Kansas suffragists honored at State Capitol

Artist Phyllis Pease's mural in the Kansas Capitol celebrates the efforts of the women who persisted until their goal women's suffrage was accomplished. The design for the mural was approved by the Kansas Capitol Preservation Committee and will be dedicated on January 29, 2025. The Kansas Suffragist Memorial Committee was founded in collaboration between the League of Women Voters of Kansas, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) of Kansas, and the Kansas Capitol Preservation Committee to develop an innovative and original work of art to be displayed in the Kansas State Capitol Building.

Historian Jeanne Klein spoke about the history of women’s suffrage in Kansas at the League of Women Voters Topeka-Shawnee County Tuesday Topics presentation at the library in December 2024. The library is a partner with the League of Women Voters in sharing nonpartisan civic information.

The Kansas Woman Suffrage Movement spanned 1859 to 1912. Klein’s presentation provides history, stories and emphasis on the Topeka and Lawrence suffragists. View the recorded presentation below and the slides for more details.

More than 580 Kansas suffragists are known in our history. In 1912 a Kansas suffragist wrote the proposed Constitutional amendment as: "The rights of a citizen of the state of Kansas to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex." These words are written at the top of the new Capitol mural.

Kansas women are also recognized in the National Votes for Women Trail that seeks to recognize and celebrate the enormous diversity of people and groups active in the struggle for women’s suffrage. In 2019 a Votes for Women Trail Marker was erected along the Missouri River to commemorate the work of suffragists in Kansas. The Trail is marking sites across the country to tell the untold story of suffrage for all women, of all ethnicity, that extends well past the passage of the 19th amendment.