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In July 1848, the first calls for women’s suffrage were made from a convention in Seneca Falls, New York. This convention kicked off more than seventy years of organizing, parading, fundraising, advertising, and petitioning before the 19th amendment securing this right was approved by Congress and three-fourths of the state legislatures. After the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, women used the organizing skills they had honed during in the Suffrage movement to continue to fight for equality.
Background
The passage of the 19th amendment was the result of centuries of struggle, culminating in the late 19th century in a burst of public activism and civil disobedience that not only secured voting rights for women, but also helped define new possibilities for women’s participation in the public sphere.
Early Rights
Early in the history of the United States, women in New Jersey could legally vote, provided they met property requirements. However, this changed in 1807 when the State Assembly passed a law limiting suffrage to free white males. There would not be another law explicitly giving the vote to women until 1869, when the Wyoming territory granted women over 21 years of age the right to vote in all elections.
While some states explicitly prohibited women from voting, in 1872 New York did not, opening the door for Susan B. Anthony and a small group of suffragists to register and vote. They were arrested three weeks later on a charge of “criminal voting.” Anthony was found guilty and fined $100 plus court costs.
Early Activism and Organizations
The first large gathering of those fighting for women’s rights occurred in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. One outcome of the Seneca Falls Convention was the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence that called for civil, social, political, and religious rights for women. Many of the signers of the Declaration, including Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, would go on to become the leaders of a generation of suffrage activists.
In the decades that followed the Seneca Falls Convention, formal groups were established to lead American women in their bid for voting and other rights. Well-known organizations include the National Woman Suffrage Association and would eventually unify to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. These groups lobbied for local and state voting rights in addition to working at the national level.
The Congressional Union was formed in 1913 to accelerate and intensify the fight with more radical protest methods as had been done in Britain. The National Women’s Party, formed in 1916, was an outgrowth of this organization.
Other Activities
Suffrage leaders were involved in other progressive movements before and after the Seneca Falls convention in addition to their suffrage work. Susan B. Anthony, an outspoken advocate for suffrage, was also a well-known abolitionist. Anthony and other suffragists got their start by speaking on the anti-slavery circuit. Suffragists were also interested in the dress reform movement and temperance. Additionally, Elizabeth Cady Stanton saw suffrage as a way for women to access more equal marriages through divorce rights and property rights. For suffragists, these many causes fit together. With access to the ballot came an unprecedented power to affect change for these other social issues.
Suffragist Strategies and Shortfalls
In addition to organizing formal suffrage groups and rallying at conventions and meetings, supporters of universal suffrage employed a number of other strategies. Suffrage activists exercised their First Amendment rights to “peaceably assemble” and “petition for a government redress of grievances” first using traditional strategies, including lobbying lawmakers, and then implementing more radical -- for the time -- tactics such as public picketing and refusing bail after arrest. Individuals and groups published periodicals such as The Revolution, which focused on women’s rights but also covered politics and the labor movement. Activists campaigned in ways that were considered “unladylike,” such as marching in parades and giving street corner speeches. One radical strategy that had not been tried previously was regular picketing of the White House. Protesters carried banners naming President Wilson as an opponent of suffrage. The resulting arrests only served to bring more attention to the suffrage movement. The fight for suffrage rights escalated when the United States entered World War I in April 1917 and many women moved into the workforce.
Even while suffrage organizations and leaders professed goals of greater equality, they did not always include all women. White leaders were often exclusive and discriminatory. A group of African American women’s clubs was barred from joining the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission in 1919 on the eve of the 19th Amendment’s passage. Some white suffragists argued that enfranchising women would expand the “native” voting population. Despite this open racism, African American women organized and advocated for suffrage and equality throughout the movement. Some, like Mary Church Terrell, worked closely with white leaders while advocating for racial equality. Ida B. Wells, an anti-lynching activist, organized a separate organization for African American women, the Alpha Suffrage Club. In this way, the women’s suffrage movement, tainted with racism, was a problematic as it was progressive.
Anti-Suffrage Activism
Both women and men worked to oppose universal suffrage. Some argued that women wielded enough power within the home that there was no need for the American Woman Suffrage Association, which for power in society. State and national groups such as the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage and Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage were formed to actively resist suffrage rights for women. These groups were often opposed to any role for women outside the home, fearing the downfall of the family as well as a decrease in women’s work in communities and their ability to influence societal reforms.
A Continuing Legacy
Although women’s right to vote was secured by Constitutional amendment in 1920, the legacy of the suffragists continues to the present day. In fighting for the right to vote, women formed national political organizations, developed new strategies for protest, and brought women into the public sphere in new and more visible ways. These advances were not limited to their work for enfranchisement, but also laid the groundwork for civic action that has been emulated by those working for other civil rights causes.
Suggestions for Teachers
Select items that reflect different strategies used in the fight for equal suffrage. Study the items opposing suffrage and compare strategies. If time allows, brainstorm or research to identify other strategies used in the struggle for suffrage.
Use the anti-suffrage items to identify and study the arguments made by those opposed to suffrage. Study the maps to form a picture of which states and territories enfranchised women and which did not. Speculate about why there were differences in rights in different states and areas, and then look for evidence to support the hypothesis.
Study the political cartoons and select one for further analysis. What do you think was the cartoonist’s opinion of women’s suffrage? Who do you think was the audience for the cartoon? What methods does the cartoonist use to persuade the audience? If time allows, search the Library’s collections for another political cartoon about suffrage, identify the cartoonist’s opinion about women’s suffrage, and compare the methods each cartoon uses to make its point.
Examine several items reflecting the consequences for the suffragists’ actions. What can you discover about the treatment of suffragists from these items? Ask students to think about what causes they’d be willing to fight for, knowing there might be harsh consequences.
Additional Resources
This year marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which prohibited the denial of voting rights on the basis of sex. What’s not often acknowledged in classroom textbooks and curriculum is the reality that not all women gained the right to vote. While the previously ratified 15th amendment prohibited Federal and State governments from denying the right to vote based on color, race or previous servitude, nothing in the U.S constitution and no federal laws explicitly prohibited discrimination on the basis of color, race and sex. Thus, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other women and men of color did not see their voting rights ensured until the 1964 Civil Rights and 1965 Voting Rights Acts, more than 40 years later.
The 19th amendment guaranteed all women the right to vote. FALSE
On August 18th 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified. The amendment stated that “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.” Even though Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other women of color played a significant role in ratification of the 19th amendment, the language of the amendment did not explicitly protect their voting rights on the basis of their race. So while monumental, the amendment only protected the voting rights of white women. For example, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper-- a Black woman-- spent her whole life advocating for abolitionism and women’s rights, and made a call to action to the suffragists at the National Woman’s Rights Convention in 1866, urging them to include Black women in their fight.
While voting discrimination was prohibited on the basis of gender, loopholes in the system allowed for voting obstacles, including poll taxes and literacy tests, intimidation tactics, the denial of citizenship because of ancestry/immigrant status, and other racist strategies. These tactics were used by white Americans to prevent Black, Indigenous, and people of color from voting.
The Suffragists were progressive. FALSE
The women’s suffrage movement was inspired by Indigenous civilizations in which women often held leadership positions inside and outside the home. Additionally, the women’s suffrage movement had its roots in the abolitionist movement. Initially, women, free people of color, and enslaved people bonded over a mutual desire for suffrage. Women were often invited to speak at abolitionists group meetings, allowing them to utilize their platforms to call for change. Frederick Douglas, an abolitionist and reformer, was one of the 31 men, and the only African American present, to sign the Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848. He also established the American Equal Rights Association alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, advocating for universal voting rights.
While the 15th amendment prevented the U.S. government and States from denying citizens the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” it did not include “sex” as a protected category. A deep divide in the suffrage movement emerged and expanded. Recognizing that the South was still recovering from their loss in the war, grappling with a future without slavery, and a lack of support within the U.S. Congress for universal suffrage, some Black suffragists, including Frederick Douglass and Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, advocated for the endorsement of the 15th Amendment as it was written. Many white leaders within the women’s suffrage movement felt betrayed, and their reactions exposed their racism and elitism. The suffragists shifted their focus to single-mindedly pursuing voting rights for white women. Leveraging their power and privilege, they made a conscious decision to exclude BIPOC women from their movement.
The women’s suffrage movement was peaceful. FALSE
The women’s suffrage movement typically relied on peaceful tactics such as lobbying, parading and petitioning. Nonetheless, the women were not strangers to violence. In 1913, members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association were attacked by spectators as they participated in a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. After decades of campaigning peacefully, yet making little progress and facing violent responses, the suffragists adjusted their strategy to one that embraced firmer methods.
As part of their new methods, women began picketing at the White House. In one instance, in 1917, 33 women, members of the National Woman’s Party, up to 73 years-old, were arrested and tortured while protesting outside the White House. In retaliation, women participated in hunger strikes while imprisoned, leading to more violence as authorities retaliated with forced feedings. These outcomes were seen not just in D.C, but across the nation; as more and more women united, demonstrated and picketed, they were met with more resistance and violence from authorities and spectators.
Women have equal rights today. FALSE
It is important to discuss, learn and unlearn the history of the women’s suffrage movement. It is also important to discuss and acknowledge the injustices that continued to exist within the system following the ratification of the 19th amendment. Black, Indigenous and People of Color women continued to challenge the systems in place for decades after, and continue to do so today.
While BIPOC were left behind by the 19th amendment, the movements for universal suffrage and equal rights continued. Black people continued to fight for their rights well into the 1960s. However, injustices persist today because white supremacist institutions continue to allow racism and discrimination to prevail.
The equal rights amendment (ERA), initially introduced in 1923 during the Women’s Suffrage Movement, states “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” The ERA regained momentum during the 1960s and 1970s, following the success of the Civil Rights movement. Pro-ERA groups lobbied, petitioned and demonstrated, revisiting suffragists’ tactics from the 1920s in order to meet the deadline for states to ratify the amendment, 1979. While the amendment deadline was extended to 1982, it did not receive sufficient votes and was not ratified.
The ERA was subsequently introduced to congress every year since. It was not until January of this year, 2020, that Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment. It is now up to congress to remove the original deadline and push the amendment forward.
Even if the ERA successfully gets ratified by congress, injustices continue to prevent BIPOC women from exercising their right to vote. Voter ID laws, voter registration limitations, voter purges, felony disenfranchisement (when the incarceration rates are extremely disproportionate across races), gerrymandering, limited early voting dates and locations are just some of the tactics in place to block voting rights.
As the fight for equality and equity continue, the idea of intersectionality has gained momentum as a call to action for current movements to reframe what and who they are advocating for. Originally coined by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality refers to the overlap, or intersection of race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics. When movements recognize intersectionality, they become more inclusive and more effective. Imagine, had women's suffrage movement leaders such as Susan B. Anthony relinquished their racist ideals and advocated for those who looked different from them, all women (and men) may have actually secured the right to vote 100 years ago.
What is our call to action as educators? We must teach the painful reality of our history. It is up to us to disrupt the prevailing narrative that the 19th amendment was written for all women, or that all women could vote after the amendment passed 100 years ago. We can no longer deny that the women's suffrage movement was racist in action and practice due to it’s white leaders. Or the lie that all women are treated and seen as equal. As educators, we must choose to enlighten ourselves and our students so we can effectively advocate for ourselves and our peers. And importantly, we must encourage our students to be critical and analyze the stories, curriculum and media they consume. It is time for all of us to unlearn the systems of discrimination and racism, once and for all.
Media Literacy Connection:
After listening to Using Media to Know Better and Teach Better, Britt Hawthorne’s question framework for selecting media heavily resonated with me. She suggests we ask ourselves:
- Who is this content centering?
- What stories may be missing?
- How will this leave your learners feeling?
- Who is the intended audience of this media?
- Who is going to feel really good about it?
Educators, I urge you to take a look at your curriculum, your lessons and the media you are using in your class and answer some of these questions. This time, I challenge you to do so as you celebrate the Centennial of the 19th Amendment in your classrooms.
PBS Resources to supplement teaching the Women’s Suffrage Movement/US Suffrage History: