Local DAR remembers Birmingham women’s suffrage activist

The 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in America is being celebrated this year.

The Lily of the Cahaba chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Birmingham marked the centennial by paying tribute to Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, a local social reformer who fought hard for women to get the vote.

Following their monthly meeting in March, which is also Women’s History Month, chapter members gathered at Elmwood Cemetery, where Jacobs was buried in 1935.

Jacobs was a leader in the suffrage movement in Birmingham, in Alabama and, to some extent, on the national level, said chapter spokesperson Kaye W. Sutley.

“She was important to us, and we felt she should receive recognition,” Sutley told Iron City Ink.

Members placed a wreath and American flags at Jacobs’ grave, which was covered by the 19th Amendment flag, and Chaplain Joyce Quinn offered a prayer.

Chapter First Vice Regent Pat Talty led a ceremony which included a profile of Jacobs’ life, her suffrage movement leadership and her concern for such issues as child labor, convict leasing and public education.

It’s important that Americans remember the struggle for women’s suffrage, Sutley said.

“Women actually fought for decades to get the right to vote,” she said. “We like to say they were not given the right to vote, but they earned the right to vote.”

Jacobs formed the Birmingham Equal Suffrage Association in 1910 and the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association in 1911 and became an officer in the National Equal Suffrage Association in 1915, according to Wikipedia. After the passage of the 19th Amendment, Jacobs became national secretary for the National League of Women Voters.

Women’s History Month is always a special time for The Lily of the Cahaba Chapter, Sutley said.

“We try to always honor some outstanding woman,” she said. “At the DAR, history is very important to us.”

Some of the other Alabama women who have received the chapter’s annual Women in History award are Ethel H. Hall, the first African-American elected to the Alabama Board of Education; Frances Tunnell Carter, founder of the American Rosie the Riveter Association; WWII pilot Nancy Batson Crews; and teacher and author Leah Rawls Atkins.

The DAR is a nonprofit, nonpolitical volunteer service organization dedicated to promoting historic preservation, education and patriotism.

For more information about DAR or the Lily of the Cahaba Chapter, go to dar.org or email lilyofthecahaba@gmail.com.