President's Message If at First You Don’t Succeed... By Robert A. Kutcher

his year marks the 100th an- a Congress that is almost 25% percent of the 99 members of the Legislature niversary of the passage of the female and with a female Speaker of the voted in favor. One of the legislators 19th Amendment. Lest you House, it is hard to fathom how this was voted to support only when pressure be kept in suspense, the 19th an issue, but it most assuredly was. The was applied by his mother. It was cer- TAmendment states: road to was long and arduous. tainly a close call. There were several court fights, includ- It is an interesting footnote to history The right of citizens of the ing the argument that the 14th and 15th that our state did not formally adopt the United States to vote shall not be Amendments granted . 19th Amendment until 1970, some 50 denied or abridged . . . on account All these lawsuits were unsuccessful. years after its passage. of sex . . . . The first of many federal amendments Of course, the struggle did not end. was introduced in 1878. It was rejected. In many ways, the suffrage movement In other words, 100 years ago, this These efforts continued through was the forerunner of all the equality country experienced the largest single the end of the 19th century. The suf- movements since. Many employed the increase in eligible voters in history. frage movement was not monolithic. same practices. Just as state legislators Those simple words made eligible more There was a split between the white and in recent times have absented them- than 26 million voters in a country African-American suffrage movements. selves from the state to deny a quorum, which had a total population — men, There was picketing at the White House. Tennessee legislators attempted the women and children — of just more These “” demonstrated same tactic. than 100 million. By sheer numbers, for more than two years. There was im- Ours is a much different world than that significantly exceeds the potential prisonment. At the outset of World War the one which existed over a century number of eligible voters added pursu- I, only eight states had granted women ago, but it is important to remember ant to the 1965 Rights Act. the right to vote. Although the Bull that, as the battle for equal rights rages The 19th Amendment was not an Moose Party of Teddy Roosevelt ad- on today, that, at one point, you or your overnight success. Indeed, its genesis opted a constitutional amendment as a mother or wife or sisters did not have began more than 70 years earlier at plank in 1912, much of the momentum the right to vote. the in 1848. came from World War I. It was not until We will be displaying a visual pro- Although women had voting rights in 1918 that President Wilson supported gram of the 19th Amendment at our some pre-revolution colonies, any vot- suffrage, but congressional support was Annual Meeting in Destin, Fla., in June. ing rights for women were eliminated not widespread. Finally, after at least I urge you to attend and see history for soon after passage of the Constitution. five failed attempts, in 1919, the 19th yourself. That deficiency was not remedied for a Amendment was passed by Congress Unfortunately, the “equal- century. Although some states, mainly by the legally required two-thirds vote. ity” espoused in the Declaration of in the west, granted suffrage, it was far Next came state ratification. Independence and the Declaration of from universal and far from popular. There was strong opposition in many Sentiments continues to be an aspira- At the Seneca Falls Convention, led quarters, much of it from the South, tional goal, not an achievement. Since by and Lucretia which rejected the amendment. The ar- the passage of the 19th Amendment, we Mott, a “Declaration of Sentiments” ticulated basis for opposition was that have had the modeled after the Declaration of voting was a states’ rights issue, not a and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Independence was adopted by 68 wom- federal issue. Ratification was defeat- Neither came without a struggle or with- en and 32 men. The 20 declarations ed in many southern states, including out political cost. For those of us old included statements about voting, mar- Louisiana. In August 1920, that ratifica- enough to remember, the 1960s were a riage and lack of education. In a country tion came when Tennessee voted to ap- difficult time in this country, but those that is today majority female, and with prove by the narrowest of margins. Fifty fundamental freedom and “equality”

Louisiana Bar Journal February / March 2020 318 Vol. 67, No. 5 www.lsba.org acts were enacted, despite loud and vo- relatively swift acknowledgement of the hold and honor the law or support a good cal opposition. It’s not always easy to be constitutionality of same-sex marriage faith modification, reversal or extension on the right side of history. is not without its opposition nor will of the law. That is our sworn duty. So, in It was less than 50 years from the the coming fight over the Equal Rights celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Stonewall riots to the 2015 Supreme Court Amendment be without controversy. adoption of the 19th Amendment, let us decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which Ours is an evolving and ever chang- all commit to the concept that all men found same-sex marriage constitutional, ing society. What was once acceptable and women are created equal. but just as with women’s suffrage and and legal is no longer the case. As law- the Voting Rights Act, the recent and yers, it is our collective obligation to up-

Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort Destin, Florida 2020 LSBA Annual Meeting & Joint LJC/ LSBA Summer School

Vol. 67, No. 5 www.lsba.org Louisiana Bar Journal February / March 2020 319 Vol. 67, No. 5 www.lsba.org