Virginia Minor (b. March 27, 1824, Caroline County, VA–d. Aug. 14, 1894, St. Louis, MO) is best remembered as the plaintiff in Minor v. Happersett, an 1874 United States Supreme Court case. In that case, Minor unsuccessfully argued that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote.
Virginia married lawyer Francis Minor in 1843 before settling in St. Louis. During the Civil War, Minor was an active member of the St. Louis Ladies Union Aid Society. In 1867, Minor was co-founded the first president of the Woman's Suffrage Association of Missouri. She eventually joined the National Woman's Suffrage Association. In 1869, Francis and Virginia Minor drafted and circulated pamphlets arguing for women's suffrage based on the newly passed Fourteenth Amendment.
On October 15, 1872, Virginia Minor attempted to register to vote in St. Louis. When she was turned down the Minors filed suit in the Missouri state courts. The trial court, Missouri Supreme Court, and United States Supreme Court all ruled in favor of the state of Missouri. Virginia Minor testified in support of women's suffrage before the United States Senate in 1889, and was honorary vice president of the Interstate Woman Suffrage Convention in 1892.
