Hi, i am corinne porter, i am a curator at the National Archives movie is him archives museum. Before we head into the gallery i want to talk about this lenticular out in the lobby in front fo the entrance. It has a photograph of the 1913 womens suffrage march, looking up pennsylvania avenue toward the United States capitol. And it is overlaid with a photograph from the 2017 womens march from pennsylvania avenue as well. And it is in a lenticular, which has a special effect, so that as you walk by the image changes between the two. We wanted to have it in the exhibit to help grab the publics attention, and also to signal that this is a historic exhibit, but one that continues to have contemporary relevance today. Lets head now into the gallery, where rightfully hers is on display. This is a National Archives exhibition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. But it is more than a 19th amendment exhibition. Thats because the 19th amendment, landmark voting right victory that it was, did not give all women the right to vote. Women were already voters by the time the 19th amendment was added to the constitution but millions of women were unable to vote and this exhibit looks at that story as well. We have this introductory video here meant to grab attention and pull people into the gallery. It gives you a sense of what types of stories you are going to encounter here at the rightfully hers exhibition. The exhibit is organized into five sections, which ask five questions that you see here. Who decide who votes . Why did women fight for the vote . How did women win the 19th amendment . What was the 19th amendment impact . And what Voting Rights struggles persist . The firts is, who decides who votes, and this is a small but important framing section of the exhibit. There is not a citizens right to vote in this country, and when the constitution was first ratified, it made no mention of voting qualifications, that is really a power that was left to the states. One of my favorite stories that really highlights the powers that states have as women in new jersey, who were americas first voters, beginning in 1776 when new jersey became a state. State, the new jersey state constitution made no mention of sex when discussing voting qualifications, it only had a property requirement. Women who own enough property, primarily widows and single women, so not all women in new jersey could and did vote in elections at the local, state and national level. They did so for the first 30 years of the republic, until new jersey changed its law, using its power as a state to do so, to restrict the vote to just white men of property. At that point in time, women as well as africanamerican men lost the right to vote. It wasnt until the 19th amendments ratification they got the right to vote back. Lets head to the next section, which is, why do women fight for the vote . It does a wonderful job of telling the personal story from women, not just why they were fighting for teh vote but what the absense of the vote meant for them in terms of economics, social, legal, and other consequences. Women like emily barber. She was a teacher, she sent a petition to congress. She argued that as a woman, she has to pay equal taxes with men, but as a nonvoter has no voice and how those tax dollars are spent. She further states that with superior capabilities for teaching and governing schools i love to point out that this petition was sent to congress in 1879. 140 years ago this year, women were already arguing they needed the vote to press for equal wages. Of course, as a wage earning woman, women like emily barber, from their working experience, it was clear how Vulnerable Women were without the vote. One of the other ways a lot of women came to ultimately fight for their right to vote was through engagement through other reform issues. Lots of women were engaged in the antislavery movement, the temperance movement, as well as other educational, public health, and social reforms. One of the most important endorsements came from the Christian Temperance Union in 1881. They were the largest Womens Organization at the time. We have this petition here from the women christians Temperance Union that argues that the ballot is the most potent element in all moral and social reforms. Through womens reform activity, they realized even if they didnt initially support womens suffrage, they needed the ballot in order to prep for the changes that were most important to them. I love that this exemption the section of the exhibit has wonderful records that tell stories of individual women who fought for the vote. We wanted to include as many voices and arguments as we could from women and men who fought for womens Voting Rights. We developed this projection display that includes beautiful portraits, as well as quotes from other women and men who were active in the Suffrage Movement, arguing why women needed the vote. Working women must use the ballot to avoid the crushing of our bodies for the profit of a few. The rights of a female part of the community are often times disregarded or forgotten and consequence of their declaration of political rights. Lets move on to the third section of the exhibit, which is the focal point of the exhibit. Its the largest section. How did women win the 19th amendment . We look at the diversity of women as well as strategies that were engaged in the fight to ultimately win the 19th amendment. This is a morethan seven decade multi generational struggle. We begin at one of the first critical juncture points in the struggle for womens Voting Rights. That came at the end of the civil war when women suffragists, many of whom were engaged in the antislavery movement, hoped that as the government considered the rights of freed men that women may also gain the right to vote at the same time. Here we have a petition for universal suffrage. That is for everyone to get the right to vote. From 1866, its signed by a number of women whose names are pretty familiar with the Womens Suffrage Movement, including Susan B Anthony and lucy stone, and really urging the government to consider extending the right of suffrage to women as it considers doing so for newly emancipated africanamerican men. Unfortunately for them, the government did not listen to their pleas. Once the 15th amendment passed congress, it was clear that women, both africanamerican and white women, were not going to get the rights to vote. This created a huge amount of tension among women suffragists. They were divided on whether or not to support the 15th amendment, and it created something that is called the schism in the Suffrage Movement. Two new National Organizations formed. One was the National Womens suffrage association, founded by anthony and stanton. They did not support the 15th amendment. They focused their work from that point onward to fighting for a constitutional amendment that would give women the right to votes. Here we have a petition from the american women suffragists association, founded by lucy stone, her husband and other suffragists. They did support the 15th amendment. They focus their efforts on women winning the right to vote on the state and local level. They werent necessarily opposed to a constitutional amendment giving the right to vote. They didnt feel that it was they werent very optimistic at the success of a constitutional amendment at this point in time. One of the fascinating things about the Womens Suffrage Movement is that after women lost the vote in new jersey in 1807, the first state to give women the right to vote was in 1869 in the west. Wyoming was the first territory at the time to give women the vote and became the first state to do so when they obtained statehood in 1890. Interestingly, no states east of the mississippi gave women the right to vote in the 19th century. Here we have a position from utah. Utah is an interesting case because utah had a mormonmajority legislature. Congress was opposed to the practice of polygamy, made latter efforts made efforts in the latter part of the 19th century to outlaw it. This petition is from women who already got the right to vote in utah, when congress was trying to pass legislation to outlaw polygamy, and they make lovely arguments about the fact that women managed to maintain their respectability as voters, really urged congress not to take the vote away from them when they passed that legislation. Congress was not successful in doing so at this point in time, but just about a decade later women in utah did lose the vote when Congress Passed antipolygamy legislation, but once utah got its statehood they gave the vote back to women. One more interesting thing about this story, this is the only Time Congress took the boat away from women as well. The Womens Suffrage Movement took more than 70 years. Generations of women had to fight for their right to vote. One of the reasons it took so long for the Suffrage Movement to be so successful was because there was furious opposition to and franchising women, not just from male politicians, but a lot of women as well. This was a period of time of great social change. Womens social roles outside, in particular outside of the home were shifting dramatically, and lots of women resisted that change. We had this fantastic petition for more than 850 women, who urged congress not to give them the vote, and they make a number of different arguments about why they dont want the vote. I will read one of them to you. They argue that, because these changes must introduce a fruitful element of discord in the existing marriage relation, which would tend to the infinite detriment of children and increase the already alarming prevalence of divorce in this country. And this petition comes from 1872, so pretty remarkable that that argument would be made already back then. And weve got this great graphic here that shows the mother heading out the door on election day while her husband is left at home with the children and doing all the cooking and cleaning, and really speaks to the fears that a lot of antisuffragists had at that point in time. Certainly lots of women and men were opposed to giving women the right to vote because of how it might change, in particular, the family dynamic, but that was not the only reason that antisuffragists were opposed to giving women the right to vote. So we have this section of, this exhibit case that looks at the way that race came into the discussion and the debate over giving women the right to vote. Racebased arguments were used on both sides of the Suffrage Movement, not only for or against giving women the right to vote, but for or against doing so through a constitutional amendment. We have this fascinating postcard from the Georgia Association opposed to womens suffrage. I will read a couple of arguments that the postcard makes to vote against womens suffrage. Universal suffrage wipes out the disenfranchisement of the negro by state law, and because White Supremacy must be maintained. It makes clear that Southern States in particular, after the 15th amendments ratification, after the end of reconstruction, had been able to implement discriminatory measures that pretty effectively disenfranchised a lot of africanamerican men. They feared that giving the women the right to vote, in particular africanamerican women, would undermine that effort. Its also really important and was a goal of this exhibit that we highlight the Critical Role that africanamerican suffragists played in the fight for womens Voting Rights, in particular the ultimate success of the 19th amendment. We have this petition from washington, d. C. , signed by both africanamerican men and women, urging congress to pass a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. Something i find fascinating about this petition is that these are petitioners from the District Of Columbia and at this period in time, 1877, when this petition was signed, there were no Voting Rights in the District Of Columbia. Something else interesting about this petition is it is signed by two of Frederick Douglasss children, including Frederick Douglass junior and Rosetta Douglass sprigg. All of the documents that weve looked at so far in this exhibition are in the holdings of the National Archives, and the National Archives preserves them for future generations. I think it is really spectacular that a petition that you sent to congress today, just as these africanamerican petitioners did in 1877, becomes part of the National Archives holdings, and we are really fortunate we have it here today to help tell the story. Thus far on this tour, weve seen lots of petitions. And women, when they were pressing for their Voting Rights, really only had their First Amendment rights available to them to press their government for their rights and for political change. One of the other First Amendment rights that suffragists use, the freedom to assemble, they used pretty effectively as well to gain greater visibility and public attention for their cause. We have this great wall mural here, one of many suffrage parades that were staged throughout the country. This one is here in washington, d. C from 1913. It was one of the most consequential marches that was staged. Women, more than 5000 suffragists, participated in this march. It was held the day before Woodrow Wilsons first president ial inauguration. And i hope that you can see here, this is all the space that these women had to march up pennsylvania avenue. This photograph is actually digitized from a congressional hearing that was held after the march was over. Because the police didnt do very much to control the crowd. The suffragists could barely make their way through the crowds at points, and they faced verbal harassment and even some instances of assault as well as they marched through this unfriendly crowd. And the police argued there were just too many people, so they couldnt possibly keep the crowds back, but you can see here they could have opened the way for these women to march peacefully for their rights. One of the women that we know who participated in that march is Marie Bottineau baldwin. She is a native american woman. The photographs you see of the Women Suffragist Movement are primarily white women marching and protesting for their vote, but we know women of color were there and were important to the movement, and we really wanted to make sure the spotlight their stories whenever we could. So we know Marie Baldwin was a participant of the suffrage march here in washington, d. C. This is actually her official personnel file photo. She worked for what is today the bureau of indian affairs. I think its a lovely photo and i love that she chose to wear her traditional native dress for the picture as well. I also want to point out that ida b. Wellsbarnett was another woman of color who participated in the 1913 suffragist march and was a critical activist, not only for women suffragists but for a number of different issues, and throughout the gallery we have womens photographs in these gold frames. We just wanted to make sure we pulled in as many different womens stories and highlighting the Important Role that they played in the struggle for womens Voting Rights. So youll see those throughout the gallery. So women petitioned, they marched and they protested, but the fight for womens Voting Rights wouldnt have been successful if, as i said at the start of this tour, millions of women were not already voters, and thats because their states chose to give them the rights to vote, beginning with wyoming territory in 1869. Some states chose to give women equal Voting Rights with men in their state, and other states just chose to extend partial or limited suffrage to women. And we have some great records that help tell the story of partial suffrage in particular. One of my favorite records and the entire exhibit is this voting machine patent drawing from 1910. It has two separate entrances to get into the voting area. On the left is an entrance at the top that says ladies, on the right theres an entrance for gents. And then you can see there is a complicated system of pulleys and levers. And i dont know exactly how those gears are intended to work, but the intention would be that women couldnt vote for everything women who couldnt vote for everything that men could would go on the left side of the entrance and all those gears, pulleys and levers would close off whatever ballot measures they were not allowed to vote for. Of course if you were a man you could go into the gentss entrance on the right and all those options woudl be availabhle to you. This patent drawing is from 1910, so this was 10 years before the 19th amendment was ratified. Already states were, and the American Public was, dealing with the question of some women having Voting Rights, but not equal Voting Rights with men. So another Critical Community of women that were engaged in this struggle was working class women. We already heard the arguments from emily barber, that teacher who, as a wage earning woman, pressed for Voting Rights. And women, whether they worked in a profession or in a factory or other industry, were a really Critical Community, and the struggle for womens Voting Rights, in particular, because working womens engagement really helped to turn the Womens Suffrage Movement into a mass movement, both in terms of the number of women active as well as the strategies they brought to the movement, in particular their experience in organizing labor, and we have this great petition here that still has an instruction sheet attached, which i love, because it shows the way that they translated some of those strategies they learned for getting petitions signed for unionizing into how they translated that for the struggle to get signatures from men and women to support womens suffrage. So they have things such as canvas factories, workshops and schools at the noon hour. So the woman Suffrage Movement turned into this mass movement. We have millions of wageearning women engaged. We have women marching through the streets, signing greater numbers of petitions. Then we come to the point where the United States enters the war during world war i, and this creates a tension point in the Womens Suffrage Movement. Women gain tremendous momentum behind their movement, but most suffragists fear that to continue to agitate for the vote while the u. S. Went to war, that they would lose support for their cause because they would look unpatriotic. A number of women, most women and the largest suffragist organization at the time, chose to put their public agitation for the vote to the side and devote their time to supporting the war efforts. We have this great collection of uniforms from women who volunteered with the red cross and served both domestically as well as abroad. Its a lovely collection and i love that i was able to use it to really talk about and interpret womens wartime service, which was important to gaining a lot of public support for giving women the right to vote. However, not all women chose to set aside their womens suffrage activities. In fact, the National Womens party, the really militant branch of the Womens Suffrage Movement, chose to really step up the political pressure in particular towards the president at this time. They began to picket the white house in early 1917. Women were actually the First Americans to picket the white house. And we have this banner that weve borrowed from the National Womens party, as well as this great footage showing women marching as well as the sentinels standing outside the white house to call attention to womens suffrage, to embarrass the president and call out the hypocrisy of the United States going to war during world war i, the war to make the world safe for democracy, while women at home still didnt have their full citizenship rights. Silent sentinels were picketing outside of the white house during the war, and the Wilson Administration did not necessarily respond kindly to their activities. As the u. S. Mobilized for war and really began to ramp up its engagement in that conflict, silent sentinels were harassed on the street, some of those women were arrested and also jailed. We have some documents here that talk about that story, in particular womens imprisonment for peacefully protesting for their rights. So although the silent sentinels were not necessarily very popular with mainstream suffragists or with many members of the American Public, they were nevertheless appalled that these women were imprisoned for peacefully demonstrating for their rights. The criticism that the Wilson Administration received for the treatment of the silent sentinels, as well as the political pressure that they maintained on him, women, patriotism and service during the war, was finally enough to turn the public tied in favor public tide in favor he went to congress and urged that they pass the womens suffrage amendment as a war measure. The senate voted a couple of days later and the measure still failed to pass by the required two thirds majority of that chamber to become a constitutional amendment by just two votes. The good news is the next session of congress, the measure passed the house on may 21 of 18 of 1919, then passed the senate, and the amendment passed congress and went out to the states for ratification. In order for that amendment to become part of the constitution, it needs to be ratified by the states. And here we have in the center of our exhibition, the real focal point of this story, the story of the 19th amendments journey from a proposed constitutional amendment to becoming part of the constitution. These three documents help tell that story. The first record is the joint resolution, proposing the amendment to the constitution extending the right of suffrage to women. When we say the 19th amendment, this is the document we are talking about, its the joint resolution that passed congress on june 4, 1919. It doesnt become a constitution until it is ratified by three quarters of the state, which was 36 states at the time. A requirement that the 19th amendment met when tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the proposed amendment on august 18, 1920. Here we have a ceremonial copy of the secretary of states certification that the 19th amendment had indeed met the constitutional requirements for it to become a constitutional amendment. And with that women, have secured the right to vote in the United States constitution. So here we have the story of the 19th amendments journey to becoming part of the constitution, but i also wanted to tell a few more stories from its road of ratification, including the first states that ratified, as well as a little bit more of the story behind tennessee. That was a pretty intense battle to finally pass the amendment in that state. In tennessee, as the Tennessee Legislature was fighting over whether or not to ratify the 19th amendment, it ultimately only passed by a single vote. We wanted to tell that story here. The freshman legislator who voted to pass the voted to ratify the 19th amendment was harry burn, and the story goes that he was opposed to womens suffrage, but his mother urged him to support the amendment if his vote was needed to do so. Fortunately for us he kept his promise to his mother. Ill just point out that as you round that corner from the 19th amendment, we have this huge wall mural. This is a photograph from the National Womens party. We wanted to represent the moment of celebration as she is unfurling the National Womens party flag with 36 stars, representing the 36 states that voted to ratify, just so it is clear to everyone who comes here that we reached a critical milestone in womens fight for the vote. The next section of the exhibit is, what was the 19th amendments impact . We wanted to look at the impact the 19th amendment had for women as they began to use their newfound power as voters. Looking at early pieces of legislation women fought for and some of the successes as well as the setbacks they encountered. This section of the exhibit also really becomes a foundational section of the exhibit, but looks at the ongoing struggle for greater womens equality and opportunity that has continued in the year since the 19th amendment ratification. People think about the equal rights amendment, and some suffragists did immediately, or very quickly begin to pivot to secure womens legal equality in the constitution. However, interestingly, at that point in time most women did not support an equal rights amendment. As i mentioned earlier in the exhibit, women were engaged in various reform movements, and they hadnt been completely unsuccessful at winning important protections for women, and many resisted, including 13 rather Large NationalWomens Organizations, resisted an equal rights amendment because they feared would one become part of the constitution women would lose those important protections. So we also wanted to look at the ways that women fought for greater political representation. Of course, that is a struggle that continues today as well. There are still not equal numbers of women in congress and other as well as state and local governments. We also wanted to have just a little bit of fun, and i pulled together this playful section of artifacts and ephemera that represent the different ways women as voters have showed their support for their political candidates. So in the physical gallery, we really only look at a couple of stories focused on the decade immediately following the 19th amendments ratification, but of course there are many more stories in the 100 years since the 19th amendments ratification focused on womens ongoing struggle for greater equality, opportunity and political representation. So we wanted to make some of that important context and history available in the exhibit, but we couldnt fit it into the actual gallery, so we developed this interactive maze to allow visitors to explore some of those ongoing struggles that women continue to fight. We also have the rights exhibition that look at womens rights more broadly, which is just one floor down in the museum. If you choose to play the interactive maze game, you get to select an avatar, then youre taken through the maze where you encounter some of the ways women have pressed for, succeeded, and sometimes were not successful in winning greater Voting Rights. The maze itself is meant as a metaphor for that ongoing struggle, because of course you have to try to find your way through the maze just as women would have had to struggle to find their way forward in the ongoing struggle for equality. So now we come to the last section of the exhibit, which is, what Voting Rights struggle persist . As i said at the start of this tour, millions of women did not get the right to vote under the 19th amendment. Women were already voters. Millions of women and men continued to struggle for their Voting Rights after the 19th amendments ratification, because they were denied the right to vote for reasons other than their sex. This section of the exhibit tries to look at some of those different stories from different groups of women, the ongoing struggle that they faced and what ultimately secured Voting Rights for different groups of women. One of the most notable stories in this section of the exhibit is the struggle for africanamerican women and men, in particular in the south, to gain their right to vote. And i have a couple of documents here. One of my favorite letters in the whole section of the exhibit is from lulu murray, she wrote to the president in 1923. She is from birmingham, alabama. She writes to the president to say she was turned away when she went to register to vote, but she should have the right to vote under the 14th, 15th and 19th amendments. Its the only letter in all the research i did for this exhibit where i found an africanamerican woman who mentioned all the constitutional amendments that extend her Voting Rights. She also goes on further to say that she had two brothers who served during world war i, one of whom lost his life in service to his country, and shes urging the president to get this important act to justice. And i love this little pamphlet next to murrays letter, because it so clearly outlines a number of the different voting restrictions that were used in the south to keep africanamericans from exercising their right to vote. I will just read off what they have listed here. It says, white primaries, inaccessibility of the polls, restrictive registration hours, and other more subtle restrictions against voting and i think what they mean there is issues related to intimidation as well as discrimination and voting, things like unfairly administered literacy tests, threats of economic retaliation, and sometimes threats and acts of violence against africanAmerican Voters that attended to exercise their right to vote. So it isnt really until the Voting Rights act of 1965 passes congress that many of these discriminatory measures are outlawed, and women and men in the south are really able to exercise their constitutional right to vote. They are not the only group of americans who continued to struggle and encounter issues of discrimination after the 19th amendments ratification. But one of the other areas where women, and of course men, run into issues with the rights to exercise issues with exercising their rights to vote it says nothing about the District Of Columbia or other u. S. Territories like puerto rico. Puerto rican women, although they were engaged in the Suffrage Movement since the early 20th century, were not included by the 19th amendment, and they are Territorial Legislature refused to extend them the right to vote when the 19th amendment was ratified. They faced another 15year struggle to secure Voting Rights for puerto rican women. I should mention that puerto rican women were already United States citizens at this point in time, they gained citizenship in 1917. We have this letter, from ana valez who is writing to president coolidge in 1929, urging his support for a measure that was before congress to give women the right to vote. In particular, shes asking that hell sign the bill if it passes. They achieve a partial victory. Not all women get the right to vote in puerto rico in 1929. Literate women are able to secure their Voting Rights, but its not until 1939 that all puerto rican women gain the right to vote in puerto rico. But for both puerto rico as well as the District Of Columbia, even today, they dont have equal Voting Rights and voting representation in congress with american citizens that live in the states. So at the beginning of this tour, i said there is not a citizens right to vote in this country today, but that doesnt mean that citizenship isnt often a prerequisite in order to exercise the right to vote. Women who are not recognized as u. S. Citizens when the 19th amendment was ratified had to wait until they were recognized as citizens in order to exercise their right to vote. Two groups of women whose story we tell here our native american women, as well as asian immigrant women. All native americans are not recognized as United States citizens until 1924. That doesnt mean that they necessarily gained the right to vote once they gained citizenship. Many of the discriminatory measures that africanAmerican Voters encountered also kept a lot of native American Voters from the polls as well, and for asian immigrant women, they were not legally allowed to obtain citizenship until the 1940s and 1950s. We have this photograph from Dorothea Lang from world war ii, and its an interesting story because japanese internees, if they were u. S. Citizens, could vote if they were incarcerated in internment camps, and even some japanese immigrants were allowed to vote just for camp assemblytype election, which is an interesting little side story. So in addition to the ways that different groups of americans have continued to struggle since the 19th amendments ratification in order to secure the right to vote, i also wanted to look at some other pieces of legislation and other constitutional amendments that opened the polls to even more voters. Like the 26th amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, and the National Voter registration act, which is better known as motor voter today, which made it easier for all americans, but especially younger and poorer voters, in particular, to register to vote and hopefully also use their right to vote. So here we have a tshirt that was gifted to president clinton when he signed motor voter into law, and for some of our younger visitors, i think they might enjoy seeing the rock the vote logo. As a member of the mtv generation, i certainly remember watching rock the vote specials, where all the celebrities come out and encourage Younger Voters to engage and rock the vote. So, as i said in the first section of the rightfully hers exhibit, in who decides who votes . , the states power to determining qualifications played a Critical Role in the womens struggle for the vote and it became important in determining Voting Rights today. We ended the exhibit here with the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder which upheld the constitutionality of the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights act. However it did struck down the formula that was used to determine which states and jurisdictions were subject to the preclearance provision. And that has resulted in a number of changes to voting laws. In recent years there have been new voting eligibility requirements that have emerged in multiple states. Some of those have made it easier to vote, but some have also made it more difficult to register and exercise your right to vote. As we sat at the start of this exhibition, states power to determining qualifications continues to be important today. We hope that the visitors of this exhibition will take this message home with them and learn about voting laws in their states so that they can be engaged voters and ensure that they can exercise their right to vote every election day. So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive, both as i walked visitors through the exhibit and as ive just tried to observe people. Weve had a number of teenagers, it is field trip season here at the museum. They seem to really love the content. What i most excited about is the interactive voting booth. We felt like we needed to have a voting booth, so everybody, whether they are registered voters or have yet to register to vote, or are looking forward to that day they get to head to the polls and get the experience of voting here. You get to see the up you get the opportunity to see what ballot box issues are important to you. You get to take a selfie to share with your family and friends, something you cant do it any other polling place in the country. Hers american women and the vote will be on view in the nationals until january 2021. With stops in florida, louisiana, tennessee and south carolina