Today marks the 100 year anniversary of the 19th Amendment going into effect after it’s ratification on August 18th, 1920. It is amazing to be celebrating 100 years of women voting under the 19th amendment. Celebrations provide an opportunity to reflect on the past and aspire for the future.
Women struggled for 72 years to secure the right to vote, beginning with the Seneca Fall Convention in 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a key organizer, dedicated the next fifty years of her life to this effort. Alongside her was Susan B. Anthony, who met Stanton a few years after Seneca Falls. These two women, both of whom were staunch abolitionists, fought for the vote tirelessly for decades.
The passage of the 15th amendment, which provided that the right to vote could not be abridged because of race or previous condition of servitude, was not extended to women. Many suffragists, like Anthony, did not want the 15th Amendment passed unless it included women. Angry that women were left out of the amendment, Anthony accepted money from slaveholders and used the funds for the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).
Black leaders fought against racism in the suffrage movement
But other acts of racism and anti-Black rhetoric aimed at garnering white male support persisted throughout the crusade for women’s suffrage, leaving an indelible stain on the movement.
But Black women suffragists were not deterred, and continued working within NWSA and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), the two suffrage organizations that emerged in response to the 15th amendment. NWSA focused on universal national strategy while AWSA had a state by state approach. Black suffragists also created new organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).
The NWSA and AWSA united 20 years later, but the merger did not cure all woes. Black suffragists were still marginalized and their efforts minimized. Even Alice Paul, who history credits with the ultimate success of the 19th amendment, was complicit.
We celebrate Paul for being unrelenting in her efforts – organizing marches on Washington and protests with a 1,000 “Silent Sentinels” picketing in front of the White House. She and others were jailed, force fed, and beaten as they fought for suffrage.
And yet, she also told Ida B. Wells she must march at the back of the suffrage parade to be held before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration in 1913. Unsurprisingly, Wells refused.
Additionally, Native American women did not begin to have voting rights secured until 1924. And Black women, despite the 15th and 19th Amendments, would not see true access to the franchise until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Where universal suffrage stands today, and the fight ahead
Today, the protections provided by the Voting Rights Act have been severely curbed by the Supreme’s Court decision in Shelby County V. Holder in 2013. Assaults on the Voting Rights Act have been unrelenting, with voter suppression tactics being deployed across the country – all with the aim of limiting voting. These attacks remind us of the fragility of our rights, and threaten voting rights for everyone. Hard won, and easily lost unless we pay attention and continue to protect and fight for equality.
As we look ahead to the next hundred years of women voting, we must be aspirational.
More than 38 million women – one-third of eligible women voters weren’t registered to vote in 2016. Women also represent more than 50% of chronically disengaged voters. To boot, women voter turnout lacks diversity — especially from Asian American and Latina voters, who tend to turnout half as often as White and Black women voters.
Our mission for the next 100 years should be to ensure that all eligible American women, regardless or color, ethnicity, or economic status, are free and active voters. We must approach this aspiration with the same single-minded focus of the original suffragists. That would truly be something to celebrate.
