Florence D. Richard letter to Lucile Atcherson, August 7, 1914

Florence D. Richard, the President of the Ohio Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1914, sent this letter to Lucile Atcherson of the Franklin County Woman's Christian Temperance Union on August 7, 1914. Richard asserts that she and the other women of the temperance movement in Ohio would continue to support the suffragists. Richard tells Atcherson that she is glad the two organizations were supportive and on good terms, and affirms that she would continue to do all she could to support the cause of suffrage. The Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1912, after the Ohio Constitutional Convention elected to bring to a vote the question of removing the words "white male" from the state constitution with regard to voting rights. Headquartered in the Chamber of Commerce building in Columbus, Ohio, the organization put out regular publications, organized public speeches and meetings, distributed literature and held parades in support of the suffrage movement. Women's suffrage in Ohio was defeated in a special election in 1912 and again in 1914 and 1916 before a resolution narrowly passed in 1917 allowing municipal voting by women in Columbus. In 1920, the 19th Amendment passed, extending the vote to women and prohibiting state and federal government from denying suffrage on the basis of sex