In New York, SUSAN B. ANTHONY and ELIZABETH CADY STANTON formed the National Woman Suffrage Association on this date. The National Association was created in response to a split in the American Equal Rights Association over whether the woman’s movement should support the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Its founders, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, opposed the Fifteenth Amendment unless it included the vote for women. Men were able to join the organization as members; however, women solely controlled the leadership of the group. The NWSA worked to secure women’s enfranchisement through a federal constitutional amendment. 

Contrarily, its rival, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), believed success could be more easily achieved through state-by-state campaigns. In 1890 the NWSA and the AWSA merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).