Political Equality Club of Minneapolis.

The organization began around 1868 as the Woman Suffrage Club of Minneapolis and became the Political Equality Club of Minneapolis in 1897. A fire that year destroyed the club's records, so little is known of its early history.

Monthly meetings, September through June, were held first in members' homes and later in established headquarters, including the offices of doctors Cora Smith Eaton and Margaret Koch, and of Ethel Edgerton Hurd and Anna Hurd. In 1897-1898 the club also organized subsidiary groups in twelve of Minneapolis's thirteen wards, each with its own chairman, secretary/treasurer, meetings in members' homes, and fund raising activities.

The club used a variety of methods to promote women's suffrage, including registration of supporters and distribution of literature at the Minnesota State Fair; petitions to the state legislature and Congress; appeals to all conventions and annual meetings held in Minneapolis to pass resolutions in support of women's suffrage; registration of women voters and active support of women candidates for school and library boards; sponsorship of public lectures, many by nationally known suffragists, and of legislative luncheons held during the state legislative sessions to consider bills that were of interest to women; Red Cross work; suffrage teas; participation in parades; annual picnics with speakers that attracted nonmembers; and fund raising activities, especially rummage sales, a mock senate (1914), and an historical pageant ("Catching Up With Father") that depicted stirring events in the struggle for women's suffrage (1917).

In May 1900, quietly and without acknowledging it as part of the Political Equality Club, the club organized the Minneapolis Woman's School and Library Organization. Its purpose was to secure as many women voters as possible to vote in school and library board elections (their participation was legalized in 1875). It aroused interest in many people otherwise uninterested in women's suffrage.

In 1915 the club also undertook a campaign to encourage the University of Minnesota to begin a full course in home economics and a short course and lectures in child welfare using a small hospital for clinical purposes. By 1917 these programs had all been implemented by the University.

The club hosted many Minneapolis Woman Suffrage Association annual conventions and served as one of the hosts for the National American Woman Suffrage Association's 1897 conference and 1901 convention, both held in Minneapolis. During the latter a large number of delegates were housed in club members' homes.

The club disbanded following the August 26, 1920 passage of the "Anthony Amendment," the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which legalized women's suffrage. Its last meeting was held on September 11, 1920.

Historical information was taken from the collection. See Minnesota History, 15:61, 113.

From the guide to the Club records., 1883-1921., (Minnesota Historical Society)