Illinois Women Get the Right to Vote!
1913: The Bill Passes
The 1913 Spring Session of the Illinois General Assembly was filled with conflicta nd change. There was a new Progressive-Democrat Governor, Edward F. Dunne, and the House included Democrats, Republicans, 25 newly-elected Progressive, and 3 Socialists.
By Mid-March, Governor Dunne has promised that is the IESA could get a women's suffrage bill to pass, he would sign it. The bill first passed in the Senate, by a vote of 29-15. Anti-suffrage activists were trying hard to get the bill killed in the House. Pressure was put on the new Speaker of the House, William McKinley, who was swamped by men around Illinois urging him to keep the suffrage bill from coming to vote. He asked Grace Wilbur Trout to prove equal suffrage had the support of people all over the state.
Grace Puts the Plan in Action
Grace put the IESA network into action. Over the weekend in June, McKinley received a phone call every 15 minutes for 48 hours straight from suffrage supporters all over Illinois. He was convinced and allowed the bill to come to a vote. It passed by six votes in the House on June 26, 1913 and Governor Dunne signed it into law.