Two decades before the current chapter of the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area launched its important work, the town’s first female voters organized the short-lived original version of the St. Petersburg League of Women Voters (LWV).
From the Equal Suffrage League to the League of Women Voters, 1919
In July 1919, St. Petersburg became one of the few Florida municipalities to grant women suffrage. The local Equal Suffrage League had been instrumental in achieving this milestone. Upon its success, the organization announced: “Now that the women of St. Petersburg have been given the right of suffrage, the work of the Equal Suffrage League is finished. And by a reorganization of the league it will be changed into the League of American Women voters and will be affiliated with the national organization of that name. The object is to study all political questions, that the new electors may vote intelligently.”
The League of Women Voters of St. Petersburg, 1919-1921
The League immediately launched a voter registration drive. It also initiated an extensive educational agenda, which included programs on Americanization and child welfare. Even with the new agenda, the members did not forget the continuing fight to ratify the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women national suffrage. In February 1920, the newly elected president of the local League noted, “Never has the woman question in politics assumed such gigantic proportions, with 32 states having ratified the Federal Suffrage Amendment, and with only four more needed to give political freedom to the women of the United States. … It is quite true that woman has emerged from the dark ages and her day is at hand.” Thanks to Tennessee’s “yes” vote, the 19th amendment was ratified in August 1920, granting women the constitutional right to vote. As the only LWV in Pinellas County, the League continued its work to educate Florida’s newly eligible voters. In addition, as “the second strongest in the state,” it also served as one of the three locals necessary to form the statewide League of Women Voters in late 1921. According to its by-laws, the Florida League’s mission was “to further the education of all white women in citizenship and to support needed legislation.”
Not All Women: Racism & the LWV of St. Petersburg & Florida
These original Florida LWV groups were marked by the ugly reality illustrated by the phrase “all white women.” For decades, racism had been a deeply ingrained facet of the national, white-led suffrage movement. This intensified in the last days of the national ratification fight, as white women claimed their vote would minimize the potential effect of the Black vote. In the South, Jim Crow voting barriers such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and tissue ballots already had removed 90% of Black voters from the rolls, but warnings about the so-called Black voting “menace” continued. In July 1919, the St. Pete Equal Suffrage Society published “nineteen reasons for [women’s] suffrage.” Number 17 stated: “Letting the women vote will double the number of white voters and make the colored seem rather small. There is no reason to expect colored women to vote. … The white vote will benefit.” Despite this assurance about the supposed apathy of Black female voters, eight of the first 51 women who registered to vote in St. Pete were Black. In response, a door-to-door effort to register white women was initiated, and the demand for “white only” primaries increased.
Lobby Efforts & Disaffiliation, 1921-1937
In the years following ratification, the Florida leagues remained focused on recruiting “all white women” but widespread voter registration efforts diminished. The Florida League sponsored periodic citizenship schools and occasionally published the “Florida Voter.” Mostly, however, members joined other established and more powerful women’s groups like the Audubon Society, the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union to coordinate lobby efforts. Lackluster efforts led the national LWV to demand changes. Citing lack of growth, inadequate legislative work, and failure to adhere to the organization’s policies on non-partisanship, the national group demanded new state leadership. Failure to comply led to the Florida League’s disaffiliation in 1937. A couple of local chapters refused to acknowledge this step, but most, including St. Pete’s, already had ceased to exist by this point. Officially, Florida had no LWV presence.
Rebirth, 1939
In 1939, this changed when the LWV of St. Petersburg was reorganized and joined two other locals to establish the Florida Non-Partisan League of Women Voters. It reclaimed the title LWV of Florida in 1947. Aware of the League’s previous partisanship issues, local League officer Catherine Poynter later recalled that she made every effort to gather “outstanding, intelligent women, Republicans as well as Democrats.” Early meetings were held at the (segregated) Suwannee Hotel, but Poynter also recalled that as time passed she “refused to have meetings where segregation was apparent.” As the first president of the statewide LWV, Poynter also helped “set the tone for both citizen activism and progressive concern for those less fortunate.” The LWV has acknowledged past shortcomings concerning discrimination. In 2020, as the national organization’s 100th anniversary approached, it noted: “We are not only striving for better, we will do better.” Today, that work continues in St. Petersburg as well as nationally as the LWV endeavors to empower voters and build “a stronger, more inclusive democracy.”
Sources available on request.
