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Home , Alpha Suffrage Club, Lucretia Mott, Pauline Adams, Voter registration

August 2020 CIVICS 101

` 100 Years+ of Women We stand on their shoulders

lwvwilliamsburg.org

Mary Ann Moxon & Bobbie Falquet LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS—WILLIAMSBURG AREA LOOKING BACK 100 years go, in 1920 . . . ▪ Suffragist founded the League of Women Voters on February 14, 1920; 6 months before the 19th Amendment was ratified! ▪ Catt envisioned LWV as a "mighty political experiment" to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. What will we cover today?

The Fight for Women’s Suffrage in America for MANY Generations

• How the fight began • Who were in the many generations of suffragists beyond the well-known? • Who was left out of the history of suffrage? • Answer your questions, submit in Chat Box

Again. . . THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING! Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) may be the best known suffragist. But it took the U.S. Mint until 1979 to produce the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin to honor her. But long before Susan B. Anthony was (1744-1818)

I desire that you would “Remember the Ladies!” to husband John, in 1776

“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)

• such as are closely connected with fighting for the right to vote, opposing slavery & equality of the sexes • Most Quakers were abolitionists. (1797-1883)

• A powerful advocate for human rights • Women of color were integral to the women suffrage movement but often overlooked. • In an 1867 speech, Sojourner Truth had argued that giving black men the right to vote without affording black women the same right only promoted black men's dominance. Did the women’s suffrage movement start at a tea party in State on July 9, 1848?

▪ A well-to-do Quaker had invited four other Quakers to enjoy a cup of tea with her. ▪ Two of the women there that day were Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902). ▪ They began to air their grievances about the world’s injustices toward women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton had A LOT to say that day over tea, including . . .

“The right to vote is ours. Have it, we must. Use it, we will.” So just 10 days after that tea, . . .

• About 300 women and men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19-20, 1848 for “a Convention to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of women.” • They drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that included the vote for women as ONE of the human Susan B. Anthony was NOT at this rights. convention. • Right to vote passed & was signed by 62 women & 32 men 1870: Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony

Amelia Bloomer (1818-1895) friendship, betrayal & reconciliation (1818-1893)

• Abolitionist, suffragist & renowned orator • First female college graduate in • Helped form AWSA (American Woman Suffrage Association) • Favored giving women the right to divorce, eventually coming to the view that the reform of marriage laws was more important than women's rights • Died 30 years before women could vote; daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, carried the torch Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)

• Born free in • Abolitionist & suffragist • Poet, novelist & orator; one of the first Black women to be published in the U.S. • Refused to give up her seat on a trolley car in in 1858 (100 years before ) • Helped to found the National Association of Colored Women in 1894 • Died in 1911, nine years before women won the right to vote Associations

“Suffering” husbands

Suffrage Opponents Organized in

• In 1912, the Virginia Association Opposed to Women Suffrage believed that women were “above the dirty business of politics.” • They believed that African- American women would vote in large numbers, elect blacks and threaten white supremacy in Virginia. NOT particularly kind either! Suffragist or ?

American women called themselves suffragists.

• was a term coined by a British journalist in 1906 to mock women who used “militant” efforts like arson, hunger strikes, & destruction of public property. • The diminutive suffix, “-ette,” was meant to minimize these women but they embraced this intended insult and called themselves “suffra-GET-tes,” with a hard “g,” to signify that they were going to “get” the right to vote. Virginia women: VERY active suffragists too.

• Twenty prominent Richmond women founded the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL) with as president until 1920. • In 1912, Virginia House of Delegates voted 85 to 12 against amending the Virginia Constitution to allow women to • In 1871, Anna Whitehead vote. Bodeker dropped a note into a • 74 to 13 against it in 1914 box in Richmond after • 52 to 40 in 1916 election judges refused to accept her ballot; Victoria • NO against the 19th in 1920 Woodhull too • Finally ratified 19th Amendment in 1952 • an active advocate • Approved a resolution supporting women suffrage • Advocated creation of “political study clubs” to stay informed • Hampton and Norfolk In 1912, numerous African- members staged a suffrage American women in parade Virginia attended the National Association of • Blacks women NOT welcome as Colored Women’s members of the Equal Suffrage convention in Hampton. League They marched so that WE could vote! 1912 Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (1896-1966)

• Chinese advocate for women’s suffrage • Famous for riding horseback in the 1912 suffrage parade in New York • New York allowed women to vote in 1917 but Lee could NOT vote because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 • 1934’s Magnuson Act granted citizenship & the vote to Chinese Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)

• Teacher, writer and early leader in the civil rights movement • Founded first African American suffrage organization in Chicago (Alpha Suffrage Club) • Investigative journalist who exposed the horrors of lynching • Awarded Pulitzer in 2020

27 Mary Church Terrill (1863-1954)

• Worked to end discriminatory practices of Washington D.C. restaurants using sit-ins & boycotts • Racism and discrimination frequently showed its ugly face inside some women suffrage campaigns • 1896, founder & first president of National Association of Colored Women (NACW) • By the 1900s, Black suffrage clubs had been launched all over the country. Inez Milholland (1886-1916)

March 3, 1913, Washington D.C. (1885-1977)

• New Jersey’s Alice Paul believed in more MILITANT tactics. • Organized the first-ever march on the National Mall in D.C. in 1913, calling for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote • Thousands of women from across the country gathered • 1923: Introduced the ERA to Congress March 3, 1913 Parade; Washington D.C. Who was there? Sorority

• Rumors that the March 3, 1913 parade in D.C. would be met by catcalls and perhaps violence • 22 Sorority members marched at that parade • Segregated at back at start of the march • Some broke ranks and mixed in with other marchers Osceola Macarthy Adams & Bertha Pitts Campbell co-founded this • At age 92, Bertha Campbell led sorority at Howard University in 10,000 Deltas in 1981 in a 1913 commemoration of that parade 1913 Suffrage Parade program Mary Louise Bottineau Baldwin (1863-1952)

• A suffragist who has really been marginalized • Chippewa lawyer; first Native American graduate of Washington College of Law • Emphasized the value of traditional Native cultures • Marched in the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington D.C. WE STILL MARCH! Rose Bowl Parade, Pasadena, California 2020 How to get Wilson’s attention The “” visit President Wilson

Virginians Pauline Adams and Maud Jamison were on the picket line and imprisoned in 1917 and 1918, leading to the “turning point” that we will soon address. SUFFRAGE! . . . that rather intimidating word.

Frequently mispronounced as SUFFERage—and some of the early proponents of women voting did indeed suffer. Alice Paul had past experience in England with Emmeline Pankhurst “Night of Terror” November 14, 1917

• 27 arrests between June 22 and 26, 1917 • After picketing the White House, 33 suffragists were arrested, incarcerated, tortured and some were force fed at the Occuquan Workhouse in Virginia. • Lucy Burns (1879-1966) was one of them. She served six different prison sentences for picketing the White House. • Oldest was 73-year-old Mary Nolan who wrote down the account “Turning Point” Suffragist Memorial Lorton, Virginia

The groundbreaking date of this memorial in 2019 coincided with the 102nd anniversary of the Night of Terror, when suffragists who were illegally arrested after picketing the White House were incarcerated, abused and tortured on the nearby prison grounds. National Woman’s Party Prison Pin

• This metal brooch became a treasured memento of membership in an incredibly select society. • 89 women, all dressed in suffrage white, were honored at a theatre in Washington D.C. in 1917 • Many of the former pickets wore them for the rest of their lives. “We WORK beside you, We FIGHT beside you, We DIE beside you – Let us VOTE beside you.” 19th Amendment Timeline in 1919

• May 21, 1919: Illinois Republican Representative, James Mann proposed resolution; House passed 19th Amendment by 304-89 vote • Two weeks later on June 4, 1919: U.S. Senate passed 19th by 2 votes • Within 6 days, Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin ratified • Southern states adamantly opposed “Got to be in the room where it happens”

• 56 campaigns of referenda to male voters • 480 campaigns to get Legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters • 47 campaigns to get State constitutional conventions to write woman suffrage into state constitutions • 277 campaigns to get State party conventions to include woman suffrage planks • 30 campaigns to get presidential party conventions to adopt woman suffrage planks in party platforms • 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) National Woman Suffrage Association President 1896 Some women could vote! By 1910 By 1918 Finally ONE more state was needed “Be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt” with her ‘RATS’ [ratification] (August 18, 1920)

• Tennessee was the last chance • First term Republican legislator, 24-year-old Harry T. Burn listened to his mother • 19th Amendment became law on August 26, 1920. • Virginia did not ratify it until February 1952—32 years later. Elizabeth Cady Stanton with daughter Harriot (1856)

• “Young suffragists who helped forge the last links of that chain were not born when it began. Old suffragists who forged the first links were dead when it ended.” (Carrie Chapman Catt) • Only one woman from the , Charlotte Woodward Pierce, got to vote in 1920 August 18, 1920 “The right of citizens of the to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Alice Paul sewing the last star on the ratification flag Maggie Lena Walker (1864-1934)

• First Black female president of a U.S. bank • Used her influence to push for women’s suffrage in Virginia • Registered hundreds of Black women to vote after the 19th Amendment passed • Marked Nov. 2, 1920 — Credit...Courtesy of National Park Service, Maggie L. Walker Election Day — as a National Historic Site holiday in her diary Mary McCleod Bethune (1875-1955) ▪ Teacher and champion of racial and gender equality. ▪ Led voter registration drives, risking racist attacks ▪ Co-founded United Negro College Fund ▪ Close friend of Eleanor & Franklin Roosevelt Victory in 1920

75,000-100,000 women register to vote in Virginia. Some registrars resign in protest. • Faculty members at Virginia Normal & Industrial Institute near Petersburg successfully registered to vote • More than 75,000 Virginia women voted for the first time on November 2, 1920 Nevertheless they persisted VOTE in 2020! Run for office! 2020: about 24 percent of Congress Was this your phone the last time you called any elected official?

• Share your views! • Call your Members of Congress • Call your City or elected officials • Speak out against racial injustice & all evils • Protest peacefully (observing social distancing & wearing a mask) • Attend a Board of Supervisors, City Council or School Board meeting (when it is safe to do so) Don’t know how to contact them? Or who they are?

• Print off the complete brochure, FACTS FOR VOTERS, on the Williamsburg Area LWV’s website • State level, JCC & York Counties, City of Williamsburg, School Board links • Voter registration info, etc.

lwvwilliamsburg,org National Archives Exhibit CIVICS 101 NEXT MONTH: September 15, 2020; 4 p.m.

Barriers to Voting Suppression or Fraud? Thank you for joining us today! Any questions? Women Suffrage Webinar Sources

• PBS “The Vote” • “Shall Not Be Denied” • Library of Virginia “We Demand” • The Myth of Seneca Falls by Lisa Tetrault (2017) • The Untold Story of Women of Color in the League of Women Voters by Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins (2020) • 19th Amendment: A Woman’s Right to Vote 26-minute video from University of ’s Annenberg Public Policy Center March 3, 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade Washington D.C.