Transcripts For CSPAN3 Challenges After Womens Suffrage 20170716

Womens Voting Rights in the following years, especially africanamericans in the south and native americans. She also describes the fits that describes the difficulties faced by women running for office. Describes the difficulties faced by women running for office. Our speaker is the interim chair of the Women Studies Department at the university of maryland, and also a professor of history. I think several of you heard her speak a year ago about the Suffrage Movement in the context of the house. At the time she said she was doing research on how women got the vote. It was clear from your response you do too. Thank you so much for that introduction and the indentation. And the invitation. Thank you to everybody at the Smithsonian Associates who made this and taking care of the logistics. The 19th amendment, which was the womens suffrage amendment finally made it through congress in june of 1919 and ratified by three quarters of the state in august of 1920 and no stage could deny the vote on the basis of sex. Is to explore some of the meanings of the 19th amendment immediately in the aftermath of its passage. That, ie drill down on want to sketch out quickly no more than 10 minutes trying to sketch out some of the context in which the womens suffrage amendment passed in which its firstfruits were tasted. Im going to lay out some of these contact that some of this context. Understand theus kind of parameters of the political voices we are hearing in the 1920s and why we are not hearing some womans voices in contexts, because that is going to shush some women and magnify the voices of some other women. Im going to try to stay focused and not dillydally. Ishink this context important. The womens suffrage amendment passed through in the middle of and immediately after world war included a Vitriolic Campaign against immigrants and radical politics. The result of that antiimmigrant and antiradical campaign was the deportation of hundreds of people perceived to be radicals. Any included women like anarchist. In 1918. The deportation of radicals as part of the explanation. Thepolitical culture of 1920s. Womens who are not immigrants but on the political left were jailed and tried in the laws of the teens and early 20s. The cognitive labour party and arrested and tried under loss in the 1920s. And kept finding her case to the 1920s. The antiradical and antiimmigrant campaign was benefited from the popularity of the ku klux klan. The first klan had died out. Incredibleo prominence. Legitimacy in the 1920s. And women who are active in the clan and active in fighting the , and i will talk more about that a little bit later. This antiimmigrant antiradical climate that was dominant during and after world war i resulted in 1924 in a very restrictive immigration law. Act formalizeed the ban, and already existing informal ban from asia. And it dramatically reduced immigration from europe. Was aimed at immigrants from eastern and central europe. They are the target of that. Ntiimmigrant law millions of immigrants have been flooding into america shares. The immigration from Central America is not touched by johnson reed. Nothing like the kind of numbers youre seeing before the 1920s. The result of this antiimmigrant campaign. Wayhey needed to find their to middleoftheroad politics. Many of whom were anarchists in the teens. The patterson strike as well. Massive numbers of women who were involved in politics and anarchists to the Labor Movement. We are not going to hear from them in the 1920s. At the same time that the antiradical campaign was dominant in the early 1920s, the great migration into the cities and north and west as that great migration had become significant in the mid1910s. That migration had created vital and much larger africanamerican they. Ities they found themselves competing with jobs and housing. Out inllies last horrific violence against those africanamerican communities. Across the country hundreds of americans lost their lives in massacres. Just that one summer. Her if the conditions of those deaths and many more injured in 1919. Violins is a part of the climate in which the womens suffrage amendment emerged. The great migration into northern cities by African Americans also lead to a foundation of the 1920s, which is another crucially important context for our thinking. Think that people like a novelist, to really important novelists in the late 1920s. And a prolific writer herself, but also a promoter of other writers because she was the of the newspaper of the naacp in the 1920s. And the migration to the north and the migration of violence that met that in 1919 and thereafter helped to lay the foundation for politics, so important for many cities in the north. Of the most wellknown was of course the universal negro improvement association, the u. N. Ia. The person who took this place and spoke to an organizer when she is notble only an important nationalist leader but a very important leader in the 19 20s. The context of the antiimmigrant campaign antiradical campaign, racial violence and cities in the south as well as to the north. They are important in understanding which invoices have been magnified and which voices are subdued or silent altogether in the case of the left in the 1920s. The range of voices will be much narrower than the range of voices we heard. It would have been a very different context. This wonderful quotation from 1925 leads us to another dimension of the context through which the womens suffrage amendment emerged. I think you will probably all see it. Its a thing of the past. The wideawake woman is forging ahead, prepared for all emergencies. Call,ady to answer any even to save the cannons on the battlefield. In 1925 points to the fact that in the 1920s in modern gendered system crystallized in the United States. And what kind of relations they naturally have. A set of ideas emerged in the gender system, it helped that men and women were the opposite of each other. Men were competitive and active and women were by nature a passive operative, nurturing and healing. Had uncontrollable sexual desire, women didnt have any sexual desire. In through the early 20th century, the victorian gender system was much was very much in transition. Thehe time we get to mid1920s i would say its been replaced by a modern gendered system. The key characteristic was that as moreed men and women like each other than the victorian gender system did. It did not insist they were the same or they were equal, by no means equal, but they were much more alike than the victorian gender system had imagined men and women to be. Changesof the crucial from the from the victorian gender system to the modern system, women did indeed have sexual desire and a healthy happy woman had have her sexual desires filled or she couldnt be a healthy happy woman. The sexual need was a crucial thate in the gender system emerged in the mid1920s. It meant if we just look at that component of the system it self. More claiming women are like men than the victorian gender system had imagined them to be. Desireputation of sexual for women demoted so that sex becomes more important components or imagined to be more components of womens lives in the 1920s and thereafter. Motherhood gets demoted on the list of characteristics and values of women. It is harder to be sure that when you claim because women are mothers, nurturing and care for ise, because not everybody going to think thats going to be the case. The kind of appeal you can make in public life are going to change because of this reimagining of who women are, they are by nature. Also by the late 1920s. Anbianism had emerged as acceptable identity too Many American women. That is especially because of the writing. It wasular novel condemned in england and tried for a 70s. And in the course of those conversations and that coverage could be part of someones core unchanging identity. To womenme acceptable who had not the next of the bull before. It also came with a stigma. The loving relations they had with other women, to be a part of that, what is going on in this relationship . And a stigmatized identity also began to throw suspicion at friendships,ns womens organizations, womens institutions, womens colleges, a lot of foundations of womens advancement. The centrality of sex to womens identities, all of that required negotiating a whole new landscape for women and public life. Accommodating these new ideas. Im almost at the end of this, a broadcast radio emerges and opens all kinds of opportunities like betsy smith. Know phillips. L shes an incredibly unbelievably prolific writer in the 1930s and 40s. She was the creator of the guiding light. It is the longestrunning show in broadcast history. Ring until 2000some 2000something. Was one of the important breakthroughs and new medium that women in politics are going to have to master in order to make their way into the politics of the 1920s. This is a same moment when modernist paper modernist painters are coming into their own in finding a halloween in American Life. The 19th amendment is a part of all this change. A part of all this up evil. And of course it was participating fully in the transformation of the dominant gender system because the 19th amendment was saying to americans that women were more like men in that they were now supposed to be participants in selfrule. In the same way sexual desire to women suggested women were more like men than the victorian system had imagined, so did the 19th amendment. The politics should practice selfrule. Theyre more like men than the victorian system had imagined. It is both an indicator and create her of the modern gender system. Want toirst meeting we ascribe to the 19th amendment were precisely that. Arrivednder system had that would help cement a system as the dominant system in American Life in the 1920s. The crucialof meetings of the 19th amendment and anybody who was here last year would have heard this part. I just have to make sure we are all on the same page here. Power ofing political american women. It is one of the things that often gets lost in our waysssion in the shorthand we talk about womens voting. Before the 19 amendment ever passed, millions of american women were already voting. It is impossible to imagine that the 19th amendment could have ever passed the u. S. Congress if millions of women had not already been voting. The first place american women get to vote is in wyoming. A territory in 1869. It granted women for Voting Rights and wyoming became a state in nine in 1890. Colorado fully enfranchised 1894, there are women serving in the Colorado State legislature. Idahormons in utah and enfranchised fully. We have four states in which women are voting in every single election there is. Where we get into the 1910s, by the time we get into the 19th tense we have millions and millions of women exercising the vote. Fornt to thank the Center American women and politics for this fantastic map. Ou can find it online and i love this map. It shows us when women got to vote in which state. I will describe it just in case. Before the 19th amendment passed, before it was ratified all these peachy i love this so much. Rebecca said im too easily pleased. I think that is so great. It doesnt make any difference where it belongs. New york isor there, michigan, all the states have fully enfranchised women before the 19th amendment. Women are voting in every single election. Nebraska,tates and tennessee and vermont. All those had enfranchised women in president ial elections and local elections. But not statelevel elections. Really hilarious stories having to do with that. Its kind of her polish. Including massachusetts, connecticut, kentucky. Those states had granted women voting only in school board of elections. The great progressive state of massachusetts had a granted women schoolboard suffrage. The darker blue had granted and no suffrage at all. Millions of women are already voting. Womens suffrage amendments had in inches to the congress most of that commerce multiple times and introduced constantly in the 20th century. Votes for eache of those introductions. And you watch as more and more women are enfranchised by their states, more and more men in congress are willing to vote to a federal amendment of the constitution. An existing political power of women made possible and pushed the federal amendment. Because itimportant helps us understand how political change actually happens. Slow, piecemeal, grassroots, on the ground in your neighborhood and your state. The womens Suffrage Campaign that brought us the amendment could not happen in a few years in the 1910s here in washington. Thats the way the story is often told. That doesnt begin to capture when the huge political change actually happened. Hard steady patient work. Millions of women voted women were enfranchised. It doesnt look like there was any hope. Same thing for mississippi. Millions of women were brought into a full democratic citizenship. It brought into the meaning of womanhood. However it is not the case that all american women voted after 1920. Florida had granted municipal suffrage. Florida is green. Women had not been given the vote in schoolboard elections. But it had been given the vote in certain cities, charter cities, so there is a partial vote in florida. Thank you for noticing, though the map is working. After the ratification of the 19th amendment, millions of american women were barred from voting. We want to be sure we are clear for all of that. States, of the united puerto rican women were made to be citizens of the United States in 1917. The amendment said no states shall deny the vote on the basis of sex. Frederico and hawaii were territories. When this oversight was understood if it werent so tragic it would be hilarious. I thought we would enfranchised women there. That didnt happen. The Hawaiian Territorial legislature but the Puerto Rican Legislature refused. And women in puerto rico had to continue to fight across the 1920s and into the 1930s. My favorite putter he can suffer just is who declared herself for women suffrage in 1908. She was a major labor activist. She is an anarchist. While you got one, you want women voting in it. Proponent oft suffrage in puerto rico. In 1920 was disappointed that pretty recouping women that puerto rican women in 1929 finally the Territorial Legislature granted the vote and all adult women in puerto rico were allowed to vote. Its going to be the position of a lot of women there and after. If you are a puerto rican woman in puerto rico in 1925 you are not a voter. If you moved to new york you become a voter. Its that you are in puerto rico, a territory that has not enfranchised women. Lived american women who on reservations were not considered citizens of the United States. It wasnt until 1924 that Congress Passed the snyder act which made indians living in reservations citizens of the United States. Though living in reservations in the United States, it didnt mean that all the states extend the franchise to all those citizens. Many states continued his enfranchised indians who live on reservations even after 1924. Minnesota, maine, and those states held out against the enfranchisement of native americans through the 30s come into the 1940s. The Supreme Court issued a decision that said no more peace shenanigans. Even after 1940 eight several of the states, arizona, utah and new mexico, took a long time, years to expunge from their laws the bar voting by native americans wereve kept by poll taxes and unfairly administered literacy tests, which brings us to the Largest Group of american women. That inyou will know the earliest 20th century in particular, Southern States begin to disenfranchise africanamerican men who have been voting in their states and serving in congress and serving as state legislatures and ruling cities. Southern states began to disenfranchise and take votes away. They were disfranchised by many means. One was by the poll tax. They tend to be poor. They have trouble getting up the money for poll taxes. Make sure everybody is clear on what those literacy tests were. They go in and the voter registrar would say i would like you to read Section Three paragraph two of the mississippi constitution and you would read and now interpret that, what does that mean . Foot ofhat you said the registrar has discussions to say maybe not, you will have to come back another time. You couldnt read that to me no problem. White people were allowed to vote because of the discussion of the voter registrar that they anybody they want to admit to the franchise as well as exclude people. E are reprisals also brew violence. Lynching increased dramatically in the 1980 in 1890s. Another spike in the 1920s. Through those same means, they administered a literacy test. Africanamerican women in the h were that struggle, that struggle to get rid of poll taxes and overcome those tests and fight back against violence and economic reprisal, that struggle went on into the 1960s. Some of the most important women like are cropper who became an important 1960s andhe early the founder of the mississippi freedom democratic party. Testifying before the 1964 Democratic National convention. Mississippi the freedom democratic party. And given the evidence on Racial Discrimination on the part of the White Democratic Party in mississippi. She was one of the great activists in the struggle. Eventually those two ways of buying people from the polls were overcome. In 1964 the amendment to the constitution was ratified by three quarters of the state. It made poll taxes unconstitutional and the United States you can no longer ask, you could require someone a task to vote. Outlawed literacy tests for voting. And sends federal registrars to the south. And the number of africanamericans registered to vote skyrocketed within months of the passage of the Voting Rights act of 1965, which was an a normas help to native American Voters as well. In addition, we are going back to the 1920s now, asian immigrant women were also not eligible to vote. They were not eligible to citizenship. If you are an immigrant from china or japan in the earliest 20th century, you are not eligible to naturalization. If you couldnt become a citizen you couldnt vote. A piecemeal for the course of they940s and 19 if these became eligible for naturalization. China is an ally. Filipinos were made eligible and it was not until 1952 with the walter mccarran act that the japanese and other asian immigrants were made eligible for citizenship. You are not eligible to vote either. Those of you from the district of columbia did not want me to overlook the fact that the district denied president ial untilipation in politics 1964. D. C. Did not have an elected local government. Even though it has a Larger Population in some states and pays more taxes. You have a situation in which puerto rican women, shes not a voter. She becomes a voter. Whether or not you had Voting Rights depended on where you were, who you were and where you were in the 20th century. The struggle for Voting Rights has gone on and on. I would say it goes on still. Some of the kinds of restrictions that have been put in voting have especially disadvantaged and forced from the poll young women, poor women, women of color, women who have been incarcerated, the kinds of restrictions we are seeing now, mean that the struggle for womens suffrage continues. It never got over, never ended. With a way wem often represent and talk about the 19th amendment, women got to vote in 1920. I said that. And its so wrong. It misrepresents so much because millions of women had to vote before hand. Still didntomen have it and their women who dont have it now. Its a piecemeal struggle that has gone on for generations and generations. One of the things i want to make sure is clear here, which make it lost in the shuffle, while africanamerican women in the south in the 1920s were not admitted to the polls, they are excluded by the same means, africanamerican women in the north and the west are voting at the same time that other women in their states voted. One of the reasons for the victory of the things like the amendment against the poll tax and Voting Rights act is the increasing political power of africanamericans in the north. We are going to talk a bit more about that in just a bit. Another thing that may be confusing is that any asian descendent woman who was born in the u. S. Eligible to the polls was only immigrant women who were not eligible to naturalization who were kept from the polls. We want to make sure all of those distinctions are clear. Because the constitution now said you couldnt deny women the vote on the basis of sex didnt mean that the full range of Citizenship Rights and responsibilities were extended to women automatically. I just laugh when i go to jury service. Who wants to serve on a jury. That thing comes in the mail and it says you have to appear this day. I dont want to do that. Its a crucial responsibility and privilege. Crimesho were accused of had to go before juries that were allmale. Very male i dont want to be to proceed. Prissy. Lets say you are accused of shoplifting, you are a woman. You go into court and you have all these men there, the judge is a man. Does that matter react oh if you think that matters, tell me why. Say it before our cspan cameras verywhy does that matter . Intimidating. Fantastic, yes. Its going to work against you. If youic, anything else . Think that gender has something to do with creating a peer in means a woman couldnt get a jury of her peers. Men and women have fairly different gender roles. Fantastic. One more all the way back. I was going to say many of them would have been business with a little biased toward what that meant. One more, i always say one more. Im not trustworthy. Why would a woman feel shes a bad person . Kinds of things that can enter into the thinking of those men. That a womanem could get a jury of her peers if you think gender has anything to do with creating a peer. There are women activists who begin to open up Jury Services to women in the 1920s. This was a really long struggle. Like 28 states had finally opened jury service to women. Even in those states you could say i asked them to myself on the basis of gender. It wasnt until 1973 that Jury Services opened in off states. Dreaded get that weather in the mail that says ,our call to jury service praise to our ancestors. That is an Important Service we provide to each other and women struggle hard to create a possibility of women having a jury of their peers. Knows a prize to anybody because this continues to be a struggle, another aspect to democratic citizenship that women had a hard time cracking is of course electro office, breaking into an electoral office. Something like 20 of the u. S. Congress is female. Pathetic. Office in the 20th century. Sorry. One of those western states had enfranchised women early. Beginning to serve in 1917. She is one of the votes against the war resolution. Congress in the early 19 40s and roosevelt after the bombing of pearl harbor, she is the only vote against the u. S. Going to war against japan. Its a really important player in getting the womens suffrage amendment through the congress. She is the first woman to serve in congress. There is some progress. For women served in a u. S. Congress in 1921. By 1929, it was a low goal. There is an increase in numbers. The woman vote gives a big bump to womens representation in congress. Women had better luck in state numbers and, these state legislators in the 1920s bring out thousands. This is not many compared to the thousands of seats there were. There was substantial progress in the course of the 1920s. By 1929 there are 38 states that have at least one woman in their state legislature. We will talk more about that in just one second. I thought i would give you just thatple of examples achieved National Office in the 1920s. One very wellknown woman who ran for are the u. S. Congress in the new mexico in new mexico was she was the first to run for congress. Prominent new mexico political family. She is a very average suffragist. She is a great advocate of womens suffrage. Thewas elected to superintendent and continues for a while. She runs for u. S. Congress. She is having a fantastic run for that congressional seat when a relative of hers reveals that she was not the widow she claims to be but was divorced. Should haved come out with that right off the bat. She had a very good run and remain prominent. In the 1930s she was the state director of the civilian conservation corps. There are latinas elected the new mexican state legislature. Early success the a latina is elected secretary of state in new mexico. A successful bid for National Office was made by ruth hannah mccormick. From two very prominent local families. Daughter, a very important Republican Campaign designer and activist, as well as politician. She learned politics as a child. She married into the mccormick family. Hes also a politician and she had a lot of money behind her. In campaigns of all kinds in the 20s. And she wins. She wins and goes to the u. S. Congress in 1929 and there until 31 she always served one term because she was more ambitious than u. S. Congress. She wanted to be a governor or senator. She did win the primary the area that she was a republican nominee. There was a lot of excitement among middleclass and women in illinois. There was a lot of opportunity, she did not quite make it. It has stayed in politics a long time, she never made it back into the u. S. Congress. A very different story here. Huge success. How many of you know Teresa Norton . Ok, so we are going to spread the word. Stop, are at the bus lets get the word out about her. Her story is a fantastic story. Unlike not go to college nina. She was a workingclass family. She goes to new york and she goes to school. 1909ishmarries around. She is free stricken after the death of her husband. She then begins to work at a nursery. She is really good at it. She then becomes the president fundraiserery as a she gets to know pretty much everybody through the county. One of those people is the democratic boss and mayor of the city. New jersey was one of the states that have not ratified women. Said she was not a suffragist and she did not know anything about politics. She goes and organizes Democratic Women in the early 1920s especially thereafter created. She is very good at it. She is set up for u. S. Congress in 1924. She wins, she goes to congress and she has a landslide victory. Over 80 of the vote in she stays and the u. S. Congress until 1951. She is a huge dealer in the 30s. Over the labores committee of the u. S. House. That is what she gets through the fair labor standards act which is the first time there was an type child labor laws. , she did notorton have a college degree, she was not a politician. She was that he suffered as when she was a great politician. A really great politician. One of the things that you will see is women involved in national politics. One of the things they do have in common is that they are white. Aid black women are very active in national politics. There are some very important players in the early 1920s the overwhelming majority of black political advocates are the party of lincoln. Democrats of the people who have jim involved with reading crow laws and have been trying to disenfranchise black americans. Many are solidly in the republican camp. After the suffragist amendment the National Republican committee at black Women Leaders to organize. What of the first women who is is a womany the rnc who had been a activist for about a decade at this link. President ofthe the National Organization for people. She worked very hard for republicans in the early 1920s. The naacply turned into a republican club. Behalf on behalf of the Republican Party. The Republican Party then created a black womans organization at a national level. She took over that organization in the 1920s. In the been active which isonvention probably every bit as important as the naacp. School tounded a professionalize domestic service. She was a great feminist, very grateful of any man who sold out the race. Becomes a major activist for the Republican Party especially in the 1920s. Even though, of course women in d. C. Did not have Voting Rights. She was traveling across the country on behalf of the Republican Party. Here is alice nelson who was a poet that was born in louisiana. She wound up in delaware in the early 1920s. She is a major republican activist. She was a member of the delaware Republican Committee. The state committee, very few africanamerican women were on those committees. A she was appointed to the delaware Republican Committee in 1920. She served them with hard for republicans, we will talk more about this in just a bit. In 1922 the republicans have a chance and africanamerican saw have a lynching bill in congress. They blew it according to the view of many africanamerican women. She was so mad about that that she went over to the democrats. She said she will leave them be. The organizer of the africanamerican democratic already which have formed in new york, and more importantly unprecedented 20s. That democrats in the north were not the same as. Emocrats in the south di hardly anybody went with her in the 1920s. Is not until the second election of Franklin Roosevelt that a massive amount of africanamericans went to the democratic party. She is a harbinger of things to come. I thought it would be important if we read together what of her poems. One of her columns. I fight you may want to stand up. Get your blood going. You may want to even switch seats or something. I just thought we should read together, this poem which was published in 1920. She has in mind world war i. Together. So, by hand grow tired. My head lays down with dreams. Men, stern tread of eyes, gazing beyond the soul. Whose eyes have seen death nor learned to see their lives. I sit and so. My heart aches with desire. That fiercely pouring fire on c fields and rising there andnly to go the holocaust of hell. I must sit and so. Why dream but it might fetch. Me, you needling me. It is no dream. This pretty beautiful seem. It stifles me. As i sit and so. Thank you created that was incredible. That was published in 1920. , if you haveheir seen the wonder woman movie there is a continuity here that is very powerful. Is thathe things we see in her poem is that there is a atresentation of such a look the gender system. In the system, there is this look at my commitments that they ought to be in public life. That i take care of children and i nurture and i and all of that but i have something to bring their grade men do not have that. Rejecting that. She is trivializing the. She said she would rather be on the battlefield been in her home. A claim of may before the 1920s and there it is. Aboutght, i want to talk some of the important legislation and causes that we fought for in the 1920s. Talk about some organizational changes that happened in 1920, the time of the amendment did the First American Suffragist Association transformed itself into the league of women voters in 1920. The organization was very for familiar. This and a slew of other womens a jointtions became Congressional Committee in 1920. It was a Umbrella Organization that was the lobbying arm of progressive women organizations did one of the things that they went after was womens the lack of and independent citizenship for married women. Before 1922 if a American Woman. A nonamerican man. She would lose her citizenship. British persona you would lose your citizenship. Become women could not renaturalized. These women succeeded in getting the cable act passed. Woman who came to the u. S. Would naturalize herself whether her husband was or not. If she married a foreigner that did not lose her citizenship with one exception. Woman marries a man that is not eligible for naturalization then she also lost her citizenship. That bank any american women who ried a asian immigrant that would not change until the early 1930s. One of the first things progressive women went for was the assurance of independent citizenship for married women. Another one that was more this kind of legislation the group went for printed it was a legislation that was aimed at diminishing mortality. It was a infancy act that passed i21, it was drafted think it used to having this wonderful thing it was a legislation drafted by the chief of the childrens bureau. It was created by congress in the early 1920. Women who followed these progressive Women Leaders. The activist convinced William Howard taft the president to appoint ahead of the womens bureau. The appointed julio lathrop. House, lived that whole so many of you know about that. She had been involved in progressive campaigns in illinois in the early 20th century. Headent to washington as of the childrens bureau. She had many interest, one of them was infant mortality. To had a lot of studies done find that the u. S. Had some of the highest mortality rates in the world. We still do. Range ofed a whole different responses to that. One of which came in the maternity and infancy act. It offers the states hire Public Health nurses to go find pregnant women and those who had infants and examine them. Teach them to take good care of themselves or their children. Clinics at ay had county seat or at a church or in a school. They would set up at the clinic send up the word that they would set up on saturday morning and that women could come and bring their children and be examined and get Health Education with the help of the nurse. When this comes before Congress Read before suffrage. There is a president ial election in the fall, most of the guys in congress believe that there had not been time between august and november 4 all women to get registered to vote. Even after the 1920 election they claim that they feared that as one. Uld vote that, she hadd on the Congressional Committee, she was a great organizer. She had women all over the country hounding their senators saying please pass this. The country depends on this. Guys sayens is lots of i never would have voted for that thing. Wasy woman in my state writing me about this. All saying i did not mean to vote, i had to. It passes under the threat of this womens voting block. The success of progressive women get the legislation through congress because this passage of the 19 amendment. Actually the places where the act was implemented infant mortality rates declined. Possiblenly seems because of this legislation. After 1924 it was clear that women were voting pretty much the way men were voting. There was conservative women, progressive women, there are people who did not want Public Office in their home. Congress got was to divisions among women voters and by 1929 they had move the appropriation of the mortality and infancy act. Version of it is revived in the Social Security act of 1935. Certainly the act employed aids andwomen as administrators. Here on thecator block is the for the childs labor amendment in 1924. Of was sick of the failure child labor laws. We will have to amend the. Onstitution in 1924 she gets a amendment through congress. Never did find the corners of a state necessary to amend the constitution. The fact that she got it from in thes appears congressional heart of this womens block. African american women were very much involved in trying to get funds into African American communities across the country. They are active on behalf of child labor laws across the street state. Legislativeot of goals in common with white women. They also had goals that were peculiar to africanamerican women. Came to the National Scene in the early 1920s. Lynching was one of the Major Concerns of africanamerican women in the 20th century. The most important and visible lynching crusader was ida wells who became ida wells barnett. She was a Young Journalist in memphis. Articles publishing that tallied the numbers of lynching each year across the United States. Mostly in the south were not explicitly and the south and she focused on the lie that people told to justify it lynching. It was usually said that there blacka black women men raping white women. I a study of light newspapers. She is using the white press she shows that she is documented when you look at the local paper. Rape is not there. It is a cover. She is run out of memphis on a rail on threat of her life. She becomes the International Activist against lynching. Marries a lawyer in chicago and she continues her lynching crusade for the rest of her life actually. She also became the founder of a settlement in chicago. She was very important into winning suffrage. She was a important facet of the Republican Party. She runs the office herself. She is everywhere on behalf of eight stice from the 1920s on. It looks like as i said the Republican Party is a party of africanamerican women. There is a republican president and a much more republican congress. It looks like to the africanAmerican Voters that this is the moment. Aey are advocating for antilynching bill. They lobby against the segregation of the government. In washington the federal government became whats more segregated under Woodrow Wilson. Withstarted pushing back because this was a important issue for them. They started pushing congress to implement the 14th amendment. The 14th amendment said that any states that disenfranchised thet men should have representation in congress reduce by the proportion that they were reducing the electorate. That had never been forced until there had been a huge push to enforce the 14th amendment by limit and other activists. In the early 1920s the antilynching legislation is going to pass. Officers enforcement opposed these lynching crowds. Leader onmportant behalf of the at that lynching bill in the 1920s. Thewas the president of antilynching crusaders. The house ofgot to representatives and into the senate. , the democratsng threatened to filibuster. That is when she leaves the republicans and becomes a democrat. There is this crushing defeat for africanamerican women and men who had worked so hard and had so much open the early 1920s. It is perhaps not a surprise given that the ku klux klan was enormously powerful in the 1920s. There were huge parade went here in washington dc across the. Tate people elected to local offices. Women were very active in the clan. One of the interesting things about the activism of women in the clan in the 1920s although agenda. A antiblack they are actually on board for the quality of life. Aremajority of these women working women. They were physicians, stenographers, Business Owners, they cover the whole range of women workers. Fear is important in organizing boycotts. Destroy thoseg to in their community. They start whispering campaigns against candidates that they do not prefer. Often we have a picture of what anyone in that clan is like. Is of the important leaders a quaker preacher. One of the most important leaders in 1920. This group is not what one expects. Is a enormous racial conflict in the 1920s. We see that on both sides of the conflict. Of course the clan will rise again later. I think i am going to do pretty well with my time here. The final thing i want to talk about is the equal rights amendment. I think many of us in this room associate this with the 1960s and 70s. Equal rights that pass in congress and 1972. The reason we associate that to the constitution in the 1970s was in fact it was penned in 1923 by alice paul who the founder this is her. The founder and leader of the National Womens party. Wasr the suffrage of women one she wanted to guarantee that in the law. The law could not change women differently. The equal rights event was trying to achieve that goal. Make it impossible for laws to treat men and women differently. That would still not allow employers to treat people differently. The overwhelming majority of women activists in the 1920s, 60s40s, 50s, and early adamantly opposed the equal rights amendment. Many of the women we know today would have opposed the e. R. A. For extremely good reasons. Would undermine protective labor legislation for voters. In the late 19th century and early 20th century activists in the Labor Movement and their allies worked to get laws that set limits on the number of hours they would work and set minimum wage for women who had such a hard time organizing. They did not give them much support. There were the powers of collective bargaining. It was more important for women because the labor laws were so reluctant to organize. It will generation of workingclass women and their state had worked to get laws setting maximum hours trading getting a 10 minute break every four hours they are on their feet and some industries got the actual lunch break because of protective labor legislation. Know that thell Supreme Court had decided that not begislation could given to men because it was a violation of contract law. Women were so much more to theble than men Supreme Court. They said this to women. Earnings benefited from those laws. Hadequal rights amendment passed it would have hurt those laws. It would have hurt many more women than it wouldve helped in the 1920s. That is clear. With its context meeting. Move, what some people think is a progressive move was not a progressive movement. It was considered class based legislation that would benefit privileged women. It would have. It would have hurt more women than it wouldve helped. Facter evidence of the was moree. R. A. Conservative than progressive, the Republican Party in the 1940s supported the e. R. A. Allowed Business Owners to exploit women. It would have a love for equal exploitation. The republicans are the proworkingclass party. They see it as a attack on the working class. Republicans say who will go for it. Context is everything. Nothing is meaningful. It confers meeting and where certain things exist. I think the e. R. A. Is fantastic for that claim. By the time it is 1938 read i am going back. Ofcourse we are in the midst roosevelts second term. Much of the new deal legislation had passed. With the help of mary norton who we talked about. Congress a lawh that set minimum wage. For men and women. The Supreme Court would ok this. You may think once you have protective labor legislation going to men and women why would you not pass the e. R. A. At that point . That is because no one was helped by the fair labor standards act. Only people in certain occupations were covered by the act. Many more men were covered then women. So in loads of states women workers still needed those laws. But they had gotten in previous decades. It was not until 1960 with title vii of the Civil Rights Act that was interpreted the way it was interpreted it begin to make sense that the e. R. A. Looks like a good strategy for wage earning women. As was other women who came to support the e. R. A. In the early 70s. Further electors that i would say. The ninthe amendment represented the Critical Power that women had the vote. The 90 the moment is unimaginable without those voters in the west. Theas important because of modern gender made a claim men and women were much more alike. It did admit millions of women to the democratic citizenship. It did not franchise all american women. Millions were still kept from the polls in 1920. It left citizenship untouched it breaks to office in which we do not have time to go into. It helped to expand the scope of the federal government itself. The infancyoned act. Expand the purview of federal government. One of the reasons why the congress was so reluctant to pass this is because they did not have a president for that. The fear of women voting as a block help command the scope of the central government. Think we would also like to say it laid the groundwork for the next amendment. It helped introduced the equal rights amendment which would be a controversial issue for women and men well into the 1980s. The end. [applause] the end. Great. So if you are not too exhausted we do have time for questions and answers. That really works. Ok. Where did you get that from . That map, absolutely. It is online at the center for american women and politics. Rutgers university. See that typing and teach a girl to lead. It is a fantastic website. You bet. Lex was Woodrow Wilson conflicted on the issue . Yes. Did not think it should be a federal issue. He said that for ages. He finally got back into a corner in world war one. Some suffragette leaders in washington dc . I think i mentioned that one of the things i dont like about the way history is often taught, it makes it seem like the whole movement is all about alice paul and the nationalist party. Women who went after Woodrow Wilson and were horrifically upset. Is a new museum that is going to open very soon i think. It will feature some of this history of the suffrages who had been there. It is absolutely horrific. That is that the whole story. There was not going to be a amendment if it had just been for the nationalist party here in washington dc yes . How did this work with frontier america and the women votes . Withe question has to do white isnt though west so early . There is numerous studies trying to explain that. There are a lot of explanations out there. I think the most telling is that the political structure and infrastructure of politics in the east is so wellestablished that it it can stand to any challenge. In the west that infrastructure is still new. Wyoming had just become a territory. Think political structures were less firm. You have generations of family who had been in control of the institutions. Behindd left this money with these old institutions. They are weaker. Institutions can be challenged and defeated. I would say that the most telling explanation in my view. There are many others you can talk about a reading list. Yes . Ok, you first. Then the one behind you. On important organizations. I am curious as to why you did not mention the womens bureau. I retired from it in january. Thank you so much. I have been serving there since 1974. The first publication i was responsible for finishing there was a publication on the impact of title vii on the Civil Rights Act. Stateshowed some repealed them and some states mealded the benefits of time to men. Meal timestate had a and rest time. I did notson why mention the womens bureau is because i did not have a place to edit in the story of the 1920s clearly printed if i wouldve had more time i wouldve talked about the e. R. A. I would have talked about the womens bureau because it is crucial from the beard from the very beginning. It is created initially during the war. Industry serve in 1920, it becomes the womens bureau and the department of labor. It continues to be a very Important Group for women. It is crucial enough fight against the e. R. A. In the early going. The Huffington Post just posted something about what a proposal is in the president s budget for the year which was to reduce the funding of 11 two million dollars. Was it just two dollars . Leave on the 15 people in the National Office. The Huffington Post actually has a link to a letter that is being to raise thisgned is a issue. Thank you for that. The woman right behind her. Was there any, literacy test for white women after the 19th amendment . With the jim crow kind of laws with a recognized by women . Were were subject to the same literacy loss. They had to face those tests. They had white registrars who were on their side. On the other side of the counter. Bey were more likely to franchise than africanamerican women not because they had a higher Literacy Rate or because the interpretive the castigation better. People on the other side of the counter. And there were people in puerto rico, only literate women get the vote in 1935. It was the literacy test in massachusetts. On the more liberality of the western states i would suggest checking census records. What you may find is that many of the western states had a predominance of single men. Realized thate suffrage was going to attract the single women and single men. Ask about something called the harvey girls. These families and the west between chicago and l. A. Had a harvey girl as a ancestor. I should have mentioned this. The guys in wyoming are famous for saying they have two women. That was a winning strategy. One of the things they wanted to keep in mind was that women suffrage that campaign. Women campaigned against men. Is men who oppose it and men who supported. It is that women versus men. That is not the history of this. Whether or not i would have been a winning strategy, i am not sure. Absolutely. How about over here. Said the labor laws have been declared unconstitutional. Ratifiedemo was never by the constitution. How would it pass . The fair labor standards act in 1938 not only sets . 25 as a minimum wage for a 40 hour work week for those who would not be paid overtime. Is a fairly standard law that went to the Supreme Court. A lot of people thought that there was no way it was going to survive the Supreme Court because of it was in those categories had not. The Supreme Court had changed enough by the time this happened that it was permitted. Constitution was never on amended to make that possible. It was a change in the Supreme Court itself. Or are a couple of things i want to encourage people to see. The speaker is magnificent. It is a discussion on women and the suffer Just Movement with the first world war. Thousands of women going over serving as nurses on the front during the spanish flu epidemic. Then her talk is about the hundreds of women who went over and served as telephone operators connecting the lines between the french who are bilingual. They were connecting line between the french and the americans. She is a very good speaker. My question is, knowing there were thousands of women going overseas, all the nurses going overseas. People working in the soup what how much of a impact did that have on the giving women the right to vote . And that is a fantastic question. Possible that women voted for the amendment. I do not think we can see that. But we definitely do have is this pattern of men in congress who had women who are voting in the elections shifting. That we have. Voting whot women had been franchise can we know that. See womenactually changing their votes on the suffer just suffer Just Movement. Maybe they could if any impact. I think that is a live question. In the Suffrage Movement they wanted suffrage to equalize the relationship between men and there were those who thought they could actually help. Gave women the did not apply to men. In the early 20th century ande are the majority powerful argument between women and men. Are say because women inferior to men because they are more pious they ought to have public power. Public argument that they know a thing or two about housekeeping and more and more because of the corporate laws. The things that had been done in homes before, the. He of the food they gave their kids. The water they drink, they had some control on that in a farm. When you look at chicago you have no control over any of that. Your air is filthy all around you. , fromve to buy milk people you trust. Whose products are contaminated. Many people argued that women a public power, we need drug laws. We need better sanitation, we need cleaner air. Obligationsifferent that we have got to take over. Mostis probably the powerful widespread argument that was made. There are people arguing that because women are rights bearing individuals they ought to have the power of the vote. That is a argument for womens equality. Like are full human beings men and that they ought to have the same rights. There are people who argue especially and the Labor Movement that they argue it is not supporting us. The only way we are going to get anywhere is to look at the legislation. The only way to do that is the power of the vote. There is a very practical set of arguments there. ,he whole range of arguments they argue on the basis of justice alone. Helpsay maybe they can stop the disenfranchisement of African American men. Slew of a whole probably the most effective. Did the others who advocate for children bring in Birth Control issues into that argument and for that matter a portion abortion . Publiclyvoided issues about what control because there was so Much Division over the issue in the population of men and women. She believed and i am sure she was right that it would have been difficult for them to get appropriations if they had come out on one side. Flooded the bureau with letters. There were all these personal stories that mentioned a incredibly moving story. To stop having all of these babies. Some Civil Rights Activists would then take how to get in touch with a particular doctor and that would eventually become planned parenthood. It was strictly under the radar. It was too dangerous to talk about. It was too hot to touch. You are talking about women getting full citizenship just because they got the right to vote. This may be less esoteric. I was very surprised to find out that the u. K. Only started passing citizenship of children through mothers 10 years ago. So i am curious when that would have happened for that United States if women were not considered. Since that their children become american citizens i been born to a American Mother or only american fathers. Long as you are born in the United States you are a citizen. Of the true of any parents. If you are a American Woman and you married a foreigner and your child was or here any child born in the u. S. We have birthright citizenship. Then ife case as it was you are bored you have citizenship. Thank you. Question up. That, when didto it become necessary for people in the United States to become naturalized citizens . There has been quite a long shifting mood there. When youways been became a citizen. As very normal you came in the aiken century, you just got off a boat. You are not a citizen. So when does that change . The late 19th century. It is still very informal. It is different in some different places. It gets codified especially in the 20th century. It is really codified them. There are the series of missteps along the way in the 20th century. That is a great question. Have we done it . Have we exhausted ourselves completely . [applause] thank you. Thank you. Interested in American History tv. Cspan. Orgebsite history, you can view our tv schedule and watch college andures and archival films more. American history tv at cspan. Org history. This weekend in American History tv historians are focused on primary sources for the salem witch trials. Which marked the importance of the salem witch on. Here is a preview. Each ordered up one of these documents. It turns out that we found out we found a whole bunch of them. We looked across the different archives we found more of them. 15 oft know if there are these that he wrote. They ink changes in a particular spot. You can understand if perhaps they started with a different patch. Horse when you see health beats. Date, they all start with the word also than the day. This is critical because every asgle indictment is listed the date of their examination. Thatwas because the crime was witnessed by all of these people, remember you had to have two witnesses for the same criminal act. During the public examination the things that were happening and the girls who were supposedly afflicted everybody could see that. They were not tried on the crimes they had done before they were arrested. They were charged with what they had done during their examination. Adds in the and this piece adds in the charge on that indictment. Atwatch the entire program six 30 p. M. And 10 30 p. M. On sunday. American history tv only on cspan3. Concord massachusetts, the town of 20,000 residents at the center of two revolutions. Gunfire at the north bridge sparks the American Revolution in 1775. This is what is considered to be the beginning of the american vo