page_title: Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference
section_title: Formation of Southern States Women Suffrage Association
hierarchical_section_title: Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference / Formation of Southern States Women Suffrage Association
caption_attribution_description: English: Mrs. O.H.P. [Alva] Belmont
context_page_description: The Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference was a group dedicated to winning voting rights for white women. The group consisted mainly of highly educated, middle and upper class white women of prominent families. They were originally part of the larger National American Woman Suffrage Association, but broke off in 1906. Prominent leaders in the group included Laura Clay and Kate Gordon, who supported and focused on local and state reforms rather than a national amendment. The group applied tactics like the Lost Cause, the belief that the Confederate cause was moral and just, and the Southern strategy, which appealed to white voters by promoting racism.
context_section_description: The NWSA and AWSA had their own agendas until 1890, when they decided to reunite and form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). NAWSA worked for state-level amendments, hoping to eventually gain enough momentum for a national amendment. NAWSA was the first group to pioneer the Southern Strategy, convincing Southern political leaders that they could ensure white supremacy by enfranchising white women. At this time, women from the South were interspersed in groups like NAWSA, forming local chapters such as the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. However, in the early 1900s, a uniquely Southern movement arose. Led by Kate Gordon of Louisiana (1861-1932), these upper class Southern women believed that state-level suffrage measures would help maintain white supremacy. One of Gordon's letters, published in Tennessee's The Journal and Tribune, said "I have always maintained that there are no women in the United States who should feel the degradation of disfranchisement so keenly as Southern women, for they have felt a special resentment in witnessing their government make their ignorant slaves the political superiors of the white women of the nation."  Gordon first started the ERA (Equal Rights for All) Club in New Orleans, to gain suffrage while appealing to a majority white electorate. Her leadership in the ERA was noticed by the NAWSA, and she was offered a position as secretary of the organization. However, her more conservative views and state’s right approach ostracized her from NAWSA. Gordon opposed the push for a national amendment, and formed the Southern States Woman Suffrage Association (SSWSA) at a conference in New Orleans. This gathering was later known as the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference, and was the most notable gathering of these Southern suffragists. 
  Like Gordon, Laura Clay of Kentucky (1849-1941) had been a prominent member of NAWSA; however, she became distanced from the establishment because she did not fully agree with its goals, specifically its aim of a federal amendment. She saw the federal amendment as a way to gain “publicity,” but would much rather have suffrage centered within the power of the individual states. Clay was “lukewarm” about a separate suffrage group, but joined forces with Kate Gordon in 1916 and became vice president of SSWSC. Initially, Gordon had promised her new group would work alongside, and not against, NAWSA, appealing to more centrist members like Clay. Another leader of the new SSWSC was Ida Porter Boyer, who took the position of Executive Secretary.
caption: Mrs. Alva Belmont, a donor to both the CU and the SSWSA
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