Colorado Was the First State to Enfranchise Women Through Popular Referendum. Here’s How It Happened

Source: Time

By JENNIFER FROST / HISTORY NEWS NETWORK

“Western Women Wild With Joy Over Colorado’s Election,” journalist and suffragist Caroline Nichols Churchill exclaimed, following the victory for woman suffrage at the polls in Colorado on Nov. 7, 1893. This success made Colorado the first state to enfranchise women through popular referendum, and it happened over a quarter of a century before the achievement of national women’s suffrage in 1920.

As we celebrate the 125th anniversary of this success, the time is right to reflect on why women in the state of Colorado were able to win this early, significant and surprising suffrage victory. And, just as women across the nation use their hard-won voting rights to participate in the 2018 mid-term elections, what its historical lessons are for us today.

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