Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Suffrage Movement And The Media 20240712

The National Archives hosted the event in conjunction with their centennial exhibit, rightfully hers. American women and the vote. Tonights discussion is part of a series of programs related to our recently opened exhibit, rightfully herself. American women and the vote. Rightfully hers commemorates the anniversary and tells of womens struggles for Voting Rights towards equal citizenship, explores how women across the spectrum of race, ethnicity and class advanced the cause of suffrage and follows struggles for Voting Rights beyond 1920. The decadeslong fight for the vote in the 19th and early 20th century engaged large numbers of women in the political process. A critical part of that campaign was getting their message out to the nation and shifting Public Opinion to support their cause. Tonight well learn about the Suffrage Movement the communication machine and how it contributed to the movements success. To introduce our panelists id like to welcome nancy tate to the stage. Since 2015 she has served as the cochair of the 2020 womens Vote Centennial Initiative and also is on the board of the turning point suffrages memorial. From 2000 to 2015 she served as executive director of the legal league of womens voters. Previously she was chief operating officer of the National Academy of Public Administration and also served under the department of energy, department of education and the office of economic opportunity. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome nancy tate. [ applause ] well, thank you. Its so wonderful to be here at the National Archives especially in light of their new exhibit that hes just mentioned. Rightfully hers. Ive just seen it and encourage any of you who have not seen it yet to be sure to make a point of doing so. Well, as he mentioned, i am nancy tate. I am the cochair of the 2020 womens Vote Centennial Initiative and i am the former executive director of the league of women voters of the united states. The league is one of the cofounders of the womens Vote Centennial Initiative, which is an information sharing collaboration of womens organizations and scholars around the country. Our goal, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment in 2020, and to shed light on the powerful but little known history of the 72year struggle to win that constitutional right to vote. The league was founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman kat, leader of the largest suffrage organization. The National American womens suffrage association. So 2020 is also the 100th anniversary of the league and we will be celebrating that across the country in our nearly 800 state and local leagues. But just a little bit more about wvci, which is our acronym, we do two main sets of things. One is working to establish a network around the country of interested organizations and individuals who would like to know more about the centennial, because we want to promote efforts to learn about this important aspect of American History, and to commemorate it and commemorate the full story of that struggle. Here in the d. C. Area, we sponsor educational events like this one, and we coordinate with exhibits, starting to be held as this one is at the various museums and libraries around the city. So tonight this program is part of our women and the vote symposium series. This is the third one that we have done in collaboration with the National Archives and aim to have several more here in 2019 and 2020. Each of these will focus on different and probably not wellknown aspects of the overall Suffrage Movement and its struggle and will highlight points of relevance to contemporary issues. The 72year fight for womens suffrage is a powerful historical story. It can be used to enhance our understanding of our own world and how to navigate it. You can learn more about wvci and the resources we are making available by following us on facebook, twitter and instagram using the at2020centennial. But now im pleased to introduce tonights panel. We have tamara keith our moderator and who is a White House Correspondent and part of our Politics Team of the pbs newshour. Shes going to lead a conversation with betsy griffith, author of in her own right a book about suffrages with Elizabeth Cady stanton. Linda lumsden author of the book rampant women suffrages and right of assembly and rebecca roberts, suffrages in washington, d. C. , the 1913 pap raid and the fight for the vote. So, panel, and tamara, i turn it over to you. [ applause ] thank you, everyone, for being here, and thank you for the panel for being here. I am going to let you carry all of the heavy weight on this. But you know, we know how the story ends. This story ends with the 19th amendment to the constitution being ratified and we all get to vote. So the question that im hoping we can cover tonight is, how we got here. And how we got to the end of that story in 1920, starting, though, in the 1900s, because its a long story. So linda, i think that you have, at least a bit of an overview you can give us and maybe also you can start at the very beginning, or the early part of the century. Okay, yeah. And ill condense it, because it is a long story, but basically i would saythank you so much for having me. When talking about the Suffrage Movement so much is about communication and targeting, and very simply, what really was an impetus for women to vote in the 72year struggle was in the 20th century when women took to the streets and basically emergence of public women in the united states, and i know in the washington, washington, everybodys familiar with the famous 1913 parade down pennsylvania avenue, mobbed by a bunch of men, but actually you know, women had first started assembling in the 19th century. A big deal, threatening for women to even get together in conventions to share ideas and get a sense of community. From that, they moved on in the 20th century to soap boxing. This is a big deal, because women would claim a little bit of the public turf. Traditionally, male territory had been the public sphere. Women had been relegated to the domestic sphere basically cut them out of the political process. I would say women taking to that first soap box was really a big deal. Also, too, women started to petition going back to the abolition movement, mid1800s. A big deal for a woman who was supposed to be happy to just be in her house to go outside that house and down the street and knock on somebodys door and ask them to sign a petition. And that was a political act not only for that solicitor, but also, too, for that woman who signed that petition. Also started raising consciousness about their own oh oppression in their lives. So by if time we get to 1910, women take one more step and start to parade. The first real suffrage i know of in new york 1908 where a woman named maude malone, influenced by the british suffrages organized a group of i think six women to march down the street, but 1,000 people follow them. Because its a big deal. Its so unusual for women to take to the streets and think of all the negative association that goes, that go with that. Again, women are going to get bolder. The annual fifth avenue parade in new york city a huge event. First National Suffrage parade, quite the spectacle. Rest interesting, and suffrages creates this their own press with main street media. Thats an impetus for, really helped women were emerge in the public sphere, and thats going to change them both. Change womens roles and change our concept of what the public sphere is. Betsy . The petitions that linda is referring to are actually here in the archives among the many other treasures here. No one would have known Elizabeth Cady stanton and lecresha motte and others had the meeting middle of july 1848 in seneca falls if the telegraph wire wasnt recently strung along the erie canal. Words got out women and men voted on 171 11 resolutions women voted people were outraged. Were it not for the telegraph line no one would have known but the seneca falls newspaper. They were corresponding. Elizabeth constantly righting to her chum susan b. Anthony, come stir the pudding, i need to convene a convention by correspondents. Then fortunately typewriters invested. Mimeograph machines invented and relationships with the newspaper or creating your own. Elizabeth Katie Stanton and susan b. Anthony created a newspaper called the revolution in 1870, failed almost immediately refusing to take advertisements from quack medicines. Thought they murdered women and refused advertising revenue and they failed. In contrast, lucy stone with her womens journal publishing it. Another faction of the suffrage its, publishes it until 1935. But i want to start by actually challenging the premise of the panel. Perfect. Power, media and the movement. I think media made the movement, but power, the power of women voting, made the amendment, and they are two, they are used in two different ways in the Suffrage Movement. Media is represented by alice paul, third youngest generation of suffrages and power represented by Carrie Chapman kat who could count votes and lobby and influence the president. I also think that lindas point about marching in the streets taking this little, little bits of the public sphere and then bigger bits of the public sphere women counted on. Outrage worked for them and why it was newsworthy. Why they all wore white to look great in pictures. Why one of the pictures just went by the pageant on the treasury steps during the 1913 march. This one. Isnt that a great picture . So the treasury then as now a big, broad marble plaza in front and a whole vaguely tortured allegory. Columbia summoning the virtues, but boy, does it look great on the cover of the newspaper. I know it does on mine. Still the cover of my book 100 years later. All of those considerations about, you know, what theyre doing is a little bit transgressive and a little shocking. That makes it newsworthy. They knew that the public sphere was not theirs to own. One thing that was remarkable in reading about this period, at some point they decided to picket or protest outside of the white house. Yet this was, like, really controversial. Uhhuh. That go there right now. There will be pictures. Right. Nuclear people basically live there. They do. Feel free to remind them. So the idea that this was controversial and yet this was a way that they got attention. Yeah. Virtually two levels. Excuse me. Alice paul, expert in public tis. Really, really was. Beginning, expert in Public Relations before the term was found. These women helped create the whole field pnd also, too, first started picketing the white house, werent quite at war and they were tolerated and they were not silenced. But once we declared war four months later, that is when it enraged the public, and they were considered traitors, scum of the earth. Sailors roaming around in washington, d. C. , get drunk and they attacked them. Who do you think got in trouble . The women did. They were sent off to jail. That created a whole other level they leaned in. Right . I mean, there was to borrow a phrase. That whole debate. Do we keep picketing the white house during war time . Criticizing your president during wartime, people think its treasonous. Right . Suddenly it becomes a much bolder statement. Not only keep the pickets up, got much more pointed. You guys cant read this, but this is, first of all what would these women do with social media . Right . This is a tweet. Its two tweets but its this very directly critical message, directed to the russian envoys about, tell the president that hes the biggest challenge to american liberty. One i dont know if we have a picture. The Kaiser Wilson banner . There we go. Kaiser wilson. Take the beam out of your own eye. Right . These women were not backing down from the idea the that wartime was a time which they might lose sympathy. Yes. But they were not in fact breaking laws when arrested arrested for something completely made up. Something called obstructing the traffic on the sidewalk, which is not a thing. I want you to talk about how they made the most out of being arrested. Well, first of all, just for women to picket they chose women volunteered in droves until the arrests began. And then black women like mary trish b. Terrell and her daughter and working women and mothers stopped picketing when the arrests got serious, because they couldnt interrupt their lives in that with. But from january until april, really january until inauguration, the first batch of picketing. 1917. March was inauguration at that time. It was just so shocking that women would hold picket signs no matter how well dressed and put together and matronly, college delegations, whatever it was. That ay loan was shocking to people. President walk out of the white house, tip his hat, offer coffee. They ignored him. Then when they start ramping up, deciding they will protest during the war, they actually get pushed off the headlines. Theyre out of the news until june, when the russian picket goes up. And then they decide they cant picket every day. The tensions have gotten too great. So they wait until the fourth of july and carry not only their picket signs but an American Flag. Thinking, whos going to attack the American Flag . Then they, alice actually in the hospital at Johns Hopkins and lucy burns, she met in a jail in london, both arrested for picketing, takes over and shes even bolder. Shes the one who comes up with the Kaiser Wilson picket. But they are shrewd enough to begin to quote the president s words. So the judge cannot charge them with sedition. They can only be charged with obstructing traffic, and for that, because they are not caving, the judge hass to keep adding to the sentence. Original sentence threeday jail term or 25 fine. And the women in a pattern that civil rights marchers would follow said, well fill the jails. So these women are going to jail and people are shocked, that the government would put women in jail. And then the government ends up putting women in jails for one month and two months and alice for seven months. Alice paul and rose winslow, the only two to be force fed because alice they go on hunger strikes. Hunger strike but because theyre protesting they are political prisoners. Ought not to be there and protest a hunger strike. First americans to ask for prisoner status. Amazing. They had to sneak the news out to their friends through the jail bars, throwing rocks out the window, because nobody knew what was happening inside the jail. Part of the communication strategy was getting the news out, and alice got kind of hunger striking, because she probably would not have preferred to having been made so ill previously, but once it got out, she couldnt stop because the newspapers knew about it. The only thing she had to read oxford book english verse and somehow scribbled a note on there to announce her compatriots outside, make sure you use this. Makes excellent ammunition. Somehow smuggled that out. They did. They did. Not sure thats true. I heard all five daily newspapers delivered to the jail and had her stenographer come once a week to take her correspondence. Not sure before put in writes her mother thats its plan. Maybe just trying to reassure her mother. So was declaring themselves political prisoners, did that help the movement, or no . Just did going to jail help the movement . It was take be entirely from the quaker citizens. Emily pinker sent her daughters, more radical wing of the british Suffrage Movement and ultimately alice paul called radical and they had nothing on the radical british movement. Tried to set fire to the prime ministers house, smack policemen in the face, i mean, yeah. And the american women standing outside the standing on a corner with a sign. Always peaceful. Yeah, that was the strategy if you get arrested, demand political prisoner status. If they refuse go on a hunger strike. Thats borrowed from her. I think alice paul, agree she was a brilliant strategist and pr person and managed to turn amazing situations to her advantage, but i think she had a little bit of a blind spot there where she would follow pankhearst examples and not think through whether or not they translated to an american system. For instance, 1915 and 1916, tried power and party strategy, campaigned even against prosuffrage parties, worked better in parliamentary not a representative democracy. The political prisoner thing was a little bit similar. That she, a tactic worked elsewhere and didnt think it through. And rebeccas put her finger on the major weakness of alice paul. Political naive in an american system. She imported the outdoor tactics but a parliamentary plan beginning as early as immediately after the march when the democrats took over or the senate. Wants to hold democrats in power. Wilson won the presidency, democrats taken over the house and senate, but there was bipartisan opposition. Mostly southern democrats, and bipartisan support. Carrie chapman kat refers to pauls strategy stew stupendously stupid. They wouldnt have had to dream each other up if they didnt have each other. Kat unbelievable lobbyist, organizer. This state needed a referendum and that passed by two legislatures had all that done but never bold enough to picket the white house. You know . Didnt want to picket the white house, trying to woo wilson. Right. Wanted to be considered, oh, that night unthreatening mrs. Kat. Ill meet with her. Shes not crazy like alice paul. An inside and outside game . You need an extreme to make the moderate look more moderate. Perfect Good Cop Bad Cop relationship. Easier for wilson to deal with kat because she looked so much better, much larger more conservative organization, looked more patriotic than alice pauls radicals. Three generations of suffrages. Stanton, lucy stone, Carrie Chapman kat and anne hourpd and alice and lucy. A sort of motherdaughter competition. Both kat and paul were dynamic, charismatic, very attractive powerful speakers whose followers would have followed them off a cliff to the white house to tennessee for the ratification, but what kat had and what wins suffrage is women getting the vote from all of the referendums, all of the state legislatures is that you wouldnt have gotten a vote if it had not only been paul and the protests. Had you to have cat and could not have won the vote without paul. Also i once sorry. Go ahead. Once it went to the states for ratification, the fact kat had all state level organizations was vital. Yes. So i was hoping we could sort of tease that out a little bit. In terms of the political structure of how this worked, they were out in the states trying to build movements in the states or trying to get statelevel things passed. And then there was also the national movement. That so very briefly, a long, painful history. When the 15th amendment was passed and it enfranchised black men and no women a huge split in the Suffrage Movement. People like lucy stone and Julia Ward Howe who said were abolitionists take the amendment as written and fight for women next. People like Stanton Anthony said we accept the 15th amendment without women a whole generation before women get to vote and cant accept it now. It split. Split into not only rival groups but the stonehowe group pursued a statebystate strategy specifically because that federal amendment and the reconstruction amendments had been so threatening to the Southern States. Anthony and Stanton Group pursued a federal amendment. For a lot of the end of the 19th century working kind of at crosspurposes. Which they came back together, rejoin and the American Suffrage Association and they became the National American women, they decided to pursue the statebystate strategy. So one of the reasons which isnt crazy. Right . Sounds like a lot of work. The plan be was if you get enough states to pass suffrage, federals amendment is inevitable because enough men are representing women. Sounds like paid family leave or federal minimum wage or many things happening at the state level. Exactly. Then some of these things having now. The march matters in addition to being a spectacle that got a lot of coverage, it was an announcements the federal amendment would back. So you had harold and ines mullholland on a horse, and a big wagon, and we demand constitutional amendment franchising women and that was the deal. And this was a brave, gutsy pr move all on her own. But to get an amendment you need three quarters of the states, needed 36 states and twothirds vote in both houses of congress. The dual strategy wasnt wrong. Few hearings until really 1914. There were six states who had given women president ial suffrage by election of 1912. Alice pauls efforts and parade stirs up some momentum at the state level and more states fall in line. So by 1916, 12 states allow women to vote. Some of those states are only allowing to vote for president ial suffrage only, and some are giving them universal suffrage from tax bond to school board to congress to president. But president ial voting began to have impact on the parties, because thats Electoral College votes as well as members of the congress. I add on to that, too. Before the two, when women started going public. To go back to media. You know, i think, lets see. There were years only four states had granted suffrage. Most in the west. Nothing happened for like 20 years. It didnt start to get momentum going until women in new york mainly started going again and going to the, out to the public and getting the word out and started to at least refocus attention. Previously, women would have the suffrages have conventions like in Church Basements in the 19th century. I think when they realized that, and media two is burgeoning in the 20th century, right. And getting some attention, et cetera and again going out in the public. That is how they got the message out. Sorry. Go back to the Washington Post headline. I heard you giggling about it. Yes, there it is. So this is what going out in public was covered by them, breathlessly sexist male press of the day. Womens beauty grace and art bewilder the capitol. I love the headline. They had no idea what to do with it. Yes. And then a whole paragraph about the badly behaving crowd. Sorry. One more. Chicago tribune. My favorite. So the 1913 march coincided with Woodrow Wilsons inauguration. The next day. This headline should be, Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated the 20th president of the united states. Its not. And that editorial cartoon, pencil neck wilson thinking hen is inaugurated 20 of president the united states. Its not. There is the suffragists stealing the spotlight from him. They wanted alice paul to have a parade. She fought with them until it was down pennsylvania avenue. She wanted it what is it called . The superintendent of police thought women should not much down pencil pennsylvania avenue because there were bars and board lows lining the street. He suggested that they march from Dupont Circle down to the white house. Dallas said no because she wanted the drunken crowd. She wanted the conflict. I dont think she expected it to be quite as reality as it was. They did not get further than Fourth Street before students from the university of maryland and boy scouts started holding hands. They could barely make it any farther. These women were freezing because the parade had not shown up. They were barefoot on marble in march. They went back inside and it took three more hours before the suffragists showed up. Playing on one and it was saying, for women to take any of these roles was so against their public image. We refute to sexual socialization today and how we learn our role. 20th century women were meant to be ladies. When alice paul comes back from england as is invited to talk about the outdoor tactics, she offered volunteers to go down into the street and lets practice speaking on a soapbox. We will march down. The older women were horrified because to be on the street was to be a streetwalkers. It was to be disrespectful. This whole idea of having outdoor tactics was a shock. When the police had to arrest the women who were picketing, the idea that these could beat their mothers, their daughters, their sisters, they did not really know how to handle throwing women in the paddywagons. They had to constantly be reprimanded by their supervisors. Your job is to arrest those women with their science. How does this move from Public Awareness to public persuasion . They have a lot of methods and they tried them all to various degrees of success. I think that, like any public movement, there was a Tipping Point when it became less shocking. Also, those women worked very hard to convince men to vote for these laws. That was, this whole movement is by and for women until the final set. You could not introduce or vote for legislation while female. They had to depend on man for the last thing. They had these amazing card files and research. This is more media use. The National Womens party gets a lot of press for all these visual tactics, but they also had an unbelievable database with 20 cards on every member of congress. They talked about how he voted, whether he said something that suffrage, talk to his wife, she smarter than him. Hes a drink, or talk to him after 5 pm. One of these women would talk to them and they would say no one in my district wants suffrage. They would show up to his office. They were unbelievably organized and targeted to the specific objections that anti suffragists had. There wasnt much you could do with the gardenvariety women who were too fragile and emotional to handle the vote. Other objections . They have strategies. They used their own media as well to organize. You could not open up a copy of womens journal or the suffragists or dozens of other smaller and regional ones and they would tell you the status of the legislation and the legislative process. They would tell you where your congressmans address was to write to. They would ask you to sign petitions. They would ask you to come out and pick it. They were a pot of information aside from giving women a sense of empowerment. Being part of something larger themselves. Inspiring a collective identity. I have not studied this as closely as linda. One of the questions i would have is in what media markets were the marches being covered . The 1913 march because it aligned with the inauguration and got broad coverage. The pickets did increasingly as they got evermore scandalous and seemingly unpatriotic. Then the violence that followed the women after they were jailed. What really changes the public mind however, in addition to people voting, you have millions of people voting, is the war. Because women participated in the war. They worked in factories. They work on farms. They worked on the front as the telephone call girls. They worked as nurses and ambulance drivers. The war and the strategy worked on wilson. He was so adamant against it as a southern gentleman. A northern governor with southern roots. Because he was really relying on the Southern Senate to pass the reforms for which the Wilson Administration is known, he did not want to rocky legislative about. He was told he should make it a war measure. He was so grateful for the sacrifice as women are making. He finally waits till october, 1918 when the senate is voting and they turned him down. However, he finally makes his plea on behalf of women. When he makes that, paul is in jail. I think that Woodrow Wilson opposed suffrage because he was a sexist. He did not oppose suffrage because he did not think it worked as a southern democrat. He could have been a lot more aggressive on the issue. He couldve done a lot more for the issue. Ultimately, what changed his mind was if theyre all going to vote, they might as well vote for me. It was craven. It wasnt suddenly a feeling that women should vote. They won by a margin of 100,000 votes. Tammy hall chooses not to even oppose it. Democratic city bosses and saloon keepers and post suffrage because they thought these women dogooders were going to get the vote and change politics. They tried but they were less successful. The largest number of electoral votes, new york passes, and then the house votes in january of 18. I dont think its a total coincidence that the house comes out for suffrage a year to the day after the picketing started. I do think even though the women were working for the war effort and other things was very crucial, but in contrast to the civil war. They dropped suffrage to do war work during the civil war. They were betrayed and got nothing from the government as far as votes for women go. After world war one, it does make a difference. I think it is partly that cat is very effective. They are saying women are worthy undeserving of the vote. Also, you have the National Womens party. It is small and radical, but it is reframing notions of patriotism. I think they provided a nudge in pushing wilson to coming out for the vote. I think if they had not been there, it would have been a lot easier for the u. S. Government and congress to ignore these women who had been rolling bandages for the last three years. I also think you shouldnt underestimate how they manipulated the press coverage. Its one thing to say the 1913 parade got press coverage because it was a mob. You saw womens grace and beauty bewilder the capital. That is not the headline you want. It doesnt have your cause, its just a nice picture. Alice paul had all those women come in from out of town and write first person accounts of how the terrible mob treated them and sent them back to their hometown paper. Now the springfield paper says mrs. George smith was mishandled at the protest. That was really good pr. The other part of pr is, alice said they had to wear white if they werent wearing their academic gowns. That was because the reporters were wearing red and other members were wearing other colors. She said you will wire this and march in this order because she wanted to demonstrate that women voting would be graceful and harmonious and not be as disruptive as these underground organizations. They were disguising the radicalism of women wanting to vote which was by itself revolutionary. Can we touch on something that we brushed past a couple of times . The racial dynamics of this movement. One question is i one question i have is if this was a movement of privilege . Definitely. These white house pickets, they were a bit insulated by their class and color. If socialists had been picketing the white house, they would have been in jail for years and years. I think that made a difference. Race was not the strong suit of the Suffrage Movement. Actually, the parades were areas where you could see the blatant racism. They did not want the African American women to march although they did. They were worried. Its horrifying to say now. They formed in order to be politically active in 1913. See they were told to march in the back. Paul initially says no blacks are going to much at all. She then gets so much pressure because there were black women in the Suffrage Movement. They werent very evident because it was a secular gated racist country at the time. But the National Association of colored women was almost as large as the General Federation of women. So there were activists African American women who had their own reasons to want to vote to stop lynching into improve their situations. Paul at first says, not at all. Im not having anyone else either. No native americans. She then gets pressed and creates the section at the back, but not everybody marches their. I ida marches with the illinois delegation because the Chicago Tribune found a photograph. Were not sure where they all marched. With two white grandfathers, she was quite a light skinned woman. She know we know that she picketed. We also know that working women picketed. Clearly, class and race and geography were issues to disrupt the Suffrage Movement. Race was an issue throughout. What i go back to what i was saying in the beginning, the media makes the movement but the movement makes the amendment. Everybody had a self interest. They wanted the vote to accomplish labor reform or antilynching or to elect their own or to pass social justice. They had a lot of issues to hang with each other and put up with each other. They were much stronger together than they would have been any separate way. As soon as suffrage passes, however, the sisterhood splinters and they all start competing against each other again. Excuse me for being a contrarian, but i would not say that it ends in 1920. Because not every group of women got to vote in 19 twenties and the race issue rises again. When my Church Terrell and her Organization Appeals to alice paul in 1921, what are you going to do to help African Women protect their vote in the south . Alters the missile and gets dumped by her own friends and members for her racist attitude. After 1920, native american women did not get the vote until 1924. African american women struggled with it until the amendments and the Voting Rights act and the Civil Rights Act and they are still struggling with it with issues of voter suppression. Poor women were also hurt by the poll tax which kept them from voting. Women in the territories as well because it was drafted before america became an imperialistic country. If you are in hawaii, alaska or puerto rico, Puerto Ricans didnt give suffrage until 1935. If you live in the district of columbia, you did not get it until 1961. Only president ial suffrage. Neither Woodrow Wilsons widow nor mary church, residents of d. C. , and we got to vote in their lifetimes. I also think that not only did white suffragists failed to recognize the contribution of African American suffragists. Not only did they put forth this elitist image, but they actually often used overclean racist arguments. During the state by state strategy, there was an effort to go into Southern States and say, if you give white women the vote, we will overwhelm the blackmail vote. All of those things you are trying to dismantle. It never worked, by the way, because the Southern States were systematically dismantling the black vote with jim crow. It wasnt overt strategy of the south however. They said the same thing in the midwest about immigrants and nativists. They were elitist, racist, nativist women. Again, im not excusing them. I agree with you about wilson. But, these are women who have worked. They are now in their Third Generation of effort. The people they need to persuade to vote for them are white man from all over the country. That is why having all women vote in all states made such a difference. That was power they would respond to. The only woman who ever voted for suffrage was jeannette rankin. She was elected in 1916 and serves from 1917 to 1919. That vote in january of 1918, she introduces suffrage in the house and votes for it and it passes. Its the first victory for suffrage since the amendment have been introduced in 1878. One woman. We could give credit to phoebe burns who told him how to vote in tennessee. Hurt burns changed it. Harry gets the credit. Because one man voted, 27 million women were eligible to vote even if state parties and organizations found ways to cut them out. Maybe that is why women were getting cut out even though they had the right and three. How long did it take for the womens vote to change things or to become a parent or has it yet . I would argue you did see it. A new the new deal in a way sort of grew out the women who had been active in the Suffrage Movement and some who had been elected had talked about issues of the government getting involved and providing some sort of relief in the 1920s. I think it carried over a bit. We started to see the government become a little. I would say there was a lot of legislation passed in fear of a womans vote. When it did not materialize, it was repealed. There is the anti child labor amendment made its way through congress. When women did not vote substantially different for the men in their lives again, this is what makes you so mad. They are being covered as they are just voting the way their husbands and fathers tell them to. Other demographic parts of their lives, they are voting more like the men who live near them. It is not that they are being told how to vote, but there was not a womans vote. There wasnt a gender gap for 60 more years. The fear of women voting was very effective from 1921 until 1924. Several major pieces of legislation were important. The other challenge is no one is counting womens vote. Only illinois counted men and womens vote. You had to speculate what was happening in the rest of the country. There are no exit polls. There are no national polls. Not until 1964 did they start counting the womens vote separately from the mens vote. You can see that the numbers are increasing. Its not until 1980 that the gender gap of partisan difference arises. What linda says is right to. They werent able to be effective in congress. There were few women serving and men were either ignoring or repealing their actions. When women began to work behind the scenes getting women appointed to different positions in the new deal. Its the new deal that says that no woman married to a Government Employee will hold a job in the government. It takes the Second World War for women to gain more positions. Theres an equal pay act. The equal rights amendment services. Then you have the baby boom. White women go underground. African american women are never stopping. They are active, they are increasingly active as time goes on. Thurgood marshall hires women attorneys who are laying the groundwork for the cases that will change the laws in the 19 fifties. I have to add this footnote. Right church has been around since 1885 in memphis. She has two degrees and is immensely wealthy and marries a municipal judge. Her husband is a harvard graduate and gets involved in these organizations and the marches and the pickets. In 1950, she is photographed picketing washington restaurants with hurricane in one hand and her picket sign in the other that it is time to desegregate washingtons restaurants. These women were sensational. Part of the promise of this panel was that we would also discuss what these women did in the early 1900s. How that has ripples today. How the movement back then it has informed todays womens movements or todays hashtag movements. It was interesting to see in 2017 all the women marching after trumps election. You mentioned one of the pickets could be a hashtag or a tweet or something. I am always surprised at the parallels and the way they communicated. All these new kinds of social media. You can see it a century ago with the suffragists. Imagery. For instance, cartoons etc. Now we have names. We will go with names. Anyways, cartoons that the suffragists created in their newspapers and things like that. They were often using horror and humor to make their points. We see that in social media now. With the use of memes. I think the Communication Networks to. You see hashtag womens march and how that protest was organized. When you had these networks of women who are communicating together. The suffragists newspapers did it however more slowly. I also think the concentration on how things look. We think of that is something contemporary. That everyone is looking for the perfect selfie moment. These women were very aware of how this all looked for both the Live Audience and how it looked in pictures. Look at them. Thats amazing. The banners when they picketed the white house were these very clear easy to read fonts. Dark print on a light background that reproduced well in white and black pictures in the press. None of that was an accident. This whole idea of getting the perfect image to represent you because people are going to look at images more than they are going to read the story. They absolutely pioneered that. No question. Think of the power of suffrage. We know that not everyone in the parade war suffrage white. There were probably fewer women wearing white than anything else. You are supposed to wear your professional outfit. Suffrage white is now war by women in congress. It was worn at the opening of the celebration. Our archivist was in a white suit when the exhibition opened. And the pink push the hat. You have the white dress, the purple sash, the pink push the hat, these symbols that people look at and know immediately what they represent. The white dress at the state of the union served in the same purpose. It was not just not to the history, they looked really striking against those navy blue suits. It was a visual shortcut to women. The other piece that i think is very important is that interpreter what happened after the 2017 march . Then enormous outburst of energy and urge to activate and write your postcards once a week and call your Congress Members and to organize for women candidates. Every march since then has been smaller. It is why they had to come up with the pickets and automobile right around the country. A march does not automatically generate power. If everybody in that march goes home and organizers and registers voters and those voters vote for the cost and candidates, thats power. You have to figure out how to make the connection. A connection between the publicity, the coverage and the energy into something that is going to be a factor for change. I think women did. We saw it in the 2018 midterms. For those women who went home and did that. Right, i will guess almost every single woman who was involved in the midterms had a pink hat somewhere. Or they had certainly become aware of the embryonic trump resistance that they wanted to become a part of. It turned to electoral politics for their organizing. I think you can march, but you must take it to the next step. Our democracy, you can do that with electoral politics. Some places, it does not work so well. Its true. It only works if you have something to back it up. There have been lots of splashes. Yes, but they do not last and they do not matter. Right. And so, you guys have a fresh argument about this, but it sounds like you are saying that the publicity was successful. The messaging was successful because there was a political undergirding. That is exactly right. That is why when nancy was making reference to the league of women voters whenever suffrage passed and estate, and wyoming in colorado it passed in the 1890s. She kept her Organization Going because she said when we get ready to ratify, i will need representatives in every legislative state district in the country. Every congress gus congressional district, she wanted a member ready to go. She didnt let you become a league of women voter until your state had ratified. That power of staying in connection and holding them ready to do the job at the state level was enormously important to the success. Alice paul never went to nashville. She sent one representative, she would run out of money and she had very few she did not have a national quirk of members that was very large. Historians estimate that while she may have had 3000 members during the suffrage fight. By 1921, she was down to 600. Whereas cat had this enormous operation with more than 2 million women. Even when it transferred to the league of women voters, it was only 100,000 because peoples interests defused. Its interesting. The league of women voters, after women won the vote, basically became a non political organization. It did not take a political stance. Where is the National Womens party was so issued on the focus and ignored so many other constituents of women. It was sort of powerless. Another alternative would have been interesting. Its easy to say in retrospect. There was the womens trade union lead. There were many other organizations that suffered. I only just recently nourishment, i thought it was chapman who was responsible for the policy on government. These two women were iconic. They were probably the two most powerful and respected women in the country in 1920. So catches we need to be organizing and we need to be running people for office and we ought to have some senators. Before we know, it she is all for political organizing. Jane adams says no, lets just go back to community organizing. The first settlement house was really Community Based organizing. He went into a neighborhood and fix the problems of the neighborhood, what you did not necessarily translate that into legislative power. Jane adams knew one and a lots of people were disappointed. People went back to their causes. Cat went back to international peace. Jane adams founded the aclu. They won suffrage so they could do other things. Being an educated voter is also an important goal. Voting is a habit. There is a lot of logistics around voting. If youve never done it, it can be a little intimidating. The idea that the league of women voters was then to help women be responsible voters. What issues are you going to pass with this power . How are you going to use it in a way that you feel confident and responsible . 18 will 18 million women had been voting in the 27 states where it was allowed until they got ratification. The culture of the 1920s might have factored into this as well. The 20s were the jazz age. In the 19 tens when you have this idea of people working communally for change. When women went off to pursue individual pursuits. Its a symbol of women in the 1920s. It was sort of pleasure and individual and women went off to pursue individual careers. They did not quite realize that they were moving on to individual things and not realizing how much power they were losing going off on their own. How many times have we thought that we won . I know. Yeah. What a good point. I am encouraged by the 2018 elections. I think its pretty exciting to see. We still have a long way to go. Women are still not represented on par with the population, but i think with this Younger Generation and the newer people coming into congress. You have a front row seat, im optimistic. I think it bodes good things. The great thing about having an audience is that i get to stop asking questions and you all get to ask questions. We have microphones on either side of the room. I have one request which is that you ask a question. If you could make it approximately 20 seconds long and have it and with a question mark, that would be awesome. We can get to as many people as possible that way. Tell us who you are. My name is jason. It has not been mentioned yet, but a main parallel movement is occurring amongst women at this time. It is support for the Temperance Movement and the passage of prohibition. Theres a lot of entanglement between those. The dual passage of those also seems to have something to do with the dissipation of Political Energy for women at this time. If you could just speak to that, i would appreciate it. Yes. Did everyone hear the question . A lot of women came to the Suffrage Movement because of temperance. What they really wanted was temperance, and they figured they could not get it without the vote. In the early days of the Suffrage Movement, that association was more useful because a lot of suffragists got a crash courses infield organizing and publicity and all the things weve been talking about from the timbers movement. As you got into the 20th century, associations became less useful because they competed for funding and attention. That caricature of suffragists as joyless hags, which was character everywhere in editorial cartoons and all over the place. It was really reinforced by the idea that they were going to take away their booze. The 20th century Suffrage Movement spends a little time distancing themselves from that image. We talked a little bit about editorial cartoons in the suffrage press. They had a cartoonist who created this character who was young and a lovely and stylish and aspirational. She was as far from the person taking uber if she could possibly be. There was ways the connection was useful and ways it was destructive. Taking away the beer was a big deal. As prohibitionists alighted self with the suffragists, it brought everyone with them. Salute own owners, big democratic bosses and many others were not thrilled to see that association. Recently, a scholar published a study analyzing the vote of the members of congress who voted for suffrage and who voted for prohibition. Those votes were within four months of each other and they are not the same. People had always supposed there would be overlap. The man who vote for suffrage have women voting in their district. The men voting for prohibition have other ties. They have churches and different social outlooks. They are not the same groups and that has surprised a lot of people. Its also difficult to amend the constitution, as it should be. If youre only going to get one of them, you start to compete with each other about what is at stake. Lets go over here. The last election, we saw a big imbalance between which party was getting most women into office positions at the federal level. What do you see is future trends . Will this be a permanent imbalance on which party and what they are drifting towards . What are peoples predictions . Lets let tamara answer this one. Yes. There were significantly more Democratic Women elected to congress in 2018 then there were republican women. The fact is that is sort of a longstanding trend. Weve got particularly dramatic in 2018. One republican congresswoman from upstate new york thinks that this is a problem. She is now actively working to recruit more republican women to raise money for republican women. She has a fact that she has formed with the specific goal of getting more republican women into congress so that it will be a little bit more representative. Some people laughed at her and wrote her off initially. That is to say some of her colleagues. But she seems to be getting some traction. Who knows how it will work out electorally. You have to make it to a primary to get into a general election. That is often a challenge for female candidates on both sides of the aisle still. This is nancy. I want to make a few remarks about the legal voters which i shouldve emphasized in my remarks. When the lead was founded, the founder indigent that they were to continue the fight. The fight we have interpreted it broadly. You do that with both education and advocacy. Education is not about each individual knowing what is on the ballot, but for the public to understand. That is what candidate forums and what other things are. To understand as a public, as the suffragists did, to understand why some of those white some of those arguments against the vote were not valid. The league also began accepting men is members in the early 1970s. We have been fighting for full Voting Rights and other equality for all americans and the lead today is very active in finding all of the voter disempowered laws around the country. Im just saying. Like a lot of organizations, the league did not admit black women immediately. There were some leagues of black women voters. There were some states that would insist on having black votes. Ohio and illinois wanted black women members. However, that did not become commonplace until the civil rights movement. Lets move to this side. I. Sam. First of all, thank you for being here. You talked a lot about the really tough and smart women who got this through. But there was also a very tough and smart group of opponents. What did they do wrong or what strategies did the suffragists employ that were better or more effective than the aunties . The antis almost one in tennessee. I would say they were not as media savvy. They showed a suffrage parade wearing scarlet a letters meaning anti. They were pretty reactive as well i think. More reactive. They didnt really have i think that hurt them. The opposition women were very powerful. The two heads of the National Organization were the wife of senator james watts worth of new york. New york never voted for suffrage until after the state had passed it. Mrs. Lansing, the wife of the secretary of state. They were not a small unknown group. They were filled with a prominent women who, because of their elite status, thought that they did not need the vote. But in tennessee, they were very effective with their pr. You had the war of the roses. The pros war yellow roses and the anti war red. That is why everyone is surprised when harry burns change his vote because he entered the chamber with a red rose. They challenged everything however. They threatened primary challenges and business boycotts and said they would kidnap members of the legislator to keep them from voting. Using Tennessee Women as their surrogates, had people patrolling railroad stations so no one could get whisked out of town and miss their vote. I dont undercut those women. I think its really lucky that we won in tennessee because there was no other state that was going to pass that legislative session. Had it gone past 1920, it might have had the same fate as the child labor movement. The other thing is the anti suffragists, there were a lot of different groups that were anti suffragists. There were the organized led by women anti suffragists. The official organization. But then there was anyone who employ child labor, the catholic church, the liquor lobby, there were plenty of other anti suffrage groups that didnt necessarily share an agenda with the women who were leading the officially named suffrage group. It wasnt that coherent movement. Good question. Hi, my name is david price. I have two questions if i may. The first is. As an educator, i dont know if schools to a really good job of pointing out just how difficult it was. My first question is, do you think we should or could do a better job . The most important question is with that help . Thats the easy question. The second one is this. Pick your favorite person, this is not been a great week and month for women. If they were alive today and they came back, would they be surprised at where we are now . Or do you think they would have expected we would be here . You spent a lot of time with them, i know you cant speak for them, but what do you think . Pick one and go with it. Ill pick one. I think margaret would be rolling over in her grave. She was a suffragists besides a Birth Control advocate. They want to Birth Control so there would be no abortions. Ive been in schools for most of my professional career at the college and high school level. Your civics question appeals. The entire country needs more civics. I appreciate the kinds of things that tamara does on the news our. To have caused a conversations. Her coverage in the morning where shes telling us history stories about how our goverment works. In the week before every november election, i think every school needs to talk about the fight for womens suffrage. The fight for African American suffrage. Voter suppression. How these issues are not soft, there are still current issues. Whether its people were guaranteeing access to the ballot. This country is a democracy and needs to vote. It has grown into its democracy. Jack sony democracy only gave white men without land the right to vote and that always bud me that he got more attention than the 15th amendment or the 19th amendment. Not only Civic Education important. Occasionally, you get this sort of pat on the head. Oh, it gives womens a role model. The reason to learn when its history is that history without women is wrong. Right . applause there is no way that women have not been agents of historical change since there have been women. If were not learning that, were not learning enough. It is a shared history. It is our country. We are all citizens. It is our history. Whether its womens history, mens history, its American History. A man, sister. I have to add. I dont know if you guys will have thoughts on this. You are steeped in the history so this is your reality all the time. However, for me thanking it has only been 100 years, it is mindboggling. It is mindboggling. I also think that so my grandmother who was born in 1913, 1916, where is my mother correcting me, before women have the right to vote. She went on to become a member of congress and in ambassador. In her lifetime, she lived the change. We are still connected to women who lived through the change. That, although it is shocking in horrifying that it has only been 100 years and that is crazy, it does mean that we still have a connection to this story. 20th century history also has great pictures. Lets go over here. Hi, hannah wagner. I was wondering with the electric mobility that weve seen around the 2018 election and also recent loss out of alabama, what would you say is the most important or one of the most important pieces of wisdom the suffragettes could teach those of us who are beginning the move again today . Never quit. Dont give up. Also, everything we have been talking about. Think about how things look. Know your opposition. Make friends. Count votes. Count votes. Do your homework. You know, all of these lessons that they accomplished so well and occasionally failure and we can learn from that to. Theres the big headline, never give up. But the slow and sometimes fascinating and sometimes tedious process of making societal change. They are an amazing model of that. You can learn so much about being a good activist. It might teach you patients. Thats the word that just came to mind. He 72 years is a little too long. Patience and fortitude, i want things to go faster. But the fact that they did not give up for all of that time and finally succeeded and that is taken almost another seven years before women became affected political actors in how they voted and when the elected and the kind of legislation they backed. But im very optimistic with linda about where we are now. I think the power of the 2018 election. Those new young women, if they handled themselves effectively, i think they were blessed by leader pelosi in terms of demonstrating womens leadership roles. Just to have the most powerful women in the country, just to have a most powerful woman in the country in that position so close to a president ial position, its very empowering for everybody else i believe. All right. Thank you. My name is andrew heavily. I have a question. You spoke quickly about the flapper movement. More of a question with the move towards urbanism. Where do you think do you think the amendment could have been passed if it was five to ten years later . Good question. Yes. Yes. 1920 is the first time that more americans are living in cities then on farms. That changes congressional representation. It is also about the first decade of the great black migrations. Blacks are moving into northern cities as well as california. For the first time, they have political organizations and state and local representatives and newspapers. I think you might have had quite a large voting base in favor of suffrage before the crash. Because poverty really killed the womens movement. Thank you for the question. Im sorry, im a bit shorter. My name is jennifer and my question is, at a time when it seems that politicians involvement in the red the recruitment of womens rights seems to be a partisan issue, how can we encourage more participation across the board for the fight for basic rights . How do we keep the richness of the bipartisan electorate going . I would say but not telling each other down. Thats a good place to start. More often than not, one of the reasons that womens issues seem partisan is that women make it that way. If you dont think that someone has a valid point of view that is opposite from yours and you are not respectful of that, then you are part of the problem. That doesnt meet you arent committed to your own cause and it doesnt mean that you dont think that you are truly right. But i think the practitioners comes from us taking each other out. I wish women could sort of take a deep breath and step back from their most fierce partisan positions and think about where they can come together. The violence against women act. Childcare legislation. Rules about adoption. There must be some Common Ground where they can really be leading the way in bringing mail allies in with them. One of the things that the center for american women at politics is a wonderful think tank at rogers university. It publishes all kind of data. If you want to know the absolute number of women in the legislature in New Hampshire in 1970, you can find it today. Any kind of piece of data that you want. But they have found that win, in the sixties and seventies, when there werent as many women in congress as there are now, those women came together. They found Common Ground because there was so few of them. Women in the country wrote to them with their problems. They represented many women and they found ways to work across the line. Of course, id like to think that is those days we werent quite as partisan. You think of london be johnson however and we were pretty partisan. But they found Common Ground because they saw themselves as representing more than their district and not worried about other things than that. Also, women are not a monolithic entity. I think its unrealistic and almost insulting if you were to say that about an ethnic group or something. Instead of it being a male or female issue there are many men who are better feminist than women. I would like to see an agenda of people who just care about humanity and those values. Those american values. Together. Women on the Banking Committee were not writing a piece about women getting equal credit. The man in the health and Education Services committee were not writing in research for womens cancer. So it did take women in the room to make a difference. Women on both sides of the aisle. Definitely, a part of it. I think it takes more than just women. I agree with that. Its never going to happen if its just. I agreed by the diversity. People expect us all to agree. Theres such wonderful diversity among american women. We have a lot of competing self interests. You are up. Thank you for the conversation. This has been great. My name is lucia. Can you tell us, the status of the equal rights amendment today . I know that virginia recently addressed it and failed. Where are we with this . Who wants to take it . Okay. Deep breath. This was a subject of a book i abandoned to write the one that im working on now. The equal rights amendment was introduced in 1970 and passed in march of 1972. It had a seven year deadline as almost every admit that had for a long time. It failed to ratify enough states in that time. It got the extension and failed by 1982. The equal rights amendment, that failed. So four states that did not vote on it before or states that have since changed their vote to vote now will lead to an Immediate Court challenge. Because whose amendment are they ratifying . There was a sense that you had to have timeliness. The equal rights amendment that Martha Griffith pushed through was supported on both sides. It had huge bipartisan support. Now many of those men, primarily men, it was a majority of men who voted for it at that time, they never expected it to come to the floor and to actually have to vote. However, they did vote for it and it had huge bipartisan support. So you can deal with the old equal rights amendment and there will be a Court Challenge no matter if other states vote for it now and then you also have to ask what happens to the states who rescinded it during that time period because while i got to 35, three states rescinded so maybe they only had 32 states. If you start with a new equal rights amendment, theres no support. No bipartisan support. Carolyn maloney from new york has just been valiant. She introduces it. She attempts to get hearings. There were hearings this week, i think, in the judiciary committee. I think it is right. I think there is a constitutional argument to have it happen but we do not have the power to pass it. We dont have power in the congress, or in the state legislatures. A new one would not be ratified and a current one would be challenged. So depressing. It seems as though all the american phones of disappeared except for hours. I think that is a sign. I think it is a sign. Do you if you have closing thoughts on this . Pierre. Youve been in the school board elections. Knowing how hard these women they fought for the voting. Its a precious thing. Why not only was a fight for it, but ive argued theyve always had it. It was just hardly recognize that they had it. If you are citizen in the united states. Thank you. Study history . Thank you all. applause weeknights this month were featuring American History tv is a preview what is available on cspan three. Tonight, look at civil war objects. Historian Harold Holzer and Valerie Paley hold a series of online talks this summer about artifacts featured in their joint publication the civil war in 50 objects. In the first of four of these programs we are showing tonight, they discuss objects related to soldiers uniforms. Watch tonight beginning at eight eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan three. Today we are in the bay, one mile off the mainland shore of portland, they. This is where they built forth gorgeous out in 1858 to help defend yuck completed in 1865. It was built with two sister forts that are off to the south here. And South Portland on house island designed to work in conjunction with each other to defend the harbor. The funny thing is everyone thinks ports gorges it was approved by congress as a response to the war. It gorges is a hand made granted fort. If you looked at it from a top view looking down, you would see hiv can take the. What people dont realize is for gorges, just like a de is open in the middle. It has a parade grown. People have grown appear in their entire lives. Theyve never been here. The fort was named after server demanded gorges who is the colonial proprietor from the state of maine. Im told he never set foot here. I think the design was probably modeled after a lot of the fort that were being built at that time. Most of them were made out of bricks, but this is all gigantic blocks of granite. To think that they came in here on a sailing vessel and unloaded that stuff. Moved it around and then erected this entire structure by hand with blocks and tackle. Its amazing. Two levels designed to hold 36 guns, when sally port where troops could come and go. Originally the salley port had one massive gate, and a secondary gate. If you are standing in the Parade Ground looking back at the sally port, you could see the rooms to the north of the salley port the rooms to the south side of the sally port were more utility rooms. The vegetation that you see was never designed to be here. The dirt was put here to absorb cannon fire, year after year after year, ceilings, birds would have you, and began to sprout. As recently as 50 years ago, theres just grass here. 25 years ago pushes. Here we are today. We have a 15 foot maple tree behind me to the left. Where we are on the second floor in the case mates on the east, southeast side. If you look up, you will see these transfer cracks that we are finding in this area. They only exist in this one area of the fort. Again, this is partially because of the dirt up top and lack of drainage. Probably after 150 years, some settling that is happening in the inner and outer walls. On the floor, you could see these outlines where a mental track would have been mounted to these studs that still remain. On that track, the rear end of a large cannon carriage would have rolled, and up here by the window, you can see an opening where the front of this carriage, a big tongue would stick into this groove, and appear in the window, you could still see the hole where a big pin would drop in in that enormous carriage. It would allow the cannon to swing back and forth and cover quite a broad range. The opening where the cannon ball flew through those windows could be shut at all times. There were big iron shutters with big springs on them. Forces the explosion of the cannonball would open the shutters and they would immediately slam shut. Over here, as you can imagine, all that cannon fire black powder and the amount of smoke it would generate, each one of these cases meets has its own flu so the smoke would exhaust the area. Up here, you will see some brackets where we suspect the soldier stood on the cannon carriage and hung their tools here. The soldiers also lived here in the case meet with their cannon. Here, we are in the exit chamber to the great magazine. We are one room away you see these massive floor timbers that burned down decades ago. Given the size of this room its not a very big room. Maybe ten by 16. I always wondered what could have been so heavy that they needed floored choice that massive. Then it came to me windy. Gunpowder. Cannonballs. I think this is where they kept the cannonballs. If we walk this way will be able to see where they kept the gun powder. This is the great magazine. You can see its a large room and used to be two storeys. The floor was removed at some point somehow. It was taken out. It was a large room. The earliest use of concrete ive ever seen. You can see the old slats where the individual boards were made or formed. Then giant granite blocks with shins stuck in the mortar to take up the space. This room does have some slots in the wall, so that some air could circulate through here. You will also see two small openings in the brick work. One on the first floor, and one on the second floor. Those were from the little room on the other side called the candle room. In that opening they would place a lantern, and that lantern was the only means of illumination for this area for obvious reasons. The soldiers who wore boots would nail heads on the bottom would have to down some sort of a wool or silk salk over their boots to enter this room and work in here. This was designed with 500 troops. It was never fully garrisons. It never fired a single shot. I suspect it was obsolete by the time it was completed because our moments were advancing so rapidly at the time. Some caretakers came along and lived in hair. They watched over it. And world war ii, they build a concrete pad that we could see down in the Parade Ground. That was used to store what they called torpedoes. We now call them minds. They were used in an elaborate system throughout the bay, because as you know the bates came along the main coast during the world war two. The mines are manufactured. Two islands over on Great Diamond island. There is a really wonderful Old Buildings still in place. You can see where the minds were manufactured and tested. There is a little Narrow Gauge Railway where they would build bring the minds down to the water and bring them here and store them. Eventually, the fort was put on the national register. I think it was 1971, the city of portland acquired the property. Since then it has just remained sort of neglected. Just recently, the city has taken a renewed interest in the property. Now we have the army corps of engineers here doing a litigation program, making it a safer place. Probably due to social media. This place is on everyones radar. Everyone is curious about it. Everyone wants to be here and experience this space. Gorges its committed to seeing that this place does not fall apart. We know we can do that. We can save the structure. And it becomes about making it accessible to more people so that we could have a sustainable model to do the work that needs to be done. Then it becomes about stewardship. Making sure that this wonderful spot never falls into the hands of condo developments or a casino or something that would be inappropriate for this fate. There are lots of challenges. The immediate ones are access, because this is an island. Everyone needs to come here by boat. Luckily, it is only one mile from land. Right now, two thirds of the 7000 people to come here in the summertime are coming by kayak. Some of them come from the islands, some of them from the mainland and they do tours here all day every day. They bring people out here by kayak all summer long. Kayaking is the easiest way to get here, because you are not bound by the tight. You dont have to worry about your boat. It is only one mile. Its an easy paddle. We encourage people who do that to hire a guide or have some sort of experience. You can also come out with a vote. We are hoping in the coming years to put a dock in and just make this more accessible to the general population. I have been coming here since i was a teenager, and it is just a mystical place. Especially when you start coming here as a child. Like i said before, we just do not build structures like this anymore. It is unique. It is the only place like this that i know of in maine that is accessible. One mile from shore. Youve got this amazing structure that we will never see again. We have to save it. It is also special to me, because for a long time now, i wanted to see some sort of performance happened here. Shakespeare or something along those lines. It is important for people who live here and the people who visit here, for the reasons i mentioned before. Everyone is affected by the space. How could you not be when you step through that sally port and into that Parade Ground, and see those case mate archways and the stone work. It is just phenomenal. Most times peoples jaws just drop when they first see it. Politicians and media have been researching the way women vote since passage of the 19th amendment. 100 years ago this month. Up next, a look at the accuracy of the assumptions about women voters up to the 2016 election. The first to feature a feat female president ial candidate from a major party. Part of American History tv here on cspan three. Good evening, everyone. I think there is a few more people in here with a little bit more robust good evening. Before we welcome our guest, good evening everyone good