Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/230

 

The history of woman suffrage in Louisiana is unique inasmuch as it records largely the activity of one club, an influence, however, which was felt in the upbuilding of sentiment not alone in Louisiana but in almost every Southern State. When in 1900 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt on her accession to the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage Association called for conventions in the Southern States it was found that in Louisiana the State Suffrage Association, formed in 1896 by the union of the Portia and Era clubs, had lapsed because the former was no longer in existence. The Era Club, however, was flourishing under the stimulus and prestige gained by the successful Drainage, Sewerage and Water Campaign of 1899. Mrs. Catt decided that, while it was a new precedent to recognize one club as a State association, it would be done in this case. Mrs. Evelyn Ordway was made president, Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, vice-president; Miss Jeannette Ballard and Miss Jean Gordon, secretaries, and Mrs. Otto Joachim, treasurer of the new association at a meeting in May, 1900, at New Orleans. It went on record at this first meeting as a State's rights organization, which Mrs. Catt ruled was permissible under the dual character of the National Association's constitution.

The secretary entered into active correspondence with individuals in all sections of the State known to be favorable to suffrage, but all efforts to secure clubs were unsuccessful. The Era Club, therefore, extended its membership over the State in order that representation in the national suffrage conventions