In 1843, Virginia Minor married her distant cousin, Francis, a lawyer. She had little idea his vocation would come in handy later on.
Born in the state for which she was named on March 28, 1824, she would become one of America’s earliest suffrage activists.
Sometime in 1844, the couple moved to St. Louis.
After the civil war, during which she supported the Union and was active in the St. Louis Ladies Union Aid Society.
She is remembered by far too few, I might add, as the woman who unsuccessfully argued that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution gave women the right to vote.
On October 15, 1872, Virginia attempted to register to vote in St. Louis. When the registrar, Reese Happersett said, “Now, now, little lady, what do you think you’re a doin’?” Minor, represented by her husband filed suit. Missouri state courts said, “Ah, no!” So, again represented by her husband, she took it to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Morrison Waite, unanimously upheld the Missouri voting legislation, saying that voting was not an inherent right of citizenship!
They also said the Constitution neither granted nor forbade voting rights for women, and that allowing only males to vote was not an infringement on Minor’s rights.
It would take 48 years for America to grant the right to vote to its female citizens, Virginia was not there to celebrate with her suffragist sisters as she passed on in 1894.
There or not, she was a woman of influence!