Today marks the anniversary of well-known suffragist Hattie Hooker Wilkins’ victory for a seat in the Alabama House of Representatives.

Wilkins, a Selma native born on July 28, 1875, won the House seat on Aug. 8, 1922, making her the first woman elected into the Alabama Legislature, according to the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame (AWHOF).

“Following her election, she said, ‘When I go to Montgomery, I hope that I may not fail to do at the legislature anything that will be helpful to my state, its women, and its people,’” according to the AWHOF.

The hall of fame goes on to say Wilkins was a “pioneer suffragist in Alabama and was a founding member of both the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association and the Alabama League of Women Voters.”

“Self-direction or freedom of choice is necessary to the highest mental and spiritual development of a human being,” she quoted according to the AWHOF. “Because democracy gives to each person this opportunity for development, democracy is right. Because democracy is right, Woman Suffrage is right.”

Wilkins was born to Frederick Josiah Hooker and Alexina Fellows Hooker. She was educated at Boss Calloway’s School in Selma and attended Normal College in Nashville, Tennessee. She taught school prior to her marriage in 1898. She was active at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church.

She was described during her political campaign as “a woman of rare culture and brilliant mentality, being a leading club woman, prominent in church circles. Her most significant accomplishment was that of wife and mother, and maker of a beautiful home that is a center of refinement and those lovely characteristics that go to make the perfect home life.”

Let us not forget that impactful people come from our town whether in the Civil Rights Marches or women like Wilkins who helped lead the way for Suffrage. We can continue to be powerful and influential people if we carry the same passion that those before us have.