Suffragist organizers held the first-ever National Women’s
Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts on October
23, 1850.

More than 1,000 delegates from 11 states arrived for the two-
day conference, which had been planned by members of the
Anti-Slavery Society.

Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 – October 18, 1893)

Lucy Stone was one of many speakers who argued
for equal enfranchisement for women. “We want that
[women] should attain to the development of her
nature and womanhood; we want that when she dies,
it may not be written on her gravestone that she was
the [widow] of somebody,” Stone said in a speech.

Her speech and the convention’s proceedings were
recorded and sold after the event, helping the
movement gain international recognition.

   
CARLATA BRADLEY

At the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, a woman’s
rights convention—the first ever held in the United States—
convened with almost 200 women in attendance.

The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, two abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-
Slavery Convention in London.

CARLATA BRADLEY

       (1864 – 1941)

President Benjamin Harrison welcomed Alice Sanger as
the first female White House staffer on January 2, 1890.

During an otherwise uneventful presidency remarkable
only for allowing Congress a free-for-all in spending public
funds, Alice Sanger’s appointment may have been an olive
branch to the growing women’s suffrage movement that
had gathered momentum during Harrison’s presidency. 

Suffragist organizers held the first-ever National Women’s
Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts on this day
in 1850. 

More than 1,000 delegates from 11 states arrived for the two-
day conference, which had been planned by members of the
Anti-Slavery Society.

The convention followed the steps laid out at the landmark
Seneca Falls Convention two years before.

Abby Kelley Foster (1811-1887)

During her remarkable life, Abby helped develop
plans for the first National Woman’s Rights
Convention.