Billy is for the women; sure, give them a vote, 1918

In 1918, Billy Sunday stepped into one of America’s most divisive debates — women’s suffrage. What drove him? What can we learn from that boldness?

A century later, his words still challenge us to consider what moral courage looks like in public life today.

This original 1918 newspaper article captures Billy Sunday’s public support for women’s right to vote. At a time when the nation was debating suffrage, Sunday’s words reveal both his moral clarity and his ability to speak into civic life with conviction and wit.

The Washington Herald. Jan 9

Evangelist Says He Favored Proposition Long Before It Became a Fad. To Open Suffrage Session With Prayer.

With the vote on the suffrage amendment coming tomorrow, Rev. William A. Sunday is another prominent individual who is taking the opportunity to reiterate his faith in “votes for women.”

In a signed statement which “Billy” Sunday gave Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, of the National Woman’s Party, last night, the evangelist says:

“It is nothing new for me to favor woman suffrage. I have been advocating it for years, even before it became popular. We are living today in a new era. If she is good enough to be our mother and our wife, good enough to preside over our home, to care for us in times of sickness and to share our joys and our sorrows, why should she be denied the privilege of voting?

“Today, more nearly than ever before, she bears equally with men the world’s burdens. What would the nations of the earth do without her aid, either in times of peace or war? Women are sharing equally with men the burdens and the sacrifices of this war.

“They are in the munitions factories and in the fields of agriculture and in all other departments of war service. Without their co-operation the war could not be waged to a successful conclusion. As they share in the burdens they should also share in the responsibilities of government.

“I see no reason why the men and women of the nation should not walk side by side in the matters of law enactment as well as in the home and social life.”

Mr. Sunday will offer the prayer at the opening of the House tomorrow when the suffrage vote is take.

<End of newspaper article>

Sunday’s endorsement came just months before Congress passed the 19th Amendment in 1919. His statement offers a glimpse into how revivalists connected moral reform with public policy—a reminder that faith and social conscience have always been intertwined in the American story.