Rankin, Jeannette
Rankin, Jeannette (1880–1973), pacifist, suffragist, and congresswoman.After successfully leading the suffragist movement in Montana, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress. A progressive Republican and a pacifist, Rankin joined fifty‐six other members of Congress on 4 April 1917 in voting against U.S. entry into World War I. This vote contributed to her defeat when she sought election to the U.S. Senate in 1918.
Rankin continued to work for world peace. In 1919, she served as a U.S. delegate to the Second International Congress of Women in Zurich. In 1929–39, she worked as a Washington lobbyist for the National Council for the Prevention of War. She ran a blistering campaign against President Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policy in 1940; Montana voters returned her to Congress. Still committed to pacifism, Rankin voted...
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