Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People, Site

Location

State & 31st Street, Chicago, IL 60616, USA

Lat/Long

41.838447, -87.626499

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

In 1913, suffragist and activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) helped to organize the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, IL. The club was led by Black women and worked to secure women’s right to vote. That same year, Wells-Barnett represented the Alpha Suffrage Club in the national suffrage parade in Washington, DC. In a November 15, 1913 issue of The Broad Ax, Wells-Barnett explained that the Alpha Suffrage Club was:

…an organization of Colored women that is not only studying political and civic questions for themselves, but they are making a strong effort to get hold of every Colored woman in the city of Chicago.

She stated that at that time, the club had one hundred members and was adding new members every day. The Alpha Suffrage Club held meetings in the Reading Room of the Negro Fellowship League at 3005 State Street in Chicago, IL.