Ballot & Beyond

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written and is being read by Dr. Amy Rosenkrans.

Women from all parts of the state fought to gain the right to vote. Elizabeth Forbes of Harford County was one of those women. While many in her social situation may have preferred to remain at home and quietly participate in local clubs, Elizabeth advocated for woman suffrage on the local, state, and national level. That advocacy even landed her in a Washington, D.C. Jail. Forbes and the other women who served time in jail for the suffrage cause, were awarded a small silver "Jailed for Freedom" pin.  As the only Harford County suffragist who served time in jail, she became affectionately locally known as the “Jailbird.”  

Ballot & Beyond is powered by Preservation Maryland, the state's largest and oldest non-profit dedicated to Maryland's public history, built heritage, and cultural landscapes.

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written by Audrey Partington. The reader is Kalin Thomas. 

Clara Barton is best known for founding the American Red Cross and nursing wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Lesser known is Barton’s support for reform movements like free schools, abolition, and women’s rights. She worked with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other leaders of the movement to enfranchise women. 

Ballot & Beyond is powered by Preservation Maryland and PreserveCast with support from the Maryland Historical Trust and Gallagher, Evelius & Jones.

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written and read by Judy A. Carbone, President of AAUW-Garrett County Branch and a volunteer with Maryland Women’s Heritage Center.

Edna Story Latimer was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1878.  She was a staunch suffragist involved in campaigning against President Wilson and national anti-suffrage candidates, as well as one of the organizers of the Maryland Just Government League.  

Latimer is best known for organizing suffragists on multi-state publicity and outreach hikes - for her leadership, she was known as General Edna Latimer within her suffrage ranks.

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written by Ida Jones, Ph.D, University Archivist, Morgan State University in Baltimore. Dr. Jones is the reader. 

Verda Mae Freeman Welcome was an American teacher, civil rights leader, and Maryland state senator. Welcome was the second black woman to be elected to a state senate in the U.S. (Cora Mae Brown was the first in 1952). She spent 25 years in the Maryland legislature and worked to pass legislation that enforced stricter employment regulations and discouraged racial discrimination.

The advocacy, legislation, and historical example of Verda Welcome inspired generations of women and African Americans to pursue public office. Verda Welcome was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 1988. 

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written by Diane E. Weaver, Ph.D. The reader is Diane Weaver.

Elizabeth King Ellicott was a central figure in the Maryland campaign for women’s right to vote. Her vision of a government that included women was at the center of her commitment toward state and national governmental reform. She was instrumental in changing the perception of women in society. She achieved this largely through her involvement in broadening the scope of women’s organizations and through the movement for women’s suffrage.

Ballot & Beyond is powered by Preservation Maryland with support from the Maryland Historical Trust and Gallagher, Evelius & Jones.

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written, and read by Jean Thompson, an independent researcher and volunteer writer with Maryland Women’s Heritage Center. The library and archives at Goucher College were invaluable for research.

Nannie V. Melvin, a journalist, social reformer, and political activist, is one of the Maryland women credited with planting suffrage club chapters on the Eastern Shore for the Just Government League.  

This episode's researcher and reader, Jean Baker, is also featured on the Ballot & Beyond podcast for her pioneering research and advocacy on behalf of women's history and leadership in the United States.

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written and read by Kathi Santora, a volunteer with Maryland Women’s Heritage Center.

 Two of the gutsiest Maryland women who fought for the 19th Amendment were Lucy Fisher Gwynne Branham and her daughter Lucy Branham.

Ballot & Beyond is powered by Preservation Maryland and supported by the Maryland Historical Trust. 

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written by Dr. Adele Newson-Horst, Professor of English at Morgan State University. The reader is Dr. Newson-Horst. 

Henrietta Lacks is best recognized for her immortal HeLa cell line (named for the first two letters of her first and last names). 

Since her death in 1951, her cells divide again and again and rebuild after each division. It is because HeLa cells can be grown continuously in labs, researchers started to rely heavily on them for their experiments. 

Through her historical scholarship and teaching career, Dr. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn chronicled the work of African American suffragists, whose contributions had largely been ignored or erased in the official histories of the movement. Dr. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn work excavated these hidden stories from the historical canon, rescuing many heroic women from obscurity and adding the true diversity and challenges of the movement to the public record. 

To improve the representation of African American women and energize women to take advance of their right to vote, Victorine Q. Adams registered Baltimore's African American voters by the thousands in the 1940s. Adams would also serve on the Baltimore City Council as the first African American woman to serve as a city councilwoman in Baltimore.