Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People

Location

200 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Evansville, IN 47713, USA

Lat/Long

37.971316, -87.565996

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

A leading voice in the women’s suffrage movement, Lucia E. Blount galvanized support for the women’s suffrage movement throughout her career as an activist. This marker commemorates the site of the former home of Blount, where, following a meeting in the parlor, the Evansville Equal Suffrage Society was founded in 1886. After moving to Washington, D.C. in 1891 after time abroad in Europe, Blount established herself as a leader for national women’s suffrage.

During her time in Evansville, Blount hosted parlor meetings at her house where topics relating to women’s suffrage were discussed. One such parlor meeting, proposed by May Wright Sewell, who was a noted writer and speaker on women’s suffrage, was hosted at Blount’s house in 1886. During this gathering the Evansville Equal Suffrage Society was established.

The Evansville Courier on May 25, 1886 noted:

A meeting of persons interested in equal suffrage was held in the parlors of Mrs. L. E. Blount last evening, and a society was organized in behalf of the political enfranchisement of women. The meeting was large and enthusiastic.

Not long after the establishment of the Evansville Equal Suffrage Society, Blount and her family would move to Europe for a few years before eventually returning to the United States in 1891, settling in Washington, D.C. Here, Lucia would become a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and continue as an advocate for women’s suffrage, serving on a number of committees for the organization.

Blount passed away at the age of 84 in 1925. She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.