Suffrage demonstration in Washington, D.C., 1919. Courtesy of Library of Congress (loc.gov)
The year 2020 was the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives women the right to vote. We the Women: Commemorating 100 Years of the 19th Amendment is the Lynchburg’s Museum’s major exhibit exploring the surprising and long-forgotten story of the women’s suffrage movement in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The exhibit introduces the women’s suffrage (or voting rights) movement in America and highlights the work of Lynchburg’s two leading suffragists, mother and daughter Elizabeth Langhorne Lewis and Elizabeth Otey. It also tells the story of African American activists who simultaneously fought for suffrage and against Jim Crow. Learn about the many barriers to voting in early 20th century Virginia, from the arduous process of registering to vote to casting ballots on election day.
The Lynchburg Museum hosted two small traveling exhibits to complement We the Women:
Agents of Change: Female Activism in Virginia from Women’s Suffrage to Today from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture (June–July 2020)
We Demand: Women’s Suffrage in Virginia from the Library of Virginia (November 22, 2021–February 5, 2022).
For more information about this topic, we recommend reading the article “XIX: The Untold Story of Women’s Suffrage in Lynchburg, Virginia” by Ted Delaney in the Spring/Summer 2020 issue of Lynch’s Ferry magazine. The magazine may be purchased in the museum gift shop.