Laura deForce Gordon (1838-1907)

1850- Laura helps watch her eight siblings as her mother works day and night as a seamstress to support their large family. Her father is abed and wracked with the pain from his rheumatism. She notices just how difficult it is for her mother, and thinks that if ever she should get a chance to change things for all women, she would take it. And now, the tears flow, and she stabs herself repeatedly with a needle as she tries to assist her mother, who is also torn in grief over her dead son. They do have some consolation, however, as they have been to see a spiritualist, who has given them information about their lost one in the “summerlands.” Laura feels enraptured by this experience, she begins to set her mind to contacting the spirit world. She will become a trance speaker and leave home to pursue this as a career at the age of 15.

1862- Laura has caught the eye and the heart of a young doctor, Charles H. Gordon, who has witnessed the marvels of Laura’s invoking the spirits of the departed while in a trance state. He is intrigued by what she has to say on the abolition of alcohol, women’s rights and spiritualism. His heart was taken when some other men broke out to debate the young woman, and she returned the favor, cutting them with her tongue so succinctly that the entire gathered assembly rose to their feet to applaud her wit and fierce elocution. They marry and travel to Louisiana and then finally settling in California.

1868- Laura delivers California’s first ever recorded speech on women’s rights and suffrage in San Francisco. She will go on to deliver over a hundred of such speeches over the course of her public career.

1870- Laura helps found the California Woman’s Suffrage Society, and will speak on their behalf to the state legislature many times. She will go on to become their president from 1884-1894.

1871- Laura is nominated to the California state senate. She cannot get anyone to give her press releases, so she buys her own paper. Although she fails to win the desired seat, she successfully transitions her paper to a daily print, becoming the first woman of all time to publish her own daily paper. She becomes quite successful in this role, using her platform to discuss the issues that are important to her. She champions temperance, women's suffrage, and spiritualism. She is, however, guilty of racist rhetoric against Chinese immigration, arguing that it has taken work from whites, and does feel that white women should get the vote before Chinese men.

1878- Working with friend and fellow writer and activist, Clara Shortridge Foltz, Laura challenges the California state bar association in their white males only policy. They draft the women’s lawyer bill which allows any “citizen” to get entry to the bar. Despite setbacks, such as the other male students blocking their entrance and being asked by the law school not to return, they had the state constitution change, sued the school and became the first two women allowed to the bar for the supreme court of the state of California. She went on to have a very successful third career as a litigator.

1880- Laura divorces her husband after a private investigator reveals that he had been hired by his husband’s abandoned first wife (Scottish) to find him after almost twenty years. In 1979, a hundred year old time capsule is found with Laura’s written statement declaring herself a “lover of her own sex”. Many claim her now as a gay icon, however, the truth about Laura’s sexuality may never be known.

1907- Laura dies from complications of a cold.

1911- The state of California becomes one of the first states to give women the vote nearly fifty years after Laura got the ball rolling with her unparalleled oratorical skills.

Laura de Force Gordon challenged male supremacy, used her amazing gifts of speech to enact real legislative change for her gender and helped bring the issue of women's suffrage to the forefront of public debate. She honed these skills and embraced the philosophy of equality by becoming a successful medium in the spiritualist movement. Wherever spiritualists would travel and speak, the song of equality and social justice would be heard.

Below is a transcript of a speech Laura de Force delivered on the subject of women’s rights.

WOMAN'S SPHERE FROM A WOMAN'S STANDPOINT. By MRS. LAURA DE FORCE GORDON.