Wyoming's Black Women Voters

This flyer was used by suffragists in 1919 to help gain support for the Nineteenth Amendment. The map depicts the different levels of suffrage held by women in different states. Historycolordao.org

African American's gained Citizenship in 1868. So in 1870 four out of the ten black women 21 years old and over voted in the election. Because of the vaguness about race in the bill, black women got to vote underneath this law.“That every woman of the age of 21 years, residing in this territory, may, at every election to be holden under the laws thereof, cast her vote. And her rights to the elective franchise and to hold office shall be the same under the election laws of this territory, as those of electors.”

Blackpast, One of the First Black Women Voters, Nancy Phillips in Cheyenne, Wyoming, 1890 Wyoming State Archives

Six years after the vote, Wyoming Territorial Supreme Court Justice, John Kingman recounted when he witnessed African American women voting in that election.

“After a while a carriage drove up with four of these colored girls in it. They were helped out, and as they went up to the polls... the crowd quietly parted; they voted and returned to the carriage without a word said. Then I breathed freely; I knew that all was safe.”