Writer, and a commentator whose work is focused on how black americans have shaped the history of american democracy. Her most recent book, which just vanguard s called how black women broke barriers, won the vote, and insisted on equality for all. Is fascinating. You have to get it. Jonesss with dr. Grandmother, susie jones. And i must admit i havent finished the book, but it has Amazing Stories of women who have really made a difference. And we look forward, dr. Jones, to hearing your story. So, let me just tell you a little bit about dr. Jones. She was born in Central Harlem and was originally trained as an attorney and was working on social justice issues after being trained in new york. The q a law school, she became a Public Interest lawyer and spent 10 years representing homeless people, people with mental illness, women living with aids. Awarded a4, she was fellowship on the future of the city of new york at Columbia University based on her lawyering work. And there, her career took an interesting turn as she was drawn to the research and writing of eric,. She followed his career linked history and scholarship and social justice. And she discovered what she called her inner archive rack, which you will have to explain to us what that really is. Learn the politics of history, and state at columbia to earn a phd in history, and from there teaching next 16 years history, law, and africanamerican studies at the university of michigan. And in 2017, she came to baltimore as the black alumni president ial professor at Johns Hopkins university. There, since then, she has earned too many awards to mention. So let me just say she is an acclaimed scholar. Mater, the, her alma school of law, awarded her a doctor of law on an honorary basis. And each spring, she and her husband, who is french, go back and forth across the atlantic, although they have not been able to do that this year. But she is definitely a citizen of the world, and so we are very honored to have dr. Martha jones share with us what really is the impact of black women who now have the right to vote and will fight every date to make sure that every person has a right to vote. The politics of this democracy. Dr. Jones thank you to you, jane, and to the u. S. Historical society. Im extremely honored to have been a part of what have been an extraordinary series of conversations, insights. And i look forward to the work that well all do together out of this symposium experience. So, thank you so much. My theme is indeed the 19th amendment, and how this year, we are, i think, striving to both mark the centennial, and move from, if you will, mid to history. The story of the amendment is one facet of our National Reckoning with the pass for me, especially a reckoning with the role that racism has played in shaping the nation. And my hope that through the opportunity to better understand what happened in 1920 we might fashion new ways forward in our own moment. Now, some people may know that if you mention to me that were celebrating the centennial in the 19th amendment, i might cringe a little bit. Dont get me wrong. As Jane Campbell said, i just finished a book about the history of black women in the boat, and im as interested as anyone in this black history year and it significant for our nations, past and present, though i cant bring the spirit of celebration to the occasion. I worry it might get in the way of the story i have to share with you today. When we appreciate that the open secret about the 19th amendment in 1920, the open secret was that black women would continue in many parts of the country to be disenfranchised. That fact of the 19th amendment alone means that it fits awkwardly with events that would feature late period costumes and marching bands. Though i have enjoyed some of those, i must confess. The 1920 members of congress, the 1920 state lawmakers who who ratified it, the lawmakers understood nothing in there terms prohibited states from using University Tests and understanding clauses to keep black women from registering to vote. Nothing in the new amendment promised to curb what everyone already knew was rampant intimidation and violence that threatened black women who went to polling places. Voter riots and voting suppression went hand in hand in 1920. Now fortunately, im a historian. And that means that nothing in my job requires me to plan any commemorative festivities. Instead, my job is to cut through half truths and myths about the past, and equipped us he quit equip us with critical tools that i think we need to use the path to think about the future of our democracy. 25 years ago, historian Michelle Wolf look back at the celebrations that marked 500 years in 1492, the year in which Christopher Columbus was, once upon a time, at least it was said that columbus was set to have discovered the americas. Historians away from such occasions, and even myths that the occasion demanded. The difficult history of the european contact and conquest with the Indigenous People of the americas, including that columbus, was muted or even omitted altogether in efforts to anniversary in 19 in 1492 as celebration. Such framings may have helped tourists and souvenir sellers but they did too little to generate understanding of how the colonial people affected the people on the lands of the hemisphere. So why im asked why i mostly stay home from the celebrations, i know the centennial of the amendment marks a milestone of the american Voting Rights. I add that remembering the era of Voter Suppression may help us to see more clearly how ballots are being withheld from americans in our own time and may even encourage us to commit to the ongoing war of ensuring the Voting Rights of all americans. And im eager to contribute stories of black women to understanding of the 19th amendment, that as a nation, were not quite ready yet for that celebration. The promise of Voting Rights for all still remains on the horizon. So what happened on august 20 when the 19th amendment became part of the constitution . Im going to focus today on two myths that i think still pervade interpretations of that scene. And the first is that when the amendment became law, all american women wanted to vote. And youve probably even heard it said that in 1920, the women were now guaranteed the right to vote. Thats one myth. The second is that on the contrary, and its almost a myth that almost runs contrary to the first. Theres the myth that no black american women gained a vote in 1920. That racism kept black american women from the polls. And i think what we will do today is explore those, and look at the ways in which history sheds inevitably a much more nuanced light on those two myths. So this anniversary year, i want to start by looking at august of 1920, when the u. S. Secretary of state certified that the 19th amendment to the constitution had indeed been ratified by the required 36 states. What did the amendment say . 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. So what precisely did that mean for american women . Now, laws that reserve the belt for men violated the constitution. No longer could sex be a barrier to voter eligibility. Still, the 19th amendment didnt promise any american women the vote. Laws, state laws, still kept women from the polls, based upon age, citizenship, residency, mental competence, american women who married nonu. S. Citizens in 1920 still faced de naturalization, and now the loss of their voting rates. The women who showed up to register in the fall of 1920, confronted many hurdles, even if sex was not one of them. Of course, there was one additional barrier to votes that existed even after the federal amendment, and that was racism. Its true that the 15th amendment in 1870, 15 years before, had expressly forbid states from denying the vote because of race. But by 1920, lawmakers in the south, and in some parts of the west, has set in place hurdles that, while silent on their face about race, had the net effect of disenfranchising black americans. Taxes, grandfather clauses had effectively kept many black men from casting their ballots since the 1890s. Unchecked intimidation and the threat of lynching sealed the deal. Local voting officials had effectively obstructed a color line without ever expressly quoting race. Did america win the vote in 1920 . We have to say not all women. Africanamerican women in too many states be key merely, if you will, equals to their husbands and their fathers, state laws disenfranchised them and the spirit of the 15th and 19th amendments. Registration numbers reflected the effects of these laws, and in the fall of 1920, black women presented themselves to officials, but many found that the votes were closed. What was going on . One example from kent county, delaware. Reports were that black women turned out in unusually large numbers in the judgment of the journalist. But officials refused them because they failed to comply with the constitutional tests. What was going on in delaware in many places . Black women were being presented with text of the u. S. Constitution, being asked, being required not only to read that portion of the constitution, but then to interpret that portion of the constitution. When i teach this to my students, i challenge them to , on their feet and under the scrutiny of me, standing in for the reluctant official, to explain, for example, the electoral college. It isnt easy to do and many black women do not succeed in overcoming these kinds of hurdles in 1920. And still, black women were voting. The first waves of black women voters were unleashed in individual states that had made womens suffrage the law. In california, starting in 1911, in illinois in 1913, in new york in 1917, black women were already experienced voters by 1920. And even more managed to register and cast ballots in the fall of that year in the wake of the 19th amendment. How did they do that . One example from st. Louis, missouri, where black women came together under the auspices of the Phillips Wheatley branch of the ywca, named for the 18th century poet. There, they ran a Suffrage School and taught one another to how tol pull taxes, pass literacy tests, how to grapple with begrudging officials. They even managed to attract men to the Suffrage School, who thought that, perhaps, 1920 represented a moment in which they might reclaim the Voting Rights that they had lost decades before. Black women turned out in st. Louis, and the papers reported that nearly every woman in the city registered that season. Black women came to represent somewhere between 1020 of new voters. And the stakes were high in st. Louis, a city where local officials were using referendums to impose housing segregation, for the first time by law and in the city of st. Louis, black women are turning out not only to realize their own personal ambitions, not only to further womens interests, but to contribute to the struggle against jim crow, which now had a decisive sort of consequence in the ballot box in a city like st. Louis. The other example ill offer this afternoon comes from daytona, florida. And there, suffragists, club leader and educator mary, had run a very effective Voter Registration effort in 1919 and 1920 throughout the state of florida to get black women registered when the 19th amendment took effect. Now, bethune, who ran a school in daytona for africanamerican girls, learned that the wave of violence and intimidation that had overtaken the state of florida by the fall of 2020 whos going to visit her very close to home. The ku klux klan announced that it would gather on election eve in 1920 in daytona. Indeed, they appeared en masse, on horseback, in full regalia. They burn a cross and then marched to the grounds of bethunes girl school, todays Bethune Cookman university, in an attempt to intimidate bethune, her faculty, and the africanamerican women in daytona who had been part of the voter drive there. The next day, black women did turn out and we learned something about the extent of their organization and their tactics because they turn out to gether in large numbers at the polls. This is understood to be a tactic that will, if not repel, discourage the sort of violence that clan members had threatened the night before. So, bethune and her patriots have a kind of success in the fall of 1920, but the violence in florida persists. It persists to such a degree that the klan again will visit mrs. Bethunes school on election eve in 1922. And by that fall, black americans in florida will regretfully concede that unchecked violence and intimidation, unchecked by the 15th and the 19th amendments, has kept them, importantly, away from the polls. So, what are black women to do in the fall of 1920 as they look out across the terrain of the nation and take in the incompleteness of the 19th amendment, the patchwork that is Voting Rights for black women, even after a federal amendment . What is it, when in 1920, the president of the National Association of colored women, the largest Political Organization to represent black women in that year, more than 300,000 members across the country. Harlequin brown had been an educator, and elocution asked, a had led the nacw Suffrage Department during the years along the road to the 19th amendment. In the fall of 1920, harlequin brown is charged with leading black women through a new political challenge. What comes after an amendment to the constitution, the nacw resolved that what is demanded, what is required now is federal legislation that would give teeth to the terms of both the 15th and 19th amendment. That would combat and undo the state laws that were continuing to keep black women from the polls. This is the objective that Hallie Quinn Brown and the women of the nac w set out for themselves. And now they have to chart a way forward. Hallie quinn brown is, i think its fair to say, and appreciate or of the capacities of Leaders Within organizations like the American National womens suffrage association, the National Womens party who had led the campaign for ratification of the 19th amendment. And quinn brown goes so far as to call on alice paul. She wants to be a part of the celebration that alice paul is planning, that will mark the ratification of the 19th amendment. She wants black women to be there. And most importantly, she wants to make a proposal to alice paul, one that would lead to a linkage between black and white womens organizations, that would work toward the federal legislation that Hallie Quinn Brown and the women of the nacw are after. Hallie quinn brown and the delegation of black women will call on alice paul in the winter of 1921 during what turns out to be the last meeting of the National Womens party. And she will ask paul for just that in a Political Alliance that will continue the struggle for womens votes, that will work towards womens universal votes through the winning a federal legislation. And what we know, of course, is that alice paul will decline. That she will fold up the business of the National Womens party, and importantly, move on by 1923 to call for an equal rights amendment to the constitution, a cause that is still live and the subject of much struggle and activism, even in our own time. But this turn of events leaves africanamerican women to, in essence, build a new way for a new movement for womens Voting Rights, one that they will partner in with africanamerican men. It is a movement that will continue to, on one hand, work the ground game of womens politics, perhaps best exemplified by the work of africanamerican women in the city of chicago. Who will not of chicago, who will not only become important in the public and party opportunists, but will use their power at the ballots to see to it that for the First Time Since 1901. And 1928, the African American candidate would be elected to congress and head to washington. Black women learned how to use the voting power that they have to change the outcome, particularly on the local and state level. They will be part of the Legal Campaign waged by the naacp, that campaign that will bring an end to pull taxes, to rights in the primaries, to grandfather clauses. This effort both lobbying and litigation on the part of naacp will be a critical part of the story. These are the women, these are the seeds of womens work that continues into the modern civil rights era, the dangerous work that we associate women like ,usan lou hamer, diane nash baker, the work at the grassroots, the extraordinarily arduous work that requires not only the ascent, but the assembly and the risk taking of thousands of black africanamericans across the south. Its that campaign that will force the end ultimately of hand of congress and president lyndon johnson, and will give us a Voting Rights act in 1965. It is that moment that is the culmination of the work that women like Hallie Quinn Brown and those associated with the National Association of colored women had long done. Notstill, american women do have the unqualified right to vote, even in 2020. The Voter Suppression tactics that kept women from the polls in 1920 have changed, and yet we recognize the way in which voter id shuttered polling places. The purging of voter rolls continue to deprive american women of the vote, including women of the color. The policy of voting officials, which do not care take the right to vote, are still with us as we watch officials missed the mark in ensuring that we, all of us , will get to the polls in 1920. And still, i think its important to say that much has changed, that a great deal about the Political Landscape for africanamerican women in 2020 was for some americans , unimaginable, and for many americans, unspeakable 100 years ago. We can point to the ways african the ways in which africanamerican women today organize, deliberate, and vote as a block, still changing the outcomes in state and local, but even in contests of national consequence, appoint ideal ill point to 2017 and alabamas special Senate Election were africanamerican women women got turnout disproportionally, they also ensure that the democratic candidate, doug jones, goes to the u. S. Senate. They flipped that seat from red to blue. We can look ahead to ballots that many of us will cast in november and discover that 130where between 120 and black women are running for seats in congress this season. This is a number that dwarfs the record, which had been set in 2016. That number had been 48. Black women coming to washington as a political force, no longer as nearly first. And none of us have escaped the fact of senator Kamala Harriss nomination to the democratic ticket. Perhaps like me, you tuned in for her acceptance speech. It was a historic moment, certainly. But senator harris told us something about the history that had brought us there. She spoke directly about her own mother and the influence of her mothers education, guidance, and role as a role model. Her mother as one of the women on whose shoulders she was standing in the summer of 2020. And then senator harris namechecked six women, six women who were very much moving into the story that i had shared with you this afternoon. There was mary church, the educator, education activist, the first president of the National Association of colored women. And a suffragist in the early 20th century, someone very much part of the story of how black women get to the vote. The journalist, social scientist, antisuffrage activist, and suffragist was also name checked by kamala harris. There was mary buthune of florida, who i have introduced. Diane nash was on senator harris s list. The architect of the summit campaign, a woman who worked tirelessly and courageously through the philosophy of non violence to strategically win for black americans, many of the civil rights victories that we associate with and including the Voting Rights act. Fanny loo from mississippi, whose grassroots organizing, unparalleled courage in the state of mississippi, brought brought her before news cameras, mississippi, brought her before news cameras, both still and moving, including in 1964 during that years Democratic National convention when decried that convention and those who had seat eight mississippi delegation that had failed to get there by the scent of black voters in the state. Fanny looking to upturn the social order, the racial order, the political order in mississippi and across the country, and doing it before national use cameras. And last, senator harris invoked Constance Baker motley. Motley not only a law graduate, thats something she certainly shared with senator harris, but naacps legale team, doing that essential litigation work to challenge jim crow in the realm of political rights. Constance baker motley, who goes on to run for office, held office in the city of new york in the new york state and legislature and, of course, will be appointed to the federal bench, the first black woman to be appointed by lyndon johnson. These would be the women who today still grapple with the legacies and the fact of Voter Suppression in our own time, surely, but they do so with a new sort of access a new sort of influence, and do so as a force in american politics. So with that, i think ill end and say again thanks so much for all of our hosts for convening us yet again in this wonderful series of conversations, and i think im going to invite back Jane Campbell if im not mistaken. Jane is going to join me for some conversations and i think for some question and answer. So, thanks, jane, for doing this with me. Jane well, thank you so much, martha, for that. Informative presentation, it really is. So much to think about and so much to understand. I have a couple of questions were starting to get some questions from our audience. And i would remind the audience that you can put your questions and i q1 date q a box will try to make sure that we get as many ask as possible while we have dr. Jones with us. You describe the continuing struggle of black women to have the right to vote, to exercise the right to vote. We think now, when people talk about the black vote, invariably, they talk about the fact that black women are more reliable voters, in many instances, than black men. How has the Voter Suppression , from jim crow forward, treated women differently than . Dr. Jones so, thats a great question. And one of the things that we know as of the lessons of 1920 is that part of what Voter Suppression seems to do is in a sense, treat women just as it treats than. So, for example, in 1920, there will be those southern states, the southern legislatures, the that will quickly have to amend their whole tax provisions which had been written as a deposition on man as a requirement of men, now have to be written to now also apply to women. So, theres a way in which Voter Suppression, historically, looked to, in a sense override differences of gender. But there is no question, from my research, that africanamerican women face a distinct set of risks when it comes to political activism, when it comes to work in the political sphere, when it comes to come out to the polls. Theres a denigration that the women of the National Association of colored women are all too familiar with. Its part of what binds them together. That is to say, the kind of gendered racism that posits black women as unsuited to be ladies, unsuited to be mothers,. Nsuited to be more considered to be citizens and more is a special denigration at black women. At the same time, black women very much come to politics because part of the conditions that suppress them politically is the surge of sexual violence. Is anng black suffragists important thread that points to the vulnerabilities of black women, and also the necessity of any movement for womens votes or womens rights. That Movement Must take up the special burdens of sexual violence. And so today, i think we can understand the ways in which there are echoes still the one hand of Voter Suppression that is neutral on its face when it comes to gender and still imposes its own special burdens on black women, including the of violenceourge and sexual violence. Jane a lot to think about. When you think of some of the ways in which violence against men wanting to vote come up as lynching, and the violence that came out against women was sexual violence. And how those threads, as youve looked at this overtime, and your most current book is about the 19th amendment and the consequences. But you had previously written that the citizens had all wound up together, so this whole question of the role of African Americans in american democracy is not something that you have a limitation around what years. So, would you say that things have progressed, or where do you see is the arc of history bending towards justice, or is it still wiggling back and forth . Dr. Jones after writing vanguard, it became clear to me that it wasnt possible to tell the story of american Voting Rights as somehow, you know, that arc that bends towards justice. Especially as we sit here, in 2020, seven years out from the u. S. Supreme Court Decision in Shelby County versus holder, which gutted the most powerful provisions of that Voting Rights act that africanamericans had so profoundly sacrificed to win, that we live in a democracy, in a constitutional democracy that doesnt guarantee to any citizen the right to vote. And i think we could point to any generation, every generation has faced the necessity to define and redefine Voting Rights, and there have always been communities that have been faced with the struggle, the burden on the citizen to breathe meaning, give teeth, and otherwise fully honor the spirit of democratizing moments like the 15th and the 19th amendment and their ratifications. So, if i had to sort of talk about the question of Voting Rights across the expanse of our history and to try to anticipate whats ahead, at a minimum, right, whats ahead is, i think, a ongoing struggle over Voting Rights. Its taking one particular and pointed form in 2020. But whatever the outcome of the electoral contest in 2020, i dont think the struggle over Voting Rights will be extinguished. Is,ggling over voter rights i think, very much the American American way. Jane ok, we have several questions from the audience, and two people have actually asked you to kind of put Dorothy Height into the narrative. She is one who we saw doing an awful lot of work with the march on washington, and one of the few women who got some recognition for her leadership. How does she fit into your narrative . Dr. Jones well, thank you so much for introducing Dorothy Height into this because she does exemplify, i think, a thread of this story, which is to say, but importantly for black women, especially coming out of the jim crow era, politics is never reproducible to voting or holding office. And this is something that dorothy, i know not only knows old practices. Well, in the tradition of mary mcleod buffoon, understanding that relationships of politics, relationships of patronage, relationships in washington that grow out of civil rights organizations has always been and continues to be, for black americans, essentials facet of essential facets of how black women to politics, and make politics. And for those of you who may not know dorothy, i think thats precisely why shes, in some ways, akin to dianne ash. Shes an architect. Shes a strategist. Shes a woman with extraordinary powers of persuasion. She knows how to work remarkably effectively who had no intention i think oftentimes of linking arms with her, linking terms with the International Council of neagle negro women. Dorothy height knew how to broker those kinds of relationships and whilst importantly, i think, she knew how to ensure that black american women would be able to use all of their talents, all their capacities, all their gifts, all their power in the interest of the collective. I think she was someone who never lost sight of that over a very long and distinguished career. So, thank you so much for the chance to introduce her to this conversation. Jane well, taking that sort of strain of people we dont know , or didnt know until this symposium has been very intentional in trying to bring the stories of Diverse Voices in womens suffrage and in womens political activity. But one of our listeners writes in that shes a 60yearold white woman who grew up new York Public Schools and she received a pen from the archive that says women from 1922 she give it to her 22yearold daughter who said mom, not all women got right to vote. She said why didnt i know that . Whats wrong with our schools that stories arent told . And maybe more importantly, her daughter knew it. 22yearold daughter knewnew it. So, are we bringing that story in for the next generation . I want to assume herident that daughters teachers were. But somewhere in there that work is being done. But there is a important facts story that i will just share briefly. Early generations of historians running the womens suffrage. There is a six volume collection that began in the 1880s and called, in the 1920s the history of womens suffrage. Some of the others of the early versions included susan anthony. These volumes are almost 6000 pages. They take a lot of room on the shelf and i think for a long time, we came to those volumes too much thinking that they might be even comprehensive. It took some critical running of those volumes by women historians for us to understand. And i will mention, dr. Roslyn who, in the 1970s, publishes a dissertation that reads this volumes critically from the perspective of africanamerican women. And what we learned is that those volumes, while theyre impressive and important, left out a great deal of the history of womens suffrage, despite the elated theespecially rules that black american women played in the long struggle for the vote. So, we inherited some sources that had to be taken on, and then we do the work of producing new histories that begin to, as you suggest, tell a much more complex, and perhaps critical version of this story, and i think were still struggling with that. Some of you may have encountered e of the desktops steps dust ups around the monument that are going up in this centennial year. And who are the figures that should be included . Who should be honored and valorized in connection with the centennial has not been a simple or easy question for us. But i will say, for me, i think were at the beginning of eight of a new era in understanding this in the centennial year, and conferences like this have made it possible for us to tell these stories. Yes, in classrooms. I spend a lot of time with k educators of the history that i write mix it into those make it into those classrooms. Im teaching the history of women and the vote with my at john this semester hopkins, who are writing their own biographies of lesserknown black womens suffrage isnt making part of the record. So, the work goes on. But i think the toughest part is where i began. Celebration year oftentimes is also a year in which we like to celebrate myths that oversimplify the past. I like the 19202020 times timeline because it opens up the space to say what happened in those hundred years after the amendment was ratified . It opens up space for us to tell lesserknown stories, including the one i shared today. Jane i think one of the things that we approached but this is a celebration year also ought to be a reevaluation year. The nature of history is yes its happened in the past. But what gets told is often based on whos telling it. And we intentionally are bringing more Diverse Voices into telling the story. And that, as that happens, your grandmother is part of the story, and not just my grandmother. My grandmother got into suffrage because she was all about probation. That was her. She was a Christian WomensTemperance Union person. And that was a whole different movie. But she also grew up on a station on the underground railroad. And so she had a sense of racial justice, and i had the privilege to know her because she lived to be 95. So, there are stories that are so robust. But what about a couple other quick questions, and well run out of time if we dont get our folks right. One other question is that there is at least some written about women who were white women, who are opposed to having the right to vote because they felt that somehow not having the right to vote for women could be in the home, and on the pedestal, blah, blah, blah. But there wasnt clearly, the black women, that message to read in black womens minds. There any backandforth were there a group of black women who were opposed to suffrage . And how did they play . Dr. Jones even within the National Association of colored women, there were differences about, i think less about the ultimate merits of womens votes. But were lots of disagreements about how to get there. If someone like Mary Church Carroll is comfortable, and even eager, for black women to keep one foot even in the most radical of suffrage politics on the road to the 19th amendment. She will be part of elsas 1913 parade in washington. She will picket, i think the only black woman along with her daughter, fearless, theyre the only black women who participate in that action led by ellis by alice paul. Carroll is that committed, and concurs with those tactics. While somebody like Margaret Murray washington is another leader, also from alabama, tuskegee, who really cautions black women against becoming too embroiled in radical suffrage politics. I think washington thinks its risky personally, and its risky politically. So, while she is prepared to support Voter Education efforts on black women so that they will be prepared, if and when the 19th amendment is ratified, shes not prepared to recommend w is the women of the nac ratified and thats important difference among black women. Jane to take a different turn, there were communities that were majority black communities. Is there any evidence that those communities that were majority black communities, that there was stronger Voter Participation . Were black women able to vote in local elections in those communities before they were able to vote in the federal election . Is there any information about that kind of history . Dr. Jones thank you for the question. And im going to refer you to the wonderful work of historian at wayne state university, who is completing a book project, and is trying to answer that very question. One of the things that, the challenges i faced in my research, for example, trying to look at localities in the state of north carolina, when i got to the state archives thinking that thinking i would be able to whom, out who voted, for how many black women voted. It turned out those materials hadnt been preserved. And so while the state archives still includes the records of the aggregate boats, when we want to drill in oftentimes at what is happening on the local level, were not able to. In some places, were aided by newspaper reports. Nearly all of which are partisan, frankly, and so they have to be read carefully. But theres no question that even in a large city like chicago, africanamerican women are organized, deliberate, and using their power at the polls, even before 1920, to do exactly with the questioner i think is suggesting, to turn the tide when it comes to electing representatives or alderman to a state legislature, even before they begin to influence who is coming to congress. And so i look forward to the professors work, which i think will really shed even more light on that question. Jane see . We should we had her on our series and didnt have this question for her. So well have to do round two. In your understanding, if you look at, you know, that sort of question, from 19202020, are some states better or worse at Voting Rights, Voter Suppression . You know, you spoke about shelby versus holder and what has been the impact. I know that one of the discussions was when that was coming up was that that was focused on a certain number of states, which had historical difficult behavior with regard to Voter Suppression. But weve now gotten to the point where some new states are getting engaged with that. How is that changed over time . Jane so, today i think we would say that any sense that Voter Suppression is a uniquely or distinctly southern problem is no longer the case. That we look out across the National Landscape and, when we analyze Voter Suppression, we can see it at work, yes, in the american south, but we can also find it alive and well and working in the midwest. And in the context of the coronavirus challenges, i dont think theres a state in the u. S. That isnt going to be touched, or there are too few states in the u. S. That will be touched by the resulting voters oppression as very late in the game and how we vote, where we vote, when we vote, is shifting right under our feet. And so, Voter Suppression today looks to me very much like a national question. And of course, we have to understand that the suppression of votes, for example in the state of georgia, has consequences for all of us, especially in a year in which we are electing a new chief executive. That suppression is not only a regret, a lament, a tragedy for voters in georgia, but all of us will live with the consequences of those voters in georgia who might be kept from the polls. I use georgia as an example, but we can point to many other places. Jane well, heres the final question. You made a mention of the fact that alice paul sort of turn ed from ensuring Voter Participation by women to the equal rights amendment, which is still pending today. Do you think that that conversation and the discussion over the equal rights amendment, how will that deal with the full participation of black women in our democracy . Dr. Jones so, youll know its a great question. And im a historian more though more so than a pundit or a prognosticator. I think the lesson out of 1924 the equal rights amendment is that we have to be aware, own on guard, vigilant about the possibility that the womens issues, and that womens issues are not so narrowly defined in the wake of an equal rights amendment, that the discrimination, the burdens and more experienced by women of color experience in this country get bracketed out in that equation. Right . The story of the road to the 19th amendment is one in which womens issues were so narrowly defined that the problem, the scourge of jim crow, for example, was not on suffragist agendas even as it affected women. And it was permitted to persist even as the amendment reported to extend equal Voting Rights to africanamerican women. So, our work in the wake of an equal rights amendment going forward, if thats where were headed, i think will be to learn from that lesson and, in my view, be more expansive, intersectional, diverse, and inclusive in our definition of what a womans question is. Jane well, that certainly wraps it up. Dr. Jones, thank you for spending this hour with us. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] youre watching American History tv. Covering history cspan style with event coverage, eyewitness accounts, archival films, lectures in college classrooms, and visits to museums and historic places. All weekend, every weekend and on cspan three. Since july of 2017, the National Archives have released thousands of documents related to the john f. Kennedy assassination. Many of these documents had been withheld by the cia and the fbi for alleged National Security reasons. The document releases are mended would buy mandated by the john f. Kennedy assassinations record act of 1992 and will continue into 2018, though some documents contain reductions. Red actions. Up next on american artifacts, from 2014, our visit to the National Archives to learn about the assassination records and see some of the iconic artifacts, such as Lee Harvey Oswalds rifle, the socalled magic bullet, and the original