Why was the wctu formed

African American women of the time were already participating in the national movement of the W. They saw it as a way to be involved on a political stage that excluded them for both their sex and race. These women supported prohibition and moral reform as a way to uplift their communities and take on leadership roles in social reform. While they did participate in the union, that did not make it a group that was supportive of racial equality, especially in the southern chapters.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist and anti-lynching activist, and Francis Willard, president of the National W. In Tennessee the chapters were segregated, having their own annual conventions.

Two African American women attended and spoke at the white annual conventions representing the 14 African American chapters. Lucy Tappan Phillips, wife of Rev. In Tennessee, the W. They secured laws that changed the age of consent from 10 years of age to 18, created reform schools for juvenile offenders, reformatory work homes for women offenders, and placed women as police matrons in city courts.

They also, in , established the Frances Willard Home for working girls in Chattanooga which was open to women of any religious denomination. They lobbied effectively for the Scientific Temperance Instruction Law of , a huge victory for the W. Silena Moore Holman , who became president of the Tennessee union in , was a large part of these advances. During her presidency the membership of the W. While not created by the W. The law banned the sale of liquor within four miles of any county schools.

This stopped the retail of liquor in rural areas, with only one or two towns in each county able to sell. The law was continuously amended until by only four cities in the state were able to sell liquor legally.

While the benefits of this law were seen as a victory for the W. His death on November 9, , after being shot during an altercation in downtown Nashville, caused a sensation throughout the state.

Introduction: In the early nineteenth century, women began to participate increasingly in social reform movements. The WCTU was a religious organization whose primary purpose was to combat the influence of alcohol on families and society.

It was influential in the temperance movement, and supported the 18th Amendment. Annie Wittenmyer was elected president; Miss Frances E. Willard, corresponding secretary; Mrs.

Mary Johnson, recording secretary; and Mrs. Mary Ingham, treasurer. Dio Lewis , were moved to a non-violent protest against the dangers of alcohol. Middle-class women took to the streets and held pray-ins outside local saloons, demanding that the sale of liquor be stopped. Within three months the women had driven liquor out of communities, and for the first time experienced what could be accomplished by standing together Gordon, In , the formidable Frances Willard became president of the WCTU and turned to political organizing as well as moral persuasion to achieve total abstinence.

The use of alcohol and other drugs was a symptom of the larger problems in society. By , 25 of the 39 departments of the WCTU were dealing with non-temperance issues. The movement grew in numbers and strength, and by the WCTU had nearly , dues-paying members Bordin, Along with public libraries, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Y.

Diagnosed with breast Raised on the Quaker tenet that all people are equals, Mott spent her entire life fighting for social and political reform on behalf of Jeannette Rankin was a Montana politician who made history in as the first woman ever elected to the United States Congress.

She was also the only member of Congress to cast a vote against participation in both world wars. Unafraid to take controversial positions on several Jane Addams was a peace activist and a leader of the settlement house movement in America. As one of the most distinguished of the first generation of college-educated women, she rejected marriage and motherhood in favor of a lifetime commitment to the poor and With her book The Feminine Mystique , Betty Friedan broke new ground by exploring the idea of women finding personal fulfillment outside of their traditional roles.

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