As voting rights have become a topic of great concern throughout our country, let’s go back in time to the early 1900s, when the women’s suffrage movement was very active in San Diego.

The Equal Suffrage Association campaigned for a California amendment giving women the right to vote. One of their initial strategies was a city-wide canvas. “Every house was to be invaded. Every man whose name appears on the register will be interviewed by a committee of women. Of course, if we find a man isn’t with us, we intend to keep right on after him until he is convinced.” The amendment did pass in 1911, 9 years before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Leaders in this early San Diego movement included Judge William A. Sloane (pictured here) and his wife Annie Kimball Sloane – both founding members of Mission Hills Congregational Church.