The Louisville Equal Rights Association
The Louisville Equal Rights Association (LERA) was the first organization in Louisville committed to campaigning for women’s suffrage. Formed on March 1, 1889 at the West Broadway home of Susan Look Avery, LERA began as a small group of women and men who believed women’s suffrage would lead to a more humane government and the promotion of social welfare. LERA members claimed “woman suffrage is a demand by women of broad minds and advanced ideas.”
The organization’s minute book, covering the years 1889 to 1895, is one of several significant records in the Filson’s collections that document the early suffrage movement in Kentucky. The entire minute book is available online as a digital collection: https://filsonhistorical.omeka.net/admin/collections/show/33.
For its first few years, LERA struggled to recruit members at a time when giving women the vote was a radical idea. In the early 1890s, LERA branched out to other women’s rights issues in the hopes of broadening its appeal to new members. The group supported women’s property rights legislation, which would give women legal control over real estate and personal property, including the ability to control their income and make wills. Members circulated petitions, raised funds, and printed literature to promote the cause.
After the passage of property rights legislation in Kentucky in 1894, the group gained momentum. When these smaller reforms in women’s rights began, suffrage no longer seemed like such a dramatic step to the general public. By the end of 1894, LERA had made arrangements to host Susan B. Anthony, who gave the lecture “Suffrage for Women,” in Louisville on January 12, 1895. Ten new members joined LERA following Anthony’s lecture.
In 1908, LERA changed its name to the Woman Suffrage Association of Louisville (LWSA) to more clearly define its central focus on gaining the vote. As the suffrage movement grew, so did the LWSA: membership increased from 65 in 1909 to 165 in 1910. By 1912, the group was meeting regularly and totaled 429 members.
