Wilkes Women Fight for the Right to Vote

Wilkes Women Fight for the Right to Vote

In 1920, the 19th amendment guaranteeing a woman’s right to vote was ratified when Tennessee voted in support of the amendment. As the 36th state to vote in favor the amendment reached the three-fourths approval necessary.

At the time, North Carolina still had not voted to ratify the amendment allowing women to vote, but it wasn’t for lack of support in our state. Women in Wilkes County were fighting for the cause for years before the amendment was passed.

In 2020, Eden Hamby, special events and volunteer coordinator and the Wilkes Heritage Museum, wanted to create a special exhibit to honor the women’s suffrage movement in North Carolina. Through her research she found some roots of the organization locally to Wilkes County. A local newspaper called “The Suffragette” published a picture of a group of seven women who were proudly supporting women’s right to vote and trying to convince state legislators to vote to pass the 19th amendment. Only two women were identified in that photo: Mrs. Dan Carter and Mrs. Archie Horton.

“Through creating this exhibit, I really wanted people to understand how brave those women were to speak out like that,” Hamby says. “In the 1910s, women were expected to act a certain way, especially in public, and it was clear these women were going the complete opposite direction of what was expected of them by speaking out. Especially in a rural area like Wilkes, it took a lot of confidence to raise their voices on this issue.”

Even after women gained the right to vote in 1920, there was still work to be done. The amendment didn’t extend to Black women, who weren’t able to vote until the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. Eventually North Carolina’s legislature ratified the 19th amendment in the 1970s, making the ceremonial nod to the work these women suffragettes had done at the turn of the century.

Visit the Wilkes Heritage Museum to learn more about the work done by women in Wilkes County and North Carolina, for the right to vote and many other important civic and community causes. Currently the exhibit on the 19th amendment as well as an exhibit on the Women’s Club in North Wilkesboro and Wilkesboro are on display at the museum.