100 years in pursuit of voting rights

100

YEARS IN PURSUIT of VOTING RIGHTS

By Allie Clouse USA TODAY Network

Women in the United States won the right to vote in 1920, but the fight for that victory began long before the 19th Amendment was ratified. The fight for equality in the ballot box began generations earlier, thanks to the voices and efforts of thousands of women across the globe. As we celebrate the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, here’s a look at some of the most critical moments in the fight for suffrage across a century.

First women’s surage petition is presented to UK Parliament

On Aug. 3, 1832, United Kingdom Parliament member Henry Hunt presents the first petition asking for votes for women on behalf of Mary Smith, “a lady of rank and fortune” from Stanmore, Yorkshire.

Smith argues that she paid taxes and was subject to the rule of law, so she did not see why she could not vote. The petition tabled, but it is recognized as the beginning of the fight for women’s 1832 suffrage in Britain. “She could see no good reason for the exclusion of women from social rights, while the highest office of the State, that of the Crown, was open to the inheritance of females, and, as we understood, the petition expressed her indignation against those vile wretches who would not marry, and yet would exclude females from a share in legislation. The prayer of the petition was, that every unmarried female, possessing the necessary pecuniary qualification, should be entitled to vote for Members of Parliament,” according to Parliamentary minutes of Hunt’s petition.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. There, 68 women and 32 men signed a “Declaration of Sentiments,” written by suffragist leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

The document outlines grievances and set the agenda for the women’s rights movement. The group adopts 12 resolutions calling for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women.

“The document laid out many key objectives in addition to women’s suffrage, includ1848 ing educational and employment equality. It created a blueprint for the modern women’s movement that still influences the mission of activists even today,” says Dr. Kelly

Marino, assistant lecturer of History and Coordinator of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Sacred Heart

University, Fairfield, Connecticut.

The rst National Women’s

Rights Convention

The first National Women’s Rights

Convention is held in Worcester,

Massachusetts. More than 1,000 participants attend, including Frederick Douglass, Paulina Wright

Davis, Abby Kelley Foster, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone and Sojourner Truth. It was here that suffragists formed an alliance with the Abolitionist Movement. “Seneca Falls 1850 sparked discussion, but did not produce any organized activity. It was not clear in its aftermath whether or not there was a national constituency ready to take up the cause. The

Worcester meeting answered this question. The response to its Call, which summoned all who wanted to see a woman’s rights movement, as well as the positive reaction to its published proceedings both at home and in Europe showed that a critical mass of women, and some men, were ready,” according to the Worcester Women’s History Project.

The American Equal Rights Association is formed

After the Civil War, the 11th

National Women’s Rights Convention is called. The convention votes to transform itself into a new organization called the American

Equal Rights Association that would advocate for universal suffrage no matter race or gender. They petition Congress to remove those discriminations from the law.

“The object of this Association is to secure Equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the Right of

Suffrage, irrespective of race, color or sex. American 1866 Democracy has interpreted the Declaration of Independence in the interest of slavery, restricting suffrage and citizenship to a white male minority. The black man is still denied the crowning right of citizenship, even in the nominally free States, though the fires of civil war have melted the chains of chattelism, and a hundred battle-fields attest his courage and patriotism. Half our population are disfranchised on the ground of sex; and though compelled to obey the law and taxed to support the government, they have no voice in the legislation of the country,” according to proceedings of the first anniversary of the American Equal

Rights Association, 1867.

The 14th Amendment is ratied

The 14th Amendment is adopted, granting citizenship and the right to life, liberty and property to people born or naturalized in the

United States — including former slaves.

“The insertion of the word ‘male’ into the

Constitution and the enfranchisement of African American men presented new 1868 challenges for women’s rights activists. For the first time, the Constitution asserted that men — not women — had the right to vote. Previously, only state laws restricted voting rights to men. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote, ‘If that word ‘male’ be inserted, it will take us a century at least to get it out.’” according to the National Women’s History Museum.

Black men gain the right to vote under the 15th Amendment

The suffrage movement splits because some of its leaders, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, refuse to support the ratification of the 15th Amendment, arguing that women and Black men should be enfranchised at the same time.

Abolitionist and longtime suffrage supporter Frederick Douglass and other suffragists choose to support the 15th Amendment and the immediate need for enfranchisement of Black men.

“Activists bitterly fought about whether to support or oppose the 15th Amendment. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony objected to the new law. 1870 They wanted women to be included with Black men. Others — like Lucy Stone — supported the amendment as it was. Stone believed that women would win the vote soon. The emphasis on voting during the 1860s led women’s rights activists to focus on woman suffrage. The two sides established two rival national organizations that aimed to win women the vote,” according to Allison Lange, Ph.D., National Women’s History Museum.

Prominent suragists are arrested trying to vote

Sixteen women, including Susan B. Anthony, are arrested for illegally voting. Sojourner Truth appears at a polling booth in Battle Creek, Michigan, demanding a ballot to vote; she is turned away.

The year before, “in 1871, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to testify before Congress. A beautiful and charming if controversial suffragist, she told the Judiciary Committee that the 14th and 15th Amendments had in effect already enfranchised women. All that remained was for them to show up 1872 at the polls and register. It was called The New Departure, and soon women all over the country — Susan B. Anthony in New York; Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a Black activist in Washington, D.C.; and Virginia Minor in St. Louis — showed up to vote. Minor’s husband Francis, a lawyer, took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled that voting procedures were not a province of the federal government, but of the states.” according to historian Johanna Neuman, author of “And Yet They Persisted: How American Women Won the Right to Vote.”

A surage amendment is proposed in Congress

A women’s suffrage amendment is proposed in the U.S. Congress. When the 19th Amendment passes 41 years later, it borrows the exact wording from this 1878 amendment.

After what’s known as the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment” is proposed, the Senate refers the plea to the 1878 Committee on Privileges and Elections. The next day, suffragists testify for the first time in front of senators on the issue of suffrage.

“California Senator Aaron Sargent introduced a woman suffrage amendment identical to the future 19th Amendment,” according to the National Archives’ “Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote” exhibit. “Suffragists quickly gained congressional attention to their cause, but winning its endorsement took much longer. For 42 years, the measure was introduced at every session of Congress but was ignored or voted down. It finally passed Congress in 1919 and went to the states for ratification.”

Britain’s Local Government Act passes

The Local Government Act, 1894 which allows single and married women to vote in elections for county and borough councils, passes in Britain.

“Women’s Sunday”

On a Sunday in June 1908, approximately 250,000 people from across Britain gather at Hyde Park, London, making it the largest-ever political rally in the city. Ignored by Prime Minister Asquith, suffragists turn to smashing windows on Downing Street, throwing stones with written pleas tied to them, and tying themselves to railings.

“Specially chartered trains transported thousands of Suffragettes from all over Britain to march in seven proces1908 sions through central London to a rally in Hyde Park. The highly choreographed demonstration attracted a crowd of up to 300,000 drawn by the colourful spectacle of the delegates dressed in the suffragette tricolour and carrying over seven hundred embroidered banners. ‘Never,’ reported the Daily Chronicle, ‘has so vast a throng gathered in London to witness a parade of political forces,’” according to the Museum of London archives.

Suragists go on hunger strikes in Britain

Marion Wallace Dunlop becomes the first imprisoned suffragette to go on a hunger strike. Later that year, prisons began to force-feed 1909 inmates on hunger strike.

“Some of the people who campaigned for women’s right to vote used militant tactics like attacking property, which often led to prison sentences. Hunger striking was a dangerous form of non-violent protest that could be carried out from inside prison,” according to the Museum of London’s Votes for Women collection.

Women’s surage supported by major political party

Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party supports women’s suffrage. It is the first time the cause is supported at the national level by a major political party in the U.S. 1912 “I am myself a believer in woman suffrage. I do not believe with those who feel that this would make women shirk their essential duties. My experience has been that many of those women who do shirk them are against the suffrage,” according to a letter from Theodore

Roosevelt to suffragist Jeanne de Finey.

Surage parade held in D.C.

Suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, the first major suffrage spectacle organized by the National 1913 American Woman Suffrage Association. “The Great Suffrage Parade of 1913 was the first civil rights march to use the nation’s capital as a backdrop. Timed to coincide with the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, the 1913 march put male politicians on notice that they ignored suffrage at their peril,” said Rebecca Boggs Roberts, author of “Suffragists in Washington, DC: The 1913 Parade and the Fight for the Vote.”

NYC surage parade has historic turnout

Forty thousand people march in a New York City suffrage parade. Many women are dressed in white and carry placards with the names of the states they represent.

“Harriot Stanton Blatch, youngest daughter of suffrage matriarch Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was the parade’s inspiration. After 20 years of living in England as the wife of a British business1915 man, she had returned to America shocked that the movement had fallen into a ‘rut deeper and ever deeper.’ She imported many of the tactics of the British movement — including parades, with an attention to presentation and appearance. Suffragists dressed in white — Macy’s was headquarters for suffrage memorabilia — with sashes declaring their affiliation. For the 1912 parade — where a record 1,000 men joined the parade for the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage — she ordered marchers to stand ‘head erect and shoulders back,’” wrote historian Johanna Neuman, author of “Gilded Suffragists: The New York Socialites Who Fought for Women’s Right to Vote.”

First U.S. congresswoman elected

Jeannette Rankin is elected to represent Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first woman elected to U.S. Congress. She takes office in March 1917.

“Jeannette Rankin’s life was filled with extraordinary achievements: She was the

first woman elected to Congress, one of the few suffragists elected to Congress, and the only member of Congress to 1916 vote against U.S. participation in both World War I and World War II. ‘I may be the first woman member of

Congress,’ she observed upon her election in 1916. ‘But I won’t be the last,’” according to the U.S. House of Representatives archives.

Arrest leads to mistreatment, hunger strike

Thirty-three women are arrested while protesting in front of the White House on charges of obstructing sidewalk traffic. During their jail time, the suffragists endure beatings and mistreatment. They are later released in response to public outcry and an inability to stop the National Woman’s Party picketers’ hunger strike. “Every activist who stands in Lafayette Square to protest the 1917 actions (or inaction) of a president literally walks in the footsteps of the suffragists. Picketing the White House was their idea, and, despite their arrests on bogus charges of ‘obstructing the traffic on the sidewalk,’ what they did was totally legal, as it is today,” says Boggs Roberts.

Surage seems likely a‰er World War I

On the morning of Sept. 30, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson delivers a speech in the Senate Chamber. He asks senators to pass the constitutional amendment providing for women’s suffrage after World War I, stating that the nation was at war 1918 and “This war could not have been fought ... (without) the services of ... women.” “World War I marked an important turning point for women’s suffrage campaigns both in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the United States, the wartime activism of the National American Woman Suffrage Association to support the homefront, as well as the controversial demonstrations staged by the National Woman’s Party in Washington, D.C., attracted new media attention and created the necessary public and political pressure to cause government leaders, such as Wilson, to act. Wilson’s conversation to suffrage advocacy was a crucial step toward national legislative change,” said Marino of Sacred Heart University.

U.S. Senate passes the 19th Amendment

The Senate finally passes the 19th Amendment and the state ratification process begins.

“After so many years of fighting for their rights, suffrage activists in the gallery and across the nation found this final vote to be almost mundane. In a bipartisan effort, senators approved the national suf1919 frage amendment with two votes to spare, 56 to 25. A few minutes later, Vice President Thomas Marshall joined prominent suffragists for a signing ceremony in his office in the Capitol. The amendment had passed a major hurdle; now it would go to the states for ratification,” according to the U.S. Senate Women’s Suffrage Centennial.

The 19th Amendment is ratied

Three-quarters of the state legislatures ratify the 19th Amendment once Tennessee ratifies it in mid-August. The amendment becomes law, giving women the right to vote. Of course, the battle 1920 was not over. Black women were still turned away from the ballot box for many more decades. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed poll taxes and literacy tests, but barriers still remain.

“When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on Aug. 18, 1920, the amendment was adopted. While decades of struggle to include African Americans and other minority women in the promise of voting rights remained, the face of the American electorate had changed forever,” according to the National Archives’ “Rightfully Hers:

American Women and the Vote” exhibit.

Surage passes in Britain

The Representation of the People Act entitles everyone, man or woman, older than 21 to vote. 1928