Mrs. Edward H. Harris, Sr. | Suffragist By Any Name

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, is written and read by Christine R. Valeriann, founder of the Women’s Equality Day Celebration across Maryland Coalition and a volunteer with Maryland Women’s Heritage Center.

As president of the Just Government League of Allegany County in rural Western Maryland, Mrs. Edward Harris led the organization at a critical time, through two of the most seminal moments in Maryland’s suffrage history. Her activism is well-documented, but in typical fashion for the time, she is always referred to as either Mrs. Edward Harris or Mrs. Edward H. Harris, Sr., and never credited under her own name, which was possibly Ellen. Under any name, she deserves her due as one of Maryland's leading suffragists.

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