VOTING RIGHTS FOR ALL
Shall not be denied
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
It was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that made the promise of the 19th Amendment a reality for African-American Women. The Act prohibits any election practice that denies a citizen’s right to vote on the basis of race.
19th Amendment On August 18, 1920, the states ratified the 19th Amendment, extending the right to vote to all citizens regardless of gender. “The 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.” However, many people remained unable to vote because they were not considered citizens under the law, or because of local barriers such as poll taxes and literacy tests. For example, the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 declared all non-citizen indigenous peoples born in the USA to be citizens with the right to vote. In 1943 the Magnuson Act repealed the 1882 Chinese Expulsion Act, allowing descendants of Chinese immigrants to become U.S. Citizens and therefore have the right to vote.
The day before President-elect Woodrow Wilson’s 1913 inauguration, members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) organized a parade in Washington D.C. that overshadowed the beginnings of Wilson’s presidency. The procession consisted of nine bands, four mounted brigades, twenty-four floats, and more than 5,000 suffragist marchers. The mostly male crowd filled the streets making it difficult for the marchers to pass. The marchers were jeered, shoved, tripped and grabbed resulting in injuries to over 100.
“The 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.”
Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait For Liberty? Beginning in January 1917, as President Wilson’s second term was about to begin, and continuing for about two and half years, suffragists with the National Woman’s Party gathered outside the White House. Known as “Silent Sentinels” they wore sashes of purple, white and gold and held signs bearing slogans. While President Wilson did not support a federal amendment to grant women suffrage, he initially tolerated the women’s protests.
By June 1917, police began arresting the suffragists for obstructing traffic. At first, the Court did not impose punishment. But soon, the suffragists began receiving sentences ranging from 60 days to seven months, which were served at the Occoquan Workhouse. The conditions at the Workhouse were horrible, including worm-ridden food, filthy water and bedding, and brutal treatment by the guards. Suffragists who chose to go on a hunger strike were force fed through tubes in their noses. The suffragists demanded to be treated as political prisoners. In response, on November 14, 1917, a night that became known as the “Night of Terror,” the prison superintendent ordered his guards to teach the women a lesson. The 33 suffragists arrested that night were thrown into dark, filthy cells, had their hands shackled to the top of the cells, and their heads smashed into iron beds. Word of such mistreatment soon got out and public pressure resulted in the release of the prisoners. In an early 1918 ruling, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals held the suffragists had been illegally arrested, convicted and imprisoned.
Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee rode horseback in the 1912 New York suffrage parade at the age of 16.
In March 1913, suffragists organized a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. Ida B. Wells refused to join other African American marchers at the back of the parade, choosing instead to walk with her Illinois delegation.
In 1869, the suffragists split into two organizations: The National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who sought an amendment to the United States Constitution; and the American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, who sought voting rights for women in individual states. Twenty years later the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Some, led by Alice Paul, broke away to form the National Woman’s Party. In opposition to these movements the Anti-Suffrage Party was founded. Many people, including prominent women, challenged the movement, asserting that women’s political participation threatened their important roles as wives, mothers, educators and philanthropists.
In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, to ensure “equal protection of the laws” for all persons born or naturalized in the United States. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Courts determined the amendment did not grant women the right to vote.
Signing of the U.S. Constitution In 1789, the United States Constitution gave the right to vote to white property-owning men.
Lifting As We Climb In 1896, the National Association of Colored Women was formed with the goal of achieving equality for women of color. They adopted the motto “Lifting as We Climb” to demonstrate to an “ignorant and suspicious world that our aims and interests are identical with those of all good aspiring women.”
In 1869, the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, extending the right to vote to all male citizens regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Birth of a Movement In 1848, the women’s suffrage movement was born in Seneca Falls, New York when the first Women’s Rights Convention, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was held. Sixty-eight women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, which called for equal treatment of men and women under the law, and voting rights for women.
Momentum for the suffrage movement had been building across the country when the Civil War broke out, bringing a halt to women’s rights advocacy. After the war, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (pictured above) formed the American Equal Rights Association, an organization for white and black women and men dedicated to the goal of universal suffrage.