The United States is 221 years old. Yet only in the last 78 years have women had the right to vote. Women brave enough to fight for the 19th Amendment were called Suffragists. Suffragists banded together across the country marching on capital lawns, picketing, leading parades, taking their message to the streets, city halls and passing handbills door to door. This was not an easy task; many women suffered violence, mockery, and even imprisonment, just to earn the right to vote. Laura Clay, a leading figure in the national Suffrage Movement began her first battles for women right here in Kentucky.

Ms. Clay, daughter of antislavery activist Cassius M. Clay, was born on February 9, 1849 at the family estate, "Whitehall" near Richmond, Kentucky. She graduated from the Sayre School of Lexington in 1865, and later went to the universities of Michigan and Kentucky. The separation and divorce of her parents was an example of the injustices all women endured with divorce. Clay decided to devote herself to improving the quality of life for Kentucky women. In 1888, Clay and fellow suffragist Josephine Henry founded the Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA). By the mid-1890's, the association's lobbying efforts won a number of educational and legislative victories. Their victories included protection of married women's property and wages, a requirement for women doctors in state female mental hospitals, admission of women to Translyvania University and Central University. Their work also made possible the raising of the age of consent for girls from 12 to 16, the establishment of juvenile courts, detention homes and the first women's dormitory at the University of Kentucky. Clay died on June 29,1941, and was buried in Lexington.

Sources:

Fuller, Paul. Laura Clay and the Women's Rights Movement. Lexington : 1975. 

Laura Clay Papers. Special Collections, Lexington: University of Kentucky Libraries.