Suffrage in Humboldt

Votes for Women!

Teddy Roosevelt campaign pin and suffrage tag owned by Sarah Lock-Smith of Ferndale, California, now in the HCHS collection.

            It may be hard to believe, but a century ago most American women were not allowed to vote. That changed in 1920 with the passage of women’s suffrage, the 19th amendment. Today, women are mayors, governors, legislators and even run for President.

            But it was a long slog getting there. Even before the Civil War, there was some agitation for women’s suffrage, but that was generally met with ridicule from male politicians of all parties. The movement gradually grew, however, through the formation of clubs and evangelizing speakers until four states gave women limited voting rights – Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado. Next the movement targeted California. In 1896, a heated presidential election year, the issue was put on California’s ballot.

            In Humboldt County, prominent women formed the Political Equality Club. Well attended gatherings were held in in churches and public halls. Known national suffrage advocates traveled here to speak. When the election came that Fall, Humboldt County, with only men voting of course, went for suffrage by over 700 votes. But state-wide the measure was defeated.

            Organization for the next effort only ramped up. The issue appeared again on the California ballot in 1911. Among the biggest lobbyists and funders opposing women’s suffrage were organized bar owners and liquor dealers who feared the close link between the suffrage and prohibition movements. But suffragettes organized clubs and massive rallies throughout the state.

            On election night in 1911, it looked as if women’s suffrage was again going down to defeat. Urban areas, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, were heavily opposed. But as rural returns came in, the amendment squeaked past by about 3,500 votes state wide. Humboldt County weighed in with 64% of the vote going for women’s suffrage.

            Nine years later, in 1920, the rest of the nation joined California with passage of the 19th amendment to the Constitution. Just nine years after that, Eureka elected the state’s first female mayor, Emily Jones, candidate of the Socialist Party. She validated some of the suffrage opponents’ earlier fears by championing Prohibition and cracking down on speak-easies. For this, she received death threats and talk of impeachment. But women were and are scrappy and, in the political arena, were here to stay.