Thrilled to be bringing that womens rights to the vote. Celebrating 100 years of the 19th amendment. Conversation with the Award Winning historian elaine. Weiss and secret former secretary of state, hillary roth and clinton moderated. August 26, 2020 marks 100 Year Anniversary of the 19th amendment and womens right to vote. And in and in honor of this milestone of american democracy, congress has officially designated august as National Womens suffrage. About the Womens NationalSuffrage Commission is coordinating National Sovereignty month on behalf of congress in the american people. At this history interest you please visit the commission at womens vote 100 dot or work to learn more and to engage. But for now, lets enjoy this conversation between these three brilliant women as we celebrate this in nail of womens average and pay tribute to the trail blazing suffragists who pave the way for our right to vote. Hello. Colleen thank you for that thoughtful introduction. Our labor of Congress Calling hated and i join you from the library college suffrage exhibit shall be not denied. Welcome to womens via rights for the vote celebrating 100 years of the 19th amendment. A conversation with historian elaine weiss and for me of secretary of state hillary rotem clinton. What a joy it is to be here with these two women discussing this history innocent and every year. Id like to start with some brief introductions. Elaine weiss who is joining me today for this conversation at the library of congress is an Award Winning journalist, writer and historian. As well as the author of the womens our, the great fight to win the vote which tells the story of tennessees role as the 36th and final state to ratify the 19th amendment. Its also just been put out into a Young Readers addition. Also joining us today is secretary howler hillary rotem clinton. Secretary clinton of course has a long career in Public Service and i have her 1996 book it takes a village. That really make sure that we consider young people. She was also making history in 2016 as the first woman to earn a major parties nomination for president. Shes long been a champion of women suffrage history and is working with elaine as an executive producer on the television of adaptation of the womens hour. So secretary clinton and elaine lets get started. So to start us off, this is a question for both of you. Womens fight for the vote was the longest political and social movement in American History. So why isnt the story of womens suffrage more widely taught . Secretary clinton . And thanks so much karla. Delighted to be here with you and elaine to talk about this. I think your question really goes to the heart. One of the challenges that we have faced that suffrage history was considered at best an add on to real American History. It was not given the respect and the academy. It was not the subject of curriculum development. I remember very little in my Public School years of learning about anything having to do with the Suffrage Movement other than eventually women were given as he would say, the right to vote. So i think that this 100th anniversary, what youve done with the exhibit at the library, the commissions work, obviously great scholarship like a lions book is filling a vacuum because we did not know enough about the history and how it links with a continuing struggle in america to form a more Perfect Union and try, despite all the setbacks in obstacles, to keep moving towards true equality for everyone. And elaine, was it difficult with the research because of the secretary says, i know certainly wasnt part of my experience in great school at all . Well thats absolutely true. Its not been taught very deeply in our curriculum but its always been wonderful scholarship. Just hasnt filtered down which was why i decided to write the book. Theres wonderful scholarship and of course theres wonderful prime rate documents. Theres the collection in the library of congress for me in the Tennessee State archives at the library. Theres wonderful rich documentation of the seven decade movement and yet it has not filtered down to public awareness. So that was one of the things that i wanted to do, i wanted to take those primary documents to tell the story so richly and the scholarly work thats been done and synthesize into a story would intrigue a modern reader. It has so many of the things that were still grappling with today so im very hopeful that Going Forward in this year there have been wonderful new suffrage books. We werent surrounded by an wonderful new additions to tell the story from different angles. I think thats one of the wonderful things about the centennial, that it is fostering this interest, both in scholarship and in Popular Culture of looking at this Important Movement and learning the lessons that it teaches. Secretary clinton, you serve this first lady, a senator, secretary of state and the womens Suffrage Movement, did it have anything in terms of informing your journey . Wearing what you wore . That was duly noted. Yes indeed carla. You know, when you come to grips with how hard it was for women to first get included in the constitution to be able to vote and then how much more difficult it was to enforce that right, especially for black women, native american women who were left out because of the way that the amendment was ignored and how it was part of the continuing efforts in many places to deny black people and other minorities the right to vote. I really see what elaine just said as an important point. What happened 100 years ago is still relevant today. I certainly as first lady, a senator, a secretary of state, and democratic nominee in 2016 fought often about how the women who started the Suffrage Movement, you know women like sojourner truth, like Elizabeth Katie stanton, like susan bee anthony. These women did not love to see the result of all their labor. And sometimes you have to understand here in the race of history. Youre handing off the baton the youve taken from someone else. I think there is an enormous amount of energy right now at this moment in our history to write wrongs, to bring about a reckoning with racism, sexism, a lot of the challenges that unfortunately we still live with. That was certainly very present in my mind during the last years and the early suffragists encouraged and inspired me. Did you feel that as you stood there you knew you were carrying on a legacy . I did. Very much carla. I felt like it to be in a long time since we got the vote, its been a really long time since any are two Major Political parties and even considered a woman even for the present Vice President ial ticket and then obviously being nominated, a felt like i was standing in a great river of history. I felt so privileged and honored to play that role, to be there at that moment, to try to link our past, present and future. Thats why i get so much encouragement and im truly optimistic about this time because young people seem so energize and committed to trying to do better. Really create more opportunity to try to bring everyone into the american experiment. I was incredibly conscious of it and remains so today because the work continues, it is by no means done. Thats why elaine your book for Young Readers, making that available to the ten, and 11 year olds, whats so powerful is that you give them the history, you show them. Then you give him a call to action. A ten year old can pick up your book and you tell them why. Its because activism isnt just a particular time in your life i think im wanting to show through the story of this decades Long Movement which took on its own momentum through three generations of women. And of course went on for another 40 years for black women and almost as long for asian women and native american women. I wanted to show that sometimes the seeds are planted very young so i tell the story, several of the leading suffrage is who really become conscious of of injustice when a young girls when their children. They see their mothers not able to vote or they see that their fathers who are judges cannot protect women because the laws are written in such a way that they have very few legal rights in the 19th century. I wanted to show that the passion for social justice or any number of passionate young people can recognize because they have a very keen sense of what is justin what is not, i think its really important to realize that what they can feel that and then they will have the tools and the knowledge, even as a very young adult to bring that passion into the world and begin creating change. The Suffrage Movement involved protests and demonstration and also very sophisticated political strategy. I think thats important the young people realize that its gonna take all of that. Youre gonna bring a powerful story lane and secretary to the screen and Television Series by Stephen Spielbergs production company. Secretary, hear the executive producer so elena have to ask you this. What did you feel as an author when you got that call . Well, i was a dream of a lifetime. Kind of knows dreamed of lifetime kind of a moment. A very special moment. For me, it was the idea that Hillary Clinton had read my book. I think that was the most powerful part of it. And then how deeply she understood the power of the story. And wanting to make the story available to the largest audience. We agreed, we need to tell the story because its meaningful not just in our history but how we go forward and how we learn from this experience of having to fight for half of the nation to get the vote. So the idea of partnering together on this has been one of the most spectacular experiences. Were working hard to adapt this into something that young people will be interested in watching. I think its been a great, wonderful rollercoaster experience for both of us. Were not familiar with the ways of hollywood and were learning. Would you agree . Have agree 100 . You know carl, ive never done that before. Ive read a lot of books that inspired me and ive written letters to authors to thank them for bringing the book alive but i finished lanes booked a womans hour and i was just stunned by number one the beauty of her riding and storytelling and what a compelling dramatic story it was that final effort in tennessee to get the final state needed to ratify the amendment. I have to confess, i vaguely knew the tennessee was the last eight and i had come across ending of the story where the young legislators changes his vote because of a note he gets from his mother. But i had no idea real suite of this historic moment in American History so i did caller and i said you have to bring this to a larger audience. Youve got to make sure that especially young people, particularly young women understand, this was hanging by a thread and then all these powerful interests, the rail world countries, the alcohol industry. A lot of these attitudes about womens place being in the home, the women who were against it. Theres so much of this that is still swirling around in our politics. So i was thrilled when spielberg and his team said they were interested and as a lane said, its a challenge. More so because of the pandemic. Taking a historical work like the womans our which has so much drama already but, making it accessible to this generation. I am really in awe of al ains patients. She has done a great guide for the hollywood interests and understanding the significance of the story. Part of that drama and i as a woman of color, i just want to get this quote. When the National Museum of American History and culture opened in the dedication president george w. Bush said, a great nation does not hide its near history, it faces its flaws and correct them. That story of race and prejudice in the Suffrage Movement is very compelling. Secretary clinton can you share your thoughts on the . He said before the good in the bad in this movement. I think we are coming to understand that every human being has strengths and weaknesses. Have a human being has strengths real moments of greatness, sadly moments of departure from that, flaws that go with a process of being a human being especially one in the public stage. So we take very seriously the challenges that were within the Suffrage Movement. Starting after the civil war, because originally carla as you know so well, suffrage and abolition were kind of married together. The grim key sisters were preaching for abolition of slavery but also speaking on behalf of womens rights. A great example of that. Both susan be Anthony Kitty stand, so many of the pioneers coming out of the senate to false declaration of sentiments and 1848, they were joined by frederick douglass. So there was a real marriage, effort and belief, conviction, commitments between the abolitionists and the Suffrage Movement. After the civil war, when the constitution was amended to give black men the right to vote, that began a rupture between the two movements. I have tried to understand it from the perspective of everyone involved. I do understand some of the challenges that i think both black and white women tried to deal with. They were sometimes successful are coming together and recommitting themselves to the struggle, but even up to the very end when the pressure was on congress and woodrow rupe wilson who actually passed the amendment, you see the calculations of an alice paul or an ida b. Wells, mary charge kara two white suffragists and black suffragists trying to figure out, how do we deal with both sex and race . How do we deal with the prejudices that affect both women and black people and particularly black women . Its a very important part of the story of suffrage. Its a very important lesson to i think people in the president , especially young people Going Forward. You cant sacrifice any part of your value system. You have to stay firm, you are against racism and you are against sexism. You want to move everybody forward and id love to hear a lame talk about that because she captures the tension in the womens our and how block suffragists and nashville and tennessee joined forces. I think in a very realistic and pragmatic way with the white suffragists but they also knew that their full rights were not being recognized at that time. Elaine, you captured it. Well, absolutely. We see this happen all the time. We suing it today. Where the powers that be looked at disenfranchised groups they pit to disenfranchise groups against one another. Only one of you can be a franchise, only one of you are going to get the legislation that you need to protect yourself. And we see this happen over and over again in the Suffrage Movement. Again, learning the lessons of what went wrong, of the attitudes that hindered universals suffrage. All citizens having the right to vote. I think its important as telling the story of the way the suffragists succeeded. I try to do that and i do also bring up this alliance that happened in nashville of black suffragists and white suffragists working together for ratification because black women were working in every city, in every town in america understanding how important the vote. Was understanding and south of jim crow laws were going to impedey ate their ability to exercise the 19th amendment. The great disappointment is that the suffragists to not insist that the 19th amendment be enforced and congress refuses to enforce it Going Forward after 1920. Its left to the jim crow laws propagated by racist legislators in the southern states. So this idea the you can have constitutional law, but if its not enforced, if the public will is not Strong Enough to force politicians to fall through on it, then legislation, even constitutional amendments are not as meaningful or as powerful as they should be. So thats a really important lesson for today, and its also a lesson that leaving aside your colleagues, your sisters who you know are going to have trouble exercising this right you have just acquired, that you just fought for and one in the 19th amendment is going to weaken american democracy. If youre not taking that next vital step. Thats an important thing for us to remember today. And in the congress and our state legislators, in our city municipal government bodies trying to right some wrongs, trying to make a more equal and a more Perfect Union. We have to remember that as secretary clinton put so well, you cant leave your ideals behind for political expediency. That said, there are forces that are going to try to make you those moral compromises and standing up to that is very important but difficult. And secretary, the way a lane just put it. There is hope and looking at history. Whats that something the problem made you look made you look its something akin to a broader audience cars looking at the history, it takes everyone so is that part of what you felt . Absolutely. You know carla the library of congress as a repository of history. You preside over in effect the real core of peoples memories, their struggles, their efforts and its such an important job that you have at the library and youre taking it out of the library. Well similarly, i think we have to take history not only into our schools but into the media, into social media, and with the streets where people have to see as clearly as possible what came before so that they can learn those lessons. Elaine just said something that i think is so important and i alluded to it earlier. The relay race of hist