Thread by @LibraryofVA

A hundred years ago today, women gathered around the Commonwealth of Virginia to cast their first official votes.

uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com/blog/2020/11/0…

About 77K Virginia women voted for the first time on Nov. 2, 1920. A Martinsville woman spoke for countless others when she told her husband to "put on your collar and your coat" that morning because "this is a day of triumph and dignity." #Vote #ElectionDay #suffrage100

"Three women were the first to cast their vote in the first ward," reported the Alexandria Gazette, on Nov. 2, 1920, "being at the polls before the men." #Vote #ElectionDay #suffrage100 #19thAmendment

In Norfolk, Blanche Winder arrived at the same time poll workers began setting up for the day and may have been the first woman to vote in the city. #Vote #ElectionDay #suffrage100 #19thAmendment

Suffragists Adèle Clark and Nora Houston got to their Richmond polling place at 5:30AM to vote & begin a daylong campaign to monitor voting. Clark & others borrowed a car to make "a tour of the polling places, working like veteran ward workers" for the Dem. ticket. #Vote

In Roanoke, "women literally flocked to the polls," arriving "on street cars, in buggies, on foot, & in autos." Families came together, including a daughter with her mother & grandmother as well as husbands & wives and brothers & sisters who stood in the long lines. #ElectionDay

Some Roanoke "business houses and department stores gave their women employees the privilege of reporting late so that they would have every opportunity to cast their ballot & do it early in the day." News reports indicated that more women than men voted there on Nov. 2. #Vote

A Richmond Planet report on Roanoke praised the work of the city's Colored Women's Republican Club and its president, Millie B. Paxton: "Everybody seemed in the best of humor and long will be remembered that long line of old and young colored women on Nov. 2 in Roanoke." #Vote

In Danville, African American voters came to the polls "for the first time in a quarter of a century." The Lynchburg News declared that this "had the effect of spurring into action white men & women who had previously shown no great interest in the campaign." #Vote #ElectionDay

Men & women of both races stood in line together to vote. One man took offense & later wrote the Va. governor that "it is intensely disagreeable for our wives & daughters to have to stand in a long line of white & colored men & women" to vote. #Vote #ElectionDay

Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial 11/3/1920: "Yesterday, a day of triumph and final recognition for the women, they were early at the polls & they stayed late. They were among the active workers in getting out the vote...and waited for hours until their turns came." #suffrage100

Roanoke World News editorial 11/4/1920: "the women of Virginia acquitted themselves in their first experience in voting. The new voters, whether they had previously wanted the ballot or not, considered the privilege of voting a serious responsibility." #ElectionDay #19thAmendment

Roanoke World News editorial 11/4/1920: "soon even the opponents of woman suffrage will get used to the idea, and will begin to wonder why they have not been there all the time." #Vote #ElectionDay #suffrage100 #19thAmendment

One Norfolk woman in her 80s was heard to say after waiting in a long line at the polls that "I wouldn't have had the vote for a million dollars, but now I've got it, I wouldn't have missed it for a million dollars." #Vote #ElectionDay #suffrage100 #19thAmendment

These accounts & photos of election day 1920 were reported in the @AlexGazette, Lynchburg News (@newsadvance), Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, @virginianpilot, Richmond News Leader, Richmond Planet, @RTDNEWS, @roanoketimes & Roanoke World-News.

@threadreaderapp unroll