Nevertheless, They Persisted: Women’s Voting Rights and the 19th Amendment
![Photo of Margaret Howe with Oregon shield during woman suffrage march in Washington, D.C., March 1913, Library of Congress, LC-B2- 2668-6 [P&P], Bain News Service Photograph collection](/museum/exhibits/images/Howe-with-Oregon-shield-at-march.jpg "Photo of Margaret Howe with Oregon shield during woman suffrage march in Washington, D.C., March 1913, Library of Congress, LC-B2- 2668-6 [P&P], Bain News Service Photograph collection")
Oregon’s first constitution, from the late 1850s, banned slavery but also made it illegal for free African Americans to live in the state. Not long after, in 1872, Mary Beatty, an African American woman who lived in Oregon, joined Abigail Scott Duniway, Maria Hendee, and Mrs. M.A. Lambert in their attempt to vote. Along with activists across the country, these four women brought attention to the campaign for women’s voting rights — known as “woman suffrage.”
One hundred years later, the Oregon Historical Society commemorates the bravery of those activists and many others in an original exhibition, Nevertheless, They Persisted: Women’s Voting Rights and the 19th Amendment. This exhibit will show the many ways Oregon history connects to the national history of woman suffrage and to the complex history of democracy in the United States.
Nevertheless, They Persisted focuses on the work necessary to win the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (granting women the vote). It also invites visitors to think about subjects such as how and why political leaders have denied women the vote, how women have fought for equal rights, and how teamwork and fights across race, class, and organizing tactics have shaped this history. Through storytelling and images of original artifacts and documents, visitors will connect to the past and feel the struggles and triumphs of the women (and men) who demanded the vote and used their rights to shape our nation and our world.
Highlights from the Oregon Suffrage Movement
Photograph of man driving two women (Mary G. Fendall, left, and Margaret Whittemore, right) in car on street in Pendleton. Banner on car: “We Demand an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Enfranchising Women,” September 23, 1916
Library of Congress, National Woman's Party Records, Group I, Container I:159, Folder: Campaign of 1916
National American Woman Suffrage Association meeting in Portland, Oregon; signed by Abigail Scott Duniway and Susan B. Anthony; July 1, 1905
OHS Research Library, OrHi 59438
National suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. with women from Oregon
Library of Congress, National Woman's Party Records, Group I, Container I:159, Folder: Campaign of 1913
Abigail Scott Duniway with Oswald West and Viola Coe, signing woman suffrage amendment for Oregon, November 1912
Library of Congress, Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Div., Library of Congress, Group I, Container I:150, Folder: Duniway, Abigail Scott Duniway
Mrs. Amanda Garvin, formerly enslaved, casts her first ballot in Portland, Oregon, pictured in the November 8, 1916 issue of the Oregonian
Woman Suffrage Handbill, produced by the Oregon chapter of the College Equal Suffrage League
OHS Research Library, Mss 1534
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated), and Susan B. Anthony, between 1880 and 1902
LC-USZ61-791 (b&w film copy neg.)
![Alice Paul sews stars on flag to represent each state as it ratifies the 19th Amendment, 1920, Library of Congress, LC-F8- 7084 [P&P], National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress](/museum/exhibits/images/csthumbnail_large/Alice Paul sews stars 1920 (2).jpg)
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