A letter to my granddaugthers on anniversary of 19th Amendment
(The 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote was certified by then U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby on Aug. 26, 1920, which is now designated as Women’s Equality Day.)
Dear Grey, Katharine, and Sarah,
I know this may not be your preferred social media platform, and if I had an Instagram account I might choose to send this message that way.
But newspapers have transmitted discussions about our country and its history for centuries, and I choose to honor that tradition. Besides, I want to reach out to other grandmothers and granddaughters.
One hundred years ago today, the women of America celebrated a remarkable accomplishment: They won the right to vote and finally gained a voice in the decisions of their times and in the great experiment in democracy.
It had been a decades-long battle. Don’t be fooled by the history books that tell you we were “granted” the right to vote. This was one of the first great social movements in our country’s history, and many suffragists were jeered at, beaten and jailed in the course of it.
And please don’t let the pictures in those same history books leave you thinking this was just a movement for old white women. Many Black leaders, like Ida B. Wells, were valuable participants in the movement. Some were fiery young radicals like Alice Paul, who in 1913 staged the biggest protest march that had ever been seen in the nation’s capitol.
We should remember, too, that this victory in August 1920 did not include all women. Ironically, it was not until several years later that the first women in this country, Native Americans, attained voting rights. Chinese immigrant women were left out. Women in Puerto Rico could not vote, even in local elections, until 1929, and even then there was a “literacy test.” And many of the brave Black women who had been part of the struggle were banned from the polls for years after that by the Jim Crow laws of the South.
We should give credit where credit is due. Many states in the American West, where pioneer women had made an indelible impression, were early to grant the franchise. Colorado was the first that voted to include women at the polls.
Amazingly, there are still efforts by some to make it harder for people to exercise their rights. The most basic privilege in a democracy, the vote, seems to be constantly under challenge.
Very often, in history, citizens have taken issues away from the politicians and into their own hands, and brought about change and progress.
In Florida, my own organization, the League of Women Voters, has joined with others to initiate and pass voter referendums on the ???Sunshine
Law, which brought more transparency and accountability to governments, and Fair Districts, which attempts to eliminate gerrymandering. Voters in Florida have overwhelmingly approved the purchase of environmental lands and school bond issues. Other efforts, such as restoring the vote to ex-felons who have served their time in prison, are still in dispute.
For women, all the battles are not yet won.
This is important, because the debates and decisions are different when women are at the table, whether it’s in our local schools, the corporate boardroom or the Congress of the United States. We know what it’s like to be caregivers for children and for elderly parents. We know what it means to face discrimination in paychecks, where women are still stuck at 81 cents for every dollar a similarly situated man earns. We grieve for those who have lost loved ones to terrible gun violence.
Let me hasten to add that many men care about these issues as much as we do. Your fathers and brothers are among them, and in the original suffragist struggle one of the heroes of the movement was civil rights leader Frederick Douglass. Equality and respect for women are always at issue in national elections, and certainly in this next one. We encourage, appreciate, and vote for those who have joined us in the fight.
In the years ahead, you will celebrate many more of our nation’s anniversaries. You will participate in the events that are recognized and remembered. You already have, and I am so proud of that. When you do this work, remember the fiercely committed women of 100 years ago. They were convinced that the vote is a powerful instrument for good. They knew that it could be used for change, for justice, and for a better world for their children.
I know that you, as they, will fight and march and vote for the things you believe in. And so we grandmothers prepare to pass the torch to yet another generation.
Bless you, and much love, from all of us.