Stewart my name is stuart, the president of the White House Historical association. It is my privilege to welcome many of you back to the historic Decatur House and the White House Historical association for another one of our wonderful lectures. Tonight is one of the annual National Heritage lectures that we do in partnership with the u. S. Capitol Historical Society and the u. S. Supreme court Historical Society, and we have our wonderful colleagues from both tonight, and we would like to welcome you here today. On june 4, 1919, the 19th amendment was passed and sent to the states for ratification. The silver just used the white house as a backdrop to challenge inequity and bring attention to their cause. Tonight, we look forward to hearing more about their successful efforts to secure womens right to vote. Before i introduce our speaker, i have a couple of other introductions and things i would like to share. First of all, we have guests from Smith College tonight, the Washington Club of Smith College. Stand up, the Washington Club of Smith College crowd. [applause] they are our special guests tonight and we are honored to have them. I would also like to tell you a little bit about the White House Historical association and for those of you who have been with us before, you know i love to talk about our wonderful mission done in 1961 by first Lady Jacqueline kennedy. Remember, she was only 31 years old when her husband was inaugurated president of the united states. At that young age, she had the vision and foresight to know that what she and president kennedy needed then, others would need over the course of time. That would be to have a private partner through a nonpartisan and nonprofit. We accept no government funding. All of the resources we raise goes to our Education Programs to teach and tell the stories of white house history, going back to 1792. Tonight is a part of that education outreach program. We also provide resources directly to the white house to maintain the Museum Standard of the state floor and the ground floor and the nonpublic historical rooms that misses kennedy envisioned maintaining, and we have done that with every president and first lady since the kennedys, and we are honored to do so. Tonight, our format, i will introduce our wonderful speaker, and then following her remarks, anne compton, who was a wonderful friend of ours and yours, o come up and have an interview session. Do not worry, this podium will be moved so all of you can have an unobstructed view of their conversation. Ann, we have been very good friends with it for many years. She has been very supportive of us as an organization, as she is of many things in washington. You know her best as a former reporter and white house correspondent. She was the first woman assigned to cover the white house for network television. She worked for abc news for 41 years, retiring in 2014, but you really have not retired completely because you are very involved, active, and engaged in things. I know with us, the miller center, and other endeavors prayed her career spanned seven president s, 10 president ial campaigns. She traveled to all 50 states, six continents, and of the many interesting anecdotes and stories about anns years and covering the white house and president is the compelling story of her being with president bush, george w. Bush, on september 11, 2001, as the only broadcast reporter that traveled around the country with him on that day. It will soon be coming up on the 20th anniversary of dedication, and we will do Something Special to talk about the white house on 9 11. We thank ann for her friendship and for being with us to take this series of lectures forward. We will have another in september on the role of pat nixon in the white house. This is the 50th anniversary of the nixons coming into the presidency and mrs nixon becoming first lady, and i think she is really an unheralded first lady in terms of her legacy at the white house, and she contributed in terms of artifacts, really american artifacts in the white house collection, and we will celebrate that with the lecture in september. And then in october, very exciting news, our dear friend, chef roland, has a new book that will be out in october, and for the first time ever, he is finally unlocking his recipe box, and he is going to be sharing the recipes from his service to five american president s from jimmy carter to george w. Bush, and his wonderful confections that he created as executive white house pastry chef for those many years. Jennifer pickens, who you may know as an author of a white house christmas, is going have a new book out on ceremonies at the white house, so we will have a conversation with the chef and Jennifer Pickens at our event in october. Stay tuned for news on both of those occasions. Now for our prime event. We are in for a treat tonight to talk about this very important and timely happening in our nations history, and on the centennial of this historic occasion. We have Rebecca Roberts here tonight as our speaker. Rebecca has been, i understand, many things in her career rebecca has been many things in her career. She has been a journalist, producer, tour guide, forensic anthropologist, event planner, political consultant. She has been a jazz singer, a radio talk show host, and currently, she is curator of programming for planet word, i museum set to open in 2020. She is also the mom to two twin boys, a wife, and a great keeper of the family in line, and on top of all of that, she is an author. She has written a wonderful book on the subject we are here to learn about tonight and this part of American History and white house history. With that, i will have rebecca come up and then we will remove the podium, and rebecca and ann can have a conversation at the end. At the end, you will be able to pose your questions, as well. [applause] ms. Roberts thank you for having me. Thank you, stuart. Just to set the record straight, i have three sons, not to brag. The twins have a little brother. The Suffragist Movement dates from 1848 to the ratification in 1920 per in the interest of brevity and focus, im not going to cover all 72 years. I will more or less ignore the 19th century and just focus on the final push for the amendment. If you have any questions about other parts of the movement, other players in the movements, i would be more than happy to answer them only go to q a. I would like to start with this image of the program from the 1913 cyprus suffrage march down penciling avenue suffrage march down pennsylvania avenue. The great thing about writing 20th century history are the great photographs, but they are black and white. This original Program Shows you how extraordinarily colorful everything was and all the contemporary accounts talk of that. These colors are deliberate. In fact, most everything the Suffrage Movement did was elaborate. Not only do these colors represent things, but purple is a very rich in saturated color. Gold musso, dwight is the absence of color, so these rings show up really well in blackandwhite photographs. That is all on purpose. Also, if you want to see the artifacts of the movement in all of their beautiful, colorful glory, the belmont paul house on capitol hill on the senate side has all of the original banners. Because we are in the centennial year, there are terrific exhibits going on. There was one of the archives, the library of congress, and one opening soon at the centennial history museum. Go out and see all of these artifacts and the glory because we are lucky enough to be in the town where they are curated. So this march, the 1913 march was the first civil rights march. There had been parades down pennsylvania avenue, but this idea of taking a cause to the center of washington was alice holls idea and it started at the legislative branch of the capital and march down pennsylvania avenue to the white house to the executive branch, and that was absolutely symbolic and it was the day before inauguration. If that sounds familiar, the womens march on the same weekend of the inauguration of a president they had not voted for in order to remind him he ignored womens voices at his peril from the beginning of his administration, has paralleled and they are very very strong. So, the march, let me make sure this is advancing. I of course do not have my glasses on, so if it is not on, i have no way of knowing that. This is the capital end of pennsylvania avenue. Pennsylvania avenue is a really broad street. They were able to plan this grand procession. All of the floats, marching bands, working women marching in procession in matching outfits. This is the herald of the parade, and the idea is she would get on her horse in the beginning and get down on the capital end of pennsylvania and a bugler would sound that the parade had begun. A few locks later, the bugler call would be picked up i another all the way down to 15th street, the treasury department, which has that big plaza out front. And it would begin on the treasury steps. We will get to that. But you can see how this is all, you know, the horses are spaced perfectly with fabulous hats, and this is all throughly planned. We are just behind jane burlison and you have probably seen this image, especially at the state of the union this year when women members of congress chose to wear white to honor the suffragist. This one showed up a lot as an example of suffragists in white. I also love this image because it shows you what a great publicist alice paul was. She was a really accomplished professional, but all of the breathlessly sexist press of the day never failed to talk about how pretty she was. They called her the most beautiful suffragist. Alice pauls reaction was, you know what, if you are going to talk about how pretty she is and not how smart she is, im going to put her in white, put her on the white horse, and maybe well take a picture and we will get coverage out of it. This image comes back and suffrage laura, but that was her on her horse. So working women marched by profession. These are the nurses. The teachers march together. The writers marched together and they purposely stain their costumes with ink. College women marked by alma mater. Im certain there are smith women there. We have pictures from other schools. I looked for smith i cannot find them. And the whole idea was this grand procession would end at 15th street at the treasury department, where the tableau would go on. So the tableau was fascinating art form that involved some sort of tortured allegory where people would pose, and this allegory was columbia summoning the virtues. That is columbia in the armor, and they were peace, prosperity, and they involve children in togas, a whole thing. It had very little to do with suffragists, but boy did it look great in pictures. This is still the cover of my book 100 years later and it is strategically planned to be that way. There was a grand stand in front of treasury set up for the inaugural parade set for the next day, and alice paul got permission for vips to sit there. So there was a live audience, but that was not the main audience. There are the children in togas. It was march 3. It is a little chilly and march in washington. These children were barefoot on the marble steps of the treasury, but the parade begins, the bugle sounds, the tableau gets the signal to start. They perform their beautiful tableau, and then they stand there and dignified silence, and the plan would be the parade would continue in front of them, and then they would all end up at the hall, where the tableau would perform again in triumph to a rousing applause from the audience, and it would be a great day. So the tableau goes ahead and there is no parade. The tableau finishes and they are maintaining their poses but no parade. They have no way of knowing where the parade is and why it is held up. It is getting a little cold up there on the treasury steps in their togas. They wait as long as they can, and finally, they go inside the treasury department. Where is the parade . Why hasnt it come down pennsylvania avenue . That is why. For orientation, this picture was taken at about 12 street where Freedom Plaza is now, that power that dominates us now. You are looking back toward the capital. It is a six lane road with really broad sidewalks, and it was absolutely shoulder to shoulder. I dont know how much detail you can see, and these people were not there for the suffrage parade but for the inauguration next day. The suffrage parade was a sideshow and they were barely they were very poorly behaved. They spit on the women, the police did nothing to stop them and in some cases, police joined in on the name calling and spitting. And you cannot get a parade through that crowd. Alice paul realized her perfectly planned parade was about to go south. So she got the car. She was on academic road. She drove a car up and down the parade route, trying to zigzag through the crowd to back them up and it did not work. The crowd just poured right back in behind her as soon as the car went by. Finally, they literally called in cavalry. Mounted officer standing by ft. Myers, and they came in and rode their horses into the crowd, enough so the parade could fight their way down. So instead of the tableau performing at the hall in triumph, all the women show up at the hall filthy, furious, cold, angry, horrified that this massive crowd of these jerky men have completely ruined what should have been this ticket loosely planned triumph of day. Alice paul realized from the beginning it was the best thing that could ever have happened, that a lovely parade would be in the news for a day and a near riot would keep the Suffrage Movement in the news for weeks for that is what happened with the congressional hearing, police chief almost lost his job, a whole thing. And again, to notice how good these women were at manipulating the press im not entirely sure what i should point this set to make a change. Over here . Ok. This is the Washington Post the next day. I love the language. It is so spectacular. So this headline should be wilson inaugurated the nations 20th president. Right . Instead, he gets half. And the other columns as womens beauty, grace, and art bewilder the capital. Femininity presents entrancing suffrage appeal, and there is a photo of the tableau. So this was not particularly well planted story from the National Womens party. This is how the men covered the parade without any guidance from the women. So it is all talking about how pretty it was, and by the way, there was some bad behavior. This is a better example of the Chicago Daily tribune. Again, Woodrow Wilson not the headline. This column here, bob the capital, defied police, blocked the suffrage parade. And then, this paragraph down here is the lead and has 17 superlatives. The biggest crowd, the widest streets, the angriest mobs, the most dutiful girls, and it is terrific press, but also, look at the editorial cartoon. There is like little Woodrow Wilson thinking he gets the spotlight on the day of his inauguration, but tada there are the suffragists. They are literally stealing the spotlight from him. So the 1913 march was sort of the turning point for the final push to get the amendment through congress, and in addition to being a great publicity ploy, it was a reintroduction of the federal amendment as a strategy. I will race through a little political history here. Again, feel free to ask questions later because im going really fast. The original suffragists, and you know their names, katie sims, Susan B Anthony, they were abolitionists. And some of them backed suffrage because they wanted abolition and they figure they cannot get that done without the votes. After the civil war, the reconstruction amendments were passed, and they enfranchised black men but no women. That caused a major risk in the suffrage party. There were people who said, we are abolitionists, we will take this. It is important black men get the vote and we will fight for women next. And there were people like Elizabeth Cady and Susan B Anthony who said, stop telling us to wait our turn. If we dont get this now, it will be another generation, and we cannot support the 15th amendment if it does not include women. It was a huge split. So they formed competing organizations, they tore each other down in the press, and they also continued on two separate avenues for getting suffrage passed. With the anthony faction pushing the federal amendment and the stone block will faction pushing it statebystate strategy. In part because of the reconstruction amendments had been hailed as federal overreach by the former confederacy. Also, it is not crazy to go statebystate. Eventually, if enough states have suffrage, you will have enough men and women representing that it becomes inevitable. So it had really languished since just after the civil war. This 1913 march just behind inez on her white horse, there was a big banner that said we demand a constitutional amendment in franchising women of this country. That is called the great demand banner and you can see that belmont hall. This march, in addition to being a great publicity loy was an announcement that the federal amendment was back, and this was really going to be a major strategy going forward. It was really alice paul who was pushing the switch to the amendment and also these much more public tactics. And she had she was very young. She was only in her early 20s at the time of the 1913 parade. She had gone to grad school in england and had become a follower of the british Suffrage Movement. It also had a slow and steady color within the line Suffrage Movement, and then they had a rush. The mother and daughter were totally radical and totally militant. Eventually, alice pauls faction had nothing on the British Movement. They started throwing bricks through windows, the escalated tests at the prime ministers house on fire. I understand they burn down the botanical gardens. They purposely got arrested. They were not playing around. I love this. So this is the british paper. The headline says trouble expected in london tonight, suffrage is determined to force their way into parliament. They say they will certainly break into the house. Everyone expected it. The other is an ad saying if suffragettes break your windows, call me to put them back in. [laughter] it was in the edinburg paper. I am thewee boy who can put them in three suffragists, suffragettes, the word is suffragists. The British Press made fun of the british Suffrage Movement by calling them suffragette, and to be derisive and like nasty women in deplorable generations later, the british women coopted the title and kind of leaned in. So most properly, everyone is a separate just. Suffragette refers to the militant British Movement. There is your lesson of the day. So, with these lessons from the British Movement and alice paul is arrested, she went to jail, and she participated in these guerrilla tactics parade when she moved back to the u. S. In 1910, she wanted to use some of those tactics to breed new movement into the american movement. The split had really lost everybody time and energy, so they worked with the National Womens association suffragists association, and the two actions after the war came back together and formed this overriding major group. They let alice paul set up a washington office, just like lots of nonprofits, ngos, they all had washington offices and it was right here. That is cameron house. It is across the square from where we are now with a light yellow facade, one preserved by jackie kennedy, and now the Court Structure rises up the hind it