Suffragists in Illinois
Louise deKoven Bowen, Chicago: Led Chicago suffrage parade of 5,000 in 1916. Encouraged women to become a force in Chicago politics.
Agnes Chase, Unknown City: Participated in Lafayette Square demonstrations (1918), jailed for 10 days. Participated in Watchfire demonstrations in 1919, jailed for five days.
Gertrude Crocker, Hinsdale: Member of national NWP executive committee. Picketed the White House in 1917, arrested, tried, sentenced, and incarcerated.
Ruth Crocker, Hinsdale: Arrested for picketing and demonstrations.
Lucy H. Ewing, Chicago: Officer of NWP Illinois branch. Picketed the White House, and was a “Prison Special” speaker.
Mary Livermore, Chicago: Called Suffrage Convetntion in Chicago in 1868. Speaker and leader in American Women Suffrage Association.
Naomi Talbert [Anderson] b. 1863, Chicago: Talbert was a suffragist, poet, and advocate for equal rights, a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and a suffrage supporter. Having spoken at the 1869 National Woman Suffrage Convention, causing offense in her African American community, and she was severely censured.
Elsie Unterman, Chicago: Jailed for three days for applauding in court.
Madeline M. Watson, Chicago: Treasurer of NWP Illinois state branch.
Ida B. Wells Barnett, Chicago (originally from Holly Springs, Mississippi): Courageous journalist, staunch suffragist. Urged white suffragists to stop supporting racial segregation.
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard, Evanston: President of Women’s Christian Temperance Union and an advocate of women’s rights and women’s suffrage. She was faculty at Northwestern University, and her home in Evanston, which was also the headquarters of the Womens Christian Temperance Union, still stands as a museum in Evanston.
Fannie (Frances) Barrier Williams (1855-1944), Chicago: Williams joined the Illinois Women’s Alliance and lectured on the need for Black women to vote. An acknowledged leader in the African American women’s club movement in Chicago, she joined the prestigious Chicago Woman’s Club in 1894. She wrote a history of the “colored” woman’s club movement, published in 1902 and co-founded both the National Association of Colored Women and the NAACP. Williams was the only African American chosen to eulogize Susan B. Anthony at the 1907 National American Woman Suffrage Convention.