1830s

1838

• Kentucky passes a state law allowing women who were head of household taxpayers in rural areas the ability to vote in elections for common schools. ^[1]

1850s

1853

• October: Lucretia Mott speaks about women's rights in Maysville. ^[2]
• November: Lucy Stone speaks about women's rights issues to full houses in Louisville. ^[3]

1860s

1863

• The first book by Virginia Penny, The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work is published. ^[3]

1866

• March: The Black Convention is formed to discuss equal rights for African Americans in Kentucky. ^[3]

1867

• July 4: In Lexington, Black women organize a barbecue where speeches in favor of Black suffrage are featured. ^[3]
• October: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton campaign in Louisville. ^[4]

1870s

1871

• "Qualified women" are allowed to vote in Dayton on a municipal bond of indebtedness. ^[5]

1879

• October: Susan B. Anthony speaks in Richmond and makes connections with the family of Laura Clay. ^[6]

1880s

1881

• The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) national convention is held in Louisville. ^[7]

1886

• October: The Association for the Advancement of Women (A.A.W.) meets in Louisville where women's suffrage is publicly discussed. ^[8]

1887

• July: Mary E. Britton speaks on suffrage issues in Danville at a meeting of the Kentucky Colored Teachers' State Association. ^[9]

1888

• January: The Fayette County Equal Rights Association is formed. ^[10]
• November 22: The Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA) is formed. ^[11]
• Women who are widows or "spinsters" are now allowed to vote on school taxes in non-chartered cities. ^[12]

1889

• November 19–21: Second annual convention of KERA is held in Lexington. ^[13]
• The Louisville Equal Rights Association (LERA) is formed. ^[14]

1890s

1890

• October: Suffragists lobby politicians in Frankfort during the state constitutional convention. ^[15]
• December 3–4: Annual meeting of KERA is held in Richmond, John G. Fee is a speaker. ^[13]

1891

• December 8–10: Anna Howard Shaw spoke at the KERA annual convention held this time in Louisville. ^[13]

1892

• November 9–10: KERA holds their annual state suffrage meeting in Richmond. ^[13]
• The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Kentucky votes to support women's suffrage in the state. ^[13]

1893

• October 17–19: State suffrage convention is held in Newport. ^[13]

1894

• Covington, Lexington, and Newport pass school suffrage measures for women. ^[7]
• Women and members of KERA successfully oppose the reelection of William Campbell Preston Breckinridge. ^[16]
• October 24–26: State suffrage convention was held in Lexington. ^[17]

1895

• First and only African American suffrage group in Kentucky is formed, the Covington Colored Organization. ^[18]
• January 12: Susan B. Anthony gives her "Suffrage for Women" lecture in Louisville. ^[19]
• December 10–12: The state suffrage convention is held in Richmond. ^[17]

1896

• December 18: During the state suffrage convention held in Lexington, a committee to work towards full school suffrage in the state is formed. ^[17]

1897

• Columbus Equal Rights Association is created with 10 members. ^[20]
• October 14–15: State suffrage convention is held in Covington with Emma Smith DeVoe present. ^[17]

1898

• December 1: State suffrage convention takes place in Richmond. ^[17]

1899

• December 11–12: The state suffrage convention takes place in Lexington with Carrie Chapman Catt and Mary Garrett Hay present as speakers. ^[17]

1900s

1901

• African American women in Lexington used their right to vote to challenge segregation by opposing the Democratic Party. ^[21]

1902

• Limited suffrage won by women is repealed by the state legislature. ^[7]

1903

• KERA starts publishing the Kentucky E.R.A. Newsletter. ^[22]

1904

• The KERA hires veteran suffrage activist, Frances Woods, to organize in western Kentucky. ^[23]

1906

• November: Anna Howard Shaw speaks at the state suffrage convention held in Ashland. ^[24]

1907

• The state suffrage convention is held in Richmond. ^[25]

1908

• The Louisville Equal Rights Association changes their name to the Woman Suffrage Association of Louisville. ^[14]
• The Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs (KFWC) pursues a school suffrage bill in the state legislature. ^[26]

1909

• November 11–12: The state suffrage convention is held in Louisville and Shaw attends. ^{[27] [28]}

1910s

1910

• November: Shaw speaks in Covington. ^[29]

1911

• October 19–25: NAWSA holds their annual convention in Louisville. ^[30]

1912

• The right to vote in school elections for literate women is secured statewide. ^[31]
• The Louisville Woman Suffrage Association (LWSA) has a get out the vote telephone campaign to reach new voters. ^[32]
• The state Democratic Party includes a school suffrage plank in their party platform. ^[33]

1913

• July: The Anderson County Woman's Suffrage League is formed. ^[34]

1914

• The KFWC officially endorses women's suffrage. ^[35]

1915

• The state Republican Party endorses women's suffrage in their party platform. ^[33]

1916

• Both the Democratic and Republican Parties endorsed women's suffrage in the state. ^[36]
• May: A parade of over 1,000 suffragists march in Lexington. ^[37]

1917

• Suffragists in the state are involved in war work to support World War I. ^[36]
• August: Cornelia Beach of Kentucky is arrested at a National Woman's Party (NWP) protest. ^[7]

1918

• The annual state suffrage convention was cancelled due to the flu epidemic. ^[38]

1919

• Laura Clay starts the Citizens' Committee for a State Suffrage Amendment. ^[39]
• March 11–12: state suffrage convention is held in Louisville. ^[38]

1920s

1920

• January 6: Kentucky ratifies the 19th Amendment. ^[7]

Sources

• Allen, Ann Taylor (Spring 2020). "Woman Suffrage and Progressive Reform in Louisville, 1908-1920" . Ohio Valley History. 20 (1): 54–78 – via Project Muse.
• Anthony, Susan B. (1902). Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted (eds.). The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press.
• Fuller, Paul E. (1975). Laura Clay and the Woman's Rights Movement. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN   0813112990.
• Goan, Melanie Beals (Spring 2020a). "The 'Argument of Numbers': Laura Clay and the Failure of the Kentucky Plan" . Ohio Valley History. 20 (1): 9–29 – via Project MUSE.
• Goan, Melanie Beals (2020). A Simple Justice: Kentucky Women Fight for the Vote . Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN   9780813180175 – via Oxford Academic.
• Harper, Ida Husted (1922). The History of Woman Suffrage. New York: J.J. Little & Ives Company.
• Hollingsworth, Randolph (Spring 2020). "African American Women Voters in Lexington's School Suffrage Times, 1895-1902: Race Matters in the History of the Kentucky Woman Suffrage Movement" . Ohio Valley History. 20 (1): 30–53 – via Project MUSE.
• Meyer, Jana (Spring 2020). "'Politics is a Moral Science': Tracing the Women's Suffrage Movement in the Filson's Collections" . Ohio Valley History. 20 (1): 84–92 – via Project MUSE.