A Pioneering Woman Suffragist

A Pioneering Woman Suffragist. Lavinia Margaret Engle (May 23, 1892 - May 29, 1979). , Lavinia Margaret Engle was a lifelong advocate for women's rights and social services., Born here in 1892, before women had the right to vote, she joined the women's suffrage movement, led the state's League of Women Voters, and became the first woman from Montgomery County elected to the Maryland House of Delegates., This marker was placed in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the dedication of the Montgomery County suffragists who fought for voting rights., As a child in Forest Glen, Lavinia Margaret Engle grew up in a community of activist women. Her mother, Lavinia Hauke Engle, was a woman suffragist who raised her daughter to believe in women's voting rights. As a small child, her mother took her to meet leading women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony, who exclaimed, "Oh, another Lavinia!", In 1912, Lavinia joined the national American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) as a suffrage field organizer. This job took her across the country and eventually to France as a NAWSA volunteer during World War I. Here in Forest Glen, her mother organized for the suffragist Just Government League., Ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 eliminated gender discrimination in voting, but many legal and economic barriers remained, in addition to racial barriers for women of color., As Executive Secretary for the League of Women Voters of Maryland from 1921-1936, Lavinia worked to overturn barriers to women's equality., In 1930 she became the first woman from Montgomery County elected to the Maryland House of Delegates; and in 1933 the first woman appointed to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners., In 1936, she joined the newly created Social Security Board to assist in the organization of their field operations. Engle worked in federal service until her retirement in 1964., The home remained in the family until 1967. In 1967, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission acquired the property and the home was later demolished., Lavinia Engle lived in the later years of her life in Silver Spring until her death in 1979. Her life reflects a remarkable societal transformation that saw women acquire political power and political influence., [Sidebars:] , The Engle Family Home , Around 1891, the Engle family built an eight-room house on the land where the park stands today. In the 18th and 19th centuries, before Forest Glen developed as a suburb, previous owners of this property enslaved Black workers and profited from the exploitation of their labor. Prior generations of the Engle family also held people in slavery on their land in present-day West Virginia., Black Women Suffragist , Black women were early and vocal advocates for women's voting rights, despite facing racism within the suffrage movement., Maryland suffragist Estelle Hall Young organized African American women in Baltimore, and in 1920 traveled to Montgomery County to engage Black communities in a major voter registration push following ratification of the 19th Amendment., Though Maryland did not impose statewide Jim Crow voter suppression, many African American women in Southern states were prevented from voting until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.