Review of Sara Brooks Sundberg, et. al., "Championing Women at the Grassroots: The Suffrage Movement in Warrensburg, Missouri, 1890-1920," Missouri Historical Review, (April, 2022), 238-254.
By Brett Williams and Andrew Stauffer
Sara Brooks Sundberg and her fellow authors look at the story of women's suffrage at the local level in the article “Championing Women at the Grassroots: The Suffrage Movement in Warrensburg Missouri 1890-1920” published in the Missouri Historical Review in 2022. It emphasized the importance of local activism and talked about the key role local Missouri women played in the women’s suffrage movement. Brooks Sundberg is a professor emerita of history at....the University of Central Missouri and has written a litany of books and articles on women’s history.[1] The article explains that a lot of the research that has been done on the women’s suffrage movement in the United States has focused on demonstrations that were done in the large population centers in the country. Because of this, one might conclude that there was nothing done at the grassroots level. This is not true. In fact, the work that suffragists did at the grassroots level was of equal importance because it made the message of the movement visible to those outside the large population centers of Kansas City and St. Louis.[2]
A major energizer for the women’s suffrage movement was the rising number of women who were attending college at the beginning of the twentieth century. This coincided with a rise in political involvement among women. This was also the case at the Second District State Normal School in Warrensburg, known today as the University of Central Missouri, or UCM. Just under half of the school’s fifty-five-member faculty were women, and the primary function of the school was to train future teachers. The school encouraged its students and professors to engage in the social and political life of the city.[3] This involvement helped to further the suffragist cause by enlisting more men and women to spread their message.
The local suffragists and women’s organizations also contributed to the continuance of prohibition in Warrensburg. This advocation for prohibition helped display the cultural divide and struggle over alcohol and demonstrated how many women sought to fight alcoholism in order to protect the family and themselves. Virginia Hedges and the WCTU led this charge in Warrensburg.[4] There was also division amongst some of the activists because some of them still believed in traditional gender roles while others fought for total gender equality.
Despite these divisions of doctrine and ideology, Warrensburg suffragists worked toward the right to vote and took part in the National Woman Suffrage Association conference in St. Louis. There were only five more towns in Missouri that did this, so Warrensburg suffragists played a key role in representing the cause of equality in the state. At the more local level in Warrensburg, faculty and students held public debates, lectures, information campaigns, and petitioned for their causes, all for the purpose of making suffrage visible in a less urban area compared to Kansas City or St. Louis.[5]
To conclude, while a broad look at the women’s suffrage movement in America might overlook the work that women in smaller communities did, their activities played a key role in bridging the gap between the large urban areas and the small rural areas. Without the work of the women from rural areas like Warrensburg, the message would have never reached the people in places. It is safe to say that these women played as big of a role as any other in the women’s suffrage movement.
[1] “Sara Brooks Sundberg,” Google Scholar, accessed February 1, 2026, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=77Exf2IAAAAJ&hl=en.
[2] Sara Brooks Sundberg, et. al., "Championing Women at the Grassroots: The Suffrage Movement in Warrensburg, Missouri, 1890-1920," The State Historical Society of Missouri (April, 2022), 238-240.
[3] Sundberg, “Championing Women at the Grassroots,” 240-241.
[4] Sundberg, “Championing Women at the Grassroots,” 241-242.
[5] Sundberg, “Championing Women at the Grassroots,” 244-246.