Alva Erskine Belmont ( January 17, 1853 - January 26, 1933) was a multi-millionaire American socialite and a major funder of the women's suffrage movement. January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The movement for womens suffrage, led by suffragists (peaceful protestors) and suffragettes (violent protestors), was a social, economic and political reform movement aimed at extending the suffrage (the right to vote) to women, advocating equal suffrage (abolition of graded votes) rather than universal suffrage (abolition of all discrimination, for...

Born Alva Erskine Smith in Mobile, Alabama, the daughter of a cotton planter, the American Civil War ruined her family, who decamped, like many other Southerners, to Paris. Her family returned to America, this time to New York, after France's defeat by Prussia in 1871. Alva's mother was forced to open a boardinghouse on West 23rd Street. Alva resolved to try to marry a rich man, joining New York's Belle Underground of girls from good Southern families ruined by the Civil War who married New York bankers, brokers and merchants. The technique was for a well-connected female friend to introduce the young woman to a suitable match. Alva had just such a presenter in María Consuelo Yznaga del Valle, a childhood friend from Natchez, with grand Cuban-Spanish relations, and who later became the Duchess of Manchester. On April 20, 1875, she married William Kissam Vanderbilt. Alva proceeded to spend millions after she married Vanderbilt, building mansions and throwing grand parties. Motto: Nickname: The Azalea City Location in Alabama Founded Incorporated 1702 1814  County Mobile County Borough {{{borough}}} Parrish {{{parrish}}} Mayor Sam Jones Area  - Total  - Water 412. ... The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the... The U.S. Southern states or the South, also known colloquially as Dixie, constitute a distinctive region covering a large portion of the United States, with its own unique heritage, historical perspective, customs, musical styles, and cuisine. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... ... State nickname: The Empire State Official languages English Capital Albany Largest city New York City Governor George Pataki (R) Senators Charles Schumer (D) Hillary Clinton (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 13. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: PrÅ«sai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... William Kissam Vanderbilt (December 12, 1849 – July 22, 1920) was a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family. ...

Alva and William K. divorced with Alva receiving a hefty settlement. On January 11, 1896, Oliver Belmont married Alva, five years his senior. As a member of the Newport summer colony, Alva reigned over two of the greatest summer "cottages" in Newport, Belcourt and Marble House. Marble House had been her 39th birthday present from her former husband and Belcourt was the summer residence of her second husband. January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (November 12, 1858 - June 10, 1908) was a wealthy American socialite and Congressman. ... A side street in Newport, Rhode Island, showing the historic buildings near the waterfront Newport is a city located in Newport County, Rhode Island, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Providence. ... Belcourt Castle is the former summer cottage of Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, located in Newport, Rhode Island. ... Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island. ...

Drawn to the women's suffrage movement by Anna Shaw around the time of Oliver Belmont's death in 1908, Alva donated large sums to the movement, both in the United Kingdom and United States. She founded Political Equality League (1909) financed both the NAWSA and Alice Paul's Congressional Union and National Woman's Party (of which she became the head in 1921 and to which she donated the Sewall-Belmont House in Washington, D.C.). She was a lifelong racist. "I was a natural dictator," she wrote of herself. "I enjoyed nothing so much as tyrannizing over the little slave children on my father's cotton plantation." There are historians who now believe that her strong racist attitudes helped to perpetuate barriers against black men and women to keep them from voting [1], [2] 1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was created in 1890, when two competing American womens suffrage advocacy groups united. ... Alice Paul Alice Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American suffragist leader. ... The Congressional Union was a radical American organization formed in 1913 and led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. ... The National Womans Party (NWP), was a womens organization founded in 1913 that fought for womens rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men and against employment discrimination. ... Washington, D.C. is the capital city of the United States of America. ... An African-American man drinks out of the colored only water fountain at a racially segregated streetcar terminal in the United States in 1939. ...

She moved to France, where she died on January 26, 1933. She is interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Located in The Bronx, Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City. ... The Bronx is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the United States. ... State nickname: The Empire State Official languages English Capital Albany Largest city New York City Governor George Pataki (R) Senators Charles Schumer (D) Hillary Clinton (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 13. ...

Quotation

"Just pray to God. She will help you."

Sources

The Vanderbilt Women: Dynasty of Wealth, Glamour and Tragedy Clarice Stasz. New York, iUniverse, 2000.

External link

• Article on Alva Belmont and other suffragettes from New York Newsday