Oral History of Lavinia Engle

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SC-OH-00059-1.JPG (1.66 MB)
Engle-part-1_01-30-1971.pdf (7.75 MB)
Engle-part-2_02-06-1971.pdf (4.62 MB)
Engle-part-3_02-13-1971.pdf (4.49 MB)
Engle-part-4_02-27-1971.pdf (4.8 MB)

Authors

Engle, Lavinia

Issue Date

1971

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en_US

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Abstract

Lavinia Engle was a suffragist and civic leader in Montgomery County. She was born in 1892 in Forest Glen, Maryland. She earned a Bachelor’s degree at Antioch College and undertook graduate studies in Political Science and Economics at Johns Hopkins University. Engle was a leader in the woman’s suffrage movement, and she served as Maryland’s first woman delegate and the first woman Montgomery County Commissioner. She was also one of the founders of the League of Women Voters. During World War I, she served overseas with the YWCA Canteen Service. She also assisted with the organization of Social Security Field Services. Engle’s other community activities included chairing the Montgomery County Welfare Board and the Women Speakers Bureau for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Campaign Committee in the 1930s and serving on the Montgomery County Commission on Aging. In this five-part 1971 interview by Margaret Cutler and Phyllis Levine (for the League of Women Voters) the following subjects are discussed: Early life and influences, participation in the Home Interest Club of Forest Glen, organization of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, encounters with Senator Heflin and Governor Ritchie, ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920, National League of Women Voters Convention in 1922, Latin American connections, Black and white community relations, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore Sun, first woman lawyer before the Supreme Court, philosophy on racial prejudice and misogyny.

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League of Women Voters