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xi Foreword Madeline McDowell Breckinridge is one of the most important figures in the history of Kentucky as well as a major figure in the interconnected histories of the Progressive Era and the woman suffrage movement in the United States. She contributed to the enactment of Progressive reforms and the success of woman suffrage at every level: local, state, and national. As she rose to become a member of the boards of the National Conference of Social Work, the National Child Labor Committee, and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she applied ideas gleaned from her successes in Kentucky. Conversely, she brought to her beloved Kentucky ideas she acquired from her association with national and international experts and activists. As historian Melba Porter Hay tells us, “Madge” was an extraordinary woman from an extraordinary family who married into another such family . The descendant of Henry Clay and Judge Samuel McDowell, she was the daughter of privilege. She was, however, brought up in the tradition of her distinguished ancestors to believe that from great privilege comes great responsibility. In addition, her personal struggle against tuberculosis led her from a carefree girlhood into a life of service to others. With her marriage to Desha Breckinridge, she gained a husband whom she persuaded to support her causes and a newspaper through which to promote them. She also acquired a sister-in-law, Sophonisba Breckinridge, through whom she developed strong connections with leading social scientists at the University of Chicago and with settlement house workers, including the celebrated Jane Addams. Like Addams, Madeline Breckinridge exemplifies the generation of women who, in the Progressive Era, applied new research by social scientists in attempts to interrupt the cycle of poverty, seeking to resolve rather than ameliorate social problems. In the process, Breckinridge and her contemporaries bridged the gap between private charities and the emerging field of social work. Working through the Lexington Civic League, the Associated Charities, and other organizations, Breckinridge made tremen- xii dous contributions to her community and her state, particularly to children and the poor, white and black. Being particularly devoted to children, she worked to get them out of the workplace and into school, sought to provide them with quality education and safe places to play, and advocated judicial reforms to insure that young people who made mistakes got second chances through juvenile justice programs. Her own suffering made her especially devoted to improving public health, and she supported many health-related causes, from provision of pure water and milk to the prevention and cure of tuberculosis—the disease that ravaged her own family. Madeline McDowell Breckinridge’s sense of justice and her desire to enhance women’s power to support Progressive reforms led her to become an advocate of woman suffrage. Building upon the work of Laura Clay, the founder of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, she applied her organizational and oratorical talents to advance the cause in her state; as a result, Kentucky was one of four—and only four—southern states to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. Breckinridge, an ardent proponent of woman suffrage by either state or federal action, rose to national prominence in the movement and did much to further the cause. As Second Vice President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), she helped bring other southern women to join national suffragists in the final battle for the federal woman suffrage amendment— action that placed her in direct opposition to Laura Clay who, despite decades of commitment to woman suffrage, opposed the federal amendment as a violation of states’ rights. Few realize, however, the extent or significance of Breckinridge’s contributions to the movement or the fact that she nearly became the national president of the NAWSA. With the publication of this book, this admirable and influential figure has finally received the recognition she deserves. Scholars interested in the history of Kentucky, Progressivism, and woman suffrage will find Hay’s meticulously researched, richly detailed biography invaluable, yet the author tells this compelling story in such a way that it achieves a much wider appeal. Breckinridge’s story is a deeply personal and inspirational account of an extraordinary woman whose advantages and adversities led her to seize new opportunities for women and to do extraordinary things. She built a legacy of civic justice and equality that still resonates today. Marjorie Julian Spruill The University of South Carolina Foreword ...

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