kentucky Woman Suffrage Association. Laura later said she wasn't fully ready for the job back then.
The Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA)
In 1888, after another AWSA meeting, the Clay sisters and other women started a new group. They called it the Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA). Laura Clay was chosen as president again and led the group until 1912.
One main goal of KERA was to make laws better for women in Kentucky. They also wanted more chances for women to get an education. The group worked hard and helped pass many new laws. These laws protected married women's money and property. They also made sure women's mental hospitals had female doctors. KERA helped Transylvania University and Central University start letting women students in. They also helped raise the age girls could get married from 12 to 16. The group even helped create special courts for young people. Because of their work, the University of Kentucky built its first dorm for women.
Working with National Leaders for Women's Rights
In the 1890s, Laura Clay became very active in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). She worked with famous leaders like Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Stone Blackwell. Laura traveled all over the country, giving speeches for women's right to vote. She helped start suffrage groups in nine different states.
Laura worked closely with Henry Blackwell. He suggested a "Southern Strategy." This idea was to convince lawmakers in the South that they could still keep white people in power by only letting educated women vote. Laura Clay agreed with this plan. She convinced NAWSA to adopt this strategy, which meant they would mostly push for white women to vote. By 1903, NAWSA even stopped Black members from attending their meeting in New Orleans.
The Kentucky Plan for More Members
Laura Clay became a national leader in NAWSA. She was in charge of the Southern Committee and later became an auditor. She had a lot of influence on the group's main goals. In 1903, she became the head of NAWSA's new committee to get more members. She stayed in this role for 20 years.
Laura came up with a new way to get members, which was called "The Kentucky Plan." Her idea was to show that many women wanted the right to vote by having lots of members in suffrage clubs. This helped NAWSA show how much progress they were making. To get more members, Laura suggested that local clubs only meet once a year. This meeting would just be for collecting names and membership fees. In Kentucky, it was hard to keep people interested in the movement in rural areas. So, Laura made membership fees optional if groups would just collect signed promises of support. These promises counted as members. However, this method didn't create enough excitement to convince male lawmakers to make changes.
Laura Clay and the Peace Movement
Laura Clay joined the Woman's Peace Party in 1915. This group was started by leaders like Carrie Chapman Catt and Jane Addams. Laura was the head of the party in her area of Kentucky. However, when the United States joined World War I, she left the party. She then actively supported the war effort.
Supporting States' Rights for Voting
Laura Clay also strongly believed in states' rights. This means she thought each state should have more power to make its own laws, rather than the national government. She joined the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference. This group was against getting women the right to vote through a change to the U.S. Constitution. They wanted states to decide.
In 1916, Laura became a vice-president of this Southern group. She was against the Nineteenth Amendment. This amendment would give women the right to vote across the whole country. Laura believed it went against states' rights.
Why Laura Clay Opposed a National Amendment
In 1913, Laura Clay left KERA and NAWSA. This was because she was against the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which later became the Nineteenth Amendment. The main leader of NAWSA, Carrie Chapman Catt, decided that all efforts should focus on this national amendment. Laura, being a Democrat, believed in states' rights. She agreed with President Wilson, who thought each state should decide on voting rights.
Laura also worried that giving the right to vote to many "inexperienced voters" was not a good idea. This was a way of saying she was concerned about Black women being able to vote. She argued that a national amendment would let the national government control state elections. She felt this would take away states' choices. Laura wanted KERA to work for voting rights within Kentucky, not through a national amendment. She believed the Nineteenth Amendment would give too much power to the government in Washington, D.C. While many said her reasons were about race, she always said it was about states' rights.
Laura Clay's Later Years
Laura Clay was a very religious person and a member of the Episcopal Church. For many years, she worked to allow women to be leaders in her church.
In 1920, Laura Clay helped start the Democratic Women's Club of Kentucky. That same year, she went to the 1920 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. There, she made American history. Laura Clay and another woman from Kentucky, Cora Wilson Stewart, were the first two women ever to be suggested as candidates for president by a major political party. Each received one vote for president. Later, Governor James M. Cox was chosen as the Democratic candidate.
The Democratic Party supported women's right to vote. After many votes in Congress and state legislatures, the Nineteenth Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920. It says that the right to vote cannot be taken away from citizens because of their sex.
In 1928, Laura Clay supported Al Smith for president. She was also against Prohibition, which was a law that banned alcohol. In 1933, she helped lead the Kentucky meeting to approve the Twenty-First Amendment. This amendment ended Prohibition.
Laura Clay became less involved in public life in her last ten years. She passed away in 1941 and was buried in Lexington Cemetery.
Key Speeches by Laura Clay
- "The Race Question Again," Kentucky Gazette, April 1890.
- "Elections." December 12, 1890. Proceedings and Debates in the Convention Assembled at Frankfort, on the eighth day of September, 1890, to adopt, amend or change the Constitution of the State of Kentucky.
- "Speech on Partial Suffrage (Kentucky Constitutional Convention, December 12, 1890) [WikiSource]
- "Argument from Bible Teachings." Address, 1894 NAWSA Convention. Woman's Tribune (February 20, 1894).
- "A New Tool." Address, WCTU Banquet. Lexington, Kentucky. February 11, 1913.
- "Women and the Ballot." February 1919.
- "The Citizens Committee for a State Suffrage Amendment: Open Letter to the Public." June 12, 1919.
- "Why I Am a Democrat." Democratic Woman's Journal. December 1929.
