The League of Women Voters of Georgia:
Background Information

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Additional Resources on the League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters of Georgia was formed in 1920 around the time that the 19th Amendment granting women’s suffrage was passed. The Georgia League, like the national League, provides education to women in order to help them make informed voting decisions. National and local Leagues are non-partisan and do not back specific political parties or candidates, but they do support specific pieces of legislation and encourage their members to become active in political and civic affairs.

In the 1950s, the Georgia League encountered some scandal when the possibility for racial integration was posed. In 1956, a number of League members resigned in protest over the issue; a clipping from the Atlanta Journal in League President Eliza K. Paschall’s papers records this event. Frances Freeborn Pauley wrote to the National League for guidance on the issue of racial integration in other Leagues. Two responses from the National League are available here. Despite the internal divisions created by the issue of racial integration in the League of Women Voters, the LWV went on to support the desegregation of public schools in Georgia in the 1950s and the National Voting Rights Act in the 1960s.

 

 

 

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