Women from all over Arkansas—left out of the civil rights granted by the post–Civil War Reconstruction Amendments—took part in a long struggle to gain the primary civil right of American citizens: voting. The state’s capital city of Little Rock served as the focal point not only for suffrage work in Arkansas, but also for the state’s contribution to the nationwide nonviolent campaign for women’s suffrage that reached its climax between 1913 and 1920. Based on original research, Cahill’s book relates the history of some of those who contributed to this victorious struggle, reveals long-forgotten photographs, includes a map of the locations of meetings and rallies, and provides a list of Arkansas suffragists who helped ensure that discrimination could no longer exclude women from participation in the political life of the state and nation.

Overview of state and local government in Arkansas

Originally published in 2000, The Right to Vote was widely hailed as a magisterial account of the evolution of suffrage from the American Revolution to the end of the twentieth century. In this revised and updated edition, Keyssar carries the story forward, from the disputed presidential contest of 2000 through the 2008 campaign and the election of Barack Obama. The Right to Vote is a sweeping reinterpretation of American political history as well as a meditation on the meaning of democracy in contemporary American life.

This thesis contains in-depth instructions as to the research and creation of the They Made Their Voices Heard! exhibit. Women's suffrage in Arkansas has been an area of Arkansas history that has not been overly studied. Arkansas became the first southern state to give women the right to vote when in 1917 women were permitted to vote within primaries. Florence Brown Cotnam, Bernie Babcock, James Mitchell, and Charles Brough are all studied within this process paper and exhibit for their contributions to the women's suffrage movement in Arkansas.

"The Arkansas women profiled in this book have blazed trails in athletics, civil rights, literature, politics, science, entertainment, and the arts"--