Connecticut Women Fight for Suffrage - Introduction

Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk, Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner, "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." Helena Hill and her sister were both suffragists arrested during protests.

100 years ago, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment became part of the US Constitution, forbidding discrimination based upon sex and thus guaranteeing American women the legal right to vote.

Although a nationwide effort, brave women from Hartford and other Connecticut towns played an important role in the decades-long fight to force a male government and judicial system to support and pass the Amendment. These women were from all backgrounds and walks of life: single or married with children, students or college-educated professionals from wealthy supportive families, businesswomen, and working class women laboring to support themselves in mills and factories. The fight for suffrage crossed with other movements of the time, and some of these women were also active in the fight for civil rights for African Americans and better working conditions for laborers.