Women's History Month: Digital Read In

Anna Whitehead Bodeker (July 27, 1826 – October 26, 1904) was a pioneering American suffragist who led the earliest efforts to organize for women's suffrage in Virginia. Born in Midland Park, New Jersey, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, at the age of ten. In 1870, inspired by the National Woman Suffrage Association, Bodeker founded the Virginia State Woman Suffrage Association, the state's first such organization, and served as its president. She actively promoted the cause by inviting national suffrage leaders to speak in Richmond and by publishing persuasive articles, including "Defence of Woman Suffrage" and "An Appeal for Woman Suffrage" in the Richmond Daily Enquirer in March 1870. In November 1871, Bodeker attempted to vote in a Richmond election, citing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, but was denied; undeterred, she placed a note in the ballot box asserting her constitutional right. Despite her efforts, the association struggled to gain widespread support in post-Civil War Virginia and eventually dissolved. Bodeker's dedication laid important groundwork for the women's suffrage movement in the state.