In this episode, we talk about the suffrage movement in Utah.
Some of the activists and events in the UT voting rights campaign:
- Hannah Kaaepa, a native Hawaiian living in a Latter-day Saints community in Utah, spoke powerfully for women’s suffrage alongside national leaders of the movement.
- Elizabeth Taylor was a suffragist, journalist, and equal rights leader, and in 1904, she established The Western Federation of Colored Women.
- Emma McVicker was a bridge builder in the suffrage movement and actively worked to put women forward as candidates for public office.
- Lucy Rice Clark was chosen as the first female delegate to attend and vote at the Republican National Convention in 1908 and declared, “It means so much for the cause of woman suffrage!”
- In 1911, a slate of women candidates was entered into a town council election as a joke by some men. The five women won in a surprising result and proceeded to improve the town in multiple ways over their two-year term.
About our Guest:
Katherine Kitterman is the Executive Director of Better Days, a nonprofit centered on Utah women’s history, and manages the Women's History Initiative at the Utah Historical Society. She is a public historian with a specialty in Utah women's history of suffrage and advocacy. She co-authored two books about Utah women’s work for suffrage: Champions of Change: 25 Women Who Made History, and Thinking Women: A Timeline of Suffrage in Utah.
Links to People, Places, Publications:
Utah & the 19th Amendment (here)
The Story of Utah Women’s Suffrage (here)
Visit the “A Path Forward” memorial (here)
Emma McVicker Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Emma McVicker marker (here)
Elizabeth Taylor Biographical Sketch (here)
See the Trinity AME historic church (here)
Lucy Rice Clark Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Lucy Rice Clark historical marker (here)
Hannah Kaaepa Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Hannah Kaaepa marker (here)
The 1911 Kanab Town Council story (here)
Visit the Kanab Town Council marker (here)
CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Learn more about:
- National Votes for Women Trail (here)
- National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
- National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)
Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to NVWTpodcast@ncwhs.org