Lewis, Helen Morris

Helen Morris Lewis was a prominent suffragist who unexpectedly received five votes for a North Carolina seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1896. Although she did not win that election, she went on to launch a campaign for Superintendent of Waterworks in Asheville in 1899, making her the first woman to seek election for public office in the state. Lewis was a tireless advocate for women's political recognition in the southeastern states. Between 1895 and 1896, she spoke at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention in Atlanta and in Washington, D.C., in addition to appearing before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage. Despite her efforts at the state and national levels, women's suffrage failed to take hold in North Carolina, and Lewis soon retired to her hometown of Charleston with her sister.