Celebrating 100 Years of Women's Right to Vote
By Margaret M. Ballard, AICP, WTS-DC
For over 40 years, WTS-DC has offered women in the transportation field a forum for career advancement and opportunity to achieve greater prominence in the transportation industry.
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of advancement for all women in the United States. Namely, women achieving the constitutional right to vote on August 26, 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment—an effort that took decades of persistence to accomplish.
Before the Civil War, the causes of abolition and women’s voting rights strategically joined forces to seek equality for all. Seventy-two years after the Declaration of Independence, the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848. At the convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton presented the Declaration of Sentiments. All the grievances passed unanimously except the one for women’s suffrage. Frederick Douglass, the orator, former slave, and abolitionist, made a magnificent speech in support of that motion which then passed. The movement began.
Incidentally, “suffrage” has no connection with suffering but derives from the Latin word “suffragium,” meaning the right or privilege to vote.
The alliance with abolitionists allowed several women to hone their oratory and organizational skills while advancing social justice. Susan B. Anthony proved an outstanding organizer, for example. But while advocating equal rights and protection, ultimately the 14th Amendment introduced the word “male.” Tensions arose among and within the groups regarding strategies and tactics. The 15th Amendment gave Black males the vote. More tension and splits in affiliations occurred. Thousands of the African American women continued to actively seek voting rights. Ultimately, two groups within the women’s movement vied for attention (basically, one favored a national approach and one state-by-state) until 1890 when they merged to form National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
The Congressional Committee of NAWSA rose to distinction. In 1913, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organized an elaborate woman’s suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. the day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. With over 5,000 participants, floats, and tableaux, and perhaps 500,000 spectators, the parade clearly elevated the cause of women’s suffrage.
It was the first political protest parade in Washington. To placate the Southerners, the African American women participants were directed to march at the rear of the parade rather than with their own state or local chapter. A woman who deserves recognition is Ida B. Wells-Barnett who managed instead to march alongside her Chicago chapter (she later became one of the founders of the NAACP).
Another bold effort began in January 1917. Alice Paul who by then had founded the National Women’s Party arranged for a group of women to target then President Wilson for direct messaging. These so-called Silent Sentinels picketed the White House, which had never been done before. They carried large signs pleading for President Wilson to side with them. At the time, this quiet assembly was considered “militant.” They protested for two and a half years until both the House and the Senate passed the 19th Amendment on June 4, 1919. At first the orderly women were tolerated. However, all was not peaceful. In the summer and fall, dozens of suffragists were arrested for minor charges like “obstructing traffic” and sent to the Occoquan Workhouse (the original building at the later-named Lorton Reformatory and Lorton Correctional Complex). Conditions were poor and unsanitary. Those who went on hunger strikes were force-fed. After word reached the newspapers that 40 guards had been directed to brutalize the women one night in November 1917, public sentiment turned in favor of the suffering suffragettes.
In early February 1919, over two dozen members of the National Woman's Party, most of whom had been arrested as Silent Sentinels, boarded a chartered train they dubbed the "Democracy Limited" in Washington, D.C. They visited cities across the country drawing crowds and speaking about their experiences as political prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse and often dressed in their prison uniforms. The tour, also dubbed “the Prison Special,” concluded in mid-March 1919 and helped create support for the ratification effort.
The House of Representatives narrowly passed the language for the 19th Amendment in January 1918, but it failed in the Senate. Eventually, after being brought up again a few more times and failing to pass, President Wilson called for a special session of Congress to consider the matter. It passed the House in May 1919, and then then Senate in June 1919. All that was left was having 36 states ratify it, which took more than a year.
Finally, in August 1920, Tennessee narrowly voted to become the 36th state to ratify. Tennessee’s official notification of ratification reached the U.S. Secretary of State on August 26, 1920 (Author’s note: My mother’s 8th birthday).
Even with ratification, 3 million African American women in the South faced continued disenfranchisement with the poll taxes, intimidation, and fraud. The 24th Amendment finally removed the poll tax in 1962, with even more reforms promised through the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Yes, we’ve come a long way, but there is continued improvement and vigilance to ensure full protection and equality of our voting rights.
For more information, quick internet searches will provide a plethora of details about the suffrage movement. PBS is airing a two-part special called “The Vote”; one of my alma mater’s, Johns Hopkins University, has created a website dedicated to the centennial anniversary at womensvote100.jhu.edu which offers links to national resources, including the National Archives and other institutions commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment; and the 2020 Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative has more information about upcoming programs and how you can get involved.
As we mark this centennial, let us consider ways to educate the public on the previous legal and social advances of voting rights, and proceed forward towards furthering equality in voting.
Footnote: In addition to using many links contained within womensvote100.jhu.edu, including a recent lecture by Prof. Dorothea Israel Wolfson, many other sources contributed to this article. While Wikipedia entries provided background, other sites offered commentary about the 14th and 15th Amendments, the connection of women’s suffrage and abolitionists, and details of the different suffrage organizations. The National Park Service provided summary data about the Occoquan Workhouse, the Night of Terror and the Prison Train. Other women proved instrumental to the movement than those barely mentioned herein, and so many of their stories could be or have been told.