Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920

Biography of Annie Clay Crenshaw, 1869-1932

By Esta Tovstiadi, librarian, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam New York

Annie Clay was born in 1859 in Richmond, Kentucky. Her parents, both from influential Kentucky families, were Mary Jane Warfield Clay and Cassius Marcellus Clay. She moved to Lexington, KY in 1878 with her mother after her parents divorced. She was active in the Lexington suffrage movement, authoring a column for the Kentucky Gazette. In 1886 at the age of twenty-seven, she married businessman, Spottswood Dabney Crenshaw, and moved to his home of Richmond, Virginia. They later had four children: daughters Fanny and Warfield, and sons S.D. Junior and Clay Crenshaw. In Richmond she was instrumental in the development of the local suffrage movement. She was also a member of the Women's Club of Richmond.

Sometime near the end of the nineteenth century, Anne formed and served as the first President of the Richmond Equal Rights Association, but little is known about this organization. Later, she was one of eighteen women involved in the creation of the Equal Suffrage League (ESL) of Virginia. Her home, located at a fashionable address at 919 West Franklin Street, served as the group's initial meeting place in November 1909. According to records left by one of the attendees at the meeting, the women left in twos and threes to avoid attracting attention as they disbursed as suffrage remained a controversial issue. The house on West Franklin Street, now owned by Virginia Commonwealth University was renamed Crenshaw House in 2009 and fittingly houses the department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies.

At a second meeting of the new state chapter, again held at her house, Crenshaw was elected to the ESL's board of directors. Relying on connections her sister, Laura had with leaders in the movement, she proposed and set in motion a plan to invite Mrs. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, to Richmond. Shaw came in January 1910 as a guest of Crenshaw and stayed in her home.

Organizing Shaw's lecture was Crenshaw's last major contribution to the ESL. She became less active in the organization in the 19-teens, possibly due to her responsibilities as a mother. A granddaughter remembers that though the household relied on servants, Mrs. Crenshaw played an active role in her children's upbringing and carefully oversaw their day-to-day affairs. Still, Anne supported the cause of women's suffrage albeit in less public ways. Around 1915, she signed a petition calling for the General Assembly of Virginia to amend the state's constitution to include women's suffrage. Additionally, she registered to vote shortly after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She believed that women deserved the vote; she believed that women were equal to men, and she acted on these principles.

Crenshaw died in March 1945 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.#x200e

Sources:

"Anne Clay Crenshaw and the Women's Suffrage Movement in Virginia," accessed Dec 1, 2017 at: https://web.archive.org/web/20050207151110/http:/www.library.vcu.edu:80/jbc/speccoll/exhibit/crenshaw.html

Bonis, Ray. "Anne Clay Crenshaw and the Women's Suffrage Movement in Virginia," spring 1998. Accessed March 14, 2018 at https://web.archive.org/web/20070212164006/http://www.library.vcu.edu:80/jbc/speccoll/exhibit/crenshaw.html

Fuller, Paul E. Laura Clay and the Woman's Rights Movement. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1975.

Johnson, Claire. "Mary Johnston: A Suffragist of, and Ahead of, Her Time," June 28, 2017. Accessed March 14, 2018 at http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/fit-to-print/2017/06/28/mary-johnston-a-suffragist-of-and-ahead-of-her-time/

Kollatz, Jr., Harry. "The Genteel Crusaders," Richmond Mag, August 27, 2012. Accessed March 14, 2018 at http://richmondmagazine.com/news/richmond-history/womens-suffrage-in-richmond/.

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Crenshaw House, 2010. Accessed March 14, 2018 at https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Richmond/127-0228-0029_Crenshaw_House_2010_NR_FINAL.pdf.

Porter, Mike. "A Trip Through Time," Virginia Commonwealth University, November 20, 2009. Accessed March 14, 2018 at: https://www.news.vcu.edu/article/A_trip_through_time

Tyler, Lyon G. Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life; a Collection of Biographies of the Leading Men in the State, Volume 5. Men of Mark Publishing Company: 1909. Accessed Dec 10, 2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=IDoUAAAAYAAJ&dq=anne%20clay%20crenshaw&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q=anne%20clay%20crenshaw&f=false

https://www.news.vcu.edu/article/A_trip_through_time.

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