Anti-Suffrage Efforts
Anti-Suffrage Efforts
As suffragists worked to pass a referendum in West Virginia in 1916, anti-suffragists in the state and across the country amplified their efforts against woman suffrage. The West Virginia Association of Women Opposed to Suffrage formed in Charleston in 1916. Hallie Elkins, pictured, widow of Senator Stephen B. Elkins, was a member of this group. Advertisements appeared in local newspapers imploring voters to reject woman suffrage in West Virginia because there was no evidence that it was beneficial where it already exists, that it is radical and experimental, and that most women were against it among other claims. The "antis" persisted beyond the West Virginia referendum. West Virginia Senator Howard Sutherland received letters from anti-suffrage groups from across the country in opposition to the 19th amendment at all stages.
