How Women Won the Vote
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| How Women Won the Vote Susan Campbell Bartoletti |
These events are why everyone
needs to read How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big
Idea by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. It is a reminder of what it took for women
to get the right to vote in the first place. A right that is quickly slipping
away by people women themselves helped vote into power. It is a reminder that
all people, but especially those at risk of losing their voting rights, must go
to the polls and vote, fully educated on where each candidate stands. Without
this knowledge, and without exercising this freedom, far too many will lose
everything they have fought for.
Technically a picture book, How
Women Won the Vote takes the reader through the work of suffragettes Alice
Paul and Lucy Burns who spent years trying to achieve the women’s right to vote.
Interestingly, Alice and Lucy did
not meet in the United States where they did most of their work. They met in an
English jail as two Americans helping the women of Great Britain win their
voting rights. Even then, it was only after they were both arrested for
participating in a protest that they met. An incident involving a shove from
the police, and the other protestors refusing to stand for it, led to Alice’s
and Lucy’s arrests. In jail they recognized each other as Americans because of
a pin one of them wore. This started a friendship, and partnership, that lasted
for years.
Alice and Lucy continued to attend
protests throughout England and Scotland. Some of these protests resulted in more
time in jail. Others didn’t. With some of the jail time there were hunger
strikes. These hunger strikes led to either early release or force-feeding. How
the force-feeding was done is horrendous. It took a great length of time for
Alice to recover from the force-feeding methods.
Eventually Alice returned to
America. Her name had become quite well known while she was in Great Britain
for her suffrage activity. Now home, she planned on doing the same in America.
Alice began planning her own
suffrage meetings. Her only problem: she needed a good, strong speaker. That is
where Lucy came in.
By this time, Lucy had also
returned to the United States. She agreed to speak at the meetings. Each time
she did, the crowds grew.
Even though the crowds supporting
women’s suffrage grew, the people who could make the legal change remained
uninterested. All-male politicians, including two presidents (William Howard
Taft and Woodrow Wilson), refused to give women their voting rights. Opponents
claimed emotional reasons for why women should not be able to vote. Others—even
some women—believed women were supposed to be caring for the home instead of
voting. How leaving the house to vote a few times a year would hinder the
caring of the home, I have no idea.
Still, despite the attitude of
those in power, support continued to grow. When Washington, DC, Police
Superintendent Richard H. Sylvester refused to let the women have a parade the
day before Wilson’s inauguration, the women got others involved. They contacted
newspapers and called politicians’ wives. In turn, people contacted Sylvester
and wrote articles demanding the parade be allowed. After a while, Sylvester
gave permission for the parade.
People from all over—including
men—wanted to march with the women. Famous people included Helen Keller and
Margaret Vale—Wilson’s own niece. Shamefully, many of the women did not feel
Black women should be able to participate. Thankfully, some of these women,
such as Nellie May Quander and Mary Church Terrell, insisted on marching.
During the parade, the marchers
were attacked by people opposed to what they were marching for. But the women
would not be deterred. They fought back, including the women on horses. The
Boys Scouts, brought in for security because the police provided inadequate protection,
fought back as well. They and other spectators helped push the rioters away.
With this assistance, the parade was able to proceed.
After diligent effort, political
maneuvering, consistent harassment of President Wilson, and more jail time,
Wilson finally changed his mind from being adamantly against women’s suffrage
to encouraging the women’s right to vote. It took a while for congress to
agree, but eventually they did. The amendment they passed then moved to the states,
where it was ratified—partially because one state representative’s mother wrote
a note encouraging him to change his mind. With that vote and one other change
of heart, the final state needed for ratification was found. The Nineteenth
Amendment, declaring the women’s right to vote, became law.
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| Changing Times Kate Dorsey |
Yet, here we are. Two years after
celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, we
are in a fight for our voting rights again. The lessons learned from the suffrage
movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, along with the
fight in the 1960s, appear to be forgotten. Forgetfulness that is allowing
history to repeat itself. That will send us back to a time when there weren’t
rights at all. We’re already quickly
reaching the time where rules were intentionally skewed and people had to jump through hoops in order to exercise their right to vote. It won’t be long before
the rights are gone entirely.
Which is why people need to read this book. To understand what we may go back to if we don’t take a stand. We must not only demand support for our voting rights, but also actually go out and vote.
Edited 4/21/22 for clarification.
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