Post date: Feb 16, 2020 11:59:10 PM

My Takeaways from The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote

by Elaine Weiss March 2019

This book made me rethink what I thought I knew about suffrage and the 19^th amendment!

I learned about

1. The division between the two main groups of suffragettes: Alice Paul and her National Women’s Party and Carrie Chapman Catt and her NAWSA. Catt would go on to establish the League of Women Voters.

2. I had not understood before that it was Alice Paul and her group who picketed the White House and were put in jail. Carrie Chapman Catt did not advocate for them.

3. The rather ferocious Antis who were willing to do almost anything to defeat the suffrage movement

4. The many forces that came together to oppose suffrage: the railroads, the whiskey industry and the textile industry, for example

5. The pressure on the politicians in Tennessee from both sides

6. The geographical, philosophical, and political divisions in the state of Tennessee

7. The role of Carrie’s leadership in turning the tide. She was a skilled negotiator

8. The role of racism in the defeat of suffrage in the south – people were afraid that black women would be able to vote. Even the suffragettes were not as supportive. Alice Paul made them ride in the back of the parade

9. The role of President Wilson, whose first wife died. He remarried and Edith was not a fan of suffrage but saw her husband become an advocate for suffrage and the 19^th amendment. He put pressure on the governor to call the special session. However, Wilson became ill and his wife and staff kept his condition from almost everyone. His secretary, Joseph Tumulty, was a supporter of suffrage and made sure that Carrie’s messages got to the President

10. In the end, the fight in Tennessee came down to one good man, Harry Burn.

https://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment

The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment--JENNIE COHEN

“American women achieved the right to vote on August 18, 1920, thanks in part to a Tennessee legislator with a very powerful mother.

…..Harry Burn—who until that time had fallen squarely in the anti-suffrage camp—received a note from his mother, Phoebe Ensminger Burn, known to her family and friends as Miss Febb. In it, she had written, “Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don’t keep them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood but have not noticed anything yet.” She ended the missive with a rousing endorsement of the great suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, imploring her son to “be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.”

Short videos on suffrage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwjlnvKbeQA

School House Rock—19^th Amendment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxZAE6fopjU

By One Vote: Woman Suffrage in the South | The Citizenship Project | NPT

898 views. Premiered Nov 21, 2019

In August 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee legislators cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th Amendment, thus giving women in the United States the right to vote. Narrated by Rosanne Cash, NPT’s original documentary BY ONE VOTE: WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTH chronicles events leading up to that turbulent, nail-biting showdown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KhYRqozTDE&feature=youtu.be

Here is a short video about the historic women's suffrage march on Washington.

Thank you to Michelle Mehrtens for putting this together and for Gerri Perreault for sharing the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9LmBgY-F5A

19^th amendment history: features Alice Paul

Last updated February 16, 2020