Timeline of women's suffrage in Alaska
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File:"Here_and_in_London"_Alaska_women's_suffrage,_c._1913_published_in_the_Tacoma_Daily_Ledger.png
This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Alaska. Non-native women in Alaska had the right to vote in school board elections starting in 1904. In 1913, the first Territorial Legislature passed the Shoup Suffrage Bill which gave non-native women the right to vote in all elections. Alaska Native women had a longer road fighting for their right to vote. First, they had to be declared citizens of the United States, but even after that happened in 1924, additional barriers were put in place. These included literacy tests and segregation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped remove many barriers that Alaska Natives faced in exercising their right to vote.
20th century
= 1900s =
1904
- Alaska women are given the right to vote in school board elections.{{Sfn|Harper|1922|p=714}}{{Sfn|Christen|2019|p=90}}
= 1910s =
1912
- Representative Frank W. Mondell adds an amendment to a bill making Alaska an American Territory that would allow the territorial legislature to legislate equal suffrage for women.{{Sfn|Harper|1922|p=713}}
- Cornelia Templeton Hatcher drafts a petition to the territorial legislature of Alaska for women's suffrage.{{Cite web|last=Lapka|first=Alyssa|date=13 March 2019|title=The Life of Cornelia Templeton Jewett Hatcher|url=https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/the-life-of-cornelia-templeton-jewett-hatcher/|access-date=2020-11-09|website=Alaska Historical Society|language=en-US}}
- Nellie Cashman is the first woman to vote in Alaska.{{Cite web|last=Lange|first=Jeva|date=2020-08-18|title=5 important suffragists you didn't learn about in school|url=https://theweek.com/articles/931661/5-important-suffragists-didnt-learn-about-school|access-date=2020-11-08|website=The Week|language=en}}
- The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) is formed.{{Cite web|last=Sostaric|first=Katarina|date=2015-10-12|title=Alaska Native Sisterhood celebrates 100th anniversary in Wrangell|url=https://www.ktoo.org/2015/10/11/alaska-native-sisterhood-celebrates-100th-anniversary-wrangell/|access-date=2020-11-08|website=KTOO|language=en-US}}
1913
- The Shoup Woman Suffrage bill is passed in 1913, giving women the right to vote in Alaska if they are considered United States citizens.{{Cite web|title=Shoup Woman Suffrage Bill: House Bill No. 2, March 21, 1913|url=https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg22/id/4/|access-date=8 November 2020|website=Alaska's Digital Archives}}{{Cite web|title=Alaska and the 19th Amendment|url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/alaska-and-the-19th-amendment.htm|access-date=2020-11-08|website=U.S. National Park Service|language=en}}
- March 21: The Shoup Suffrage bill is signed into law.{{Sfn|Harper|1922|p=713}}
1915
- The Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) is formed.
- Alaska Natives are allowed to vote if they give up "tribal customs and traditions."{{Cite web|title=First Territorial Legislature of Alaska|url=https://www.nps.gov/people/first-territorial-legislature-of-alaska.htm|access-date=2020-11-09|website=U.S. National Park Service|language=en}}
= 1920s =
1924
- The Indian Citizenship Act is passed.{{Cite web|title=History and Culture: Citizenship Act - 1924|url=http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_citizenshipact|access-date=2020-11-09|website=Northern Plains Reservation Aid}}
1925
- Alaska passes a literacy test to suppress the vote of Alaska Natives.{{Sfn|Cole|1992|p=433}}
= 1940s =
1943
- Chinese Americans are able to vote after the passage of the Magnuson Act.{{Cite web|last=Carney|first=Amy|title=Alaska's Suffrage Star: Home|url=https://lam.alaska.gov/suffrage-star/home|access-date=2020-11-12|website=Alaska Libraries, Archives, Museums|language=en}}
1945
- Alaska anti-discrimination law ends segregation of Native Alaskans.{{Sfn|Cole|1992|p=449}}
= 1950s =
1950
- The Anchorage League of Women Voters (LWV) is formed.
1959
- The new state of Alaska has a more lenient literacy test.{{Sfn|Christen|2019|p=98}}
= 1960s =
1965
- The Voting Rights Act (VRA) is passed which helps remove many voting barriers to Native Alaskans.
1967
= 1970s =
1970
- Literacy tests are ended in Alaska.{{Sfn|Christen|2019|p=98}}
1975
- The VRA is modified to provide voting information in Native languages.{{Sfn|Tucker|Landreth|Lynch|2017|p=336}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
= Sources =
- {{Cite journal|last=Christen|first=Morgan|date=2019|title=Alaska Native Women's Long Road to Suffrage|url=https://www.njchs.org/wp-content/uploads/wlh_30-1_crp_color1.pdf|journal=Western Legal History|volume=30|issue=1|pages=89–100}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Cole|first=Terrence M.|date=November 1992|title=Jim Crow in Alaska: The Passage of the Alaska Equal Rights Act|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/970301|journal=Western Historical Quarterly|volume=23|issue=4|pages=429–449|doi=10.2307/970301|jstor=970301|s2cid=163528642 |url-access=registration}}
- {{Cite book|last=Harper|first=Ida Husted|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aX5KAAAAYAAJ&q=alaska|title=The History of Woman Suffrage|publisher=J.J. Little & Ives Company|year=1922|location=New York|author-link=Ida Husted Harper}}
- {{Cite journal|last1=Tucker|first1=James Thomas|last2=Landreth|first2=Natalie A.|last3=Lynch|first3=Erin Dougherty|date=2017|title='Why Should I Go Vote Without Understanding What I Am Going to Vote For?' The Impact of First Generation Voting Barriers on Alaska Natives|url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol22/iss2/5/|journal=Michigan Journal of Race and Law|volume=22|issue=2 |pages=327–382|doi=10.36643/mjrl.22.2.why |s2cid=149117802 |doi-access=free|url-access=subscription}}
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Category:Women's suffrage in Alaska
Category:Suffragists from Alaska
Category:History of women's rights in the United States