Minor v. Happersett
At a glance:
- Series: Great Events from History: North American Series
- Categories: Government and Politics, Women’s Issues, Social Issues, Reform, and Protest, Law, Legal History, Courts
- Subcategories: Civil Rights, Minority Rights, Minorities, Court Cases, Rulings, Appeals, Feminism, Feminists, Women’s Rights, Gender Issues, Sexism, Supreme Court, U.S., Elections, Voting
- Curriculum: Women’s History, American Civil War & Reconstruction Era (1856-1877)
- Geographical Location: Washington, D.C.
- Date: October, 1874
Article abstract: The Supreme Court holds that a state can constitutionally forbid a woman to vote, despite her U.S. citizenship.
Summary of Event
Even before the concerted effort for woman’s suffrage in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American women had exercised the right to vote. In January, 1648, Margaret Brent had petitioned the Maryland assembly for permission to vote in their proceedings, and the assembly agreed. The governor of Maryland vetoed the decision, and Brent lodged an official protest. In the same decade, in Rhode Island...
[The entire page is 1468 words long]