Timeline of women's suffrage in New Jersey
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This is a timeline of women's suffrage in New Jersey. Women and African Americans had the right to vote in New Jersey until the state constitution was changed in 1807, disenfranchising all but white men. Any early suffrage protest was taken by Lucy Stone in 1857 who refused to pay her property taxes because she could not vote. Additional attempts to make women more equal under the law took place in the 1880s and 1890s. There were also several court cases that challenged women's right to vote in the state. Eventually, a voter referendum on a state constitutional suffrage amendment took place in 1915, however the measure was voted down. Activists continued to fight both in the state and to protest in Washington, D.C. as Silent Sentinels. By February 10, 1920, New Jersey ratified the Nineteenth Amendment.
1770s
1776
- The Constitution of New Jersey allows men and women who meet the property requirement to vote.[1]
1780s
1787
- Two women appear on a New Jersey polling list.[2]
1790s
1797
19th century
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1800s
1802
- African Americans and women vote in Hunterdon County.[3]
1807
1820s
1824
1840s
1844
- June 18: John C. Ten Eyck petitions the New Jersey Constitutional Convention to include women's suffrage in the new constitution.[7]
- The new state constitution disenfranchises women and African Americans explicitly.[8]
1850s
1852
- Many New Jersey women attend the Pennsylvania Woman's Convention at West Chester in 1852.[9]
1853
- John Pierpont discusses the early voting rights of women in New Jersey at the Women's Rights Convention in Rochester.[10]
1854
- Henry Lafetra petitions the state legislature to declare women and men equal under the law.[11]
1857
- Lucy Stone refuses to pay the property taxes on her home in Orange, claiming "taxation without representation."[12]
- Lafetra sends in another petition to declare women and men equal under the law.[11]
1858
- Some of Stone's personal possessions are sold to pay her back taxes.[13]
1860s
1866
- The Vineland Equal Suffrage Association is formed.[14]
1867
- The New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association (NJWSA) is formed by Stone and Antoinette Brown Blackwell.[12]
- Stone and Blackwell petition the state legislature to remove the words "white male" from the state constitution regarding voting rights.[15]
- Stone testifies in front of a legislative committee in favor of allowing women and Black people to vote.[15]
1868
- March 10: Portia Gage attempts to vote in New Jersey.[16]
- November: Women in New Jersey cast "mock ballots" in Vineland as part of a women's suffrage strategy. There were 172 participants, including four Black women.[17][16]
1870s
1872
- Women in New Jersey participate in protest votes.[18]
1875
- The word "white" is removed from the list of voter requirements in the state constitution.[19]
1880s
1880
- November 2: Elizabeth Cady Stanton attempts voting in Tenafly.[12][18]
1884
- A petition for full equal suffrage is given to the state legislature.[12]
- Therese Walling Seabrook, Henry Blackwell, and Phebe Hanaford are able to win some support for women's suffrage in the state legislature.[20]
1887
- February: A bill for all people, regardless of race or sex, to vote in school meetings is introduced to the state legislature by William Miller Baird.[21]
- Women in New Jersey get the right to vote in school elections.[12]
- The New Jersey Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) votes to support women's suffrage.[22]
- September: Seabrook and Lillie Devereux Blake encourage women to protest vote in the next election, but it is not known if anyone did.[21]
1890s
1890
- NJWSA is reorganized with the help of Mary Dudley Hussey.[23][24]
1893
- A law passes in New Jersey to allow any freeholder (which could include women) to vote for local road commissioners.[25]
- Women vote in a school meeting that included a tax levy.[26]
1894
- June 11: In Allison v. Blake, women's votes are rule unconstitutional.[27]
- June 13: Women lose the right to vote for school trustees, but can still vote on some school issues after a Supreme Court of New Jersey ruling in Allison v. Blake.[28][29]
- July 27: Women's votes are rejected during a school election.[26]
- November: The case of Kimball v. Hendee deals with the rejected votes on July 27. The Court decides that women voting is unconstitutional.[26]
1895
- February: Landis v. Ashworth decides an issue of women voting on a tax levy in 1893.[26] Women may vote for everything except school trustees.[26]
- NJWSA and the Jersey City Woman's Club supports the right of women to work as lawyers, helping Mary Philbrook become the first woman admitted to the New Jersey bar.[28] Philbrook becomes legal counsel to NJWSA.[28]
1897
- Efforts to pass a school suffrage bill in the state legislature fail.[28]
1898
- The Orange Political Study Club (OPSC) is created by Minola Graham Sexton.[30]
