LILA MEADE VALENTINE Biography - Activists, Revolutionaries and other freedom fighters

 
 

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LILA MEADE VALENTINE

Lila Meade Valentine (1865–1921) was one of the leaders among the     
Virginia women who organized and fought for the right to vote. She     
led campaigns for improvements in public education and public health   
in Virginia. One of the founders of the Equal Suffrage League of       
Virginia in 1909, she took an active part in the National Woman       
Suffrage Association as well. Valentine lived to see women vote, but   
she died one year after ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in   
1920 before women campaigned and won election to public office in     
Virginia. She was the acknowledged leader of a new generation of       
Virginia women who sought and accepted leadership roles in public     
life. In 1936 the General Assembly placed a memorial plaque in the     
State Capitol honoring her services to humanity and acknowledging     
her achievements in the struggle for woman suffrage.