The Utah League of Women Voters celebrates its 75th birthday this week by remembering an even earlier time - back about 125 years ago - when Utah women were among the first in the country to vote.
Today, the state's 400 members are involved with a variety of political issues. But in the beginning, this was a one-issue group. As with the national League of Women Voters, the Utah chapter has its roots in the women's suffrage movement. From the earliest days of the Territory, the National Women's Suffrage Association had many strong supporters in Utah.Although Wyoming Territory was first to pass a suffrage bill, in December of 1869, Utah was second, in February of 1870. Utahns have long claimed to have held an election before Wyoming did and credit Seraph Young, granddaughter of Brigham Young, with being the first woman in the United States to vote.
As part of an ongoing battle to suppress polygamy, the U.S. Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887. The Edmunds-Tucker Act took away the vote, not just from Utah women, but from all women who were voting at that time.
But Utahns didn't give up. In 1889, Emily Richards organized the Utah Woman Suffrage Association. And in 1896, woman suffrage was included in the Utah State Constitution. Still the Congress of the United States waited until 1920 before granting the vote to women.
Meanwhile, Utah women, seeing their day was finally coming, decided to reorganize and rename their suffrage association. On November 17 and 18, 1919, during a conference in the Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City, the Utah League of Women Voters was founded. Emily Richards was installed as president by Carrie Chapman Catt, who was president of the National Women's Suffrage Association.
It wasn't until the next year, 1920, that the National Women's Suffrage Association became the National League of Women Voters.
From the beginning, the League of Women Voters has been a nonpartisan political organization. Members inform voters about major issues and seek to influence public policy through advocacy. They don't support candidates and don't take a position on an issue until they've conducted their own study.
In the early days, both locally and nationally, league members concentrated on child labor laws and social welfare programs. They lobbied for Social Security and public employment offices.
Both the Utah and Salt Lake chapters of the League of Women Voters became inactive in the 1930s, according to a Deseret News account. The Salt Lake League reorganized in 1951, and other local leagues followed. The state chapter reorganized in 1955.
The men and women who belong to the League of Women Voters are organized on local, state and national levels, to parallel the levels of government, explains Sharon Walkington, current co-president of the Utah League.
There are eight local chapters in Utah. Walkington gives an example of the types of issues each level might study. "In Cedar City, for instance, they are very concerned about the Kaparowitz coal project and how it will impact roads. We've done state studies in the last few years on taxes, education, environmental issues. Our big national program this year was to try to get a health care program passed."