Women fought for the right to vote since the mid-1800s. They marched, protested, lobbied, and even went to jail. By the 1870s, women pressured Congress to vote on an amendment that would recognize their suffrage rights. This amendment became known as the 19th Amendment.
In the late 1800s, regional suffrage organizations began to form in states across the US. But the suffrage movement had roots in abolitionism (movement to end slavery). As a result, many southern women were slower to support women’s suffrage. Organized efforts to promote women’s suffrage lagged in Florida until Ella C. Chamberlain founded the Florida Women’s Suffrage Association in 1893. But when Chamberlain moved out of state four years later, the organization disbanded. Women’s suffrage did not have widespread support in the state until the 1910s when groups like the Florida Equal Franchise League and the Orlando Suffrage League were founded. Unfortunately, women’s suffrage groups in Florida often only supported the white woman’s right to vote. As a result, African American women were often excluded from the suffrage organizations of white women.
