Nicole Evelina, "America's Forgotten Suffragists: Virginia and Francis Minor" (Two Dot Books, 2023)
After being forgotten for nearly 130 years, the \u201cMother of Suffrage in Missouri\u201d and her husband are finally taking their rightful place in history.\nSt. Louisans Virginia and Francis Minor forever changed the direction of women\u2019s rights by taking the issue to the Supreme Court for the first and only time in 1875, a feat never eclipsed even by their better-known peers Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.\nYet despite a myriad of accomplishments and gaining notoriety in their own time, the Minors\u2019 names have largely faded from memory. In 1867, Virginia founded the nation\u2019s first organization solely dedicated to women\u2019s suffrage\u2014two years before Anthony formed the National Woman\u2019s Suffrage Association (NWSA). Virginia and Francis were also the brains behind the groundbreaking idea that women were given the right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment, a philosophy the NWSA adopted for nearly a decade.\nAnd their story doesn\u2019t end there. After the court case, Francis went on to become a prolific writer on women\u2019s rights and one of the first and strongest male allies of the suffrage movement. Virginia instigated tax revolts across the country and campaigned side-by-side with Anthony for women\u2019s rights in Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska.\nAmerica's Forgotten Suffragists: Virginia and Francis Minor\xa0(Two Dot Books, 2023)\xa0is the first biography of these suffrage celebrities who were unique for their time in being jointly dedicated to the cause of female enfranchisement. This book follows their lives from slave-holding Virginians through their highly-lauded civilian work during the Civil War, and into the height of the early suffrage movement to show how two ordinary people of like mind,\xa0dedicated to a cause, can change the course of history.\nJane Scimeca\xa0is Professor of History at Brookdale Community College. @JaneScimeca1\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies