Political universe in the United States for several weeks in the summer of 1920s. Tennessee might be the last in deciding state to ratify the 19th amendment. Its a tennessee legislator did the women across the country in every state and every election for the first time would have the right to vote. It is all coming down to tennessee and he got really wild. How many women were in america at that point . About 27 million women were o of voting age. Of course not all would vote and as we know for africanamerican women and for asian women in native american women this would not be allowed to vote under the 19th amendment. But the laws in the south and other state laws denied the vote to quite a few women in a sizable minority. But 27 million women were eligible to vote and no one knew how they were going to vote and the politicians were worried about it, it was a president ial election so the president and candidates were worried and the governor is very worried and because of political freeforall from the white house to congress to the legislator in nashville. Before we get into the characters involved, augustine tennessee it was 60 degrees and sunny. The character that i write about, the participant in the political battle right in the memoir, how hot m it is and especially for the northern women coming down to participate in the battle of lobbying and filibustering and all those things. They were not used to the heat so when i started started my research in the summer 2015, i went down in august, i wanted to feel it bearing down on me for historical writers and i did, i felt i would bear down and surround you and i tried to imagine what it was like without any air conditioning and wearing 10 pounds of close which women had to do. So help me understand how uncomfortable they could be. Why did it come down. The suffrage cause had been going on for seven decades. For 72 years at this point. If f we market from the first organized meeting in 1848, thus not the first time it was discussed, it was not the first time women were agitating for it. But we marketed that for various reasons, its a first public fall. From that time to 1920, 72 years. And for various reasons and women were working at the state level in the federal level. They finally got a federal amendment passed after 40 years. It had been stuck in congress for 40 years. Since 1878. And finally in 1919 after world war i theyd been participating in a very different way than the ever predispute before Congress Finally wrote in nearly passes it and it goes passes the state and they have to ratify the 36 states and 35 had ratified by the summer of 1920 just once more if needed and for various turns out that tennessee is the best hope for the suffragist most have projected the moment and not ratified but texas andad arkanss had but it was clear that two other thet Southern States in te beginning of the summer for North Carolina and florida North Carolina rejected it during the time in tennessee was considering it to call special recession. It came down to tennessee and it was a dangerous place to be thinking the entire enfranchisement of the United States because tennessee was a Southern State and there was opposition to suffrage there but there was also a womens suffrage organization and they say to the National Leaders, we can do it, come down and help us, we can do it. So the National Leaders come down and you see the fascinating valet between the different wings of the Suffrage Movement because of the saudi unified movement and also working against opposition that is very strong and has corporate and political and religious opposition in leaders of those movements and also has women of different persuasions. Freeforall and its a fascinating microcosm of the cultural and political and even moral questions that were alive at m the moment. Who is carrying how did she become the leader . She is a leader of the Suffrage Movement. Lets go to josephine t pearson. Who is she and she was the leader of the anti what is so interesting, i was shocked. Im not a suffrage scholar and i had been studying for 40 years and when i encountered the concept to oppose womens suffrage and to oppose the federal moment. I was really shocked. I did not comprehend that women could oppose their sisters eating the boat. But it does teach us that women do not speak monolithically and so one of the characters that i follow is Josephine Pearson, she is well educated she is a dean of a Small College she is a professor and she comes from a very traditional conservative background in southernn tennesse and their father was a baptist minister part of me methodist minister. She grows up in a household where the idea women moving out of domestic fear and doing something and public was not accepted. And she really fears what she calls the peril of feminism which would elevate women to an equal status as men and she sees that as unnatural. She also has religious opposition and one of the things that we encounter especially in theci Southern State and in the last battle, the idea that theres opposition because black women would be given the vote by constitutional law and some of those states that was not an accepted political content. And so they are fighting against it. To Josephine Pearson was antileader. Shes a leader of the tennessee antisuffrage. And an operator. Shes a very interesting woman. She is also 85 antisuffrage leaders who come down from new york from washington from boston to help her. So she is leading so shes been assisted by some very by some wellfunded women who are opposing it and have been opposing in other states. So the veryin interesting, shes also a little bit of friction with the National Leaders who think they know how to run the campaign in tennessee. Before we leave, ms. Pearso ms. Pearson she was called into service, this is mid july of 1920, they realize that tennessee is going to deliberate on this in the legislator is going to be called so she gets summoned to come to nashville from her home in montego which is the southern part ofe the state and we needo comeme immediately the suffrages are coming and so she settled by train to nashville and they arranged for her to stay in the Fanciest Hotel at the time which is a Beautiful Hotel in shes not used to this luxury and is not airconditioned and is very hot and its hotter than usual and she spent the first night in the bathtub. Running cold water and using the telephone to call her colleagues and sent telegrams saying come to nashville, we need to oppose this amendment come quickly. So she is doing this from the bathroom, she writes about in her memoir and actually checked with hotel, which you been in the bathtub wormwood they have showers . Lets go to carry, one of the leaders. She is a fascinating figure. An iowa farm girl, becomes a teacher and is widowed twice and catches the eye of Susan B Anthony in the 1880s and 90s. Susan anthony was a very good mentor and she would spot talents, young women who she thought could be future leaders of the movement and to train them. And she had them accompany her on the campaign trail. She was going across country constantly trying to get interest and enthusiasm for suffrage. So she sees she has a fire at thed logistical mind to be able to lead the movement. So she becomes her successor, she literally wants to take over the 1900s as Susan Anthony ises aging and she becomes president for a while and she leaves it for a while because her husband s ill and she comes back in 1960s and says they have struck, that the title of my book and she takes over and the master strategist. At this time the Suffrage Movement is split, young the Third Generation, they been fighting for so long, a Third Generation has emerged younger women and their tired of waiting and we see this today, this inpatient of the way things have always been. So a young woman with a phd from university of pennsylvania has volunteered. Sue white . Actually she starts a splinter movement, radical stream of the Suffrage Movement. Hshe attracts young parents who are the head of the womans party, the National Womens party living off from the mainstream, we see this happening all the time in the labor movement, the civil rights movement, a young y more impatit wing takes off and sue white, the daughter of tennessee wants to be a lawyer and is told women do not become lawyers and gradually she gets impatient and joined the National Womens party and becomes the head of enthe tennessee. Does my three characters that we follow, the head of the establishment, 2 million women who are affiliated with the National AmericanSuffrage Association, her organization, she comes down from new york to run the strategy for getting the federal Amendment Group and running to alice paul, you have organizations, the single but working separately and working sometimes with each other and you have pearson who is leading the opposition and then you have a whole constellation of politicians and corporate lobbyist all gathering in natural and have a fistfight. We will continue to talk to elaine white. We want tofi make sure you could call it and participate in the segment if you have questions for her. 202 7488200. For those of you on the east and centraltr times, 202 7488201. Colin and we will get to those in just at minute. Josephine pearson, carry into white did they ever meet each other at the hotel all at once . They must have. I dont have documentation of that moment but they were there for weeks and weeks say how both wings of the Suffrage Movement at the headquarters and the antisuffragists in their headquarters and all the lobbyist nursing the legislators are staying there, it was a crazy place. Their meeting in the lobby, dining room sometimes its back underpass and do not speak to eachpe other, i dont have a confrontation altogether, but they certainly were bouncing off each other in the hallways. She has kept in her stoo suite r most of the time. Shes considered most of ali yankee and shes not allowed to be in public, she runs things from her hotel suite. Where they helpful in your research . They were so helpful. It is a five star hotel, its been beautifully restored in many of the same elements are there except this mailbox that is original and built in the 1900s, it was only ten years old, when i stayed there for the dedication of the suffrage monument and i was there last week to help them kick off the centennial year, they put me up in a room that was curious. And that is truly a thrill because one of the things she talks about in her letters is the statehouse is right out her window, a block and a half awayf there i could see it. And there in lieu in the window in the sense that deemed her entire legacy being played out in the beautiful statehouse, so close but you cannot go down and she cannot touch it, she has to wait for messengers to run to the hotel and the statehouse but that was exciting and the hermitage is now unveiled and in the lobby that is dedicated to the suffrage story of what happened in the hotel. Lets take some calls, die and in texas. Diane you are on with author elaine weiss. About aho month ago on cspa, i heard a theory i had never heard before that a lot of white men wanted their wives at the earlier negro men to vote . Is that true . Did you understand the question . A lot ofou white men wanted ther white wives to vote to counteract the black vote of black man. That is verye. E. True. There was a sense especially in the south and in other places to that there were more white women than black women who could vote and or be eligible to vote and they would be prevented from voting by intimidation by taxes and by crazy literacy requirements but yes, there were white men and you encounter that in my book and you encounter that by congressman and senators and legislators and they do say, this will give and they will give more white women the voting. The racial uncomfortable racial aspect of the movement to understand and confront and explain. Our next three colors are all men. Jim from california, high jim. Thank you very much for taking my call. My intersection of the Suffrage Movement and the Temperature Movement as i understand he is Close Friends withny the head of the suffrage union. But he is cast at the same time of womens rights. Yes indeed. That was a very interesting intersection. From theer very beginning in the 1870s and 80s and begins to organize many of the suffrage leaders were advocates and we have to understand for some it was a moral question but for many others, it was a question leout Domestic Violence. Because women had very few ways to address ann abusive husband and father. Please could not bring them to court and by stamina at themi source, it becomes an answer to this Domestic Violence problem. So the suffragists who are looking at the vote are looking at the vote as a mean to gain other rightso for women in our lives for a long time with the temperance movement. And what youll see even the summer of 1920,0 prohibition is already in effect and it is all over and why was the liquor lobby be interested in by the way that is trying to opposese suffrage in all the states and at the federal level for decades because they do not want women to get the vote because they fear the want prohibition. Why are they interested still. They were hoping that if they could keep women from the ballot that perhaps prohibition would not be enforced quite so stringently. So theyre looking to congress and legislators that were not going to enforce prohibition and thats why even in 1920, even in nashville, they are fighting to stop the amendment, there is wonderful scenes that i described of the jack daniels fleet, the liquor lobby attempts to persuade legislators that they should not ratify it was a speakeasy of the permitted hotel and you have drunk legislators bouncing up the walls and keep the home fires burning. This is all to keep the federal amendment being ratified into helping thehe liquor industry nt be affected as strongly by prohibition. Lets go back, this is auguso months from the First National election. Thats what happens in nashville because the Political Party and the democrats and the republicans obviously know this about suffrage, some have been supporters and the republicans have been better friends for suffrage at the state level and National Level twoe decades. When was this . Is the thing we have to move things around in our minds, republicans supported the present moment, they were foror the most part supportive of reform and fighting the trust in Maternal Health, so they were actually the heroes in many states of the Suffrage Movement. So you can have the Political Party, very nervous about suffrage because it is a president ial election and then you have the candidates themselves who play a part in my story because the suffragists and antisuffragists want the president ial candidates to supportrt them. They go up and theyre both froe ohio, and james who is from ohio, he is running with the Young Franklin roosevelt as a ltvice president ial partner and then we have warned you hurting who is running for ohio and theyre both be impressed by the suffragists in thehe antisuffragists. In using the president ial election is really is for all the things that are happening in nashville. Robert calling in from california. Good morning robert. I wanted to pass on for my late grandmother, who is part of the whole Suffrage Movement back in the day so she started this private organization. At that time, a lot of t the won could not own property or cash a check. So they had this private party called the peo which nobody else knew. The guys did not know this. But that was called pop t seepig out. They would get money to send girls to school and i wanted to pass on. That is fascinating. Thank you for sharing that. One of the great thing is i turned around the country, talking about my book in the Suffrage Movement, ive been to minnesota and there was very vibrant activism there and there was a scandinavian womens Suffrage Association who actually would go to the suffrage parades in native costumes and one of the things to understand, we think of the Suffrage Movement others may be soothing be anthony and we dont have a sense of how large the movement was that in every city and every state in every town there was suffrage is organizi organizing, they were africanamerican women organizing, they were latino women organizing in one of the great things about the centennial which were now entering the centennial year august 2020 will be the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. Atevery state is beginning their commemoration. One of the great things, its during more research at the local level. So were going into archives and places that were not looked at to get all of the voices into the story. Like the black womens club, like the church records. All these places that hold the story of ordinary women who really make a big sacrifice, they risk theirac reputation, ty wrist being condemned, their pastors are against them marching in the streets, ishe vy brave and there at every level throughout the country. In one of the great things, we are getting a much larger complex colorful idea of what the Suffrage Movementol was. It was not just two ladies at the top. Your grandmother is part of that. From the womensot hour, its too easy to imagine that the enfranchisement of american women was a lie. Women asked politely know. [inaudible] thats not how it happened. Jim in ann arbor michigan. Thank you. The group that hit me the most was antisevered death women and where are they going . Very difficult to understand you. If youre on speaker or on the telephone that will not work. Just pick very clearly into your phone. Thank you. My question is, the antisuffrage women and how they be all or did not be all the minute it was passed, did they ultimately evolve . Thank you jim very much,. Thats a wonderful question. And i do write about that and afterward of the book, one of the fascinating and unexpected results is after ratification when the women who fought so hard for this amendment that would give the vote to all women, they actually take advantage of the political power and they doen vote. And they learn to organize. While the suffragists dissipate, they go off in the Different Directions in the legacy organizations of the suffragists they form a legal women voter which is at 100 years still going strong all across the country. Alice paul and they, womens pri formed the draft to the equal rights amendment which is not been ratified after 96 years, in 1923. The antisuffragists organized and used their newfound electoral power in the Organizational Skills to try to oppose a certain legislation in congress they feel is a government overreach, they call ithe socialist, and they accuse the suffrage is that are stillt supporting Maternal Health legislation and other kinds of legislation. They evolve into the anticommunist activist in the mid20th century. We see them again working through training organizations, advocacy organizations and receive them in the mccarthy era and we see them again emerge in the 1970s and 80s as the eagle forum. So we have conservative women who have learned to harness their political power. I think we still see the product of the organization. So they did use. Now she felt that she could not after fighting so long vote herself so she devise a clever scheme, she would tell a man in her hometown how she wanted to vote and he would go and vote for her. So she never voted the rest of her life . Thats how she describes it. I cannot tell you at some point she did or not. She had strong opinions but she let a man vote for her. Jackie in texas, go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. I was wondering, do you see any parallels between the abortion issuell in america and the suffrage issue as it played out in the 1900s . Thats a very interesting question. Im not sure i see a direct comparison but again the suffrage is many were feminist. And they were working not just for the vote but the vote as a tool to be represented in congress and in the state legislatures to make sure women had rights which they had been denied. Many of them had to do with agency, with being able to make decisions on their own c have to understand when the Suffrage Movement began in the mid19th century not only women could not vote, a married woman could not own property, a married woman did not have custodial rights to her children if she divorced. She could not testify in a court of law, she could not sit on a jury. So a lot of these ideas of suffrage of being the tool to being able to guarantee womens rights of her own decisionmaking, i think there are some parallels and i think it gets much work obligated than that and im sure you agree. I hesitate to make a direct comparison but i i think again women working for their own rights to make decisions about their own bodies and legislators is the whole larger idea of a tool for right. When congress got around to voting, and the house it was a handful of votes. Again my 1920, it wouldve been okay and women are equal to men in a political sense, lets get this done, its a senate and legislate in the houseboats on it in 1980 they voted down twice in the next year end half and finely it passes to vote. So the time i come in all the Political Forces were not true. It was still very controversial. The suffrage amendment. It was still tough. Even seven decades after they suppress the vote. Ruth from maryland and the d. C. Summer. Hi ruth. I have a couple questions, one, two thirds of the vote, women voted about 31 and men were more interested zimmerman wanted to vote for men than women. The second thing, a womans proper place, mostly that there was more for protection on than it was for the National Womans Party with a small group and the protection and things like that. Thank you. Okay. To answer the first question, it is true that in the first election in 1920, the amendment is ratified and reached before the election. So there was a big rush to register women. But it cannot all bete accomplished in some states like georgia refused to expen extendr deadlines, they refuse to because they do not want black women to vote. Only again one and three eligible women voted in 1920, and carrie was asked about thatu she said you fought for all these years, how come only one in three women voted. And she said it is a learned enterprise, it is something that you learn and women are not accustomed to doing it yet. All it takes longer than she expected, it took 40 years, in 1960 for the participation and by 1980 it surpasses in the gnrticipation of men and significantly more women voted than men in todays election at the National Level. In the second question were there other issues involved in the womens party and the reason . Is a talk about the equal rights of moment. Not all women who were suffragists supported the equal rightstsed amendment. One of the things that had been accomplished in the decades before the 1920s was that they had passed Protection Laws for women in the industry. Women are working in factories at this time and they pass the legislation that said you couldn only work ten hours or 12 hours, not 20 hours and some employers force women to do. And you cannot lift more than 2. This is protection for Womens Health and part was the union which had emerged to protect h women. So the equal rights amendment might jeopardize those protections of 31 in congress for women. So there was a disagreement among feminist women about whether the civil rights amendment would be beneficial so they are not supported and thats also, Elinor Roosevelt does not support us, its a very interesting history of the amendment and youre right that there were issues of protection and at the equal rights amendment not just with theha suffrage of union. Chandler inner zoning of 30 seconds. Go ahead. My question is, to what degree did men with the disabilities of their wives and sisters and daughters playau a role in the Suffrage Movement . Men played a large role and they were very important and supportive men champions and actually a great book that came out called the suffrage and and its about the male, the league supported suffrage. Of course only men could make decisions. Men had to be convinced, men were only in the legislators and the only men in congress except by 1917, 1918 they were the only women in the first woman elected to congress, there is only one and at the state level and ratification, theyve only been making these decisions, so having malen. Allies, we see vey brave male allies really step up in natural in my story. So yeah men were important. This is going to be made into a miniseries is that correct . How did that happen . Executive producer and secretary of state hillary clinton, she read the book and really found it an important story and a story we should kn know, a story that speaks to us today, a lot of the scenes that arrived in the book and whether the voting right or women right or money in politics, and all gets talked about. She says lets bring the story to a wide audience. How you react when secretary clinton calls and says she wants to be involved in your book . Take a deep breath, i was thrilled and she has been a wonderful and supportive partn partner. It is now out h in paperback elaine weiss thank you for your time. The keys to much peter lovely to be with you. Tonight at nine eastern on after words, journalist ben westhoff reports on how china manufacture the drug, he is interviewed by democratic congresswoman and of the Bipartisan Opioid Task force. In the old days if you are scientist any publisher paper and it went into some University Library pretty obscure hard to find. But in the internet age, all of these papers were published online. They were around the world. So they became and began looking for the files for the papers and appropriate the chemical formula to learn how to make the new drug. At ten eastern, jeff merkley provides his firsthand account of condition for migrant families of the u. S. Southern border in his book america is better than this. They said hundreds of voice were being warehoused in walmart. On cspan2