When the women before us got the vote
June 4, 2019 marks the 100 year anniversary of Congress passing the 19th Amendment, spelling out in our Constitution that “[t]he right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
A couple of things here.
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Did this mean all women got the vote? No. Black women were systematically shut out by their local and state governments, and American Indian women weren’t considered United States citizens until the passing of the Snyder Act in 1924.
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The 19th Amendment happened through decades and decades and decades of hardcore campaigning, writing, and activism. Women like Judith Sargent Murray, Lucy Stone, Mary Church Terrell, Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, Sojourner Truth, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, Ida B. Wells, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Inez Milholland, and SO MANY MORE dedicated their energy to increasing the rights of half of the United States.
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They were the first people to picket the White House. They drove cross country on a public awareness campaign. They visited every town west of the Mississippi with at least 10,000 people. They organized parades in DC and New York. They were jeered at, attacked, and arrested. The president ignored them. Men called them un-American. Women called them un-American. They kept on going.
No one woman or one group made the vote happen. It was the result of a collective effort, with everyone involved contributing what they could. Through their work, the United States got one step closer to its founding belief – with a little tweak from Elizabeth Cady Stanton – that “all men and women are created equal.”
Let’s honor their legacy today by holding in our minds, hearts, and words the vision we have for what America can be.