Timeline of women's suffrage in South Dakota facts for kids

South Dakota suffragists

This is a timeline showing when women in South Dakota gained the right to vote. In the beginning, the story of women's voting rights in South Dakota was similar to that of North Dakota. When South Dakota became a state, people voted in 1890 on a change to the state's rules that would let women vote. This idea didn't pass, but people who supported women's voting rights, called suffragists, kept working hard. They asked lawmakers to let people vote on the issue again. Finally, in 1918, a vote passed. South Dakota officially approved the Nineteenth Amendment on December 4, 1919. This amendment gave women across the United States the right to vote.

The Fight for Votes in the 1800s

South Dakota suffragists

Early Efforts: 1860s and 1870s

1868

• Enos Stutsman suggested a bill to let women vote in the Dakota Territorial House.

1872

• The lawmakers in the Dakota Territory almost passed a bill for full women's voting rights. It lost by just one vote!

1879

• The Dakota Territory gave women the right to vote in school meetings. This was a small but important step.

Growing Support: 1880s

1881

• Women were allowed to become leaders of public education in their counties.

1883

• A new rule made it harder for women to vote on school issues. They had to use separate ballots.
• Summer: Matilda Joslyn Gage gave speeches about women's voting rights across the territory.
• September 6: A petition with 1,000 signatures asking for women's voting rights was shown at a meeting in Sioux Falls. This meeting was deciding if the territory should split into two states.

1884

• The South Dakota Republican Party decided to support voting rights for everyone in their party goals.

1885

• People in the southern part of the Dakota territory, working with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), gathered signatures. They wanted to convince lawmakers to support women's voting rights.
• John Pickler suggested a bill for women's voting rights in the Territorial House, and it passed! But Governor Gilbert A. Pierce said no to the bill.
• Marietta Bones started a group in Webster to support women's voting rights.

1887

• A bill passed that expanded women's rights to vote for all kinds of school issues.
• A bill for full women's voting rights was suggested, but it didn't pass the territorial legislature.

1888

• People in Grand Forks asked for a women's voting rights group to be formed. On April 12, a meeting was held, and many people came to support the idea.

1889

• After the Dakota territory became two states, South Dakota and North Dakota, two separate groups for women's voting rights started.
• October 21: The South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association (SDESA) was created in Huron by Emma Smith DeVoe and her husband, John.
• November 11: Famous women's rights leader Susan B. Anthony started a tour of speeches in South Dakota.

Key Votes and Organizations: 1890s

1890

• February: The Picklers and Alonzo Wardall asked the NWSA for help and money for the upcoming voting rights campaign.
• June: Sophia M. Harden and other activists spoke about women's voting rights at the state Democratic Party meeting in Aberdeen.
• July 7–8: The SDESA held a state meeting in Huron.
• August 25–26: SDESA held a second meeting in Mitchell. They planned how to win the upcoming vote on women's voting rights.
• August 27: Leaders for women's voting rights were able to speak at the Republican party meeting in Mitchell.
• August: A meeting for voting rights was held in Grant County. The Grant County Equal Suffrage Association was formed.
• November 4: The change to allow women to vote was defeated in the public vote.
• The Athol Equal Suffrage Association was created.
• The Grant County Equal Suffrage Association was formed.

1892

• The Prohibition Party supported equal voting rights and equal pay for women.
• A state meeting for voting rights was held in Huron.

1893

• A bill to change the state rules for women's voting rights was supported and passed by the state lawmakers.
• July 4: Suffragists in Onida raised money for campaigns in Colorado, Kansas, and New York.
• September: SDESA held its yearly meeting in Aberdeen.

1894

• November: The state change for women's voting rights was defeated again.

1895

• September 16–17: The WCTU and SDESA held their yearly meetings in Pierre.

1896

• December 3–4: SDESA held their yearly meeting in Salem.

1897

• October: The Union County Equal Suffrage Association was formed.
• Suffragists worked to convince state lawmakers to pass another state amendment bill.

1898

• July: Anna Simmons and Emma Cranmer led the Equal Suffrage Day at Lake Madison Chautauqua, a type of educational gathering.
• November: The state women's voting rights amendment was defeated again.

1899

• September: SDESA held a joint meeting with the state WCTU in Madison.

The Final Push: 1900s

Letter from Alice M. A. Pickler, South Dakota Universal Franchise League February 26, 1913

New Century, New Strategies: 1900s

1900

• January 15: U.S. Senator, R. F. Pettigrew presented a petition for a federal voting rights amendment to the U.S. Senate.
• September: SDESA held their yearly meeting in Brookings.

1901

• The South Dakota Political Equality Association (SDPEA) was formed.
• February 1: State WCTU members, Luella Ramsey and Philena Everett Johnson worked to get a state voting rights amendment passed.
• Spring: SDESA started local Political Equality Clubs to share information and reach more women.

1902

• A women's voting rights meeting was planned for October in Watertown.

1903

• A petition for a state voting rights amendment was rejected by the secretary of state.

1904

• The South Dakota Prohibition Party's goals included equal voting rights for women.

1906

• Suffragists asked the state lawmakers to consider women's voting rights.

1907

• March: The business committee of SDESA met in Highmore.
• September 17–18: SDESA held its yearly meeting in Pierre.

1908

• SDESA raised money by asking people to send pennies that would fit on twelve inches of cardboard.

1909

• Suffragists asked the state lawmakers to pass a women's voting rights amendment for a public vote.
• June 18: SDESA held their meeting in Aberdeen.
• November 3–5: The state voting rights meeting was held in Sioux Falls.

Victory Approaches: 1910s

1910

• The Philip Suffrage Club was started in Philip.
• A big campaign for voting rights happened, bringing in activists from all over the state and country, including Anna Howard Shaw.
• November: The public vote on women's voting rights was defeated again.

1911

• January: Activists talked to state lawmakers about women's voting rights.
• February: Suffragists suggested that the state's rules already allowed women to hold state and county jobs.
• The South Dakota Universal Franchise League was formed by Mamie Shields Pyle.

1912

• January: A newspaper that supported women's voting rights, South Dakota Messenger, was first published.
• July: A state voting rights meeting was held in Huron.

1913

• The women's voting rights amendment bill was the first to pass during the legislative session.
• March: South Dakota was represented in the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington D.C. by marchers and a golden chariot.
• July: The SDUFL held its yearly meeting in Huron.

1915

• Winter: A women's voting rights amendment was passed by the state lawmakers and would go to a public vote.

1916

• Groups against women's voting rights became part of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS).
• August 7: Suffrage Day was celebrated in South Dakota.
• October: The South Dakota Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage started a campaign against women's voting rights, including Minnie Bronson.
• November: The public vote on the women's voting rights amendment did not pass, but more people supported it this time.

1918

• November 6: Women's voting rights passed with the approval of the Citizenship Amendment.

1919

• December 4: South Dakota officially approved the Nineteenth Amendment. This made women's voting rights a national law.

After the Vote: 1920s

1924

• The Indian Citizenship Act was passed, making all Native Americans U.S. Citizens. However, South Dakota did not immediately follow this law and allow Native Americans to vote.