Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts Rightfully Hers Am

Womens suffrage march, looking up pennsylvania avenue toward the United States capitol. It is overlaid with a photograph from the 2017 womens march from pennsylvania avenue, as well. It is a lenticular, which has a special effect. As he walked by, the image changes between the two. We really wanted to have it in the exhibit to grab the publics attention, and also signal that this is a historic exhibit, but the one that continues to have contemporary relevance today. Lets head into the lawrence f. Obrien gallery, where she is rightfully on display. This is the National Archive exhibition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, but it is more than a 19th amendment exhibition. Thats because the 19th amendment landmark Voting Rights victory it was for women did not give all women the right to vote. Many of the women were already voters by the time the 19th amendment was added to the constitution. Millions of women for other reasons remained unable to vote. This exhibit looks at that story, as well. We have this introductory video that is also meant to grab peoples attention, and pull them into the gallery. It also gives you what types of stories to encounter here. The exhibit is organized into five sections that asks five questions, which you can see with the women carrying their protest banners. Those questions are, who decides who votes . Why do women fight for the vote . How do women win the 19th amendment . What was the 19th amendments impacts . And what did it mean for sex . So, who decides who votes . This is a small but important framing section of the exhibit. Even to this day, there is not a citizens right to vote in this country. When the constitution was first ratified, it made no mention of voting qualifications, so that is really a power that was left to the state. One of my favorite stories that really highlights the power that states have in deciding who votes is women in new jersey, who were americas first voters, beginning in 1776 when new jersey became a state, the new jersey state constitution made no mention of sex when discussing voting, so women who owned enough property, primarily widows and single women, so not all women in new jersey, could and did vote in elections at the local, state, and national level. They did so for the first 30 years of the republic until new jersey changed its law using its power as a state to do so, to restrict the vote to just white men of property. So, women as well as African American men lost the right to vote. For women in new jersey, it wasnt until the 19th amendment ratification that they got the right to vote back. Lets head to the next section of the exhibit, which is why did women fight for the vote . Our records to such a wonderful job telling the personal story from women, not just about why they were fighting for the vote, but what it meant for them in terms of economics, social, legal and other consequences. Women like emily barber. She sent us a petition to congress. She was a teacher. She argues that as a wage earning woman, she has to pay equal taxes with men but as a nonvoter, has no voice in how those tax dollars are spent. She further states that acknowledging super superior she is paid a third of the wages as a man in the same school. This petition was sent to congress in 1879. 140 years ago this year, women were already arguing they needed the vote to press for equal wages. Of course, as a wage earning woman, women like emily barber, from their working experience, its clear how Vulnerable Women were without the vote. One of the other ways a lot of women came to ultimately fight for their right to vote was through engagement of other reform issues. Lots of women were engaged in the antislavery movement, and the temperance movement, prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, as well as other educational, Public Health and social reforms. One of the most important endorsements the Suffrage Movement got came from the womens first temperance union. They were the largest Womens Organization at the time. We have this petition hear from the Womens Christian Temperance Union that argues the ballot is the most potent element in all moral and social reforms. Through womens reform, they realized even if they didnt initially support womens suffrage, they realized they needed the ballot in order to really press for the changes that were most important to them. I love this section of the exhibit. It has wonderful records that tell personal stories from individual women who fought for the vote, but we really wanted to include as many voices and arguments as we could from women and men who fought for womens Voting Rights. We also developed this projection display. It includes beautiful portraits, as well as quotes from other women and men who were active in the suffrage unit, arguing why women needed the vote. Working women wanted the ballot in order to abolish the burning and crushing of our bodies for the toughest of a very few. The rights of the female parts of the community are sometimes forgotten or disregarded. In consequence of the deprivation of political rights. Lets move on to the third section of the exhibit, which is really the focal point of the exhibit, the largest part of the exhibit. How do women when the 19th amendment . We look at the diversity of women, as well as strategies that were engaged in the fight to ultimately win the 19th amendment. This is a more than seven decades, multi generational struggle. There are a lot of stories we tell in this section of the exhibit, but we begin with one of the critical juncture points in the struggle for womens Voting Rights. That came at the end of the civil war, when women suffragists, many of whom were also engaged in the antislavery movement, hoped that as a government considered the rights of freed men, that women may also gain the right to vote at the same time. We have a petition for universal suffrage. That is for everyone to get the right to vote. From 1866, it is signed by a number of women whose names are pretty familiar with the womens Suffrage Movement, including susan b. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady stanton, and lucy stone, really urging the government to consider extending the right of suffrage to women as it considers doing so for newly emancipated africanamerican men. Unfortunately for them, the government did not listen to their pleas. Once the 15th amendment passed congress, it was clear that women, both africanamerican and white women would not get the right to vote. This created a huge amount of attention among suffragists. They were divided over whether to support the 15th amendment. It created a schism in the suffrage unit. Two new National Organizations were formed. The first one was the National Womens suffrage association. That was founded by anthony and stanton. They did not support the 15th amendment, and focused their work from that point onward to fighting for constitutional amendments that would give women the right to vote. We also have lucy stone, her husband and other suffragists who supported the 15th amendment. However, they focused their efforts on winning women the right to vote at the state and local level. They werent necessarily opposed to a constitutional amendment, but they didnt really feel very optimistic at the constitutional amendment, at this point in time. One of the really fascinating things about the womens Suffrage Movement is that after women lost the vote in new jersey in 1807, the first states to give women the right to vote giving beginning in 1869 were in the west. The wyoming territory was the first territory at that point in time to give women the vote. They became the first state to do so when they obtained statehood in 1890. Interestingly, no states east of the mississippi gave women the right to vote in the 19th century. Here, we have a petition from utah. Utah is a really interesting case. Because utah had a mormon majority legislature, congress was really opposed to the practice of polygamy. They made a number of efforts in the latter part of the 19th century to try and outlaw the practice. This petition is from women who had already gotten the right to vote from utah. That was when congress was trying to pass legislation to outlaw polygamy. They make lovely arguments about the fact that women manage to maintain their respective eligibility and urged congress not to take the vote from them when they passed that legislation. Congress was not successful. About a decade later, women in utah did lose the vote when Congress Passed antipolygamy legislation, but once utah got its statehood, they gave the boat back to women. One more really interesting thing about this story is this is the only Time Congress actually took the boat away from women, as well. The womens Suffrage Movement took more than 70 years. Generations of women had to fight for their right to vote. One of the reasons it took so long for the Suffrage Movement to be successful was because there was fierce opposition to and franchising women, not just from male politicians, but from a lot of women as well. This was a period of great social change. Womens traditional roles, in particular outside the home, were shifting dramatically, and lots of women really resisted that change. We have this fantastic petition from more than 850 women. They urged congress not to give them the vote, and they make a number of different arguments for why they dont want the vote, and i will just read one. They argue that, because these changes must introduce a fruitful element of discord in the existing marriage relation, which would create detriment for children and increase the alarming prevalence of divorce in this country. This petition comes from 1872. Pretty remarkable that argument was being made already back then. We have this great graphic here that shows the mother heading out the door on election day while her husband is left at home with the children, doing all the cooking and cleaning, and it really speaks to the fears that a lot of anti suffragists had at that point in time. Certainly, lots of women and men were opposed to giving women the right to vote because of how it might change the family dynamic, but that was not the only reason antisuffragists were opposed to giving women the right to vote. We have this exhibit case that looks at the way race came into the discussion, and the debate over giving women the right to vote. Racebased arguments were used on both sides of the Suffrage Movement, not only against giving women the vote, but also for or against doing so through a constitutional amendment. We have this really fascinating postcard from the Georgia Association opposed to womens suffrage. I will just read a couple of the arguments that the postcard makes. Vote against womens suffrage because universal suffrage wipes out the disenfranchisement of the negro bylaw and White Supremacy must be maintained. It makes pretty clear Southern States in particular, especially because they had been able, after the 15th amendment ratification, after the end of reconstruction, had been able to implement discriminatory measures that pretty effectively disenfranchised a lot of africanamerican men, they feared that giving women the right to vote, in particular africanamerican women, would undermine that effort. Base was a critical issue in the Suffrage Movement. Its also really important, and with the goal of the exhibit to highlight the clinical role that africanamerican suffragists played in the fight for womens Voting Rights, in particular the ultimate success of the 19th amendment. We have this petition here from washington, d. C. , signed by both africanamerican men and women, urging congress to pass a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. Something i find really fascinating about this petition is these are petitioners from the district of columbia. At this period in time, 1877, when this petition was signed, there were no Voting Rights in the district of columbia. Something else thats really interesting about the petition as it is signed by two of Frederick Douglasss children, including Frederick Douglass jr. , and Rosetta Douglass sprg. All of the documents we looked out so far are in the holdings of the National Archives, and the National Archives preserve them for future generations. I think its really spectacular that a petition you send to Congress Today just as these africanamerican petitioners did in 1877 becomes part of the National Archive holdings, and we are really fortunate we have it here today to help tell this story. We have seen lots of petitions on this tour. Really, when women were pressing for their Voting Rights, they only had First Amendment rights available to them to press their government for their rights, and political change, but one of the other rights that suffragists used, the freedom to assemble. They used that pretty effectively to gain greater visibility and public attention in particular for their cause. We have this great wall mural. One of many suffrage parades for states throughout the country. This one is here in washington, d. C. From 1913. That was one of the most consequential marches that was staged. Women, more than 5000 suffragists, participated in the march held the day before Woodrow Wilsons first president ial inauguration. I hope that you can see here, this is all the space that these women had to march up pennsylvania avenue. This photograph is actually digitized from a congressional hearing that was held after the march was over. The police really didnt do much to control the crowd. The suffragists could barely make their way through the crowds at points, and they faced verbal harassment and some instances of assault, as well, as they marched through this unfriendly crowd. The police argued there were just too many people, so they couldnt possibly keep the crowds back, but as you can see, there is plenty of room. They could have opened the way for these women to march peacefully for their rights. One of the women we know, who participated in the march is Marie Baldwin. She is a native american woman. We thought it was really important because many of the photographs that you see from the womens Suffrage Movement are primarily of white women marching, and protesting for their vote, but we know women of color were there, and more important to the movement. We wanted to spotlight their stories whenever we could. We know Marie Baldwin was a participant of the suffrage march in washington, d. C. This is her official personnel file photo. She worked for what is now the bureau of indian affairs. I think its a lovely photo. I love that she wore her traditional native dress for the picture, as well. I also want to point out that ida bee wells was another woman of color who participated in the 1913 suffrage march, and was a critical activist not only for womens suffrage, but a number of different issues. We have these womens photographs, in gold frames. I call them suffragist spotlights. We wanted to pull in as many different womens stories, and highlights the Important Role they played in the struggle for womens Voting Rights. Women marched and protested. The fight would not have been successful if, as i said at the start of the store, millions of women were not already voters. Thats because their states chose to give them the rights to vote beginning with the wyoming territory in 1869. Some states chose to give women equal Voting Rights. Other states chose to extend partial or limited suffrage to women. We have great records that help tell the story of partial suffrage, in particular. One of my favorite records in the entire exhibit is this voting machine, patent drawing from 1910. It has two separate entrances. On the left, there is an entrance that, at the top, it says ladies. On the right, theres an entrance for gentlemen. You can see there is a very complicated system of pulleys and levers. I dont know exactly how all of those gears are intended to work, but the intention would be women who couldnt vote for everything, that men could vote for on election day would go into the left side entrance. They would close off whatever ballot measures they were not allowed to vote for. The men could go in the gentlemens entrance on the right and all options would be available to you. This patent drawing is from 1910, 10 years before the 19th amendment was ratified. Already, states were and the American Public was dealing with the question of some women having certain Voting Rights but not equal Voting Rights with men. Another Critical Community of women engaged in the struggle for Voting Rights were working class women. We already heard the arguments from emily barber, that teacher, who, as a wage earning woman, pressed for Voting Rights, and women, whether they worked in professions, or in a factory, or other industry, were a really Critical Community, and the struggle for womens United States<\/a> capitol. It is overlaid with a photograph from the 2017 womens march from pennsylvania avenue, as well. It is a lenticular, which has a special effect. As he walked by, the image changes between the two. We really wanted to have it in the exhibit to grab the publics attention, and also signal that this is a historic exhibit, but the one that continues to have contemporary relevance today. Lets head into the lawrence f. Obrien gallery, where she is rightfully on display. This is the National Archive<\/a> exhibition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, but it is more than a 19th amendment exhibition. Thats because the 19th amendment landmark Voting Rights<\/a> victory it was for women did not give all women the right to vote. Many of the women were already voters by the time the 19th amendment was added to the constitution. Millions of women for other reasons remained unable to vote. This exhibit looks at that story, as well. We have this introductory video that is also meant to grab peoples attention, and pull them into the gallery. It also gives you what types of stories to encounter here. The exhibit is organized into five sections that asks five questions, which you can see with the women carrying their protest banners. Those questions are, who decides who votes . Why do women fight for the vote . How do women win the 19th amendment . What was the 19th amendments impacts . And what did it mean for sex . So, who decides who votes . This is a small but important framing section of the exhibit. Even to this day, there is not a citizens right to vote in this country. When the constitution was first ratified, it made no mention of voting qualifications, so that is really a power that was left to the state. One of my favorite stories that really highlights the power that states have in deciding who votes is women in new jersey, who were americas first voters, beginning in 1776 when new jersey became a state, the new jersey state constitution made no mention of sex when discussing voting, so women who owned enough property, primarily widows and single women, so not all women in new jersey, could and did vote in elections at the local, state, and national level. They did so for the first 30 years of the republic until new jersey changed its law using its power as a state to do so, to restrict the vote to just white men of property. So, women as well as African American<\/a> men lost the right to vote. For women in new jersey, it wasnt until the 19th amendment ratification that they got the right to vote back. Lets head to the next section of the exhibit, which is why did women fight for the vote . Our records to such a wonderful job telling the personal story from women, not just about why they were fighting for the vote, but what it meant for them in terms of economics, social, legal and other consequences. Women like emily barber. She sent us a petition to congress. She was a teacher. She argues that as a wage earning woman, she has to pay equal taxes with men but as a nonvoter, has no voice in how those tax dollars are spent. She further states that acknowledging super superior she is paid a third of the wages as a man in the same school. This petition was sent to congress in 1879. 140 years ago this year, women were already arguing they needed the vote to press for equal wages. Of course, as a wage earning woman, women like emily barber, from their working experience, its clear how Vulnerable Women<\/a> were without the vote. One of the other ways a lot of women came to ultimately fight for their right to vote was through engagement of other reform issues. Lots of women were engaged in the antislavery movement, and the temperance movement, prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, as well as other educational, Public Health<\/a> and social reforms. One of the most important endorsements the Suffrage Movement<\/a> got came from the womens first temperance union. They were the largest Womens Organization<\/a> at the time. We have this petition hear from the Womens Christian Temperance Union<\/a> that argues the ballot is the most potent element in all moral and social reforms. Through womens reform, they realized even if they didnt initially support womens suffrage, they realized they needed the ballot in order to really press for the changes that were most important to them. I love this section of the exhibit. It has wonderful records that tell personal stories from individual women who fought for the vote, but we really wanted to include as many voices and arguments as we could from women and men who fought for womens Voting Rights<\/a>. We also developed this projection display. It includes beautiful portraits, as well as quotes from other women and men who were active in the suffrage unit, arguing why women needed the vote. Working women wanted the ballot in order to abolish the burning and crushing of our bodies for the toughest of a very few. The rights of the female parts of the community are sometimes forgotten or disregarded. In consequence of the deprivation of political rights. Lets move on to the third section of the exhibit, which is really the focal point of the exhibit, the largest part of the exhibit. How do women when the 19th amendment . We look at the diversity of women, as well as strategies that were engaged in the fight to ultimately win the 19th amendment. This is a more than seven decades, multi generational struggle. There are a lot of stories we tell in this section of the exhibit, but we begin with one of the critical juncture points in the struggle for womens Voting Rights<\/a>. That came at the end of the civil war, when women suffragists, many of whom were also engaged in the antislavery movement, hoped that as a government considered the rights of freed men, that women may also gain the right to vote at the same time. We have a petition for universal suffrage. That is for everyone to get the right to vote. From 1866, it is signed by a number of women whose names are pretty familiar with the womens Suffrage Movement<\/a>, including susan b. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady<\/a> stanton, and lucy stone, really urging the government to consider extending the right of suffrage to women as it considers doing so for newly emancipated africanamerican men. Unfortunately for them, the government did not listen to their pleas. Once the 15th amendment passed congress, it was clear that women, both africanamerican and white women would not get the right to vote. This created a huge amount of attention among suffragists. They were divided over whether to support the 15th amendment. It created a schism in the suffrage unit. Two new National Organizations<\/a> were formed. The first one was the National Womens<\/a> suffrage association. That was founded by anthony and stanton. They did not support the 15th amendment, and focused their work from that point onward to fighting for constitutional amendments that would give women the right to vote. We also have lucy stone, her husband and other suffragists who supported the 15th amendment. However, they focused their efforts on winning women the right to vote at the state and local level. They werent necessarily opposed to a constitutional amendment, but they didnt really feel very optimistic at the constitutional amendment, at this point in time. One of the really fascinating things about the womens Suffrage Movement<\/a> is that after women lost the vote in new jersey in 1807, the first states to give women the right to vote giving beginning in 1869 were in the west. The wyoming territory was the first territory at that point in time to give women the vote. They became the first state to do so when they obtained statehood in 1890. Interestingly, no states east of the mississippi gave women the right to vote in the 19th century. Here, we have a petition from utah. Utah is a really interesting case. Because utah had a mormon majority legislature, congress was really opposed to the practice of polygamy. They made a number of efforts in the latter part of the 19th century to try and outlaw the practice. This petition is from women who had already gotten the right to vote from utah. That was when congress was trying to pass legislation to outlaw polygamy. They make lovely arguments about the fact that women manage to maintain their respective eligibility and urged congress not to take the vote from them when they passed that legislation. Congress was not successful. About a decade later, women in utah did lose the vote when Congress Passed<\/a> antipolygamy legislation, but once utah got its statehood, they gave the boat back to women. One more really interesting thing about this story is this is the only Time Congress<\/a> actually took the boat away from women, as well. The womens Suffrage Movement<\/a> took more than 70 years. Generations of women had to fight for their right to vote. One of the reasons it took so long for the Suffrage Movement<\/a> to be successful was because there was fierce opposition to and franchising women, not just from male politicians, but from a lot of women as well. This was a period of great social change. Womens traditional roles, in particular outside the home, were shifting dramatically, and lots of women really resisted that change. We have this fantastic petition from more than 850 women. They urged congress not to give them the vote, and they make a number of different arguments for why they dont want the vote, and i will just read one. They argue that, because these changes must introduce a fruitful element of discord in the existing marriage relation, which would create detriment for children and increase the alarming prevalence of divorce in this country. This petition comes from 1872. Pretty remarkable that argument was being made already back then. We have this great graphic here that shows the mother heading out the door on election day while her husband is left at home with the children, doing all the cooking and cleaning, and it really speaks to the fears that a lot of anti suffragists had at that point in time. Certainly, lots of women and men were opposed to giving women the right to vote because of how it might change the family dynamic, but that was not the only reason antisuffragists were opposed to giving women the right to vote. We have this exhibit case that looks at the way race came into the discussion, and the debate over giving women the right to vote. Racebased arguments were used on both sides of the Suffrage Movement<\/a>, not only against giving women the vote, but also for or against doing so through a constitutional amendment. We have this really fascinating postcard from the Georgia Association<\/a> opposed to womens suffrage. I will just read a couple of the arguments that the postcard makes. Vote against womens suffrage because universal suffrage wipes out the disenfranchisement of the negro bylaw and White Supremacy<\/a> must be maintained. It makes pretty clear Southern States<\/a> in particular, especially because they had been able, after the 15th amendment ratification, after the end of reconstruction, had been able to implement discriminatory measures that pretty effectively disenfranchised a lot of africanamerican men, they feared that giving women the right to vote, in particular africanamerican women, would undermine that effort. Base was a critical issue in the Suffrage Movement<\/a>. Its also really important, and with the goal of the exhibit to highlight the clinical role that africanamerican suffragists played in the fight for womens Voting Rights<\/a>, in particular the ultimate success of the 19th amendment. We have this petition here from washington, d. C. , signed by both africanamerican men and women, urging congress to pass a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. Something i find really fascinating about this petition is these are petitioners from the district of columbia. At this period in time, 1877, when this petition was signed, there were no Voting Rights<\/a> in the district of columbia. Something else thats really interesting about the petition as it is signed by two of Frederick Douglasss<\/a> children, including Frederick Douglass<\/a> jr. , and Rosetta Douglass<\/a> sprg. All of the documents we looked out so far are in the holdings of the National Archive<\/a>s, and the National Archive<\/a>s preserve them for future generations. I think its really spectacular that a petition you send to Congress Today<\/a> just as these africanamerican petitioners did in 1877 becomes part of the National Archive<\/a> holdings, and we are really fortunate we have it here today to help tell this story. We have seen lots of petitions on this tour. Really, when women were pressing for their Voting Rights<\/a>, they only had First Amendment<\/a> rights available to them to press their government for their rights, and political change, but one of the other rights that suffragists used, the freedom to assemble. They used that pretty effectively to gain greater visibility and public attention in particular for their cause. We have this great wall mural. One of many suffrage parades for states throughout the country. This one is here in washington, d. C. From 1913. That was one of the most consequential marches that was staged. Women, more than 5000 suffragists, participated in the march held the day before Woodrow Wilsons<\/a> first president ial inauguration. I hope that you can see here, this is all the space that these women had to march up pennsylvania avenue. This photograph is actually digitized from a congressional hearing that was held after the march was over. The police really didnt do much to control the crowd. The suffragists could barely make their way through the crowds at points, and they faced verbal harassment and some instances of assault, as well, as they marched through this unfriendly crowd. The police argued there were just too many people, so they couldnt possibly keep the crowds back, but as you can see, there is plenty of room. They could have opened the way for these women to march peacefully for their rights. One of the women we know, who participated in the march is Marie Baldwin<\/a>. She is a native american woman. We thought it was really important because many of the photographs that you see from the womens Suffrage Movement<\/a> are primarily of white women marching, and protesting for their vote, but we know women of color were there, and more important to the movement. We wanted to spotlight their stories whenever we could. We know Marie Baldwin<\/a> was a participant of the suffrage march in washington, d. C. This is her official personnel file photo. She worked for what is now the bureau of indian affairs. I think its a lovely photo. I love that she wore her traditional native dress for the picture, as well. I also want to point out that ida bee wells was another woman of color who participated in the 1913 suffrage march, and was a critical activist not only for womens suffrage, but a number of different issues. We have these womens photographs, in gold frames. I call them suffragist spotlights. We wanted to pull in as many different womens stories, and highlights the Important Role<\/a> they played in the struggle for womens Voting Rights<\/a>. Women marched and protested. The fight would not have been successful if, as i said at the start of the store, millions of women were not already voters. Thats because their states chose to give them the rights to vote beginning with the wyoming territory in 1869. Some states chose to give women equal Voting Rights<\/a>. Other states chose to extend partial or limited suffrage to women. We have great records that help tell the story of partial suffrage, in particular. One of my favorite records in the entire exhibit is this voting machine, patent drawing from 1910. It has two separate entrances. On the left, there is an entrance that, at the top, it says ladies. On the right, theres an entrance for gentlemen. You can see there is a very complicated system of pulleys and levers. I dont know exactly how all of those gears are intended to work, but the intention would be women who couldnt vote for everything, that men could vote for on election day would go into the left side entrance. They would close off whatever ballot measures they were not allowed to vote for. The men could go in the gentlemens entrance on the right and all options would be available to you. This patent drawing is from 1910, 10 years before the 19th amendment was ratified. Already, states were and the American Public<\/a> was dealing with the question of some women having certain Voting Rights<\/a> but not equal Voting Rights<\/a> with men. Another Critical Community<\/a> of women engaged in the struggle for Voting Rights<\/a> were working class women. We already heard the arguments from emily barber, that teacher, who, as a wage earning woman, pressed for Voting Rights<\/a>, and women, whether they worked in professions, or in a factory, or other industry, were a really Critical Community<\/a>, and the struggle for womens Voting Rights<\/a>, in particular because working womens engagement really helped to turn the womens Suffrage Movement<\/a> into a mass movement, both in terms of the number of women who began to be active in the struggle for the boat, as well as some of the new strategies those women brought to the womens suffrage unit. In particular, from their experience working in organizing labor. We have this great petition here that still has its instruction sheet attached, which i love because it shows the way they translated some of those strategies they learned for getting petitions signed, for unionizing into how they translated that for the struggle to get signatures from men and women to support womens suffrage. They have things such as workshops and schools at the noon hour, so you can get people to sign petitions on their lunch break, which i think is fascinating. The womens Suffrage Movement<\/a> has turned into this mass movement. We have millions of wage earning women engaged. We have women marching through the streets. Greater numbers of petitions, and then we come to the point where the United States<\/a> enters the war during world war i. This creates another tension point in the womens Suffrage Movement<\/a>. Women gained tremendous momentum behind the movement, but most suffragists feared to continue to agitate for the votes while the u. S. Went to war, that they would lose support for their cause because they would look unpatriotic. A number of women, most women, and the largest womens suffrage organization, the National Womens<\/a> american suffrage union, chose to put their Public Education<\/a> for the boat to the side, and devoted their time to supporting the war effort. We have this great collection of uniforms from women who volunteered with the red cross, and served both domestically as well as abroad. Its a lovely collection, and i love that i was able to use it to really talk about, and interpret womens wartime service, which was really important to gaining a lot of public support for giving women the right to vote. However, not all women chose to set aside their activities. The National Womens<\/a> party, the really militant branch of the womens suffrage unit, chose to really step up the political pressure in particular toward the president at this time. They began to pick it at the white house in early 1917. Women were the First Americans<\/a> to pick it the white house. We have this banner we have borrowed from the National Womens<\/a> party. As well as this great footage showing women marching, as well as the silent sentinels standing outside the white house to really call attention to womens suffrage, to embarrass the president , and call out the hypocrisy of the United States<\/a> going to war during world war i, the war to make the world safe for democracy, while women at home still didnt have full citizenship rights. The silent sentinels were picketing outside the white house during the war, and the Wilson Administration<\/a> did not necessarily respond kindly to their activities. As the u. S. Mobilized for war, and began to ramp up its engagement in that conflict, the silent sentinels were harassed on the street. Some of those women were arrested and jailed. We also have some documents here that talk about that story, in particular womens imprisonment for peacefully protesting for their rights. Although the silent sentinels were not necessarily very popular with mainstream suffragists or with many members of the American Public<\/a>, they were nevertheless appalled that these women were imprisoned for peacefully demonstrating for their rights. The criticism that the Wilson Administration<\/a> received for the treatment of the silent sentinels as well as the political pressure they maintained on him, womens patriotism, and service during the war, publicly and politically for womens Voting Rights<\/a> and women gained a really important and critical endorsement from the president in 1918 just before the war ended when he went to congress and urged that they pass a womens suffrage amendment as a measure. Unfortunately it wasnt enough. The senate voted just a couple days later and the measure still failed to pass by the required twothirds majority of that chamber to become a constitutional amendment. By just two votes. But the good news is, the next session of congress the measure passed the house on may 21st of 1919 and then passed the senate on june 4th, 1919. And finally the 19th amendment and amendment to give women the right to vote passed congress and went off to the states for ratification. But in order for that amendment to become part of the constitution it needs to be ratified by the states. And here we have in the center of our exhibition, the real focal point of this story, the story of the 19th amendments journey from a proposed constitutional amendment to becoming part of the constitution. And these three documents here really helped tell that story. The first record is the joint resolution proposing amendment to the constitution extending the right of suffrage to women. And when we say the 19th amendment this is the document that were talking about. Its a joint resolution that passed congress on june 4th of 1919. It doesnt become a constitutional amendment, however, until its been ratified by three quarters of the states, which was 36 states at that period of time. A requirement that the 19th amendment met when tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the proposed amendment on august 18th of 1920. And then here we have a ceremonial copy of the secretary of states certification that the 19th amendment had, indeed, met the constitutional requirements for it to become a constitutional amendment. And with that women have secured the right to vote in the United States<\/a> constitution. So here we have this story of the 19th amendments journey to becoming part of the constitution. But i also wanted to tell just a few more stories from its road to ratification, including some of the first states that ratified as well as a little bit more of the story behind tennessee because that was a pretty intense battle to finally pass the amendment in that state. In tennessee, as the Tennessee Legislature<\/a> was fighting over whether or not to ratify the 19th amendment, it ultimately only passed by a single vote. So we wanted to tell that story here. The freshman legislator who voted to pass the voted to ratify the 19th amendment was harry burn. And the story goes that he was opposed to womens suffrage but his mother urged him to support the amendment if his vote was needed to do so. And fortunately for us he kept his promise to his mother. And ill just point out that as you round that corner from the 19th amendment we have this huge wall mural. This is a photograph from the National Womens<\/a> party. We have alice paul up almost in the rafters of the building but we really wanted to represent that this is a moment of celebration. She is unfurling the National Womens<\/a> party flag with 36 stars representing the 36 states that have voted to ratify just so its clear to everyone who comes here that weve reached a really critical milestone in womens fight for the vote. The next section of the exhibit is what was the 19th amendments impact . And we wanted to in the gallery look at some of the immediate impacts that the 19th amendment had for women as they began to use their newfound power as voters. Looking at some of the early pieces of legislation that women fought for, and some of the successes as well as some of the setbacks that they encountered. This section of the exhibit also really becomes a foundational section of the exhibit that looks at the ongoing struggle for greater womens equality and opportunity that really has continued in the 100 years since the 19 amendments ratification. One of the stories that most people think about is the equal rights amendment and some suffragists g suffragists did immediately or very quickly begin to pivot to work to secure womens legal equality in the constitution. However, interestingly at that point in time most women did not support an equal rights amendment. As i mentioned earlier in the exhibit women were engaged in various reform movements and they hadnt been completely unsuccessful at winning important protections for women. And many resisted, including 13 rather large Womens National<\/a> Womens Organization<\/a>s, resisted an equal rights amendment because they feared that would one become part of the constitution that women would lose those important protections. So we also wanted to look at the ways that women fought for greater political representation. Of course, that is a struggle that continues today as well since there are still not equal numbers of women in congress and other as well as state and local governments. We also wanted to have just a little bit of fun and i pulled together this playful section of artifacts and efemara that represent the different ways that women as voters have showed their support for their political candidate. In the physical gallery we only look at a couple of stories focused on the decade immediately following the 19th amendments ratification. But of course there are many more stories in the 100 years since the 19th amendments ratification, focused on womens ongoing struggle for greater equality, opportunity and political representation. And so we wanted to make some of that important context and history available in the exhibit but we couldnt fit it into the actual gallery. So we developed this interactive maze to allow visitors to explore somewhere those ongoing struggles that women continued to fight. Of course we also have the records of rights exhibition here at the National Archive<\/a>s that also looks at womens rights more broadly, which is just one floor down in the museum. So if you choose to play the interactive maze game you get to select an avatar. And then youre taken through a maze where you encounter some of the ways that women have pressed for, succeeded and sometimes were not successful in winning greater Voting Rights<\/a>. And the maze itself is really meant as a metaphor for that ongoing struggle because, of course, you have to try and find your way through the maze just as women would have had to struggle to find their way forward in the ongoing struggle for equality. So now we come to the last section of the exhibit, which is what Voting Rights<\/a> struggles persist. As i said at the start of this tour millions of women did not get the right to vote under the 19th amendment. Millions of women were already voters. But millions of women, and men, continued to struggle for their Voting Rights<\/a> after the 19th amendments ratification because they were denied the vote for reasons other than their sex. And this section of the exhibit tries to look at some of those different stories from different groups of women, the ongoing struggle that they faced and what ultimately secured Voting Rights<\/a> for different groups of women. One of the most notable stories in this section of the exhibit is the struggle for africanamerican women and men in particular in the south to gain their right to vote. And i have a couple of documents here. One of my favorite letters in the whole section of the exhibit is from lula murray. She wrote to the president in 1923. Shes from birmingham, alabama and she writes to say that she was turned away when she went to register to vote but that she should have the right to vote under the 14th, 15th and the 19th amendments. Its the only letter in all of the research i did for this exhibit where i found an africanamerican woman who mentioned all the constitutional amendments that extend her Voting Rights<\/a>. She also further goes on to say that she had two brothers that served during world war i, one of whom lost his life in service to his country, and shes urging the president to help her get this important act of justice. And i love this little pamphlet right next to lula murrays letters. Lula murrays letter. Because it so clearly outlines a number of the different voting restrictions that were used in the south to keep africanamericans from exercising their right to vote. Ill just read off what they have listed here. It says the pole tax. White primaries. Inaccessibility of the polls. Restrictive registration hours. And other more susbtle restrictions against voting. And i think what they mean there is issues related to intimidation as well as discrimination in voting, things like unfairly administered literacy tests. Threats of economic retaliation and as well as sometimes threats and even acts of violence against africanAmerican Voters<\/a> that attempted to exercise their right to vote. So its not until the Voting Rights<\/a> act of 1965 passes congress that many of these discriminatory measures are outlawed. And women and men in the south are really able to exercise their constitutional right to vote. But theyre not the only group of americans who continued to struggle and encounter issues of discrimination after the 19th amendments ratification. But one of the other areas where women, and of course men, run into issues with exercising their right to vote is dependent upon where you live. The 19th amendment says that the states shall not deny the vote. It says nothing about the district of columbia. Or other u. S. Territories, like puerto rico. So puerto rican women, although they were engaged in the Suffrage Movement<\/a> since the early 20th century were not included by the 19th amendment and their Territorial Legislature<\/a> refused to extend them the right to vote when the 19th amendment was ratified. So theyve faced another 15year struggle to secure Voting Rights<\/a> for puerto rican women. I should mention that puerto rican women were already United States<\/a> citizens at this point in time too. They gained citizenship in 1917. We have a letter from anna valez who is writing to president coolidge in 1929 urging his support for a measure that was before congress to give women the right to vote, in particular shes asking that hell sign the bill if it passes. They achieve a partial victory, not all women get the right to vote in puerto rico in 1929. Literate women are able to secure their Voting Rights<\/a> but its not until 1935 that all american excuse me, all puerto rican women gain the right to vote in puerto rico. But for both puerto rico as well as the district of columbia, even today they dont have equal Voting Rights<\/a> and voting representation in congress with american citizens that live in the states. So at the beginning of this tour i said that theres not a citizens right to vote in this country today but that doesnt mean that citizenship isnt often a prerequisite in order to exercise the right to vote. And so women who were not recognized as u. S. Citizens when the 19th amendment was ratified had to wait until they were recognized as citizens in order to exercise their right to vote. Two groups of women whose story we tell here are native american women as well as asian immigrant women. Native american, all native americans are not recognized as United States<\/a> citizens until 1924. But that doesnt mean that they necessarily got the right to vote once they gained citizenship. Many of the discriminatory measures that africanAmerican Voters<\/a> encountered also kept a lot of native American Voters<\/a> from the polls as well. And for asian immigrant women they were not legally allowed to obtain citizenship, really until the 1940s and 1950s. We have this photograph from dorothea lang, though, from world war ii. Its an interesting story because japanese internees if they were u. S. Citizens could vote while they were incarcerated in internment camps, and even some japanese immigrants were allowed to vote, just for camp Assembly Type<\/a> elections, which is kind of an interesting little side story. So in addition to the ways that different groups of americans have continued to struggle since the 19th amendments ratification in order to secure the right to vote i also wanted to look at some other pieces of legislation and other constitutional amendments that opened the polls to even more voters. Like the 26th amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. And the National Voter<\/a> registration act, which is better known as motor voter today which made it easier for all americans, but especially younger and poorer voters in particular to register to vote and hopefully also use their right to vote. So here we have a tshirt that was gifted to president clinton when he signed motor voter into law. And for some of our younger visitors i think they might enjoy seeing the rock the boat logo as a member of the mtv generation. I certainly remember watching rock the vote specials around election day, where all the celebrities come out and encourage Younger Voters<\/a> to get engaged and rock the vote. So as i said in the first section of the rightfully hers exhibit, who decides who votes, the states power to determine voting qualifications plays played a Critical Role<\/a> in womens struggle for the vote and it continues to be a really important factor in determining Voting Rights<\/a> today. So we end the exhibit here with the Supreme Court<\/a> decision in Shelby County<\/a> v. Holder which upheld the constitutionality of the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights<\/a> act. However, it did strike down the formula that was used to determine which states and jurisdictions were subject to the preclearance provision. And that has resulted in a number of changes to voting laws. In recent years there have been new voting eligibility requirements that have emerged in multiple states. Some of those have made it easier to vote but some have also made it more difficult to register and exercise your right to vote. And as we said at the start of this exhibition states power to determine voting qualifications continues to be important today. We hope that visitors to this exhibition will take this message home with them, and learn about voting laws in their states so that they can be engaged voters and ensure that they can exercise their right to vote every election day. So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive, both as ive walked visitors through the exhibit, and as ive just tried to observe people. What im most thrilled about is weve had a number of teenagers, this is field trip season here at the museum, and they seem to really love the content and what im most excited about is they make sure they head to our interactive voting booths as well before they leave the exhibit. We felt like an exhibit about voting needed to have a voting booth so that everybody, whether they are registered voters that vote every election day, have yet to register and vote, or are looking forward to that day that they get to head to the polls gets the experience of voting here. You get the opportunity to share what ballot box issues are most important to you and then at the end of the experience you have an opportunity to take a selfie to share with your family and friends, something you cant do at any other polling place in the country. Announcer rightfully hers, american women and the vote will be on view at the National Archive<\/a>s until january of 2021. And has a traveling component titled onehalf of the people, advancing equality for women. With stops in florida, louisiana, tennessee and south carolina. All week were featuring American History<\/a> tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3r, lectures in history, american artifacts, oral histories, the presidency, enjoy American History<\/a> tv now and every weekend on cspan3. Thursday night on American History<\/a> tv the 50th anniversary of the woodstock music festival. Looking back at 1969 music and arts fair, a threeday rock concert that attracted nearl half a Million People<\/a> to a dairy farm in upstate new york. Historian david farber joined us to talk about the social movements of the 60s leading up to the event. We also talked to festival cocreator arty cornfeld and wade lawrence, director and senior curator of the bethel woods senior how the rock concert ended up in bethel, 60 miles from the town of woodstock. Thursday night starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History<\/a> tv on cspan3. This is the story of how this this whole new economy was built and how and ive always been really interested. Ever since i was working in washington, in how business and government interact with one another. They have an antagonistic relationship but they also have a collaborative relationship. The real story of American History<\/a> is one of public, private partnership in many ways, in ways that sometimes are unseen. So this was i think the storys a really great way to get into that. University of washington history professor Margaret Omara<\/a> discusses her book, the code, Silicon Valley<\/a> and the remaking of america. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Historians discussed the impact of sufficientragists and abolitionists during the reconstruction era. Drexel universitys vision 2020 cohosted this event. 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