Transcripts For CSPAN2 Lucinda 20240704

Cspan. Org podcast. Listening to programs through the cspan radio just got easier per tell your Smart Speaker like cspan radio listen to washington journal part of congressional hearings and other Public Affairs events throughout the day. We could set 5 00 p. M. And 9 00 p. M. Eastern catch washington today for a fastpaced report on the stories of the date listen to cspan anytime just tell your Smart Speaker play cspan radio cspan powered by cable. To date we have two Extraordinary People who are with us. Lucinda rob and Rebecca Boggs roberts who joined together to write a book called the suffragist playbook. You can take a look here you will learn about this book. More important you will learn about the suffragist, what they did, how they did it both some of the encouraging things in the discouraging things as they were working on it. The suffragist were first to do a parade down pennsylvania avenue the first to pick at the white house. Now we see that is commonplace. Let me tell you about these two women. Lucinda was a project director for our mothers before us, women and a democracy 1789 1920 at the center for legislative archives. This project rediscovered thousands of overlooked original documents. Really, she helped to organize the National Archives celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 19th amendment in 1995. She looked and virginia with her husband, three children, one small barky dog and moren, a thn 500 which you will see. Her coauthor Rebecca Roberts has also a varied background. She has been at many things. A journalist, producer, a tour guide, a forensic anthropologist and event planner, political consultant, a jazz singer, and a radio talkshowio host. Currently she is a curator of programming for planet world on a new museum and Franklin School in downtown washington. Roberts lives here in washington d. C. With her husband, three sons. These two women have been friends since childhood. Took the risk to come together and write a book. They are going to talk us through how the Suffrage Movement drove institutional change and what can we learn from that . To take it away rebecca and lucinda. A. Thank you so much for having us here today. This years the hundredth anniversary which granted women the vote for being a little more technical remove gender as an obstacle to voting. With all that is going on in 2020 it is probably never been a better time to look at the Suffrage Movement and see what are the lessons are contagious s today. First of i went to get out there it was a very long movement. Over 70 years. It went on for three different generations by the first generation lived a long time. Many lived well into their 80s all lived to be 86 but none of them. For any activist today who think the change is happening fast enough and its not its probably all activists. Right there is an important lesson for the Suffrage Movement. You have to be in it for the long haul and never give up. But on the Positive Side i was the largest expansion of political power in u. S. History. It happened without war or violence. Which we think is a good thing that is why should study. The suffragist trusted in the right given to them by thend constitution and figure out how to win by working within the system paid the change they managed to create was permanent and enduring. Best of all playbook on how to drive institutional change. Since we cannot cover everything today what we want to do is highlight some of our very favorites suffrage tactics. Some of themm especially that rebecca roy to talk about are the suffragist but right now i went to talkte about one of the most basic fundamental tactics that you need if you want to create change. No big movement can get anywhere without telling a story. Just to be specific a story is a narrative that you remember and can be as ancient as the book of accident or as modern tell it ss are a way to ignite change. With successful public speakers for womens rights she would go on to become one of the founding mothers of the suffrage unit. She began a career as abolitionist. Mrs. True of a lot you get training in one because this gives you the confidence and skills to advocate for others that you turned out. Going to hear speeches thats what people did for entertainment. At least before the pandemic gives go to a movie or sporting event. I could also be dangerous especially for abolitionist. Ratty moms would show up every one so they burn a building down. But in 1847 driven by her conscience, she started to read quickly she became a huge sensation. After time, this is hard for us to understand it was an incredibly controversial for women to speak in public. They were routinely denounced from the pulpit. Not only back then were women not supposed to speak to the audience it was not considered proper for them to make any noise at all. They were not even supposed to clap so 50 years later after lucy stone starts her speaking career and still find references to the fact that when women go to a speech they like what is they will waive their handkerchief its a chautauqua salute. Women were not supposed to speak at all. I first lucy would draw crowds just because of the novelty of hearing a woman speaker. People treated it like a circus act but it turned out she was really, really good at it. All the newspaper accounts today go on about how incredibly mesmerizing she was. Pretty soon she had crowds of thousands of people showing up to listen. Men who sometimes came to mocker would wind up leaving convinced that maybe she was onto something. From the very beginning lucy would tell stories pretty soon she got started adding stories about the injustices women face in general. She was deeply committed to both causes and begin splitting her schedule talk, ending slavery on the weekends and womens rights on the weekdays. One of the reasons i like she is a great example of someone who took an insult and made it a rallying cry. In 1855 and she was at her Womens Rights Convention in ohio summit at intech altar said she was just a disappointed women. Right then and there she went on to give impromptu speeches that essentially guess she was a disappointed woman perch was disappointed and education is a must know colleges that would admit women she was disappointed in the profession the only option for her was to be a seamstress or a teacher and even there should make a fraction of what men a made claim that the baker charge the same amount. Disappointed in religion were women going to preach going to help she was disappointed in marriage because instead of being able to marry for love when were too often forced toy marry men for money. You Better Believe she was a disappointed woman. This would go on to be one of her most successful speeches she would use it again and again. Its a 19th century clip of going viral. The parallels with women embracing phrases like nasty woman and she persisted. Hras far from the only way suffragist influence activists today. That is where i will pick it up. Thank you lucinda. It is amazing once you start seeing how many contemporary activists borrow it tactics in the Suffrage Movement. Sometimes it on purpose sometimes they do it without knowing the history. But it is everywhere. There are obvious examples like the womens march of 2017 groups which coincided with the inauguration just the same at the womens march of 1913 did. We had matching hats. That was very specific for the Suffrage Movement there are so many other places were contemporary activists you think tactics the suffrage is either invented. We tend to associate those with the 20 century part of the movement andor that Womens National party thats absolute true and i will get into that in a minute. But i want to give props to Susan B Anthony. She was really pushing the envelope of the tactics a social movement could use and considering at the time it was pretty transgressive for women to even be speaking in public as lucinda said the way that she employs some these attention grabbing tactics continues to be a big part of her legacy. She was also very recognizable. Always wore the really oldfashioned buttoned up victorian black dresses she often had a red scarf around at the scarf is here in this caricature. She had it wandering i was selfconscious about that. She crafted her image very carefully. So in the wake of the civil war the Suffrage Movement split because as lucinda mentioned so many wereth abolitionist. When the 15th amendment franchisor black men and women there were suffragist like lucy stone, like her husband henry and said will take the 15th amendment as written that we then wewill fight for women nex. There are people like Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady stanton so we cannot support it disenfranchises black men and no women. They split with each other. They formed competinghi organizations. To give you a sense of the radical moderate continuum here, the stone blackwell faction of the American Suffrage Association published a newsletter called the womens journal they pursued statebystate slow and steady strategy to get suffrage past. Anthony and canton with the National Womens Suffrage Association their publication was called the revolution. They went straight for federale amendment they went right from the beginning. Even within the big strategic differences there were tactical differences. The American Woman Suffrage Association was going statebystate. They wanted with that reconstruction amendments have better overreach they wanted to go slowly. They wanted to build coalitions for they wanted to build credibility. Wheres anthony and santa not so much. Susan b anthony voted at 1872. Was a total publicity stunt she assumed she get turned with the pole she didnt she was able to cast your ballot so then what you do . [laughter] this didnt quite work out the way you expected it to bird you see this all the time with contemporary activists how do you turn an event toward your advantage if it didnt go the way you planned . And as it happened she was arrested a couple of days later. But the men who came to arrest or wanted her to quietly report to the courthouse. Susan b anthony wanted no part of that. She held out her wrist. She wanted the handcuffs you want to be dragged off to jail. She wanted the visual of this proper buttoned up old lady being led away by sheriffs. They would not handcuff her but they didnt make her come with them right then they insisted she would not report later. And then her trial was so many instances of men underestimating this woman. They shot she would be silent it was a farce she was convicted before she got in the courtroom. The judge made a huge mistake of saying does the defendant have anything to say for herself. [laughter] that unleashed one of the greatest speeches of the entire 72 year Suffrage Movement. Susan b anthony was the pioneer of turning the story around for yourself. No gain the press for your own gain. That tactic of doing something attention grabbing milking that attention to matter whether its positive orr negative is something you continue tono seen the movements and in other movements now. I think now about this summer when black lives matter activists were in Lafayette Square in front of the white house. The square was cleared so the president could go stand by st. Johns church. There were weeks of reporting about that, right . Who ordered the square to be cleared what Law Enforcement was there what tactics did they use this is massive Washington Post a video investigation where they use imagery. They zoomed in on the emblems on different Law Enforcement officers uniforms to try to figure out what happened that night. Had curfew just expired the protesters just went home it would not have been a story for a minute. It was the protesters who continue to keep this in the news. Even though the protested not gone thes way they anticipated. There are 19th century roots to this tactical, make sure you make the press work for you. Make sure you craft an image that works for you this is something we think of as an artifactke but the suffragists were really good at paying attention to how things looked make sure they looked the way you wanted them too. This is an illustrated newspaper with women and wyoming voting wyoming was the first state what women could exercise the franchise i will never say women were given thee right to vote first of all there were not given anything pride they fought for. But they always had the right to vote they were american citizens of the men in charge fairly recognize that fact. Wyoming was the first sprayed the fact these are nicely dressed polite ladies theres a child with the picnic basket and feels very safe that imagery was really important. Because theyre trying to define the image of suffragist two. There are a million cartoons like this. There is a hapless man covered in babies and dirty dishes while his carefree white strides out of the house, leaving him to fend for himself while she goes out to about this is an anti suffrage cartoon its considered terrible, right . What is she doing leaving him with those babies . If you dont craft the image yourself someones going to do for you that is a really important lesson for an activist. Of course the whole notion of paying attention to how things looked being bold when things get stuck. We really do associate with alice paul. Alice paul was kind of a reluctant suffragist in some ways. She grew up in new jersey she was a quaker. She learned the values of equality and a general way was was not at all involved in the american Suffrage Movement. Largely because after the split over the 15th amendment, that Movement Language a loss of followers it lost momentum. Not many states have been added to the role. Even in the two factions would come back together in the 1890s a lot of time was lost. When they came back together they agreed to file that statebystate. Anthony and stanton as mentioned live to a ripe old age but by the turnofthecentury but the first couple of years the 20th century they had all died. And so this movement was in trouble. Alice paul is not interested until she went to england she went to england for grad school and was radicalized with her movement there. Now england did also have a slow and Steady Movement but this was really militant the faction of the American Movement alice paul would go on to found the National Womens party is called a militant they had nothing. They were intentionally throwing bricks through windows and slapping policeman in the face. At one time they tried to set the prime ministers how some further not playing around the american women. This shows you the difference this is a headline from a london newspaper trouble expected in london tonight. Suffragist determined to force her into parliament. The women will certainly break into the house it was completely expected. This document on the other side by the way ien just love its an ad from a newspaper, suffragist may break windows i am the wee boy who puts them back in a. [laughter] if you get a brick through your window called James Caldwell he will help you. The word is suffragist. The British Press made fun of the british activists by calling them i was meant to be patronizing you cute little suffragettes. Just like lucy stone with the disappointed woman, the british activists took that name suffragette and work with pride and coopted its power but most properly the wood word is suffragist suffragette is the british and more specifically the militant. Alice paul takes these tactics when she comes back to america in 1910 she really wants the American Movement to use some of them. The first thing she er does is s the idea of a parade down pennsylvania avenue. There have been the celebratory parades downar pennsylvania abby im sure you seen the pictures of the army on the potomac but the idea of taking a cause, a march on washington that was a suffragist idea. It is now so common we think of it as a traffic headache. But it had never been done before in this way the idea of a political march through the corridors of federal washington. From the legislative branch to the executive branch. That was alice paul. In 1913 parade, which i will talk about at great length if given half an opportunity. I am going to restrain myself. [laughter] we have a lot to cover today. I did not go at all as planned. It was planned down to its lastminute but then this massive crowd blocked pennsylvania avenue for perspective this picture were standing about 13th street. You can see the capitol in the background the large building on the right and the post offices temperature per child. Pennsylvania abbeys road broad street. Its got really widep sidewalks they are men you can see all the hats. They were there for the suffrage parade they were there for that Woodrow Wilson the next day they block the streets, they spit on the women they called them names they trip than the police did nothing to get the crowd back but some cases the police joined inyl the name calling and spitting. But again how familiar is this imageem now . This is the march for our lives. Now this is a friendly crowd but this is the same picture 100 years later, right question if once you start seeing parallels to detectors the suffragists invented you cant unseat another big one picketing the white house. No one had ever done this before 1917. This is a National Womens party idea. Not only is picketing the white house now incrediblygi common there19 is some neat black lives matter as protesters they started adding their signs to the fence the white house put between. But also what are these women doing . They are making a message go viral part this is the 1917 the 1917equivalent of aal tweet. Sure it reaches a people who are standing in front of the white house and Lafayette Square but reaches many more people on the picture in the newspaper. That is whye the banner is on really easy to read sensor font dark i can sit white background that is all about house going to reproduce in the newspaper. In fact later 1917 as world war i and the u. S. Became involved in world war i the nationalist womens party got much more provocative in the messaging. They went in with this Kaiser Wilson banner have you forgotten your sympathyy with the poor germans because theyre not self govern question 20 million american women are not self govern take the beam out of your own eye. This is not on very critical very controversial its treasonous in the eyes of some of the public is directly criticizing the president. Calling him kaiser while we are at war with germany. This is a tactic activists use constantly. I outrageous, no youre going to lose some followers because of it. But the l attention you are goig to get might be worth it. Once you start seeing these tactics you really do see them everywhere. It is really kind of timeless. Movement cannot only consist of attention grabbing tactics, right . Youve got to actuallyf have se effort toward the long still slow steady institutional change for that i got go back to lucinda. Ivory Movement Needs radicals. What they do is move the goalpost. You have your moderate that help you move the ball. Successful tactic of the Suffrage Movement is not one that gives attention that probably should. That is the importance of engaging. Specifically linking your cause to popular goals. This probably nobody whos better at doing this and Frances Willard. Today almost no one has heard of Frances Willard. Back in the late teen unpaid hundreds she was arguably the most widely known and admired woman in the entire world after queen victoria. For 20 years she was the leader of the Temperance Union. That was the largest most influential womens group probably the entire 19th century. It was not just she was an activist she was a fullfledged celebrity of thats our time. We try to give people a sense for the imagine a cross between oprah and dolly parton. That is how big she was. She was the kind of person was so big she could write books on virtually anything and it will be successful. She did write a lot of books including one for girls titled how to win. Another on how to ride a bicycle. She was so popular when she died unexpectedly tens of thousands of people came by to pay their respects. B we talk a lot about statutes today. She became the first woman to get a statue and statuary hall of the u. S. Capitol. She wouldet not be joined by another woman for 50 years. So she was a really big deal. Now, these days and i got to admit people kind of a roll their eyes when you hear about the Temperance Movement to abolish alcohol. If you know it temperance is. Back in 19th century drinking was real Public Health problem. Particularly so for women who are vulnerable. You are married you did not own the right your husband could legally beat you. I was really hard to get a divorce if you did it was hard to make a living. A lot of women cared about. More than that because of the g scene as a moral issue is acceptable for women to get involved in temperance. Women did in bigra numbers. Brought the movement to mainstream people had heard about the idea before the work of early suffragist like stone e and anthony and others. But by no means top 10 or 20 issues people cared about. Willard started to change that. No going back to our letters to basically note willard was team suffrage from the beginning. Shes externally careful how she served a tour members most of the time when much of the right to vote because it was fair, it was just a. It was morally right. Willard makes a completely different argument. Willard brand was being a nice respectable methodist that everybody liked. She used this image to her advantage. She talked about how mothers in it about for Public Policy that be good for the family. She called the Home Protection ballot this is a brilliant marketing. Shes able to get a huge following oft mostly white evangelical christians to approve what wasti pretty much a radical idea. This is a master class on engaging the right audience is linking or cause to popular goal is all about. In terms of the modernday activist reminds me a lot of the gayRights Movement they champion marriage equality. Focusing on something people approved of that changed a lot of the debate. Under willards leadership the Temperance Union members. Active in a lot of social reform. Willard called it her do everything policy. Along with suffrage, labor reform, education reform, they even got involved. Now this sounds like it may sell my kev victoria anti initiativ, honestly theres a Little Something to that. Long before the me too movement this was an effort to hold not just women but men tooo accountable for their action. One of the biggest successes they had was raising the age of consentt for girls. Because back at that time it was 10 12 for most girls. Except for delaware where it was seven. That is really kind of shocking to us. Not willard is by no means perfect but if anyone is ever heard of her today usually its because a o controversy and goig to talk about her more in a few minutes. Wells accuses the womens christian Temperance Union correctly as it turns out of using language that demonizes a black men and immigrants of people in color in general. In fact a pretty much anyone not in the mainstream dominant group you get a sense of this top American Woman and her applicable peers Frances Willard winds up being featured in. This is used to get people upset at the fact women have the same political rights, idiots, criminals, the insane and native americans which is basically no rights. Wells essentially forces willard to make a statement against lynching. This is something really interesting when we look into this but originally that womens christian Temperance Union was when the few National Womens organization whoseal integrated niwhen black women came for the National Womens Christian Convention lock and white women were seated together over the loud of southern white women. And for a time black women like Frances Watkins harper did have leadership roles they are insidious and biased you may have heard of it. But you cannot always see but sometimes you have people who are without obvious symptoms willard who her whole brand was nice. Almost certainly never saw as racist. As is willard spends a lot of time going down into the south southto meet with white women. They are all so lovely such a gracious experience. And gradually in the course of time willard and the other white suffragist start making more and more arguments about educated suffrage. He they talk about how unfair it was white women couldnt. So willardss legacy. That is one of things im going to let rebecca talk about that you really have to be aware of the racist of the Suffrage Movement. Quickly take that really seriously. I think it is tempting when you write womens history to elevate these women. Toot status in order to justify their inclusion because they have been excluded for so long. But first of all that history its also boring history. Things are dull. We feel very strongly not only do what an accurate view of this movement and the women involved with that, but if the premise of our book, and it is, change the world now, then sometimes you need to know what not to do. Ifyou want to avoid making the same mistakes you need to know what those mistakes work. Too often the mistakes the Suffrage Movement made or racist. They were overtly racist themes. I mention a statebystate strategy the movement pursued from the 1890s. Sometimes that meant activists going into Southern States and saying women suffrage will ensure white supremacy. Make an overt argument the white female vote would overwhelm boats from black voters it was a way of ensuring white supremacy. Theyac made that argument withot shame. It never worked frankly. Every place white suffragist made the argument that legislatures were distant fran ching with jim crow laws they were not interested in franchising white suffragist made the argument. Then there were less overt openly racist elements of the movement. These come up again and again. As lucinda said the lucius ones are hard to combat im not in there saying women suffrage equals white supremacy. But lets learn from other examples to this is a picture of the founding members they were a sorority founded here at howard. They were found in generative 1913 because these women felt the dominant sororities were to social they wanted to be more political. They wanted the very first act asho a sorority is the march of the suffrage parade. And alice paul punted she did not even answer their letter at first she hemmed and hawed that was not like her at all she was super organized and answered if and quickly. Another sorority at howard also wanted in the telegrams back and forth in the library of congress. A she was really nervous paul was really nervous and integrated parade was going to alienate too many white women. She was much more interested in keeping the confidence of white suffragist then including blackh suffragist. And she did not know what to do. Ultimately the National Site you cannot exclude marchers. You have got to include anybody lives to be a part of this she suggested they march at the back in a segregated section. Now it hurts you to hear that, right . You want her to do better i am enormously impressed with alice paul i want her to recognize that when she is standing up against sexism she should stand up against racismre two. But it does not do anybody any good to pretend she was better on these issues than she was. Now i must say that contemporary members of delta who are many and fierce say they march wherever they wanted. Photos dont survive because the white photographers are not taking pictures of the black sororities. So these things get reinforced to look for proof then there isnt proof because nobody was capturing the images of black marchers at the time because that was not the image they wanted to put forward. Before. We do know ida b wells who loosened that mentioned was a crusading journalist in chicago particularly and tight lynching wanted to march with the illinois delegation. When it was suggested black marchers segregate themselves at the back of the parade ida b wells wanted nothing to do that she stood in the crowd and jumped into the parade as illinois delegation went by that picture does exist its a terrible reproduction of a image in the middle of the illinois delegation. Any wells was an interesting case study. I think shes also many commonalities between the Suffrage Movement in the African Americans Rights Movement that was made in the early part of the 20th century like generations of activists before her commit really useful to finalities and other causes early suffragist learned a lot about organizing fundraising. And public speaking from the temperance and abolition movements. She was so uninvited by the white suffragist. Ida b wells needed to found a specifically africanamerican Suffrage Club and she founded the alpha and work specifically with black activist to pursue suffrage along with the other goals she was pursuing. Not everyones choices as Mary Church Terrell a local activists. She was one of the advisors she spoke like four or five languages just three or four masters degrees she was always beautifully dressed. She passed a lot of the status symbols of white suffragist or judgment on those grounds but she was l often the only black woman invited to different suffrage meetings. She was a little bit of a trojan horse should wear beautiful close and get in the door and set you will have to Pay Attention to the issues of black women. They are different and specific. She chose to work within the white organizations to get her message across to the women there. Obviously either of those tactics are completely accessible. We see them using those in turn. But i think for us the big lesson here is you dont always have to do as youre told. If you are an active is sometimes assigned to leave and form your own group. Sometime its to do what you want march where you want regardless of what the people in charge stadia. And that is a lesson that contemporary activists to take. I will send 2013 and the centennial of 1913 severance is a picture of that celebration centennial celebration of the 1913 march with the deltas late in the parade. I think this is not enough its a lovely its a Beautiful Image i am delighted the deltas are out there inn force. But it is not enough to just right the wrongs of history. You have to not make them again that is why we feel pretty strongly about it. Another important tactic for activists this is another one gets discussed a lot today and rebecca referenced it is the importance of recruiting allies. But not just any allies specifically in need to recruit the allies that you need to achieve yourin goal. Once the suffragist really start coalescing behind the idea of a constitutional amendment thing to remember about constitutional amendment is there and like to describe them as a legislative equivalent of doing five firemen triathlons and an low written row. Theyre unbelievably hard to pass. There is a reason why theyre only 27e of them. In the case of suffrage the allies women need our men they need mostly weitzman. The only way the 19th amendment was able to pass was with the votes of men. Member you have get two thirds of each chamber of commerce to vote for an amendment to pass. 1918 the past house of representatives the first time the firstst woman to serve in Congress Took the lead in introducing the amendment and was able tott vote for. This incredibly dramatic votes. This is where having those allies really came in. You havedr allies in the very beginning with Frederick Douglass hes one stood up would it look like Elizabeth Cady stanton revolution for women having to vote look like it was not going to pass his words were the ones that convince the rest of the people there that they should go ahead and vote for it and it passed. That is what we talk its the beginning of the Suffrage Movement thanks to that first ally Frederick Douglass. You find it then throughout the entire course but especially at the end. Once you have a vote in congress it comes down to the wire. In fact theyre worse for pro suffrage congressmen brought it. He had broken his shoulder but refused to have it set. I stayed there in great pain because he wanted to encourage essentially make the other people feel guilty getting them to votes. Frederick hicks of new york he came down to the deathbed of his wife who was an artist suffragist. He cast his vote and turn right around and goes back home. That time in 1918 at only passed by one vote. They needed every single of those allies but when it did finally pass the women who are watching up in the gallery poured into the hallway. Praising god to whom all blessings flow. With all of that excitement it failed in the senate. So i told you it was hard. Wilson who is not very much in favor but was determined to get the whole thing over with. He called a special session of the next congress and by june of 1919 t both had passed. Goes on to g say the suffragist had three fourths of the states to ratify prey that meant 36 states. That amazing ground game the national Suffrage Association thats the moderate wing again moderate become so important. Why its so useful to have radicals and moderates for a cause. Even if they do notls work together. Some of the legislators i get a lot of attention i can work with her. At first everything is going on swimmingly. States were literally racing each other to see who could get ratification in first. I was pulpwood so another star under special sign she created. Theyre coming along you have to pass in both chambers in each legislature. Many of these states immediately rejected for the record my home state of virginia does not pass the 19th amendment until 1952. The momentum starts to dry up. It ought to go far to think about theim era. As we start to have fewer and fewer options comes clear who was handpicked around the womens suffrage heads down to nashville and sets up shop workingrr the phone. Here she is at a Photo Holding something my children would never ever recognize. Things doubt there are absolute crazy. If you want to read more about it, elaine wrote a great book called the womens hour and it is a lot of fun. Down in nashville called the war of the roses. If your pro suffrage were a yellow rose of your anti suffrage you were a red rose. And tight suffragist or making a full court press to stop the 19th mm at once and for all. There are two notable courses in tennessee. One is not surprising considering all of the womens union to vote. That is the liquor lobby. The stories they tell of the state legislature stumbling directly to the hallways. Both accuse each other of starting rumors which in fact theyre both doing. The other big group is a National Association oppose womens suffrage. To which my great surprise was largely run by women despite the fact this is sort of a famous photo most the people in this photo are men. The National Association of womens suffrage was mostly run by women. These are well organized politically w savvy determent women. They may remind you a little bit and her work in the anti group. Now im back in that day some women did not think women should have anything topl do with a thepolitics because it was so dirty. Theiran husbands, their brother, their sons would vote in their best interest. Right. Others were farmers themselves. They had a different tactic. They argued if women could not vote they could infect beat nonpartisan experts and the men would be more likely to listen to their advice but heres an excerpt from a petition we found masthead filled within the 30 women. It says this amendment would immediately open a new nation to wide Suffrage Campaign in 48 states to a secure. I would give suffragist and socialist the opportunity to annoy and pester every legislature in the 90 states until a majority of the men and 36 legislatures to render their judgment and principles to the political threat. It would mean no legislature in the United States could meet without being surrounded by suffrage pickets. Finally this is the best. Ob official endorsement as a national policy. You can laugh when you read it i kind of wannacry. They really were a very well organized. The Tennessee State senate votes to ratify after some exceptionally intense lobbying. It all comeses down to the hous. The anti suffragist think they have the votes to end it all. A young 24yearold state Legislature Passed the vote. Wearing a red rose on his lapel he makes a lastminute change he votes for suffrage tennessee becomes the final state to ratify and pushed it over the line. After words he gives several reasons for changing his mind the only when anyone pays any attention to. He says he voted for because his mother wrote him a letter telling him just before the vote to cast his vote for suffrage and every good boy knows the steps to follow the advice of hisju mother. I try to tell my children this all of the time. His mom was able to work grew what was needed. That is how it became part of the constitution. It is such a dramatic story the story of suffrage. We know there are so many great books and resources in the scholarship that has come out about the centennial has been terrific to watch and learn from. We specifically chose to make our book a playbook. There were specific lessons you could take from this movement to change the world yourself. Because not only is the Movement Worth learning about because they one. They were successful. We hope we have given you a couple of lessons, tactics throughout this talk. We thank you so much for having us. Well be happy to take your questions. Youou guys are phenomenal. Thank you so muchh for telling the story with such a liveliness and energy. A couple people have asked, yes this is being recorded and yes it will be available on the capitol historical website and a couple of days. Everyone who is registered will get a note telling them when it is ready and on thege website. Well also get information about getting the book the suffrage of playbook. Which lucinda and rebecca have an arrangement because they work so hard with them their gift shop promotes the book we will have that link because the Society Works of the national nl archives on a regular basis. Trying to pull the questions. Frances willard the first woman to have a statute 50 years before any other woman. Let that christian Temperance Union i grew up because my greatgrandmother was an active member of the womens christian Temperance Union. Grew up in a house on the end of the railroad it would regale us with stories when she was very old when i got to know her. But she tells those stories. He would talk in your lessons of crafting an image, it being outrageous working inside and outside. Recognizing the flaws and building allies. Would you talk about the relationship with Frances Willard as both an experience of building an ally but also as an experience as rebecca talked about, how did that deal at the races and issues that were very much present . And what does that become for lessons for us today . What is so fascinating about Frances Willard is how effective she was at changing the dynamic of what was happening at the time. That is something we really can learn from now. The blind mistake she was making. Again i think a lot of times we look back at things people do in the past. There are one or two responses one is to say you need to understand in the context of the time. Sometimes it is supple to understand context. Youre much more likely disable it to condemn it and make sure Everybody Knows how wrong it is. What that does is let us off the hook. We cannot just they didnt know any better but we should assume we will do so much better ourselves. Its useful to look at what happened so we can see it where it might be potential be going a straight now. One of things that really happened with the womens christian Temperance Union iss again originally and they did two things that were very progressive at the start getting more and more focus on the constitutional amendment they have to get to Southern States. The effort to go and keep themselves, make themselves attractive to the women in Southern States i should say the whites of women in Southern States and the white mail legislators they are trying to influence. They do wind up throwing a black woman under the bus. The only reason why ida b wells was basically doing what today lou called data driven over 130 years ago. Theres a reason why she was awarded the pulitzer prize. Shes putting up all this information showing really deadly impacts the language and other groups like that are using. Gu how dangerous it was. It was of that day. And how they changed the views of things. And i think when she condemns and calls out willard, this is something that happens in europe. Gets lost in the debate. A lot of it is happening over in europe. Francess willard is traveling ad doing speaking tours and cares about what europeans are thinking. That is part of what influences her. It does not wind up as being as important an issue as the white suffragist in the u. S. You are looking to see do you have the group influencing integrating, are we today paying attention to what could potentially go wrong . Are we paying attention dont be so concerned with getting your goal you lose sight of what is right and what is moral. Hint that it is a difficult needle to thread when youre thinking about activist because you do have to legitimately figureor out how do you make compromises and knowing when those compromises are wrong. That sometimes a something to do. I hope that gives a little bit of ann answer. Let me just tell you we have got a couple quick, went through a lightning rod questions one is of course we have such a great audience. [laughter] you did not say. [inaudible] so let us understand that rebecca had not just your mother but your grandmother. I stand corrected and updated. We have a couple people complee different questions. You note rebecca, you had a strong in the house off representatives. Do you have any thoughts whether the page program will ever come back . Park 12, somebody does said think one of you was a page and met herself that was my brother. My brother was a page, met a page from california they dated when they were 16, they got back together in their 20s they been married for 23 years and have three spectacular children. We are sort of romantic about the page program in my family. I have no idea whether it is way to come back. Theree is a real value to it jt in the sense that as we keep getting demonized by the swamp those of us who really care about these institutions like to have opportunities to show they are worthwhile. I think thats on the Capitol Historical Society does well and it gives ordinary americans a chance to realize we are not some scary morally bankrupt group of people buried there is a real city here with the real realinstitutions that make real change. I obvious have no power over the page program i am delighted that delivered my awesome sisterinlaw to the family. There you go. The second question we probably need to make this about our last. What are the lessons from suffrage that you would apply to the conversation and the campaign for the equal rights amendment . And do you think we will see the equal rights a memo become part of the constitution . Quickly did not initially want to make a prediction about the success of the era. The biggest lesson is to figure out what your opposition is scared of. I think that the first generation of feminists were completely thrown by the opposition of other women. They did not realize there were women who felt really threatened by the era per they found their spokesperson. As lucinda said sink votes for women was morally right was not enough. You cannot just say its the right thing to do that does not sway a lot of mind youve got to figure out who opposes it and why and craft your message or change their mind there are going to people who do not change the line there people in the Suffrage Movement is that when were too stupid or fragile to handle about. They are never going to change. But, if there are people who are just scared or pushed out of their comfort zone or illinformed figure out what they are scared of and make it better. I might mention something about thehe western states and womens voting. One of the real advantages that happen there and it relates to era as it was so successful in campaigning against era was talking about all these things people thought were going to happen. And to some extent a lot of them have come true. Women are in the military. Women you do have gender neutral bathrooms and things like that. What made a difference is the Suffrage Movement as and when started voting in the west did not entirely collapse it gave an example people could look at and gosh, that seems to work. That is incremental change really does have value. Thats a lesson of the Suffrage Movement we can use today. Sometimes youre not going to get big Sweeping Change if you get the small steps and they build up. That is great. Lucinda there is one request can you turn your camera so people can see your pez dispenser . Works i will do my best youre going to see my very dirty office. This is just a fraction of the peasant that i have. [laughter] they are cheap, my kids can give them to me and they are fun. I should say maybe will end on this note ire did this year rigt the people in orange, connecticut that pec factory. Said you really ought to have a suffragist collection collector set. I suggested Susan B Anthony, lucy stone, started truth and ida bav wells. I have yet to hear back. [laughter] well, i will tell you our audience a sink they listen to several hours we promise to do this in an hour. We are so grateful you have given us your time, your talents, it has been recorded it will be on the web that website website youwill get the informao people can tell their friends to come and listen we hope youll join us next week for the Freedom Award and the tour of the library of congress. Thank you, thank you for being with us. Thank you too for joining us. Weekends on cspan2 are an intellectual feast saturday in American History tv documents american story. And o sunday book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan2 comes from these Television Companies and more including buckeye broadband. Buckeyeroadband along with these Television Companies support cspan2 as a public service. 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