On March 10, 1920, West Virginia became the 34th state to approve the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The vote in the state senate was very close—15 to 14.

The fight for women’s voting rights in West Virginia began much earlier. In 1867, Samuel Young, a state senator, tried to give women the right to vote, but his idea failed. Interest faded until the 1890s, when women's suffrage clubs formed in cities like Wheeling and Fairmont.

In 1919, Congress passed the federal Women’s Suffrage Amendment. West Virginia Governor John Jacob Cornwell pushed for ratification in early 1920. The House quickly approved it, but the Senate was tied. Then, Senator Jesse Bloch rushed back from California to cast the deciding vote. Thanks to this dramatic moment, West Virginia helped bring women one step closer to voting rights across the country later that year.

Although Anna Johnson Gates (pictured) was elected to the legislature in 1922 for one term, It still took a long time for West Virginia women to get elected in significant numbers.