(soft music)
- [Narrator] 100 years since
women earned the right to vote.
55 years since women of
color secured theirs.
This is a fight we won
over the past century.
But how many centuries of fighting
did our ancestors endure before?
And how many more will
our descendants have left?
(upbeat music)
- The history of women
obtaining right to vote
in this country was
expensive and disappointing.
But our ancestors persistence,
eventually paid off.
And Massachusetts women played a key role
in that achievement.
Women's aspirations were
restricted to being a wife
and a mother.
And as soon as a woman got married
her rights were eliminated entirely.
- It was in 1776, right here
in Quincy, Massachusetts.
When Abigail Adams wrote
the letter to her husband,
John Adams, who would
later become president.
Saying, remember the
ladies and be more generous
and favorable to them than your ancestors.
We will not hold ourselves
bound by any laws
in which we have no
voice or representation.
- [Narrator] Without a husband, women were
financially restricted
and vocationally limited
by the societal institutions of the time.
When a woman married, she
gave up all of her rights.
Even her personal property
would become her husband's
including any money she earned.
And if a woman was a slave
like Elizabeth Freeman,
she had no rights.
- Someone we don't discuss
enough is Elizabeth Freeman.
She was born into slavery
with a name Mum Bett.
And she lived in Sheffield,
Massachusetts during the 1700s.
As it's been said she
overheard men reciting
the Massachusetts constitution.
Specifically that mankind is equal, free,
and independent of each other.
Nine years later, she sued the state
to have the constitution apply to her.
Eventually, Mum Bett won her freedom
and renamed herself Elizabeth Freeman.
Amazingly, her court case eventually led
to the outlaw of slavery in Massachusetts.
And this is when things really took off.
- Let's fast forward to the early 1800s,
where the early abolitionist
movement is really taking off.
At this point, slavery is
illegal in Massachusetts.
But racism is alive and well.
The year is 1831.
And Sarah Parker Ramon, as a teenager
in Salem, Massachusetts.
You think she and her
family, were the lucky ones
being born free in a country where slavery
continued to thrive.
But unfortunately for
Sarah and her sisters
their black skin wined and with it
so to the prejudice of white America.
- The confinement of
free African Americans
was all too evident.
And Sarah was motivated to
pursue a life of activism,
including anti slavery
and women's suffrage.
Sarah eventually moved to
Europe where she's believed
to be the only black woman to sign
the first women's suffrage
petitioning in Great Britain.
- In 1838, Angelina Grimke made history
at the Boston State
House as the first woman
in our country's history to
address a legislative body.
She delivered 20,000
anti slavery petitions
all signed by women and boldly stated,
"We are the citizens of this republic.
"And as such, our honor,
happiness and well being
"are bound up in its laws,
politics and government."
- [Narrator] As more and more women joined
the anti slavery movement,
discriminatory encounters
with male abolitionists
left many women wondering
why their lives were still not held
in the same regard as men.
- This is the alley on Fifth Avenue.
I am a piece of clay clay.
Gray and dull but necessary.
I'm destined to fill every frame.
I'm cut, ripped apart,
pressed on every side.
But still I remain.
My body is a grave.
My voice is laid to rest while my thoughts
and dreams gasps for air.
My heart is battered.
It is also buried there.
I am black.
Black collect a little dress
she wore on her first date.
Black like the dress I will
wear at my son's funeral.
Black like the tux I have
already purchased to bury him in.
I am black like the most
hated woman in America.
It's been decades and our
women are still marching.
We marched down the alley on Fifth Avenue.
You asked me what a woman is.
And I will tell you Claire means love.
Katrina's voice, Michelle's intelligence.
Fredie is commitment,
Alexandria is passion,
Susan's vision, Elizabeth is resilience,
Harriet is journey, Sojourner is truth.
Ayana is courage, Maya's words.
And the list goes on and
on down to the very end
of the alley.
You ask me what it means to be a woman.
And I'll tell you this poem.
But if you asked me again,
I'll tell you her name.
- The anti slavery convention of 1840
changed the course of history.
White female abolitionists
cross the ocean to attend
the convention, all to
discover they weren't welcome.
- The women were actually
forced to sit in a secluded area
where they were unable to
participate by speaking
or voting at the convention.
Although the women had support from allies
like journalist William Lloyd Garrison
and abolitionist Charles Linux Raimond,
they were still silenced.
I mean, really can you
imagine, here you are
trying to show your
support for the movement.
And men leading that movement
say thank you for showing up.
We need all hands on deck.
Oh, except yours, we don't want yours.
Go sit in the corner and be silent.
The experience led Lucretia
Mott and Elizabeth Candy Stanton
to recognize the need for a
women's rights convention.
Which was held eight years later, in 1848
at Seneca Falls, New York.
They were joined by
ally Frederick Douglass
who played a pivotal
role in helping convince
the participants to
support suffrage for women.
- Two years after that, the
first National Women's Rights
convention was held in
western Massachusetts.
Suffrage leaders Lucy
stone, Abbey Kelly Foster,
Paulina David Wright and Sojourner Truth,
organized and attended the
convention to draw attention
to the movement and
persuade others to join.
1000 people from 11
states attended in 1850
and 3000 attended in 1851.
The National Convention was
used to demand for women
the right to vote, own property,
be admitted to higher education
and work in professions
such as medicine and ministry.
But many weren't supportive,
including the media.
(acoustic music)
- Look at my arm,
look at it.
I have plowed and planted
and gathered in the barns.
And no man could head me.
And ain't I a woman?
I can work as hard
and eat as much as a man
when I could get it
and bet a leash as well.
And ain't I a woman?
I born 13 children
and seed most all of
them sold off to slavery.
And when I cried out
in my mother's grief
none, nobody but Jesus heard me.
And ain't I a woman?
Little man back there,
little man in black, yeah, you
he say, women can't have
as much rights as man.
Because Christ wasn't a woman.
Oh, then where did your Christ come from?
Where did your Christ come from?
He come from God
and a woman.
Man, had nothing to do with him.
Thank you.
(upbeat music)
- At this point, we had
two of the most significant
civil rights movements,
abolition and suffrage
taking place simultaneously.
And both fighting for their
rights as people and citizens.
So of course, they will
continue working together.
And becoming an unstoppable
wave of justice for all.
Only they didn't.
- Turns out suffragists were
still capable of racism,
and abolitionists were equally
capable of sexism, go figure.
- [Narrator] When the
15th amendment passed,
its failure to include gender
left many embittered suffragists
creating a deep divide in the movement.
While many African American
women enthusiastically supported
extending the vote to black
men, even if not to women,
many white women viewed
it as a slap in the face
that all women were told
they'd have to wait.
- Most unfortunate were
the racist statements
voicing resentment toward black men.
For not including all
women in their efforts
to achieve the vote.
Even some of the woman
many of us have always
considered suffrage sweethearts,
such as Susan B. Anthony
and Elizabeth Katie
Stanton were guilty of this
to an extent.
This led to the split of
the central woman's suffrage
organization into two
segregated organizations.
- Segregation was in full
force with women's suffrage
organizing clubs becoming less
and less likely to integrate
both blacks and whites.
Black reformers such as
Josephine, St. Pierre Ruffin,
Charlotte Fort Grimké and Ida B. Wells
formed the National
Association of colored women.
While the general
federation of women's clubs
maintained a membership of
predominantly white women
which almost entirely failed
to address the challenges
faced by black women and exhibited
outright racist behavior.
(upbeat music)
- On March 3 1913, in
Washington, DC Alice Paul
and Lucy Burns organized
the suffrage parade
with thousands of marches and spectators.
Unfortunately, black women
were not welcome to march
but were eventually allowed
to march in the back
of the parade, including
the only black organization
that participated, Delta Sigma
Theta Sorority Incorporated.
Famously, Ida B. Wells while
told to march in the back,
defiantly joined and marched
with her Illinois delegation.
In addition to the racism,
sexism reared its ugly head
during the parade, when
police officers stood idling
as men attacked the
women who were marching.
- Let's talk numbers.
175,000 people attended the
women's march in Boston in 2017.
The October 1915 suffrage parade in Boston
included 12,000 marchers
and 500,000 spectators.
However, despite the
success, it was defeated
at the ballot box a month later.
- Probably because at
least half the people there
didn't have the right to vote.
- Hmm, that's not fair.
- No, no it wasn't.
- The suffragists were the
first people ever to pick
at the White House for
two and a half years
six days a week, the silent
sentinels as they were called,
silently and peacefully
picketed in the heat, the cold,
the snow, the sleet, the rain,
and they were jailed for it.
- We are forever grateful
to the women's suffragists
who guaranteed this right for us
and we celebrate them today and every day.
- They demonstrated,
protested, got arrested.
Did everything they possibly
could to the right or wrong
that they felt needed to be righted.
Which was to give women
the equal right to vote
on who would represent
them and their families
and their lives, here
in the United States,
- Those 21 brave women
who had a peaceful protest
at the steps of our Statehouse.
They stood up, they
made their voices heard.
They grew their numbers,
and they took action.
But it was actions like
that, that allowed for
the movement to continue
for the 19th amendment.
Allowing us to have the right to vote
to become part of our Constitution.
- Leaders of one of the
major suffrage organizations,
The National American
Women's Suffrage Association,
hoped that women would
soon be enfranchised.
Changed its name, and the
League of Women Voters
was born in February, 1920.
Later that year, The Massachusetts
League of Women Voters
was established.
So, this year also marks the centennial
for the League of Women Voters.
(soft music)
- The 36th states to ratify was Tennessee.
And it came down to one
vote, 24 year old Harry Burn,
the youngest legislator
was committed to voting against suffrage.
But he received a letter from his mother,
Febb Ensminger Burn, urged
him to support suffrage
and lucky for us, he
listened to his mother.
♪ Can you feel it ♪
♪ Can you see it ♪
♪ Can you hear even now ♪
♪ We rise ♪
♪ Can you dream it ♪
♪ Can you dare it ♪
♪ Can you dare it even now ♪
♪ We rise ♪
♪ We are rising with the wind ♪
♪ We are lifting to the sky ♪
♪ Higher than we've ever been ♪
♪ We rise ♪
♪ We rise ♪
♪ Every great dream ♪
♪ Begins with a dreamer ♪
- When the 19th amendment
was finally passed,
it was a mark of progress for
the 26 million American women
who were given the right to vote.
But we know that so many were left behind
and in fact continue to be the behind.
The old Jim Crow laws that were used
to prevent African American
men from voting, were then used
to prevent African
American women from voting.
Poll taxes, literacy
tests, grandfather classes
and the like.
- Indigenous people were
still prevented by law
from being considered citizens
and therefore couldn't vote.
In 1924, the Indian
Citizenship Act declared that
indigenous people were
citizens, but they were still
not eligible to vote in every
state election until 1962
when Utah became the last state
to remove formal barriers.
- Chinese Americans and immigrants
weren't granted citizenship,
or the right to vote
into the Magnesium Act, also known as
the Chinese Exclusion Repeal act of 1943.
And it wasn't until the
McCarran Walter Act of 1952
that Asian Americans
were granted citizenship
and the right to vote.
And still until this day,
people in US territories
like Puerto Rico and Guam
are not allowed to vote
in federal general elections.
- Centuries of protests and organizing
of murder and abuse.
And finally, the Voting Rights Act of 1965
was signed into law.
On August 6 1965, the Voting
Rights Act banned the use
of literacy tests and
ensuring federal oversight
of voter registration in
areas where less than 50%
of the non white population
had not registered to vote.
- [Narrator] Although the
24th amendment of 1964
made poll taxes illegal
in federal elections,
it wasn't until two years later in 1966,
that the US Supreme Court
ruled poll taxes illegal
in state elections as well.
Latina X, Asian American
and indigenous people
had gained the right to vote.
However, there were
language barriers until 1975
when the Voting Rights
Act was amended to include
voting rights for non English
speaking American citizens.
Today, African American,
Latinox, Asian American,
indigenous people, and all
non English speaking Americans
are still fighting racism in our nation
that continues to affect
their political involvement.
- With all these fights
and all these victories,
there was yet another marginalized group
that didn't even have
the right to get married
throughout all of it.
LGBTQ plus individuals have always existed
and been a part of
social justice movements.
But many weren't able to live out
like New Bedford born suffragists
Marie Equi, bravely did.
In fact, many female suffrage
leaders live together
in what were called Boston marriages
forming both platonic and
romantic partnerships alike.
The first state to
legalize same sex marriage
was Massachusetts on November 18 2003.
And it wasn't until June 26,
2015 that the Supreme Court
rule same sex marriage
legal in all 50 states.
(upbeat music)
- As we proceed past the
centennial of women's suffrage
we have to remain persistent and resilient
as our ancestors did before.
In 1923, the Equal Rights
Amendment was introduced
in Congress and every year
thereafter until it was
finally adopted by Congress in 1972.
Sending it to the states for ratification
just like the 19th amendment.
And the ERA was written by suffrages
Alice Paul and Chris Leeson.
- By 1982, only 35 states
had ratified the ERA.
In 2017, Nevada became the first state
in 40 years to ratify.
And on January 27, 2020, Virginia became
the 38th and last state
needed for ratification.
- Unfortunately, the
struggle for it to be adopted
into the US Constitution continues today.
- So many of the struggles
women faced in their various
fights for rights have
continued to this day.
Sexism, the gender pay
gap, domestic violence,
sexual harassment and assault.
These are all still prevalent parts
of so many women's lives.
But there is another worth noting
and that is under representation.
- Did you know that only 23%
of the United States Congress is women?
Do you think women make up
only 23% of our population?
And of those only 38% are women of color.
- Women are now more than
half of the population.
So now that we have the right to vote
it's all the more important
that we use that right
and ensure that our voices are heard
and our lives are valued.
- And let's not take for
granted what we have.
But use it to support women of today
and women of our future.
- The right to vote is
powerfully important.
It gives every American voter a chance
to make their voices heard.
To elect leaders that reflect their values
and hold them accountable
once they're in office.
- Voting is one of the most
sacred rights were granted
as citizens of this nation.
Restoring and encouraging the
right to vote for those of us
who have historically been
left out and left behind
is the only way our government
can provide fair representation.
- Our fights haven't stopped
though our voices have been silenced.
So we rip the muscles off
and push to the violence.
They cut down our ancestors,
they never stayed down.
So tall we'll arise and louder we'll sound
as we carry the torch to fight disparity.
Remember respect, remember compassion.
Stand in unity.
♪ This one is your life ♪
♪ This one is my life ♪
♪ From California ♪
- What voting means to me,
using the power that was
- What voting means to me,
using the power that was
given to me by my
ancestors, to have a voice,
to empower and to create
change in communities where
people are disenfranchised,
and don't have opportunities
and resources, and my vote
can make a change to that.
- Voting means that with the
systems we have in place,
and with one small pen stroke,
we can make significant change
in order to better our futures.
- When we didn't have the right to vote,
women's issues would be much ignored
and later voted out by men.
So solutions that were proposed
didn't really benefit women
and marriage rights.
The fact that we couldn't
tell own land or have property
and now we can.
- Voting to me means
using my voice to fulfill
my civic duties.
(foreign language)
- And to ensure that government officials
and those in power are
applying the laws correctly.
(foreign language)
- It sounds cliche, but voting
means exercising your right.
It is something that looks like education,
no one can take away from you.
And also, you are
supporting someone's dream,
whoever the candidate is that's running
or if it is the incumbent,
you are helping that person
continue to forge on with their dream.
And too much blood was shed
for us not to vote.
- 100 years ago, we
didn't have that choice.
We didn't have that ability
to say, I don't agree
with what you're doing, so I'm
gonna go to the other person.
I don't agree with what
is happening around me,
so I want to change that.
- When I think of voting,
I think of the word change.
- To me, voting means I can
have a role in helping people
I care about in my community.
(foreign language)
- Oh, and remember to vote.
(upbeat music)
