Women Demand the Right to Vote
The Old Courthouse
St. Louis, Missouri
Listen | Hidden in Plain Sight
Where in Missouri?
Margot and Heather visit The Old Courthouse in St. Louis, and talk with Cynthia Holmes, Missouri contact for the William G. Pomeroy Foundation’s National Votes for Women Trail. They learn about the case of Virginia Minor, a women's suffrage leader who in 1872 attempted to register to vote, was refused, and soon after, with her husband Francis Minor, launched a legal fight that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Though unsuccessful, their case helped pave the way for women to win the right to vote.
We then step onto St. Louis' Locust Street, site of the 1916 Golden Lane protest, where thousands of women gathered in a silent procession that spanned twelve city blocks, in support of voting rights for women.
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Christenson, Lawrence O. 1999. Dictionary of Missouri Biography. University of Missouri Press.
Corbett, Katherine T. 1999. In Her Place A Guide to St. Louis Women’s History. Missouri Historical Society Press.
DuBois, Ellen Carol. 2021. Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote. Simon & Schuster.
Evelina, Nicole. 2023. America’s Forgotten Suffragists: Virginia and Francis Minor. TwoDot Press.
McMillen, Margot. The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History. History Press. 2011.
United States Supreme Court decision. 1875. Minor v. Happersett
“Virginia Louisa Minor.” Dains, Mary K. and Sue Sadler. 1989. Show me Missouri women, selected biographies, Vol. 1. Thomas Jefferson Press.
Whites, Leann, editor with Mary C. Neth and Gary Kremer. 2004. Women in Missouri History: In Search of Power and Influence. University of Missouri Press.
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