s held in Richmond on the steps of the
State Capitol, May 2, 1914, in conformity with the nation-wide request
of the National Association, and the celebration was continued in the
evening. The convention was held in Roanoke, where it was reported
that forty-five counties had been organized in political units and
that the _Virginia Suffrage News_, a monthly paper, was being
published at State headquarters under the management of Mrs. Alice
Overbey Taylor.

In 1915 street meetings were inaugurated and held in Richmond from May
till Thanksgiving, and in Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth, Lynchburg
and Warrenton. For the first time women appeared on the same platform
with the candidates for the Legislature and presented the claims of
the women of Virginia to become a part of the electorate. The May Day
celebration was held on the south portico of the Capitol on the
afternoon of May 1, after a morning devoted to selling from street
booths copies of the _Woman's Journal_, suffrage flags, buttons and
postcards. A band played and the decorations and banners in yellow and
blue, the suffrage and Virginia colors, made a beautiful picture. John
S. Munce of Richmond introduced the speakers, Dr. E. N. Calisch, Rabbi
of Beth Ahaba Temple; Miss Joy Montgomery Higgins of Nebraska and Miss
Mabel Vernon of Washington, D. C. In December the convention was held
in Richmond and the two hundred delegates marched to the office of the
Governor, Henry Carter Stuart, to request him to embody in his message
to the General Assembly a recommendation that it submit to the voters
an equal suffrage amendment to the State constitution. They were led
by Mrs. Valentine and brief addresses were made by Mrs. Stephen
Putney of Wytheville, Mrs. Lloyd Byars of Bristol, Mrs. John H.
Lewis of Lynchburg, Miss Lucy Randolph Mason of Richmond,
great-great-granddaughter of George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill
of Rights; Miss Agnes Randolph, great-great-granddaughter of Thomas
Jefferson, founder of the University of Virginia; Miss Mary Johnston,
Mrs. Sally Nelson Robins of Richmond, author; Miss Elizabeth Cooke of
Norfolk, Miss Janetta FitzHugh of Fredericksburg, Mrs. Kate Langley
Bosher of Richmond, author; Miss Roberta Wellford of University; Mrs.
George Barksdale, Miss Marianne Meade and Miss Adele Clark of
Richmond. He received them courteously but not seriously and paid no
attention to their request. During the year organization of the State
into legislati