Antoinette Brown Blackwell died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, at age 96, having lived to see women win the right to vote nationwide.
Antoinette Brown Blackwell died on November 5, 1921, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, at the age of 96. She was the last surviving member of the pioneering generation of American women's rights activists who had launched the movement in the 1840s and 1850s, having outlived contemporaries such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and her own sister-in-law and close friend Lucy Stone.
Her death came just over a year after she cast her vote in the November 1920 presidential election, the first in which women could vote nationally following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment—a right she had championed for nearly seven decades. Blackwell's long life allowed her to witness the complete arc of the suffrage movement from its contentious beginnings to its ultimate legislative triumph.
By the time of her death, Blackwell had amassed a remarkable legacy: the first woman ordained as a minister of a recognized Protestant denomination in the United States, a published author of numerous books spanning theology, philosophy, and science, and a tireless advocate for abolition, temperance, and women's rights throughout her adult life.
Her death was noted in newspapers and historical societies as marking the end of an era—the final living link to the founding generation of American feminists. Her multifaceted legacy as minister, author, philosopher, and activist continues to be commemorated by institutions including Oberlin College, the National Women's Hall of Fame, and numerous historical societies in New York State.