The Woman's Suffragist Movement began with the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Fall, NY in 1848. It ended in 1920 with the adoption of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, following Tennessee's ratification. It was a long and difficult struggle. Michigan women had their own struggle until they were granted the right to vote in 1919 by the State Legislature. Women from Grand Rapids were instrumental in bringing about the success in the state.

The Grand Rapids Equal Franchise Club was formed in April 1910. This club spread literature and information about suffrage, which helped build local support for the movement. In 1914 the club sponsored a song and essay contest to further promote their efforts.

Michigan was an early supporter of women’s right. Senator Rix Robinson of Ada first proposed a suffrage amendment as early as 1849, perhaps mindful of the leadership of Madeline LaFramboise, who with her husband Joseph founded the first permanent trading post in Ada, Michigan in 1804, continuing it after his death. The State’s first bill for women’s suffrage came to the floor in 1866, but was defeated. An amendment actually passed in Michigan in 1870, but is vetoed by the Governor. It is proposed and defeated again in 1874 (1872?), the same year that Susan B. Anthony was arrested for trying to vote in Rochester, while Michigan’s Sojourner Truth was turned away when she attempted to vote in Battle Creek. Emily Burton Ketcham of Grand Rapids brought national leaders such as Susan B. Anthony to this city. (See the separate Ketcham Coll. 293). In 1884, Michigan Senator Thomas W. Palmer is said to be the first to make a speech in the U.S. Senate in support of woman’s suffrage. A suffrage amendment passed again in Michigan in 1893, to be struck down by the Michigan Supreme Court. After other defeats, Michigan finally granted women voting rights in 1918, two years before women were given these rights throughout the nation. A number of other prominent women and women’s groups achieved notable firsts, and/or lobbied and labored for women’s rights up to the time of this historical milestone.