Alpha Suffrage Club
In summer of 1913 the passage of the Illinois Presidential and Municipal Suffrage Bill women in Chicago the opportunity to merge their social welfare activities with electoral power. This was in part due to the African American female suffrage organization, the Alpha Suffrage Club, one of the most important of it's kind in the state and the city. Established in January 1913 by black clubwoman and antilynching crusader Ida Bell Wells-Barnett and white activist Belle Squire, the club elected officers, held monthly meetings, claimed nearly two hundred members by 1916, issued the newsletter the Alpha Suffrage Record, and endorsed candidates. The club is most recognized for its pivotal role in the 1915 election of the first African American alderman in Chicago, Oscar DePriest.