Dignity, defiance, persistence
Film, lecture explore how American women won the right to vote
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of American women winning the right to vote, the Sen. John Heinz History Center is sponsoring two online presentations, including a virtual screening of a film about Mary Church Terrell, a leading Black suffragist.
One hundred years ago this month, the 19th Amendment was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920. Women waged a 72-year campaign to pass the law, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens on the basis of sex.
“Dignity and Defiance: A Portrait of Mary Church Terrell” will be screened online on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. A conversation with Samuel W. Black, director of the history center’s African American Program, and Robin Hamilton, the film’s producer, will follow the screening.
A lifelong advocate for education, civil rights and women’s suffrage, Terrell founded the National Association of Colored Women and in 1909, she was among the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1910, she co-founded the College Alumnae Club, later renamed the National Association of University Women.
Admission is free but advance registration is required at heinzhistorycenter.org/events.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, the history center hosts “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence” with the Smithsonian’s Kate Clarke Lemay.
Ms. Lemay is a historian at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and coordinating curator for the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative. She will explore the history and complexity of the national suffrage movement and focus on underrecognized individuals and groups. She also will explain how portraiture became a crucial element of women’s activism.
Admission to Ms. Lemay’s lecture is $5 at heinzhistorycenter.org/events.