page_title: Lila Meade Valentine
section_title: Life as a public suffragist
hierarchical_section_title: Lila Meade Valentine / Women's suffrage / Life as a public suffragist
caption_attribution_description: English: Newspaper graphic from Grand Forks Herald featuring women's suffragists from the south: Minnie Fisher Cunningham, Lila Meade Valentine, Mrs. Eugene Rielley, Mrs. Guildford Dudley, Mrs. TT Cotnam, and Mrs. Edward C. McGhee.
context_page_description: Lila Meade Valentine née Hardaway Meade was a Virginia education reformer, health-care advocate, and one of the main leaders of her state's participation in the woman's suffrage movement in the United States. She worked to improve public education through her co-founding and leadership of the Richmond Education Association, and advocated for public health by founding the Instructive Visiting Nurses Association, through which she helped eradicate tuberculosis from the Richmond area.
  Valentine co-founded the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and served as its first president. Under her leadership the league began a campaign to educate Virginia's citizens and legislators on the topic of women's suffrage and brought the issue to the floor of the General Assembly three times between the years 1912 and 1916. Within 10 years of its founding, the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia became the largest political organization in the state.
  When Valentine's legislative efforts proved unsuccessful at the state level, she focused her attention on the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, seeing it become law shortly before her death.
context_section_description: Valentine preferred a "quiet, educational propaganda" approach to organizing support for the suffrage movement; militant and extremist strategies were said to anger her. Public speaking did not come naturally to Valentine, but she understood its importance to the cause. She developed a style that combined a dramatic flair with a fluency with language and a command of facts, winning many over to the cause through her tact and charm.
  Valentine quickly earned a reputation for being an engaging speaker, addressing crowds on the topic of women's suffrage whenever the opportunity presented itself and usually without prepared remarks—just minimal notes. From 1912 to 1913, she gave more than a hundred speeches in support of women's suffrage across the state, including one to the Virginia House of Delegates. The National Woman Suffrage Association soon called on her to deliver speeches in New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
  While Valentine's efforts earned her praise among those who shared her views, she did face personal and public backlash. Those she once called friends would ignore her when they saw her on the street. When she spoke publicly, she was often heckled. During one of her speeches at the Fairfax Courthouse the crowd was doused with pepper.
caption: Image from September 1, 1916 edition of Grand Forks Herald showing Valentine alongside fellow southern American women's suffragists
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