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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, November 1, 2024, pg. 9 Here we are again in the closing days of political campaigns, both local, state, and national. Please make sure you get out and vote this time. It's your right and duty as a U.S. citizen to do so. What was the big political issue 112 years ago? Albion's women banded together in 1912 in their quest for the right to vote. That November, Michigan's male voters (that's all there were back then) voted on a proposed amendment to the Michigan Constitution to allow women to vote. Michigan's women had to convince their husbands to let them vote. It involved more than cooking delicious dinners for them as a persuasive measure. The Albion Suffrage Campaign was launched on Monday, August 27, 1912 under the direction of the Albion Equal Suffrage Committee. Headed by Mrs. F. T. Carlton, the group met at the Women's Christian Temperance Building on E. Erie St. The "kick-off" speaker was Albion College professor C. H. Woolbert, head of the English department. He focused upon the methods that Albion women were going to use in their campaign. He encouraged local Albion men to come forward in public and identify with the suffrage movement. One of the local committee's first guest speakers was Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919), who delivered a rousing suffrage speech on September 5. Shaw, of course, was the president of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association. She had also attended Albion College from 1873 to 1875. She was introduced here by Mrs. Frank Carlton, president of the local Suffrage committee. In her remarks, Shaw stated, "If women are going to do anything they must have tools, and the ballot which is the greatest tool that man has, should be for women also. The time has come when the ballot is essential for successful homemaking and child raising. Men want modern things but they wish women to be content with all old-fashioned things. Women change the same as men, and should have the same privileges." Part of the local Committee work involved canvassing the city and polling every male voter as to his intentions. The work also involved distribution of literature for the suffrage cause. The election was held on November 5. The amendment was carried in Albion by 137 men votes, but the almost-tied statewide outcome was unknown for several weeks. It failed, 50.08% no, to 49.92% yes. From our Historical Notebook this week we present a very rare photograph showing a Suffrage banner hanging across the top of S. Superior St. in the fall of 1912. The banner reads, "86,665 WOMEN IN MICH PAY TAXES AMOUNTING TO $3,155,266.42. TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION IS TYRANNY." In front of sisters Margaret and Sarada Dysinger's (big local Suffrage promoters) florist shop at 314 S. Superior St. (present location of a portion of Park's Drugs) is a banner over the sidewalk that reads, "EQUAL SUFFRAGE HEADQUARTERS." Also presented here is a close-up photo of that banner.  A Suffrage Banner Over S. Superior St. in 1912
 Suffrage Banner Close Up
All text copyright, 2025 © all rights reserved Frank Passic
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