A Brief History of the LWVGP
Our League was organized in early 1950 as the League of Women Voters of Grosse Pointe Park, a Provincial League with 30 members. The impetus was a Citizens Committee that formed, due to some questionable things happening in city government. It was promoted by Karl Goddard, the Park Village President during the 1940s, primarily to add transparency in government.
Lillian Pear was named president of the new League. We soon added members from all the Grosse Pointes as our membership grew to 200 in just two years, focused on voter registration and turnout.
We printed the first Voter Guides just a few years later, and from 1954-56 our League printed 7,500 Voter Guides for the pre-primary election on our very own mimeograph machine. The local paper called this effort “one of the most complete and unbiased reports to ever reach our desk.”
The first “This is Your Grosse Pointe” book with information about all five Pointes was published in 1954 and updated every decade until the 2000’s when the internet made such information easier to find.
The 1960s ushered in the first “Candidate Forums”. By the early 1970’s the League was often called upon to moderate candidate and community forums and even worked on ABC TV’s election night reporting.
During this time, our League was also developing local positions and often gathered to learn more about our “study items”, our local “big issues” including: water conservation, equality of opportunity in education and employment, trade measures, and the need for a community college in Wayne County. That college opened in 1967.
In the 1980s, our League launched the Pointe’s first recycling efforts.
In more recent years, our League added many members from Macomb County. We nurtured their education and growth until they were ready to become an independent unit in 2018. That league is going strong today.
And, in recent years, we presented programs to the community on a wide range of topics including: voter education, voting rights, gerrymandering, climate change, and book banning. We also participated in the 2018 and 2024 Promote the Vote ballot proposals to make Michigan voting more fair.
So, what are we doing today? Each year, our League distributes 6,000 “Your Government Officials” brochures and thousands of Voter Guides. We collaborate with VOTE411.org to inform voters about their local candidates. We register new voters at four local high schools. We hold public events to explain changes in the voting laws, and continue to conduct candidate forums for local, contested elections.
And we love doing this with partners. We have partnered locally with the AAUW, the Junior League, the War Memorial, the Grosse Pointe Public Library, the Helm, the Mothers’ Club, the NAACP, the PTA, and both Rotary Clubs to present programs of mutual interest.
In conclusion, I’d like to quote Barbara Thompson, a League member who joined in 1953. She wrote: “The League member is one who craves the stimulation of diverse thinking, who is considerate of others’ differing positions, and who believes that the best work is based upon study, research, and fact.”
Presented by Susan Acton at the LWVGP 75th Anniversary Celebration on October 5, 2025, at the Country Club of Detroit, with guest speaker Barbara McQuade.