Laura Clay (February 9, 1849 – June 29, 1941) was a leader of the American women’s suffrage movement and the co-founder and first president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association. She was one of the most important suffragists in the South, favoring the states’ rights approach to suffrage. A powerful orator, she was active in the Democratic Party and had important leadership roles in local, state and national politics. In 1920 at the Democratic National Convention, she was one of two women to be the first women to have their names placed into nomination for the presidency at the convention of a major political party. This photograph by the Gerhard Sisters shows Clay in 1916.

Credit: Gerhard Sisters

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