Background
She was born Belva Ann Bennett, at Royalton, New York, United States on October 24, 1830
She was born Belva Ann Bennett, at Royalton, New York, United States on October 24, 1830
She was educated at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. She was graduated in 1857. Later she was graduated from the National University Law School in 1873.
Upon the death of her husband in 1853, she began to teach in various schools. Finding that she received less salary than a man with a degree, she returned to Genesee Seminaryto be graduated, and resumed her teaching.
After the Civil War she moved to Washington, D. C. , where she was admitted to the bar. Following the death of her second husband in 1877, Mrs. Lockwood became prominent as an active worker in the woman's suffrage movement, securing the passage of a bill to permit women to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1879. At the same time she was active in temperance and pacifist movements, and in gaining equal pay for women holding federal jobs. In 1884 and again in 1888, she was nominated by the National Equal Rights Party as candidate for the presidency of the United States.
In 1889, Mrs. Lockwood was a delegate to the Universal Peace Congress in Paris, and in 1892 was a member of the International Peace Bureau in Berne, Switzerland. She was commissioned by the State Department, in 1896, to represent the United States at the congress of charities and corrections in Geneva. Mrs. Lockwood was elected president of the Women's National Press Association in 1901.
Having become interested in the rights of the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, in 1900 she sponsored a bill before Congress to forbid further encroachment upon their territories, and was attorney of record in their case against the United States government, which won them a judgment of $5, 000, 000. In 1903 Mrs. Lockwood prepared an amendment to the statehood bill before Congress, which granted suffrage to women in Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Being the candidate of the National Equal Rights Party she had not a broad base of support. Lockwood did not have a serious chance of winning the presidency. Notable American Women stated she received about 4, 100 votes. [13] Since women could not vote, and most newspapers were opposed to her candidacy, it was unusual that she received any votes.
She advocated for equal rights for women. She continued to speak on behalf of peace and disarmament to the year of her death.
She was an eloquent orator and an unhesitating fighter on behalf of the ideals in which she believed.
In 1848 she married Uriah H. McNall. In 1868 she had married Dr. Ezekiel Lockwood.