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F ront Runners The National League of Women Voters stand proud at the 1920 Democratic Convention. CHICAGO LED THE WAY FOR WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE WITH THE FOUNDING OF THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS IN FEBRUARY 1920. BY ALEXANDRA KILPATRICK W hen Carrie Chapman Catt succeeded Susan B. Anthony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1900, she picked up the mantle of fighting to end discrimination against women. Decades later, Catt founded the League of Women Voters at Chicago's Congress Plaza Hotel during the NAWSA convention on February 14, 1920—just six months before the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. The League was created as a nonpartisan organization to empower the nation's 20 million women by educating them about their new civic duties and encouraging them to stay active in shaping social policy, with Maud Wood Park as president and founding members that included notable suffragists Grace Wilbur Trout and Jane Addams. Although this grassroots initiative long ago fulfilled its founding mission to secure women's voting rights, the organization remains strong, urging informed participation in government through education and advocacy on local, state, and national levels by its 140,000 members and supporters in more than 800 leagues nationwide—women and men included. MA 4 PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF THE UNITED STATES big sisters MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 004_MA_FOB_FR_Winter13.indd 4 1/2/13 12:29 PM