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 WomensSuffrage 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 WomanSuffrage 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