Boston: A Suffrage "Hub"

“If it is within the bounds of possibility, I mean to have the franchise secured to women. Massachusetts ought to do it first.” Lucy Stone, November 24, 1852

When Lucy Stone wrote this to her sister-in-law Antoinette Brown Blackwell in 1852, it would be another 20 years before Massachusetts women could vote in limited school committee elections, nearly 70 years before women across the country could vote. For many women, suffrage meant more than just the vote; it meant expanded social, economic, and political rights. Explore the roots of suffrage in Boston, the long struggle to the 19th Amendment, and the enduring issues that extend beyond the right to vote.

 

• Lucy Stone: "Make the World Better"

• Boston's First Woman's Rights Convention

• Josephine Saint Pierre Ruffin

 

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  Defining Their Sphere

  A video series that explores the many facets of the women’s rights movement in Boston. (Photo credit: Library of Congress)

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  Mapping Women's Suffrage in Boston

  Explore the stories of the Boston Suffrage Movement with an interactive map. (Photo credit: Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, BPL)

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  Suffrage Resources

  Learn more about suffrage in Massachusetts and the U.S. (Photo credit: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University)