Between the Covers

Unbound. Pamphlet. Measuring 5.5" x 8.5". Single orange quarto sheet folded once to make four pages. Very good with scattered light creasing. A reply by the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association (AESA) refuting an anonymous flyer distributed to members of the Alabama Legislature in 1915 shortly before a vote on a suffrage bill in the Alabama House. The reply points out that the bill does not give woman suffrage, rather it simply allows a suffrage amendment to come up for a vote in the next election. The AESA also defends against the vilification of Anna Howard Shaw who had appeared at the AESA State Convention earlier in 1915 and clarifies that suffrage would not include black women: "Alabama women are not waging a fight for NEGRO suffrage it is a fight for WOMAN suffrage." While it is not known how damaging the anonymous flyer was to AESA's suffrage efforts, the bill lost support from the very representative who submitted the bill shortly before the vote, which fell 12 votes short of the three-fifths majority it needed. Alabama women gained suffrage five years later in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment, though it was not officially ratified by Alabama until 1953. Rare. *OCLC* locates one copy.

Item #423241