The Right to VOTE

Hello All,

2020 continues to be a year that I believe we will never forget – though perhaps we would like to. As I type this, my heart goes out to all of the people impacted by the wildfires in California and Hurricane Laura. The monumental losses, the monumental damage, the monumental pain. I pray for their comfort, strength, and energy. I pray their needs are met. I pray that if there is someway we can collectively help, that we find a way to do so.

I am also praying for our country to heal from the civil unrest. I am praying that we can find a way to live together, as equals, as human beings. I pray that we find peaceful resolutions to the problems we face. I pray for listening ears. I pray for understanding. I pray for kindness.

The month of August has also had uplifting moments. August 18th was the centennial celebration of the 19th amendment to our Constitution granting women the right to vote. On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee House of Representatives approved the amendment by a 1 vote margin! This final state vote allowed the amendment to become official. I am proud to note that Virginia had ratified the amendment on February 12, 1920 on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

This was not an easy battle to win. Women had literally been working for decades (72 years or so!) to achieve this right. And this right was won, not given. It was earned by the dedicated women – black, brown and white – who tirelessly raised their voices.

There are so many women on whose shoulders we stand for this. The name most people associate with this is Susan B. Anthony: “Men, their rights and nothing more. Women, their rights and nothing less.” Ms. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting!

The story begins prior to 1872 though. In 1848, Elizabeth Cody Stanton,  Susan B. Anthony and a group of activists created and held the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, New York that rallied women to discuss women’s rights. (I would have loved to have been at that convention!) They all agreed that “women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities”. They created the “Declaration of Sentiments” that “all men AND women are created equal”. The Women’s Suffrage Movement was born.

Wars intervened, so the movement was slowed. In 1870, the 15th amendment guaranteed black and brown men the right to vote. At the end of the 19th century, Idaho and Utah granted women the right to vote. In 1910, other states out west extended the right to vote to women, but the entire nation did not embrace this. It was not until August 18, 1920 that women were granted the right to vote. On November 2, 1920, more than 8 million women voted – legally – for the very first time.

But the battle was not yet won. Caucasian women were allowed to vote. The 19th amendment did not extend the same right to African American, Asian American, Hispanic American and American Indian women.

Enter more incredible African American women – Mary McLeod Bethune, Rosa Parks, Daisy Bates, Ruby Hurley, Dorothy Height, Gloria Richardson, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Amelia Boynton Robinson – who worked to ensure that all women had equal rights. Amelia Boynton Robinson actually brought Martin Luther King to march across the Edmond Pettus Bridge to campaign for voting rights for all women. She was beaten unconscious that day. Enter incredible Latinx women – Dolores Huerta and Felisa Rincon de Gautier – who have fought and removed barriers to voting.

The Voting Rights Act that was passed on August 6, 1965 finally allowed ALL women the right to vote. 1965 – 45 years after the 19th amendment was ratified.

National Women’s Equality Day was just this past Wednesday August 26th. The first statue that depicted real life women was unveiled in Central Park. It is named the Women’s Rights Pioneers. The artist Meredith Bergmann created this bronze statue of Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton gathered around the same table. Ms. Truth is speaking, Ms. Anthony is organizing, and Ms. Stanton is writing. These women were contemporaries – they were on a lot of the same stages sharing speaking engagements. Ms. Bergmann said it was easy to see them sitting around the same table. 

So many incredible women. So many battles fought – and ultimately won. So many women who worked to raise all women up. And the work has not and cannot stop. There are still barriers that need to be broken – more voting information needs to be available in different languages – funding for elections to ensure that everyone can vote – and more beyond those!

Come this November it is our responsibility to honor their work and sacrifices. To make our voices heard. To VOTE.

Phyl