Jennie C. Van Ness

Jennie Carolyn (Sullivan) Van Ness (August 27, 1879 – September 15, 1967) was a leader in the women's suffrage and Prohibition movements in New Jersey. She was one of the first two women to serve in the New Jersey Legislature, elected in 1920 as a Republican.

Early life and career

Jennie Carolyn Sullivan was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1879, the daughter of John and Caroline Sullivan. She married Frank W. Van Ness, a businessman, and they settled in East Orange, New Jersey, where they raised three daughters.

Van Ness worked as a substitute teacher at East Orange High School and was an active local civic organizer. She also joined the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association (NJWSA), a group founded by Lucy Stone and other New Jersey suffragists in 1867. Van Ness ran the NJWSA's citizenship schools, which sought to educate women throughout the state in government and politics. In April 1920, when the NJWSA was reorganized as the New Jersey League of Women Voters, she was made a regional director and also chaired a board to draw up a state program on legislative issues. Also elected on the Essex County slate was Walter G. Alexander, the first African American to serve in the legislature.

During her single term in the Assembly, Van Ness served on the standing committees for Education and for Unfinished Business, and on the joint committees for the Industrial School for Girls, the School for Feeble Minded Children, and the State Library. She supported Republican legislation granting women equal privileges in government employment, as well as equal representation on party committees.

Introduced in early 1921, the act passed the Republican-controlled legislature over the veto of Governor Edward I. Edwards and became law. In the 1921 legislative election, "wet" (anti-Prohibition) candidates strenuously opposed the Van Ness Act as a violation of constitutional and personal liberties. Anti-Prohibition forces also made a special drive to defeat Van Ness in her Essex County race. She was the only Republican candidate on the Essex County slate to fail to be reelected in November 1921.

The Van Ness Act was on the books for less than a year, as the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals ruled it unconstitutional in February 1922.

Later life

After her defeat Van Ness continued to be active in the New Jersey Women's Republican Club, serving as the club's legislative chair in 1926. In 1927, she looked back on the first wave of suffragists to seek political office:

According to Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women, "after 1931 no reference to Van Ness appears in the public record." She died on September 15, 1967, in Wilmington, North Carolina.