Disenfranchised Voters in the Commonwealth

The right to vote in U.S. elections has been hard-won for many in Kentucky and across the nation. These groups have struggled and fought to make their voices heard in the selection of local, state, and national leaders.

"Government is the fountain from whence the general manners & morals of a country take their rise; it is not an article of commerce to be bought & sold."

- George M. Bibb, to George Grotjan, Sept. 21, 1828

"Though we have had war, reconstruction and abolition as a nation, we still linger in the shadow and blight of an extinct institution."

- Frederick Douglas, National Convention of Colored Men in Louisville, 1883

"I never expected to live to see the time when women would vote for the President and I be of the number."

- Hannah Dorr, to her son William Meriwether Dorr, Oct. 5, 1920