On this day in Alabama history: Alabama suffrage leader was born
The Alabama Equal Suffrage Association (AESA), consisting of members of Selma and Birmingham suffrage organizations, joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association to lead the fight for white women's right to vote in Alabama. The state Legislature would not ratify the 19th Amendment, but in 1920 suffrage was achieved and the AESA was dissolved. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)
January 17, 1867
Born on this day as Frances Elizabeth Daughdrill, “Bessie” and her family left Demopolis in the late 1860s for Coal City, just east of the Coosa River in St. Clair County. Her father owned valuable mining property there. In 1885, Bessie married John Washington Moore, who had moved to St. Clair County as a youth with his family. In 1914, while serving as president of the Coal City Equal Suffrage Association, Bessie represented Coal City at the second Alabama Convention of the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association. While not famous in the national suffrage movement, she contributed greatly to the cause in Alabama and to the growth of Coal City.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
