Can see democracy at work and citizens are truly informed. Get informed straight from the source is on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased word for word. Is what democracy looks like. Cspan powered by cable. Accomplished women who play a significant role in the commemoration of the woman Suffrage Centennial 2020. I served as vice chair of the daniel commissioner which was a commission greeted by congress organizingss activities of the centennial year. Everyone, our commission how to deal with closable pandemic. In marcho of 2020 vision and excellent staff had to switch ports and adapt plans, programs and activities. A conscious shift in the project and what i mean our historical markers, statutes, monuments or installation permanency beyond 2020. The strategic decision is beneficial longterm highlights of the commission providing additional memorial for gina not completed and located. They could really benefit from our donation and supported to suffrage after the girl scouts which im sure we will talk about today. And this was a considerable period of time. The construction of historical markers across the country related to the and we successfully lobbied putting personal will be for myself executive director in the states. This was an interesting story and can talk about that later. A favorite was project 19 skydivers who had several amazing ones during the centennial here. States held notification celebrations in commemoration of the 100th anniversary. Federal institutions including library of congress were Host National archives and held exhibit togr promote their election concerning the history of woman suffrage. Public art was across United States and over 100 books were published i woman suffrage. It was a terrific year and the Commission Level in the states and localities and other organizations help commemorate the anniversary. Now i l would like to turn our conversation to our panelist today who are all leaders and various such toenail activity. Lets start with the other of ithe legacy of woman suffrage t museums and historic sites. Can you tell us about your book and why it is important to think critically how we approach the story of woman suffrage at museums and other historical locations . What did we learn from the centennial and how will it affect future interpretation. Thank you so much to the National Archives for inviting and the rest of the speakers tonight. I look forward to this wonderful conversation. The book is interesting, it comes out september 15 so it is not out yet is starting has an idea for the executive director in 2016, it was designated by president obama will not directors there 2017 so a good minor skin able to learn about the Suffrage Movement certainly want came to talk about suffrage and one thing i heard most often was one, how come i never learned this in school . L . They came to him from most of o the adults are they and as i look around and see the exhibits, they would say legal right . I can honestly say we were not doing a good job showing the full story so one of the most important pieces the legacy is it is now expected for any author, any exhibit we tell the whole story so weve made a lot of progress. It is for use in practitioners and those who work on the site and it is also for people interested in history and learning more about previous celebrations so start with taking a look at the 25th anniversary, 50th anniversary and 75th anniversary. Then i talked about how the changes culturally, politically, changes of the previous decades impacted the average, whatever, merge was at that time so a lot of differences and again between 1970 and here we are 2021 talking about changes between 1995 for the centennial. It is an interesting look back. I advocate for a few things. First is to expand the timeline so when we talk about suffrage in most cases organization and people start with 1848 and end at 1920 and the modification of the 19th amendment so i and many others advocate for the timeline so one thing im a short put in the book is a detailed like the timeline about historic moments in American History and how they relate to what is right and suffrage and the history we are looking at in 1787 and went all the way through 2021 hundred is not an abbreviated piece. The second thing, i advocate and think thee case for making sure we are talking about both stories. The many women of color involved in this Suffrage Movement and there are simply toos many to mention the story the vias and racism that allows the movement to be controversial storyline but what it is not about this person said for their actions were bad they never did anything about that. T learn about the context in which these actors we go back and research, it really is talking about their culture and social cultural life is like. How do they form their opinions and how did they impact the Suffrage Movement and of some people say obligated, we dont need to get into that and i certainly have heard that from a lot of people. History is going to become wicked so it doesnt serve any purpose consider things like a product of her time and that was common during the era which was approved get we can dig deeper talk about why in the systems of policies in communities and placed that really did impact women of color much more than the white women of separatist. I leave it at that. I did say it will be out september 15, thank you for letting me tell about it. State and local history. I like to bring karen into the conversation, karen was a fellow commissioner along with me who served on the commission but also the executive director of the Harriet Tubman, can you talk to us about how you think this centennial highlighted previously Untold Stories ability about woman of color, how was the commission able to do that . What could they haveha done better . Thinking about this the last few days, it is not an easy discussion. A lot of things to do in the fights this and it has been an is in the truth. When i think about to commemorate the 100th anniversary, honestly felt we fell through the wall from the smithsonian, an incredible job keeping politics out of it and the for this documented case, what we did do and tried to do and what the facts were. Having said that, i felt the commission was not nearly as effective as it could have been amplifying the history of women of color and they are barely dismissed without the Womens Movement and full disclosure on the presidency coming home with the national historical, i am also a member of the sorority that is sophisticated with the Suffrage Movement and this movement of 1913 so i come at this having to live in this based on the time as a leader responsible for carrying for Harriet Tubmans legacy and she moves about 20 miles in 18491 year after the establishment. She dealt with the complexity of race andme how they impact all f these. Let me say the commission should have done a much better job amplifying historic numbers and 2018, that was a real moment to have 100 plus women in national office. Any political concern to amplify that to encourage all women at levels to know to fully participate. Theres so many relationships so complicated we need to amplify and dig into whats happening. The relationship between frederick douglass, it is complicated and i think her for all the work she did call thingd is deal with that because they called other people of color and it is a negative she thought douglas was the one he told her what was wrong with that. And it was different kinds of behaviors and many of the people in my immunity call her racist even for all the good work she did so they were very good friends so the valuable lesson to learn was locked in her home for a period of time. She died and he did her eulogy so that was their choice so there was one where she was tone deaf and americas original sin of racism. Has to be reckoned with and i dont think i can participate, we have to come to terms with the end there have been no statutes of womenen and they wee the determination that there would be a statute of women and originally Susan B Anthony and last moment they decided that was not conclusive enough included so a lot of money had to go into that over 1 million and a half dollars in the conservancy and the names of all the suffragists at that time so they could show. Now we have women in central park. Except for me, when i heard, i honestly said at least thats one thing so i found out they were going to go ahead because the land on which central park is built, the only place in new york city. There is still a lot of concern about that and still issues about reparations in the land being taken away. It was legal to own property and take it w away to make way for e design so i credit senator who always encourages the commission to look at the underbelly know all of the stories as good as the facts and yes, we should lift up everything done in the past 100 years but i honestly and truly feel there is so much more work to do so the act of inclusion and franchising all people to get to the ballot box and knowing that this matters is so important. I want to take up a lot of time but very good friend of mine is coming out with a book. I story. Lastly there is some media done a year ago today with the former president went all the commissioners were there for his signing into law the proclamation of recognizing the 100th anniversary. But it was really hard for me, quite frankly as a woman of color to be there. I am a long time champion of fair housing and anything in the Affordable Housing space to hear people of color in the suburbs and the things that were said by her highest elected officials seem to undo a lot of the work we were trying to do to really forge understanding between people. Every network, every cable channel i heard from people who knew me from prek that i had not talked to since then he saw the image of me standing there so i think we really have to have better control as it relates to how we amplify women in the next 100 years. And i will stop now. Karen thank you for those reflections. I dont know if we have had a chance to actually talk since that day when we worked together in the white house. That was an extraordinary media event by the white house to promote a particular message. We were certainly as a commission going for appropriately media event not of our own going to cooperate your account of that day and recalled the discomfort by a number of people including myself as someone in a nonpartisan position to be put in that type of situation, unfortunately. But, i want to talk a little bit more. I want to get to rebecca and shannon. Karen it sounds like the one the things you are very concerned about was, there was a discussion of the role of race in the Suffrage Movement not as indepth in other words we didnt engage with it would have caused accurate reflection in your mind is that a safe thing to say . I agree with you. It was uncomfortable times to discuss. As a little bit uncomfortable. But for the purposes of education we all felt we had to do something. Colleen i thank you for your work in particular. And for that video of the National Park service that was shared with all of us. But, i felt as a commission we did not use her own platform to say loudly that we understood that was a barrier. I represent. Tubmans legacy. She was a Property Owner and how difficult it was for her to have had to make the decision to advance rights for women to get the votes knowing it would not include her despite her being a Property Owner. She sought doing something beyond her own initial benefits would propel her to go into those lecture halls and speak to audiences that include any africanamerican men who have their right to vote taken away from them as women were being franchise, black men would be disenfranchised. We did not really explore that to the extent that we should have. And where we are now. More work needs to be done. I think thats a good transition. The suffragist playbook. You just said something we could learn we can learn from Harriet Tubman and her example in her leadership. That is really what rebecca tried to do in her book about some of those lessons from the Suffrage Movement. What can young people both boys and girls learn from the Suffrage Movement and do they really understand the full story on this end and i write yet another suffrage book we wanted it to be useful almost a practical handbook for becoming an activist and the lessons you can learn from the Suffrage Movement. You need to do better yet understand heroes are flawed they are real human beings so pretending there is not racism Susan B Anthony was always wonderfully welcoming to frederick big douglas or was not ignored when she was the only moment at conferences notwithstanding what we can learn. And i think its also interesting to hear karen say that you know maybe we said yes there was racism it was a problem. And did not really engage with these issues. And to me, to some degree this is a broader problem within history. Because for so long history has been told in this hall of fame model. We hear about great men doing great things. That is exclusionary for so many reasons. Mainly because only white men had the ability to hold the position and allowed to do great things for they only have wealth and elected office and whatever else. Also its not how change happens. Its very seldom one extraordinary human being changes the world. Its certainly not the white womens history happens and its not by the Suffrage Movement happens. Even if you do not expanded on you 21848 1920 that 72 years. That was not one person. Even saying ida b wells was there to lets learn more, that is important. It is still adding to lets learn about a few Extraordinary People instead of understanding the movements were long and slow and hard and collaborative. And had wins and losses along the way. Required creativity about large variety of humans in closing including men. And that it is a convenient way to highlight biography i completely get it as a way to engage people in history. But it is reductive. If one of the reasons you need to learn history is to learn from it and do better and be inspired by it and think you can also change the rope it i one 100 hope every young person thanks they can change the world you need ton. Learn flawed human scent before you. Do not have to be a once in a generation genius. You can meet float to learn, confused as the rest of us and make an enormouss difference. So, not only is it bad or boring history to hold up saints its boring. It also relateou leaves out anybody who might think i could do that too. Great. I want to ask shannon, you run the juilliard low birthplace the founder of the girl scouts. What rebecca just brought up here and karen this is a very long history spanning over generations andat generations. You know they women both white and black women who started the movement. They did not enforce it live to see the actual passage of the or women voting after the 19th mm to the 1960s. Women of color. So how do you teach this type of history how did you engage that rytype of history with girl scouts . And how to do presents that complexity to them and how did they respond . Tell us a little bit about that. Thank you colleen and thanks to archives and the Partner Organizations for inviting me here including girl scouts in the conversation. You are seeing the Juliette Gordon low birthplace on the screen it is the home of the founder of the girl scouts. We teach girls is about their history especially on the site in particular we do program for girls on a variety of topics all over the country thousands of programs a year not just once tfocus on history. But for suffrage particularly of the suffrage toolkit that so far has reached 50000 girls, we are pretty excited about. I want to thank the Suffrage Commission on that note they donated 7000 patches for books which is pretty exciting. But i think this program and toolkit is so critical. We teach girls to develop confidence in character for the purpose of making the world a better place. The goal of girl scouts is to develop leaders. We want them to think about how they can be active citizens. In effect being an active citizen is rent the root and foundation of girl scouts. Girl scouts was founded 1912 thereve been a bunch of badges teaching girls how to contact their elected official. How to be good to meet partners how to be a good service to the neighbors. It really plays into thers legay that suffrage is getting at. The other thing that is really critical you talked about here already is that girls need to see themselves in history. The toolkit does focus on a number of people even though ihi agree with you, rebecca, we are better off if we dont do the hall of fames of history it is nice to identify it leaders it does that with white women, black women, also indigenous and chineseamerican women are highlighted to really help girls in our country think about no mattermu where you are and what you are facing at that moment you can certainly be the change of the future. We think its very important to not just teach history but be teaching girls, contact your elected officials. She may be run for office on debris to exercise and take advantage of all the opportunities. Click something that touches upon all of your discussion and all of your comments and i know the commission is to get as much as possible this history. The history of the Suffrage Movement. And hopefully a comprehensive authoritative to get into the mainstream. Not that theres anything wrong with womens history but women historys focus and textbooks and make a sure it has shared tt is amongst adults, amongst kids. Students, girl scouts, boy scouts. How would we rate ourselves when we look back, how well did we get history into the mainstream and what can be done differently to do that better . This is now open to the entire group webpage, rebecca, shannon, everybody can engage with this question for short. I can quickly say we were 5