I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a true story, a relevant one. It’s also short, so the quiz at the end should be pretty easy. Here goes:
In the 1840s, the women’s suffrage (right to vote) movement began gaining ground as part of an overall struggle for women’s rights. After the Civil War, in 1869, the movement really started taking off as activists including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone formed suffrage groups. They knew getting women the right to vote wasn’t going to be easy … and they were correct.
Initially, suffragists’ main plan was to attempt to vote en masse, get turned away at the polls, and file suits using an argument that women should have the vote because of the 14th Amendment (which granted citizenry to all US-born persons) and the 15th Amendment (which granted the right to vote to all citizens regardless of race, color, or previous servitude). When that didn’t work—the Supreme Court shut them down three times by 1875—they tried to get a women’s suffrage amendment introduced into Congress.
Three years later, in 1878, that attempt bore fruit. Senator Aaron A. Sargent, a supporter of the suffragist movement, introduced the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. And there it languished in committee … until it was rejected by the Senate in 1887. And then again in 1914. And then a third time in 1918, and again on February 10, 1919—that time by just one vote.
But the suffragists did not spent all that time idly waiting for the men of Congress to do the right thing. No, they were working on yet a THIRD tactic. They attacked the issue from the state level, trying to get states to individually grant the right to vote, with a goal of eventually garnering enough support so that the 19th Amendment would pass. And by the second Senate rejection of the national amendment in 1914, most western states had indeed granted women the right to vote.
In the next few years after that, a fourth tactic was introduced: protesting. A militant group of suffragists conducted controversial protests, including picketing the White House. Some of the protesters were imprisoned, and some of those imprisoned even went on hunger strikes and were force fed.
Supporters kept up the good fight, though, and eventually, on June 4, 1919, after 44 years and four previous rejections, the proposal finally passed both houses of the United States Congress. Before a proposed amendment can become part of the Constitution, however, it must be ratified by three-fourths of all states by simple majority. Within a few days of the proposal passing Congress, the states began ratifying the amendment, until months later 35 of the required 36 had done so.
In the summer of 1920, the Tennessee legislature took up the amendment for action. It sailed through the Senate but stalled in the House of Representatives. After weeks of discussion, a motion to table the matter was defeated by a tie vote, 48-48. Instead, it came up for a ratification vote, though it was not expected to pass. On the very morning of that vote, however, 24-year-old anti-suffrage legislator Harry Burn received a note from his mother asking him to support the amendment. Amazingly, he changed sides and did so. So on August 18, 1920, because of a mother’s influence on her son, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment with a House vote of 50-49.
Thus it was that after more than eight decades of struggle, many different plans of attack, five attempts to get the amendment passed by the US Congress, and battle after battle at the state level, finally, FINALLY, women across America had their right to vote officially recognized and protected.
Now, I could have told that story in even fewer words. I could have made it shorter. But I really wanted you—and I’m speaking primarily to women here—to feel it. To feel the anguish and struggle and eventual vindication of generations of mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters—strong women all. To imagine the oppression that had to be fought by brave women and their allies to get us to this point. I wanted you to really understand what it means when you walk into that voting booth. To understand that your vote is precious. That it has as much weight as the vote of any man. That whether you are 18 or 80, your vote is equally valid. And most especially, that it belongs to you. Not to your relatives. Not to your friends. Not even to your husband. To YOU.
So here’s the quiz. It’s just one question. In this election year, arguably the most important in our nation’s history, what legitimate reason could you possibly have for abdicating your right to vote, either by simply not voting or, even worse, by walking into that booth and marking a name because someone else suggested you should or assumed you would? To all women of strength and character, I exhort you: DO NOT give away your power. Educate yourself about the issues. Really give some thought to which candidate is most capable of doing the job. And then this November 8, hold your head high and vote your conscience. This is a historic election. Help us make history.
Vote.
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