The ratification of the 19th amendment in the World Affairs 1920. Council of dallasfort worth hosted this online event. Jim hi, everyone. I am jim falk. Thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. Joining us this afternoon is dr. Ellen carol dubois. She is the author of suffrage womens long battle for the vote. I am so pleased the conversation be with lee column a very dear , and special friend and supporter of the World Affairs council. Let me remind you, you can purchase a copy by going to dallas independent bookstore. Please be sure to type in the code dfw world and you will get , 10 off not just on suffrage but any book in your shopping cart. I why give special thanks to our director maisie high ken for , being a sponsor of todays program. And so much thanks the league of women voters of dallas, for being our promotional partner. There were could not be more important. To keep up with our part our programs go to dfw world. Org or if you missed a program go to our Youtube Channel and will not surprise you that the way to find our channel is to type in dfw world. Lee is a special friend of the world can Affairs Council and she is the host about terrific program on kcra called ceo, where she interviews Global Business leaders and you can catch that if you missed one of her programs live, you can also go to the kcra website to see some of her past programs. Lee is the a senior fellow at the tower center here in dallas at Southern Methodist university and she also has served four years as an active member on the board of directors of the council on foreign relations. To sit back this afternoon and listen to your wonderful conversation with alan. So take it away, ladies. Thank you again. Much, jim. You so ellen, it is wonderful to have you here today. Ellen has written a readable and highly informative book on suffrage, suffrage womens long battle for the vote. And she has written other books. She is a specialist in women and womens history. She wrote, feminism and suffrage, the emergence of an independent Womens Movement in america, 18481869. She has also edited, unequal sisters, which we will talk about later and also coauthored the textbook on womens history. All this Research Began when two his at wellesley. I dont know if you agree with me but my observation has been that there are no more faithful and fanatical alumni than the wellesley women, including hillary clinton. And she did the same thing in dallas. Northwesternhd at and for the past several years has been at ucla. No sooner had she retired then she married for the first time, which i think is a terrific thing to do. Arnold schwartz, a lucky man. Ellen to turn right to your , book, we all imagined that this Womens Movement began at seneca falls but in fact it has been brewing as part of the abolitionist movement. Is that not the case . Ellen yes, that was the case. The first generation of suffrage of suffragists were almost, to a woman supporters of the , Abolition Movement and actually had learned their skills and their beliefs about human rights and the relative , they would have said the race,ificance of sex or as opposed to the common vanity of all people. They learned that as they said, in the schools of antislavery. They learned how to do things that women of their generation did not do very much. Speak in public, right. Write. Organize meetings, petition legislature and begin to draw up a whole set of demands for equality to women and they learned this in the abolitionist movement. This is the first generation. This connection between antislavery and black rights on the one hand and women rights on the other, peaked in the postcivil war years in the early 1870s what you call the reconstruction. In connection with the two of the three reconstruction amendments, the 14th amendment, which gives all persons the United States citizenship and in the 15th amendment, which is not quite right to say gives black men the right to vote. It prohibits states from disenfranchising anyone on the basis of race and it was the decision of the ruling republican of lincoln not to , include prohibitions on sex as well as race. That leads to the breakup of this historic coalition. Lee going back to the early suffragist who are abolitionists , lets talk about a lezz that cady stanton. She was living in boston, she married henry. She had to move to seneca falls with him and the three boys was which was not a happy thing to do. Ellen this is an old Elizabeth Cady stanton. That is not what she looks like. Lee we would imagine she looked very different from that. Henry on their honeymoon went to a world conference on abolition where women couldnt even appear on the floor. What did she do with herself . Ellen at this point she is on, as he said, her honeymoon. And she is sitting in the balcony and surrounded by women both british and american. Much more active in the Abolition Movement than she is. She is a newbie in this area. She becomes friends with the most experienced and philosophically and politically important abolitionist woman in the entire states, a women about 20 years older than her, Lucretia Mott, a quaker from philadelphia. Really, they connect on the issue of womens rights. And from then on she basically begins to school her in the history of womens rights. Eight years after this crucial meeting, it is said who knows, its a legend, in london they decide they are going to hold a Public Meeting for womens rights. They end up doing that, 8 years later in 1848. By this time, stanton is now living in seneca falls, a sort of bustling Industrial Town between rochester and syracuse. She is restless. Although there are plenty of people in that part of new york who were very experienced activists and reformers. That year is a crucial year. Its the year that is usually known for revolutions throughout europe to begin to lay the basis for democracy in places like france and germany. And seneca falls, the United States despite the fact that many black people and all women were prohibited from the right to vote, it is still the case that the american electorate is more expensive than any other electorate in the world. And so seneca falls, lets call the revolution of 1848. Its the american version of the Political Revolution in europe. The other thing that is happening in these years, the United States has just come out of a war with mexico in which it has taken over the lands that include my own state of california and the entry of this a normal swath of territory enormous swath of territory open a discussion on slavery and the american congress. The fact that that the Seneca Falls Convention raises political franchise for women, is connected to the fact that american politics is beginning to grapple with this allimportant issue, which these women are determined to be part of. On as, as todd went time went on, as time went on these women were very interested in their own rights, but it was Elizabeth Stanton who understood they had to have the right to vote or they wouldnt get anything else. Nobody else agreed except for frederick douglass. How did he get involved with this group of women . Frederick douglass had met stanton in boston, as a young mother and he was getting to , work with the boston abolitionists. They were immediately drawn to each other despite the tremendous differences, they were both deep believers in american liberalism as a philosophy. I have thought a lot about their relationship. Im going to write a biography of her after this is all over. And they both suffered terribly from the contempt that was visited on them by people who they believed rightly were much their inferiors. Here is. Again here he is. Again, this is a little older. He is a fellow with white hair and this is probably in the early 1870s. He had just moved the year before stanton moved to seneca falls. He moved 50 miles west to rochester and was there starting a newspaper, his lifes desire. And the person funding a newspaper was her cousin, jared smith. So they had many, many links and their friendship lasted a halfcentury. Lee it would be a wonderful book. And then there is this wonderful woman on the cover of the new york or a couple of weeks ago, Sojourner Truth. She got involved. And with a name like Sojourner Truth, who wouldnt want to vote for her . And with a name like Sojourner Truth, who wouldnt want to vote for her . Ellen her name was actually isabella bounfry. She was born a slave in the hudson river valley. There were slaves in new york. The dutch part of new york was actually the area where stanton grew up. She was finally freed with other adult slaves in the 1820s in new york and she went to new york became bornagain. She took a new name and became an itinerant preacher. Sojourner truth. And in her preaching, she began to preach both about antislavery and also to talk about womens rights. She is very interesting because there are a significant number of black women who appear on women rights platforms in these early decades. But Sojourner Truth is the one who most consistently supports the equality of men and women. Even though, of course, she remains a complete devotee for the abolition of slavery and the equality of races. But as she says, when things get going, lets keep the pot stirring. When things get going like the abolition of slavery and the black male enfranchisement of black men. She understood what Elizabeth Stanton understood, which is that this time of abolition was an opportunity that would not come again for a while, for the equality of women. Lee back to boston for a moment. There was a moment known as Margaret Fuller. She was the intellectual american at the time and part of emersons circle. She was a journalist the first , american war correspondent in europe, working for harz greeleys newspaper. She was quite a character. She became a suffragist too, dingy . Didnt she . Ellen im not sure if she was a suffragist. We cannot tell. First of all, not until after the civil war is the demand for the right to vote coming part of the womens rights platform. Until then, there are other demands. The quality of education is very important for the ability of women to have professional standing. Economic equality was also very important to her. There is some circumstantial stanton might have been part of a salon she ran for women but we dont have any concrete evidence. Lee there is also victoria woodhall. She makes Margaret Fuller seem positively mainstream and rather quiet and sedate. She was a faith healer. And she was definitely a suffragist. Ellen she was. Now we are jumping ahead to about 1870 and victoria woodhall , its amazing there hasnt been a movie about her. I remember one that was allegedly purchased by nicole kidman. But somehow, these never got made. She was the daughter of its not even fair to say workingclass. Her family were carnies. She was taught how to trick people and she seems to have had, hardpressed to say this now, but in her years it was believed she had psychic abilities. She and her sister rose in the civil war years through the patronage of some powerful men. Unclear how they got the patronage. Lee one was cornelius vanderbilt, wasnt it . Ellen one of them was. Vanderbilt she had powerful she had powerful and also ben butler. Supporters and had her own newspaper. She had the ear of important politicians. And in 1870 she is able to come before a Congressional Commission and make the argument that suffragists have been making for a while. Very important argument. The argument was that the 14th amendment properly understood, it made all Americans National citizens and gave them equal rights. And who could but disagree that the right to vote was a right of citizenship. She made that argument in front of a congressional committee. It was the basis of that argument and that contention , that constitutional argument, that susan b. Anthony goes to her polling place in 1872 and is able to convince the polling officers to let her vote for president. And she actually cast her vote. She is then a few days later arrested under a federal statute , making it a crime to vote knowingly illegally. Criminal voting. It is this, by the way, which President Trump has unknowingly pardoned susan b. Anthony. I dont think he understood that she was found guilty of voting but voting on the grounds at all that all american citizens have the equal right to vote. I do not think he understands that. Anyhow, susan b. Anthony and victoria woodhall were both arrested within weeks of each other. Woodhall was thrown in jail in new york city. Anthony would have liked to have been thrown in jail. She wished very much to be a martyr to the cause. But the man running the trial who was actually a supreme justice knew he was not going to give her the benefit of throwing her in jail and refused to allow her to do that. Lee we can add that victoria woodhall had lots of marriages, lots of lovers could commune , with the dead and made lots of money on wall street. She was something else. But this 14th amendment was very interesting. There was a case in illinois. Myra bradwell, was not earning . Ellen there are two important cases that come before the Supreme Court in the 1870s. They are both amendment cases. 14thmyra bradwell was a lawyer in chicago and she was being kept from a membership in the illinois bar. She argued that the 14th amendment properly understood protected her right, equal professional rights. That her rights to practice her so profession should be protected equally as men. The court, in a summary judgment, rules against her about 1872. Then there is a case, and any of you who went to law school and were lucky enough to have any training in womens rights will know about these two cases. The other case comes before the court in 1874 and the woman who brings that case before the court is a st. Louis woman named virginia minor. Like anthony, she tried to vote in 1872. Unlike anthony, she was not allowed to cast her vote. Unlike anthony, she was able to take her case to the Supreme Court. In 1874, the court heard her case. She made exactly the same argument that anthony had. I am a person and therefore a citizen. I am a citizen. Therefore i have equal rights and privileges protected by the federal government with all other citizens. The right to vote is one of those rights and privileges. The Supreme Court said yes, you are person, a citizen yes you have equal rights but the right to vote is not a right of national citizenship. And today, if that court ruling had gone differently and been followed, the world we live in the a very, very different world. Because it is still the case , that there are not federal protections for the right to vote. The right to vote is under the control of the state. And the federal government, especially with the Voting Rights act taken apart has , almost no ability, should there be a federal government interested in protecting Voting Rights, has no ability to overrule states and insist upon equal rights. For the vote. The vote still remains as it was decided in that case. In 1875. It is a privilege, not a right controlled by the states. Lee well suffragists became , discouraged, understandably. And decided to go state by state by state, trying to get state legislatures to mend their constitutions to allow women the right to vote. Some western states had already granted women the right to vote, including wyoming. Why did that happen . It was much earlier. They had very practical reasons. Ellen let us be clear. The other side of this insistence that the right to vote is controlled at the state level, is that the suffragists, once it seemed that they would be unable to get the constitutional amendment passed, and as Elizabeth Stanton said, the constitutional door had been slammed shut, where it remained until 1910. They turned to the states and they started to go to those states which they thought were most likely to enfranchise women and these were western states. Sometimes it is said because western women did not work when andens crinolines, with her husband helpmate. I think it is a more practical reason. You know what, i have to get a kleenex. Not because im doing anything with any illegal substances but im sneezing if you could wait one moment. Lee obsolete. I have one at hand. I have allergies myself. Texas is as bad as california. But what she is about to say and im sure she will elaborate is that wyoming needed women. Ave a lot of men, preponderance of men. Couldey they felt they attract women to come and live in wyoming if they gave them the vote. In colorado and others. I may be wrong but i said women, wanted to attract they had lots of men and no women. White they had lots of men and lots of white women because native americans were not included in any disenfranchisement. I personally there is another reason. In these western states, the parties, democrats and republicans, were not as established. They were weaker. And in the 1890s when each state began to enfranchise women there was an insurgent political movement, a new party, thirdparty, called the peoples party. There called sometimes the populace, the peoples party. Party, unlike the democrats and republicans, that are not afraid of the womens vote. That wanted to bring new voters into the electorate. It is they who for the brief periods of time in which they have some power in their state, they sponsor womens suffrage. That is the within another 20 1890s. Years, the Second Third Party is called the Progressive Party and the same is true of them. They want to bring women and they are interested in issues they believe women support and it is those states, washington a