And how women gained the right to vote. He she is the author of suffragits the 19th amendment. Im the president of the White House Historical association. Its my privilege to welcome you, many of you back to historic deindica historic Decatur House and another one of our wonderful lectures. Tonight is one of the annual National Heritage lectures that we do in partnership with the u. S. Capitol Historical Society and the u. S. Supreme court Historical Society. We have our wonderful colleagues from both here tonight and my great friend jane campbell, the new president of the capitol Historical Society. And like to welcome her tonight. On june 4th, 1919, the 19th amendment was passed and sent to the states for ratification. The sufferagists used the white house as a backdrop to challenge inequity and bring attention to the cause and tonight we look forward to hearing more about their successful efforts to secure womens rights to vote. Before i introduce our speaker, i have a couple of other introductions and things id like to share. First of all, we have guests from Smith College here tonight. The Washington Club of Smith College. Stand up. Stand up for washington. The Smith College crowd. Thats great. Theyre our special guests tonight. Were honored to have them. Id also like to tell you a little bit about the White House Historical association and for those who have been with us before, you know i love to talk about our wonderful mission that was begun in many 1961 by first Lady Jacqueline kennedy and remember she was only 31 years old when her husband was inaugurated president of the United States. But at that young age, she had the vision and the foresight to know that what she and president kennedy needed then others would need over the course of time and that would be to have a private partner. Nonprivate, we accept no government funding whatsoever. But all of the resource wez raise go to our education programs, to teach and tell the stories of white house history going back to 1792 and tonight is a part of that education outreach program. We also provide resources directly to the white house to maintain the Museum Standard of the state floor and the ground floor and the nonpublic historic rooms that mrs. Kennedy envisioned maintaining and we have done that with every president and first lady since the kennedys and were honored to do so. Tonight our format will be i will introduce our wonderful speaker. And then following her remarks ann compton who you know as a wonderful friend of ours and a wonderful friend of yours will come up and have an interview session and dont worry, this podium is going to be removed and set aside so all of can you have an unobstructed view of their conversation. Ann is very supportive of us as an organization and she is of many things here in washington, you know her best as a former reporter and white house correspondent. She was the first woman assigned to cover the white house for network television. She worked for abc news for 41 years, retiring in 2014. You really havent retired kpleemly. Youre very involved in active and engaged in things. I know with us, with the Miller Center and many other endeavors. The her career spans seven president s, ten president ial campaigns. She traveled to all 50 states, six continents, and an interesting of the many, many interesting anecdotes and stories about anns years in covering the white house and the president is the compelling story of her being with president bush, george w. Bush on september 11th, 2001 as the only broadcast reporter that traveled around the country with him on that day. And will soon be coming up on 20 years, anniversary of that occasion. And want to do Something Special to talk about the white house on 9 11. So we thank ann for her friendship and for being with us to take this series of lectures forward. Well have another one in september on the role of pat nixon in the white house. This is the 50th anniversary of the nixons coming into the presidency and mrs. Nifxon becoming first lady. She is an unharolded first lady with her legacy with the white house and what she contributed in terms of artifacts. Really american artifacts to the american collection and well be celebrating that with a lecture in september. And then in october, very exciting news. Our dear friend has a brand new book that is going to be out in october. And for the First Time Ever, hes finally unlocking his recipe box and sharing the recipes from his service to five american president s from jimmy carter to george w. Bush and his wonderful confections that he created as executive white house pastry chef for those many years. Jennifer pickens is an author of White House Christmas is going to have a new book out on ceremonies at the white house and so well have a conversation with the chef and Jennifer Pickens at our event in october. So stay tuned for news on both of those occasions. And now for our prime event, very fortunate and in for a treat tonight to talk about this very important and timely happening in our nations history and on the centennial of this important historic occasion. We have Rebecca Boggs roberts here as our speaker. And rebecca has been, i understand, many things in her life and her career and not limited to just these. Shes been a journalist, a producer, shes been a tour guide. Shes been a forensic anthropologist. Shes been an event planner. Shes been a political consultant. Shes been a jazz singer. Shes been a radio talk show host. And currently, she is curator of programming for planet word, a museum set to open in 2020. Shes also found time to be the mom to two twin boys and wife and a great keeper of the family in line and on top of that, all of that, shes an author. She has written a wonderful book on the subject we are here to learn about tonight. And this part of American History and white house history. So with that, ill have rebecca come up and then well remove the podium and rebecca and ann can have a conversation at the end. Youre being invited to pose your questions as w well. Thank you all so much for having me. Thank you, stewart. Just to set the record straight, i actually have three sons, no the to brag. But the twins have a little brother. So the sufferage Movement Really dates from seneca falls in 1848 and then to ratification in the 19th amendment in 1920. In the interest of brevity and focus, im not going to cover all 72 years. In fact, im going to ignore the 19th century and in account fa the first decade of the 20th century as well and really focus on the final push for the amendment. But if you have any questions about other parts of the movement, other players in the movement, ill be more than happy to answer them when we go to q a. I like to start with this image of the program from the 1913 sufferage march down pennsylvania avenue. It is the only image in color. The great thing about 20th century history is all the photographs but theyre black and white. And this original Program Shows you how extraordinarily colorful everything was in this march. All the contemporary accounts talk about that as well. Also the colors are really deliberate. In fact, almost everything in the sufferage movement is really deliberate. The not only do these colors represent things but purple is a very rich saturated color. Gold, less so. White, of course, is the absence of color. These things show up really well in black and white photographs. Thats all on purpose. And also if you want to see the artifacts of the movement in all their beautiful colorful glory, the Belmont House capitol hill on the senate side, constitution second has all of the original banners. But also because were in this centennial year, there are a bunch of terrific exhibits going on. There is one opening soon at the smithsonian. So go out and see all the artifacts in their glory. Were lucky enough to be in the town where they are curated. So this march, the 1913 march was the first civil rights march. It there had been parade down pennsylvania avenue. But this idea of taking a cause to the core of federal washington was alice pauls idea. And it started the capitol at the legislative branch and marched all the way down pennsylvania avenue to the white house to the executive branch. And that was absolutely symbolic. And it was the day before Woodrow Wilsons inauguration. So if that sounds familiar, the same weekend as the inauguration of a president they hadnt voted for in order to remuind him tha he ignored womens voices from the parm of his administration, those parallels are very, very strong. So the march let me see if this is advancing. I, of course, dont have my glasses on. So if its not on i dont have any way of knowing that. So this is obviously the capitol end of pennsylvania avenue. Pennsylvania avenue is a really, really broad street. Was then, is now. And so they were able to plan this really grand procession, all of these floats, marching bands, working women marched by profession and matching outfits. This is the harold of the parade and the idea was she would get up on her horse at the beginning way down on the capitol end of pennsylvania avenue and a bugler would sound that the parade had begun. And a few blocks later that bugle willer would be picked by another bugler to the Treasury Department on 15th street which has that big marble plaza out front. We get to the tablot in a mo. But you can see how this is all, you know, the horses are all spaced perfectly. They all have fabulous hats on. This is all very, very, very thoroughly planned. Just behind jane pearlson was mullholland on her horse. You saw that at the state of the union when the women members of congress chose to wear white this image showed up a lot. I also love this image because this shows you what a great publicist alice paul was. She was a labor lawyer. She was a really accomplished professional. But all of the, you know, breathlessly sexist press of the day never failed to talk about how pretty she was. They called her the most beautiful sufferagist. And her reaction was, you know what . If youre going to talk about how pretty she is im going to put her in a white dress and white horse and put a star on her head and then maybe youll take hir picture and well get coverage out of it. So this image comes back in sufferage lure. But that was her on her horse. The working women as i said marched by profession. These are the nurses. The teachers marched together. The writers marched together. They purposely stained costumes with ink. College women marched by alma mater. I am certain there were smith women there. We have pictures from some of the other seven sister schools. I looked for smith. I couldnt find them. And the whole idea was that this grand procession would end at 15th street at the Treasury Department where this tablot would go on. So it was a fascinating art form that involves some sort of tortured allegory where people would pose and this is columbia summoning the virtues. That is colombia there in the armor. The virtues were like peace and prosperity and it involved children and togas and live doves. It was a whole thing. It had very little to do with sufferage. Boy did it look great in pictures. This is still the cover of my book 100 years later. And again, absolutely strategically planned to be that way. There was a grandstand in front of treasury set up for the inaugural parade set for the next day. And alice paul did get permission for her vips to sit there. So there was a Live Audience for this tablot. That was not the main audience. The idea was this would be published in newspapers all around the country the next day. There are the children in togas. It was march 3rd. A little chilly in early march in washington. The children were barefoot on the marble steps. But the parade begins. Bugle sounds. The tablot gets the signal to start. They start. They perform their beautiful tablot and then they stand there and in dignified silence. The parade would profess in front of them, fold in the back of the parade. And they would perform and triumph. Where the tableau would perform again in triumph to a rousing applause from the audience and it would be a great day. So the tableau goes ahead and there is no parade. And the tableau finishes and theyre maintaining their poses, no parade. They have no way of knowing where the parade is, why it is held up. It is getting a little cold up there on the treasury and finally they go into the Treasury Department and why hasnt it come down pennsylvania avenue. Thats why. So for orientation, were standing this picture is taken at about 12th street, where Freedom Plaza is now, that tower that dominated now, the trump hotel and looking back towards the capitol. It is a sixlane road with really broadside walks and it was absolutely shoulder to shoulder crowded. And i dont know how much detail you could see, there is a lot of hats in that picture. It was all men. They werent there for the su suffrage parade. It was a side show and they were very poorly behaved. They tripped the woman and spit on them and yelled names. The police did nothing to stop them, in some cases the police joined in the spitting and the tripping and the name calling. And you cant get a parade through that crowd. Alice paul realized that her perfectly planned parade was about to go away. And she drove a car up and down the parade route to try to sort of zigzag through the crude to get them back up and it didnt work at all. The crowd poured back in behind her as soon as the car went by. Finally they literally called in c cavalry and they rode their horses into the crowd enough so the parade could fight their way down. So instead of the tableau performing at d. A. R. Hall in triumph, all of the women show up at d. A. R. Hall, filthy, furious, cold, angry, horrified that this massive crowd of these jerky men have completely ruined what should have been this meticulously planned triumphant day. Alice paul realized it is the best thing that ever could have happened. That a lovely parade would be in the news for a day and the near riot would keep the Suffrage Movement in the news for weeks. That is what happened. There was a congressional hearing, the police chief almost lost his job. And again to notice how good the women were at manipulating the press. So not entirely sure what i should be pointing this at in order to make it change. Over here. Okay. So this is the Washington Post the next day. And i love these headlines. The language is so spectacular. If you could read it. This headline should be Woodrow Wilson inaugurated the 28th president. Instead wilson gets half and the other column says womens beauty grace and art bewilder the capitol, miles of fluttering femininity present entrancing suffrage appeal and there is a photo of the tableau. So this is not a particularly well planted story from the National Womens party. This is how the men covered the parade without any guidance from the women. So it all is talking about how pretty it all was and, oh, by the way there was some bad behavior. This is a much better example, the Chicago Daily tribune. So again Woodrow Wilson not the headline. This column here mobs of capital defy police and hoodlums hurl caustic remarks at the marchers and this paragraph down here the lead has 17 superlatives and the biggest crowd, the widest street, the angriest mob, the most beautiful girls. All through. And it is terrific press. But also look at the editorial cartoon. There is Little Pencil neck Woodrow Wilson thinking he gets the spotlight on the day of the inauguration, but tada, there is the suffragist sort of bright eyed literally stealing the spotlight from him. So the 1913 march was sort of the turning point for the final push to actually get the amendment through congress. And in addition to being a great publicity ploy, it was a reintduction of the federal amendment into the strategy. So ill race through a little bit of political history. Feel free to ask questions later because im going to go real fast. The original suffragists and you know their name, Elizabeth Katie stanton, lucy mot, sousy stone, they were abolitionists and they came to suffragist because they wanted on ol is done without the vote. There were major womens rights advocates across the board. When after the civil war the reconstruction amendments were passed and they enfranchised black men but no women. There were people like lucy stone and Julia Ward Howe said were abolitionist and well take this and well fight for women next and there were people like Elizabeth Katie hanson and susan b. Anthony who said if we dont get this now and we cant support the 15th amendment if it doesnt include women. So it was a huge split. And they started tearing formed competing organizations and tore each other down in the press. But also they continued on two separate avenues for getting passed. With the stanton and Anthony Fashion pushing the federal amendment and the stone howe blackwell faction pushing a state by state strategy. Because the reconstruction amendments had been hailed as former overreach by the former confederacy so this was considered safer. It is not crazy to go state by state. If enough states pass suffrage you have more men supporting it that it becomes inevitable. The amendment has languished just after the civil war. So the 1913 march on the white horse, there was a big old banner that said we demand a constitutional amendmenten franchising the women of this country and that is