Laura Clay
Encyclopedia
Laura Clay co-founder and first president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association
, was a leader of the American women’s suffrage movement. She was active in the Democratic Party, a powerful orator and had important leadership roles in local, state and national politics, and in 1920 at the Democratic National Convention
was the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major political party.
and his wife Mary Jane Warfield, Clay was born at their estate, White Hall, near Richmond, Kentucky. The youngest of four daughters, Laura was raised largely by her mother, due to her father’s long absences as he pursued his political career and activities as an abolitionist. Clay was educated at Sayre School
in Lexington, Kentucky
, Mrs. Sarah Hoffman’s Finishing School in New York City
, the University of Michigan
, and the University of Kentucky
.
, Annie, and Sallie into joining the women's rights movement, and Laura followed.
In 1888 Clay and Josephine K. Henry
founded the Kentucky Equal Rights Association
, of which Clay served as president until 1912. She was succeeded by her cousin Madeline McDowell Breckinridge
. The organization lobbied successfully for a range of legislative reforms, such as protecting married women's wages and property, requiring state women's mental hospitals to have female doctors on staff, inducing Transylvania University
and Central University to admit women students, raising the age of marriage consent for girls to 16 from 12, and establishing juvenile courts. They also inspired the University of Kentucky to build its first dormitory for women.
During the 1890s, Clay became active in the National American Woman Suffrage Association
and became a colleague of Carrie Chapman Catt
, Alice Stone Blackwell
, Catherine Waugh McCulloch
, Alice Lloyd
, and other national leaders of the women's rights movement. She traveled nationally speaking on behalf of women's suffrage and established suffrage societies in nine states. A devout Episcopalian, Clay also worked for decades to open lay leadership of the Episcopal Church to women.
Clay joined the Woman's Peace Party
(a forerunner of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
), which had been founded in 1915 by Carrie Chapman Catt, Jane Addams
, and others. Clay served as the party's chairman in Kentucky's Seventh Congressional District. She left the party when the United States entered World War I
and actively supported the war effort.
Clay also was an advocate of states' rights
. After Kate M. Gordon organized the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference to lobby state legislatures for laws to enfranchise only white women, Clay advocated rejection of a federal solution for women's voting rights. In 1916 she was elected vice-president-at-large of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Association, which opposed obtaining suffrage through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Clay opposed passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
as she believed that it violated states' rights.
. In 1933, she served as Temporary Chairman of the Kentucky Convention to ratify the Twenty-First Amendment
.
Clay slipped from the public life in her last decade. After her death in 1941, she was interred at Lexington Cemetery.
Kentucky Equal Rights Association
Kentucky Equal Rights Association was the first permanent statewide women's rights organization in Kentucky. Founded in November 1888, the KERA voted in 1920 to transmute itself into the to continue its many and diverse progressive efforts on behalf of women's rights.Inspired by Lucy Stone during...
, was a leader of the American women’s suffrage movement. She was active in the Democratic Party, a powerful orator and had important leadership roles in local, state and national politics, and in 1920 at the Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
was the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major political party.
Family and early life
A daughter of Cassius Marcellus ClayCassius Marcellus Clay (abolitionist)
Cassius Marcellus Clay , nicknamed "The Lion of White Hall", was an emancipationist from Madison County, Kentucky, United States who served as the American minister to Russia...
and his wife Mary Jane Warfield, Clay was born at their estate, White Hall, near Richmond, Kentucky. The youngest of four daughters, Laura was raised largely by her mother, due to her father’s long absences as he pursued his political career and activities as an abolitionist. Clay was educated at Sayre School
Sayre School
Sayre School is an independent, co-educational school in Lexington, Kentucky. The school enrolls 610 students from preschool to twelfth grade. It has 76 full time faculty members....
in Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
, Mrs. Sarah Hoffman’s Finishing School in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, and the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
.
A life of advocacy
Clay's parents divorced in 1878, leaving Mary Jane Clay homeless after she had managed Whitehall for 45 years. This inequality galvanized Clay's older sisters, MaryMary Barr Clay
Mary Barr Clay was a leader of the American women’s suffrage movement. She also was known as Mary B. Clay and Mrs. J. Frank Herrick....
, Annie, and Sallie into joining the women's rights movement, and Laura followed.
In 1888 Clay and Josephine K. Henry
Josephine K. Henry
Josephine Kirby Henry was an American Progressive Era women's rights leader, suffragist, social reformer, and writer from Versailles, Kentucky in the United States. Henry was a strong advocate for women and was a leading proponent of legislation that would grant married women property rights...
founded the Kentucky Equal Rights Association
Kentucky Equal Rights Association
Kentucky Equal Rights Association was the first permanent statewide women's rights organization in Kentucky. Founded in November 1888, the KERA voted in 1920 to transmute itself into the to continue its many and diverse progressive efforts on behalf of women's rights.Inspired by Lucy Stone during...
, of which Clay served as president until 1912. She was succeeded by her cousin Madeline McDowell Breckinridge
Madeline McDowell Breckinridge
Madeline McDowell Breckinridge was a leader of the women’s suffrage movement and one of Kentucky's leading Progressive reformers. She was also known as Madge Breckinridge and Mrs...
. The organization lobbied successfully for a range of legislative reforms, such as protecting married women's wages and property, requiring state women's mental hospitals to have female doctors on staff, inducing Transylvania University
Transylvania University
Transylvania University is a private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Christian Church . The school was founded in 1780. It offers 38 majors, and pre-professional degrees in engineering and accounting...
and Central University to admit women students, raising the age of marriage consent for girls to 16 from 12, and establishing juvenile courts. They also inspired the University of Kentucky to build its first dormitory for women.
During the 1890s, Clay became active in the National American Woman Suffrage Association
National American Woman Suffrage Association
The National American Woman Suffrage Association was an American women's rights organization formed in May 1890 as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association...
and became a colleague of Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt was a women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920...
, Alice Stone Blackwell
Alice Stone Blackwell
Alice Stone Blackwell was an American feminist, journalist and human rights advocate.-Biography:The daughter of Henry Brown Blackwell and Lucy Stone, she was born in East Orange, New Jersey....
, Catherine Waugh McCulloch
Catherine Waugh McCulloch
Catherine Gouger Waugh McCulloch was an American lawyer and noted suffragist.She was a pioneer for American women in the legal profession. She was active in campaigning for women's suffrage and legislation granting equal rights to women...
, Alice Lloyd
Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd
Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd was an American social reformer who founded Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky....
, and other national leaders of the women's rights movement. She traveled nationally speaking on behalf of women's suffrage and established suffrage societies in nine states. A devout Episcopalian, Clay also worked for decades to open lay leadership of the Episcopal Church to women.
Clay joined the Woman's Peace Party
Woman's Peace Party
The Woman's Peace Party was an American pacifist organization formally established in January 1915 in response to World War I. The organization is remembered as the first American peace organization to make use of direct action tactics such as public demonstration...
(a forerunner of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was established in the United States in January 1915 as the Woman's Peace Party...
), which had been founded in 1915 by Carrie Chapman Catt, Jane Addams
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
, and others. Clay served as the party's chairman in Kentucky's Seventh Congressional District. She left the party when the United States entered World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and actively supported the war effort.
Clay also was an advocate of states' rights
States' rights
States' rights in U.S. politics refers to political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government. It is often considered a loaded term because of its use in opposition to federally mandated racial desegregation...
. After Kate M. Gordon organized the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference to lobby state legislatures for laws to enfranchise only white women, Clay advocated rejection of a federal solution for women's voting rights. In 1916 she was elected vice-president-at-large of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Association, which opposed obtaining suffrage through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Clay opposed passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920....
as she believed that it violated states' rights.
Later years
In 1920 Clay was a founder of the Democratic Women’s Club of Kentucky. That same year, at the 1920 Democratic National Convention, Laura Clay made American history as the first woman to be nominated for President by a major political party. In 1928 she actively supported the presidential candidacy of Alfred E. Smith and opposed ProhibitionProhibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
. In 1933, she served as Temporary Chairman of the Kentucky Convention to ratify the Twenty-First Amendment
Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition...
.
Clay slipped from the public life in her last decade. After her death in 1941, she was interred at Lexington Cemetery.
Key Speeches
- "The Race Question Again," Kentucky Gazette, April 1890. Box 17, Scrapbook. Laura Clay Papers, Special Collections, University of Kentucky (hereafter LCP).
- "Elections." December 12, 1890. Proceedings and Debates in the Convention Assembled at Frankfort, on the eighth day of September, 1890, to adopt, amend or change the Constitution of the State of Kentucky. 2:2090-2093. Frankfort, Ky.: E. Polk Johnson, 1890.
- "Argument from Bible Teachings." Address, 1894 NAWSA Convention. Woman's Tribune (February 20, 1894). Box 17, Scrapbook, LCP.
- "A New Tool." Address, WCTU Banquet. Lexington, Kentucky. February 11, 1913. Box 16, LCP.
- "Women and the Ballot." February 1919, Box 11, LCP.
- "The Citizens Committee for a State Suffrage Amendment: Open Letter to the Public." June 12, 1919. Box 11, LCP.
- "Why I Am a Democrat." Democratic Woman's Journal. December 1929. Box 12, LCP.
See also
- Clay familyClay familyThe Clays were an influential nineteenth century U.S. political and business dynasty.-List of Clays:*Brutus Junius Clay , U.S. Congressman from Kentucky....
- Cassius Marcellus Clay (politician)
- Mary Barr ClayMary Barr ClayMary Barr Clay was a leader of the American women’s suffrage movement. She also was known as Mary B. Clay and Mrs. J. Frank Herrick....
- Susan B. AnthonySusan B. AnthonySusan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President...
- Madeline McDowell BreckinridgeMadeline McDowell BreckinridgeMadeline McDowell Breckinridge was a leader of the women’s suffrage movement and one of Kentucky's leading Progressive reformers. She was also known as Madge Breckinridge and Mrs...
- Josephine K. HenryJosephine K. HenryJosephine Kirby Henry was an American Progressive Era women's rights leader, suffragist, social reformer, and writer from Versailles, Kentucky in the United States. Henry was a strong advocate for women and was a leading proponent of legislation that would grant married women property rights...
- Kentucky Equal Rights AssociationKentucky Equal Rights AssociationKentucky Equal Rights Association was the first permanent statewide women's rights organization in Kentucky. Founded in November 1888, the KERA voted in 1920 to transmute itself into the to continue its many and diverse progressive efforts on behalf of women's rights.Inspired by Lucy Stone during...
- National American Woman Suffrage AssociationNational American Woman Suffrage AssociationThe National American Woman Suffrage Association was an American women's rights organization formed in May 1890 as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association...
- Women's Christian Temperance Union
External links
- Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives http://www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/kylauraclay.htm
- "Chevy Chaser History: Those Clay Women," The Bluegrass Historian, Lexington History Museum, http://lexingtonhistory.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/chevy-chaser-history-those-clay-women
- Laura Clay entry in the National Women's History Museum's Education and Resources Biography Index
- White Hall Historic Site, Kentucky State Parks http://www.parks.ky.gov/findparks/histparks/wh
- Laura Clay Photographic Collection in Kentuckiana Digital Library
- Laura Clay papers, 1906-1920 (bulk dates), 1882-1941, in Kentuckiana Digital Library
- Laura Clay in research journal entries, http://www.kywcrh.org/archives/tag/laura-clay, Kentucky Women in the Civil Rights Era, University of Kentucky