(upbeat music)
♪ I'm watching from my window
the curtain coming down ♪
♪ A blue as black as morning
a silence like a sound ♪
♪ That rattles at the cages
that hold my heart and mind ♪
♪ That call my name to wonder
just what I hope to find ♪
♪ I don't know where I'm
going but I'm on my way ♪
♪ Lord, if you love me keep me I pray ♪
♪ A little bird is stretching
out to the shimmering ♪
♪ Shaking blue ♪
♪ I don't know where I'm
going but I know what to do ♪
- Hi, my name is Letitia James
and I am the Attorney General
of the Great State of New York.
Welcome to Women Take the Stage.
Today is Equality Day
and the centennial of the
passage of the 19th Amendment,
the landmark legislation
that our foremothers
fought tirelessly for
to ensure that women
had the right to vote.
We are here to commemorate this milestone,
but we are also keenly aware
that it didn't signify
a victory for all women.
Black women were still
denied the basic right.
They were still denied their voice.
And in too many parts of our country
that still rings painfully
true 100 years later.
Each and every one of us has
a duty and a responsibility
to carry on the work of
all the courageous women
who fought for this right.
We all have a responsibility
to do our part,
to endure that this right is protected
and that we are active participants
in moving our state and
our country forward.
It was New York women
who sparked this change,
and it is New York women
who will continue to see it through.
♪ New York ♪
♪ New York ♪
♪ New York ♪
♪ New York ♪
♪ New York ♪
♪ New York is where I'd rather stay ♪
- We have for the first time,
the tools with which to make
a difference in our lives,
in the lives of our children,
and in the hopes of democracy.
- Hello, I'm Gloria Steinem.
And I am very happy that the
American system of government
is based on one that was here
long before European colonizers showed up.
It was based on concentric talking circles
that included everyone.
And in fact, when Benjamin Franklin
invited four Native American advisers
to the Constitutional Convention,
their very first question
was, "Where are the women?"
Well, now the women are here.
(drumming)
(vocalizing)
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
♪ We walk in the light ♪
♪ With our brothers and sisters ♪
♪ We stand and we fight ♪
♪ With a drum, a song ♪
♪ A prayer this change of time ♪
♪ This is the true reckoning ♪
♪ The human awakening ♪
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
(vocalizing)
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
(upbeat music)
♪ People come by the hundreds ♪
♪ Sing and dance the
streets of shopping malls ♪
♪ The corners, Capitols ♪
♪ Corporations and city halls ♪
♪ All over this Turtle Island ♪
♪ Our presence will break the silence ♪
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
(vocalizing)
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
♪ Together brothers and
sisters idle no more ♪
- (speaks foreign language)
I am Gail Small
(speaks foreign language)
from the Northern
Cheyenne tribe of Montana.
I am the Program Director
of the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program.
Our right to vote is in real danger today.
America's first people urge you to vote.
We must step in, each and every one of us.
We can create a world where
justice can actually happen.
The powers that be are trying
to stop us from voting.
Get your vote counted.
No matter the challenges
presented, your vote is your voice.
(speaks foreign language)
Thank you.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Vanessa Williams.
In the 1800s,
Isabella Baumfree and Araminta
Ross rose to prominence
as anti-slavery crusaders in New York.
Both were enslaved and
gained their own freedom,
changed their names,
and never stopped
fighting for civil rights.
Specifically, the right
and the vote for women.
Isabella's five-year-old
son Peter was stolen
and sold back into slavery.
To save him, she became
the first black woman
to go against a white man in
court, in America, and win.
Soon after, Isabella, who
stood over six feet tall
and spoke with mob-calming authority,
changed her name to Sojourner Truth.
At barely five feet tall,
Araminta Ross was small
but she towered in courage.
After a slave owner hit her
in the head with a shovel,
she developed epilepsy,
seizures, and hypersomnia.
Despite that, she escaped
from slavery in Maryland,
but then returned back to break out
more members of her enslaved family.
In all, she made over 13 secret trips
and personally led 70 enslaved people
on the Underground Railroad
to New York and to freedom.
This brave American
patriot didn't stop there.
She served the Union Army as a nurse,
led troops on raids to free those
on plantations in South Carolina,
and changed her name to Harriet Tubman.
She was buried with full military honors
in Auburn, New York.
In 2016, she was to have replaced
slave owner Andrew Jackson
on the $20 bill.
We are still waiting,
but someday soon we may
be rolling in the Tubmans.
(hymn song)
♪ I been walkin' ♪
♪ With my face turned to the sun ♪
♪ Weight on my shoulders ♪
♪ Bullet in my gun ♪
♪ Well, I got eyes in
the back of my head ♪
♪ Just in case I have to run ♪
♪ Do what I can when I can
while I can for my people ♪
♪ While the clouds roll back
and the stars fill the night ♪
♪ That's why I'm gonna stand up ♪
♪ Take my people with me ♪
♪ Together we are going ♪
♪ To a brand new home ♪
♪ Far across the river ♪
♪ Can you hear freedom calling ♪
♪ Calling me to answer ♪
♪ Gonna keep on keepin' on ♪
♪ I can feel it in my bones ♪
♪ And I know what's around the bend ♪
♪ Might be hard to face 'cause I'm alone ♪
♪ And I just might fail ♪
♪ But Lord knows I tried ♪
♪ Sure as stars fill up the sky ♪
♪ Stand up ♪
♪ Take my people with me ♪
♪ Together we are going ♪
♪ To a brand new home ♪
♪ Far across the river ♪
♪ Can you hear freedom calling ♪
♪ Calling me to answer ♪
♪ Gonna keep on keepin' on ♪
♪ I can feel it in my bones ♪
♪ I go to prepare a place for you ♪
♪ I go to prepare a place for you ♪
♪ I go to prepare a place for you ♪
♪ I go to prepare a place for you ♪
- Hi, I'm Alicia Garza
and I'm the Principal
at the Black Futures Lab
and the Black to the Future Action Fund.
At the Black Futures Lab,
we work to make black
communities powerful in politics.
What we know is that the
challenges facing our communities
are complicated and complex
and their solutions require
innovation, experimentation,
and most of all requires
black political power.
So that's what we do.
We build black political power.
If you want to join us,
you can help us by engaging
in a number of ways.
Number one, visit our
Electoral Action Center
at blackfutureslab.org,
and spread the word to everyone you know,
who needs to learn how to vote,
figure out how to register to vote,
and find out if they are
currently registered,
even though they sent
their registration in.
It also helps you learn
everything you need to know
about who represents you from city hall,
all the way up to Congress.
We really want you engaged
in this electoral cycle.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Judy Gold.
It's little wonder that
the women's rights movement
was born in New York.
Native women had great power
in that part of the land.
In their egalitarian system of government,
the leaders were all elected by the women.
Every land negotiation had
to be approved by the women.
Any act of war could
be vetoed by the women.
As life givers, they
controlled their own bodies.
They decided when life
began or could be taken.
Any man who committed sexual assault
could be banished or sentenced
to death by the women.
They had frequent contact
with their settler neighbors,
including Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Lucretia Mott,
who marveled at the power
that the Native women had.
The right to own property,
to have matrilineal succession, to vote.
They vowed to hold a convention
for the rights of women in
their hometown, Seneca Falls.
More radical a revolutionary
was Matilda Joslyn Gage,
who was arrested trying
to vote in New York.
Who staged a protest
at the dedication of the
Statue of Liberty in 1886,
arguing a woman couldn't
represent liberty in America
when a woman couldn't even vote.
Matilda advocated so
persistently for equal rights
that she influenced the
writing of her son-in-law.
He created an imaginary world
ruled by immensely powerful women.
His name was Lyman Frank Baum.
His book: "The Wizard of Oz."
♪ Children I'm gonna do
what the spirit say ♪
♪ Do children ♪
♪ I'm gonna do what the spirit say ♪
♪ Do children ♪
♪ I'm gonna do what the spirit say ♪
♪ Do my Lord ♪
♪ And obey the spirit of the Lord ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna walk when the spirit say ♪
♪ Walk children ♪
♪ I'm gonna walk when the spirit say ♪
♪ Walk children ♪
♪ I'm gonna walk over
Jerusalem just like John ♪
♪ I'm gonna walk when
the spirit say walk ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna shout when the spirit say ♪
♪ Shout children ♪
♪ I'm gonna shout when the spirit say ♪
♪ Shout children ♪
♪ I'm gonna shout like the children ♪
♪ In the Battle of Jericho ♪
♪ Shout when the spirit say shout ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna sing when the spirit say ♪
♪ Sing children ♪
♪ I'm gonna sing when the spirit say ♪
♪ Sing children ♪
♪ I'm gonna sing my song
like Aretha Franklin ♪
♪ And oh thank the spirit of the Lord ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna speak when the spirit say ♪
♪ Speak children ♪
♪ I'm gonna speak when the spirit say ♪
♪ Speak children ♪
♪ Like Dr. Martin Luther
King and Barack Obama ♪
♪ Gonna speak when spirit say speak ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm write when the spirit say ♪
♪ Write children ♪
♪ I'm gonna write when the spirit say ♪
♪ Write children ♪
♪ Like Zora Neale Hurston
and Langston Hughes ♪
♪ I'm gonna write when
the spirit say write ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna dance when the spirit say ♪
♪ Dance children ♪
♪ I'm gonna dance when the spirit say ♪
♪ Dance children ♪
♪ Like Baba Chuck Davis did oh yeah ♪
♪ I'm gonna dance when
the spirit say dance ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna sit when the spirit say ♪
♪ Sit children ♪
♪ I'm gonna sit when the spirit say ♪
♪ Sit children ♪
♪ Like Rosa Parks did
on the bus you know ♪
♪ I'm gonna sit when the spirit say sit ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna stand when the spirit say ♪
♪ Stand children ♪
♪ I'm gonna stand when
the spirit say stand ♪
♪ Stand children ♪
♪ I'm gonna stand for my rights
and peace and justice and ♪
♪ Stand ♪
♪ The spirit of the Lord ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna march when the spirit say ♪
♪ March children ♪
♪ I'm gonna march when the spirit say ♪
♪ March children ♪
♪ I'm gonna march all
over the U.S.A you know ♪
♪ I'm gonna march when
the spirit say march ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna sing - children ♪
♪ I'm gonna shout - children ♪
♪ I'm gonna live - children ♪
♪ I'm gonna write - children ♪
♪ I will rise - children ♪
♪ And I thank - children ♪
♪ I will breathe - children ♪
♪ I will love - children ♪
♪ I will live ♪
♪ I'm gonna do, do, do ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ I'm gonna do what the spirit say do ♪
♪ Children ♪
♪ I'm gonna do what the spirit say do ♪
♪ Children ♪
♪ I'm gonna do what the
spirit say do my Lord ♪
♪ And obey the spirit of Lord ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Huh ♪
♪ Do what the spirit say ♪
♪ Do ♪
(laughter)
- Hi, this is Dolores Huerta,
President of the Dolores
Huerta Foundation.
I'm so happy that we're all together here
in this movement to get women elected.
We know that now is the time
that we need to have our women
not only to serve on the
national level and the Congress
at the state legislatures,
but also on our local levels.
We need you on our school
boards, on a recreation boards,
on our college boards,
on our utility boards.
We have so much work to do as women,
we've got to get in those
decision making positions.
And so I'm so happy that all
of us are working together.
We've gotta build the women's movement.
We've gotta get the
Equal Rights Amendment.
Yes, we can do this.
We just gotta go out there and
organize all of those women
to understand how important
women's voices are,
women's decision making power is,
and that's what we do with
the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
We empower women at the grassroots level
so that they can become engaged.
And now we've all gotta go forward
because we have an
important election coming up
this November.
So we've gotta organize,
organize, organize,
mobilize, mobilize, mobilize.
We can do it.
Si se puede!
(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Carol Jenkins,
CEO and Co-President of the ERA Coalition.
Back on March 25th of 1911,
a terrible fire broke
out in Greenwich Village
in New York City.
146 young, mostly immigrant women
lost their lives behind a locked door
on the eighth floor of the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
Their shocking deaths exposed
the true horror of
sweatshops to this nation.
After the tragedy, unions rose.
And for the first time in America,
regulations began to protect
the safety of workers.
Women banded together to stand up
to even the most powerful
bosses and companies.
The Equal Rights Amendment
was proposed by Alice Paul
in 1923.
Almost 100 years later,
the majority of people in this country
believe that women are
protected in the constitution.
We're not.
There are a couple of
steps we need to take.
Back in 1972, Congress passed the ERA,
sent it out to the
states for ratification.
The required 38 states are now ratified.
The House of Representatives
voted this year
to dissolve the arbitrary
time limit on the ERA.
We need the Senate to do the same.
The majority of Americans want the ERA.
It will help protect all family members
equally for the first time.
It's right, it's fair,
and after 100 years, it's certainly time.
- Hey, I'm Emily.
- I'm Amy. We're Indigo Girls.
Here's a song for
all the activists out there.
(guitar music)
♪ Through the dust bowl ♪
♪ Through the debt ♪
♪ Grandma was a suffragette ♪
♪ Blacklisted for her publication ♪
♪ Blacklisted for our generation ♪
♪ Go go go ♪
♪ Raise your hands ♪
♪ Raise your hands high ♪
♪ Don't take a seat ♪
♪ Don't stand aside ♪
♪ This time ♪
♪ Don't assume anything ♪
♪ Just go go go ♪
♪ Feed the fire ♪
♪ And fan the flame ♪
♪ I know the kids can stand the rain ♪
♪ I know the kids are still upsetters ♪
♪ 'Cause rock is cool but
the struggle is better ♪
♪ Go go go ♪
♪ Raise your hands ♪
♪ Raise your hands high ♪
♪ Don't take a seat ♪
♪ Don't stand aside ♪
♪ This time ♪
♪ Don't assume anything ♪
♪ I said this time ♪
♪ Now don't assume anything ♪
♪ Just go ♪
♪ Did they tell you it was set in stone ♪
♪ That you'd end up alone ♪
♪ Use your years to psyche you out ♪
♪ You're too old to care ♪
♪ You're too young to count ♪
♪ Did they tell you,
you would come undone ♪
♪ When you try to touch the sun ♪
♪ Undermine the underground ♪
♪ You're too old to care ♪
♪ You're too young to count ♪
♪ I said go go go ♪
♪ I said this time ♪
♪ Now don't assume anything ♪
♪ Just go go go ♪
♪ Go go ♪
♪ Go go ♪
- Get out and vote
- (both) Get the hell out and vote
- My name is Charlotte Mangin
and I'm the Creator and
Director of UNLADYYLIKE2020,
the series of 26 documentary shorts
created for American Masters on PBS.
I wanted it to be this
treasure trove of stories
about women from the
turn of the 20th century,
who were often the first in
their professional fields.
When I realized that 2020
was the centennial of women's suffrage,
I knew that was the perfect year
to bring these stories back to life,
taking stock of how far we've come,
but also what remains to be done.
We want viewers to
discover new role models,
new stories of women who stood
up for what they believed in,
and a number of the struggles
that they led 100 plus years
ago still resonate today.
- I'm out here with my
little waterfall as a prop.
(laughs)
At the Women's Rights
Convention of Seneca Falls,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton presented
the Declaration of Sentiments.
They were 12 resolutions
calling for moral, economic,
and political equality for women.
At a time when white women
were taught to remain quiet,
Convention organizer Lucretia Mott
and other Quaker women spoke
up powerfully to end slavery,
inspiring other women to find their voices
and to join the crusade
of black abolitionists,
like Charlotte Grimké, Frances Harper,
Sarah Remond, and Harriet Tubman.
Yet after the Civil War
when black men got the vote
and women didn't, tensions
among suffragists grew.
Black women started their own civic clubs,
and in 1896, Mary Church Terrell became
the first president of the powerful
National Association of Colored Women,
an organization that fought
at the intersections of both
gender and race.
Change was in the air.
And after decades of
petitions to legislators,
after marches, pickets,
jailings, hunger strikes,
and beatings - beatings
of protesters by police -
the 19th Amendment finally passed in 1920.
Though some women could vote,
suppression and discrimination
barred millions for decades.
Immigrants of Asian descent
couldn't vote as citizens until 1952.
Not all Native Americans
could vote until 1962.
Not all African American women could vote
until both the Civil Rights Act
and the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.
The 19th Amendment was
a significant milestone
in the long and rocky road
to equal rights in America.
You know we have miles to go.
You know voter suppression
is a problem today.
But in the spirit of the great foremothers
who paved the way, let us
not grow weary of doing good,
for in due season we will reap,
if we do not give up.
May it be so.
(upbeat music)
(vocalizing)
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ Somebody told you long ago ♪
♪ Ain't no hope in changing it ♪
♪ Somebody told you long ago ♪
♪ This is just the way it is ♪
♪ Somebody told you ♪
♪ You won't make it ♪
♪ Somebody told you ♪
♪ You weren't strong ♪
♪ Somebody told you can't change it ♪
♪ You about to prove 'em wrong ♪
♪ 'Cause we got change ♪
♪ Yeah we got change in
our marching feet oh ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ Yeah we got change in
the way we speak oh ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ Yeah we got change in
the voting booth oh ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ Yeah we got change and we got proof ♪
♪ Somebody told you long ago ♪
♪ Some people were born to hurt ♪
♪ Somebody told me long ago ♪
♪ Some folks got what they deserve ♪
♪ Somebody told you long ago ♪
♪ You stay down where you belong ♪
♪ Somebody told you you can't change it ♪
♪ You about to prove 'em wrong ♪
♪ 'Cause we got change ♪
♪ Said we got change in
our marching feet oh ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ Yeah we got change
every time we speak oh ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ Yeah we got change in
the voting booth oh ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ Yeah we got change and we got proof ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got proof ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got proof oh ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got proof ♪
♪ We got change ♪
♪ We got proof oh ♪
- Yeah
- Yes, school this fall is
going to be a challenge.
Students will need to
be more self-motivating.
Parents will need patience and compassion
as they model resilience and grit,
and schools will have to pivot
and pivot and pivot again,
to respond appropriately to
the changing environment.
But we can do this.
We must do this
because education is all-important
to our American democracy.
Why? Because education
can lift us from poverty,
help overcome inequality
and create informed citizens
to improve our neighborhoods,
our nation and our future.
It may not be easy this fall,
but we got to let go of
how classes operated before
and now embrace new models of learning.
What matters most is not
whether this is temporary.
What matters is that we're standing tall,
squaring our shoulders
and doing the work to attain
the best education possible,
regardless of the changing circumstances.
Educated voters can make the
most informed decisions about
the people that run the country
and the policies that govern our nation.
So let's get going and prepare
ourselves to bring about
the change that we need to improve lives
and ensure equality.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, my name is Zuri.
- And I am Staceyann Chin.
- The poet Emma Lazarus wrote,
Here at our sea-washed sunset gates
shall stand a mighty woman with a torch.
And her name, Mother of Exiles.
- In the late 19th and 20th centuries,
America had a boom in migration.
Many of the warnings
and panic we hear today
about strangers on our shores
were said then as well.
The biggest fear was that immigrants
were going to take American jobs,
cause crime and change the culture.
New studies have found
that the U.S. counties
with more immigration at that time
today have higher average incomes,
less poverty, and lower unemployment.
- From her beacon-hand
glows world-wide welcome.
Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free.
- Currently immigrants are
14% of the U.S. population,
but they started 25% of all new businesses
and won over a third, that's 30%,
of Nobel prizes in science.
- Send these, the homeless,
tempest ...
tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
- 3.1 million immigrants were
expected to be naturalized
before the upcoming election,
many in key battleground states.
These votes were expected
to play a decisive role
in local, state and national
elections this fall,
until the pandemic hit.
America is aging and
desperately needs a robust,
young labor force paying
into Social Security.
We are a nation built by immigrants.
We flourish with the diversity
of these contributions.
Without them, what even is America?
- Sisters like jewels in a crown,
vanilla, cinnamon and
dark chocolate brown.
(drumming)
- They arrived, they
arrived, they arrived,
and they kept arriving.
The indigenous sisters were
the first to lay claim.
Then sailing the seas by the millions,
the immigrants came.
(drumming)
- Those sisters who looked like me,
crossed in the bellies of
ships, longed to be free.
Giving birth to the future,
sisters from all the nations arrived.
Quietly at first, listening to the rhythm,
moving to the sound, knowing
they were freedom bound.
(drumming)
- As the music and the drums got louder,
sisters became wiser and prouder.
(drumming)
- We are the dealmakers
and difference makers
who care deeply for one another
and this earth on which we reside.
We are listening and in sync,
marching with locked arms,
with purpose and resolve.
We arrived, we arrived, we arrived,
and we keep arriving.
We are the heirs of my
mother, your mother,
and theirs.
Sisters like jewels in a crown,
vanilla, cinnamon and
dark chocolate brown.
I hear the drums saying,
"Our vision,
our voice,
our vote."
(drumming)
- My name is Dr. Debbie Almontaser
and I am one of four
women leading chapters
in six states at Emgage,
an organization,
empowering American Muslims
through political literacy
and civic engagement.
This year, we launched the
Million Muslim Votes campaign
to make sure that every American Muslim
comes out to vote.
At a time when American Muslims
have suffered under the Muslim ban,
I want you to join us in solidarity
by letting your Muslim neighbors know
about the Million Muslim Votes campaign.
Send them to our website,
millionmuslimvotes.com,
and tell them to take the pledge today.
Thank you.
♪ I come upon ♪
♪ A child of God ♪
♪ She was walking along the road ♪
♪ And I asked her, ♪
♪ I said where are you going ♪
♪ And this she told me ♪
- I'm Lily Tomlin.
In the 1960s, epic movements for change
gathered strength across the nation.
♪ We are stardust ♪
♪ We are golden ♪
- In the 1968 Miss America
protest in Atlantic City,
women filled a freedom trashcan
with girdles, makeup,
and other trappings of
feminine oppression.
An act that became the enduring myth
that they burned their bras.
The three-day Woodstock concert
spread antiwar messages of peace and love.
And on June 28, 1969,
the night after 20,000 mourners
attended Judy Garland's funeral,
a riot broke out at the Stonewall
Inn in Greenwich Village.
Reportedly started by
two trans women of color,
a crowd of lesbians, drag
queens, gay men and allies
spontaneously rose up
and refused to back down
to longstanding police oppression.
The civil rights movements of the 1960s
clearly showed millions
we are all stardust.
We are all golden.
And somehow we've got to
get back to the garden.
♪ And we've got to get
ourselves back to the garden. ♪
(scatting)
♪ I can't wait to be free ♪
♪ Can't wait to get
these chains off of me ♪
♪ I'll go wherever time is racing ♪
♪ I'll play my small part
in the big solution ♪
♪ Here we go ♪
♪ Changing the weather ♪
♪ Locking arms ♪
♪ Dropping bombs wherever ♪
♪ Can't we get it together? ♪
♪ Where is the love? ♪
♪ I've been dreaming about the sky ♪
♪ Got a feeling we're about to fly ♪
♪ Our power is out of sight ♪
♪ And we gon' be the
ones to get it right ♪
♪ It's gon' feel like
it happened overnight ♪
♪ When the rising billion comes online ♪
♪ Our power is out of sight ♪
♪ And we gon' be the
ones to get it right ♪
(scatting)
♪ I've been dreaming about the sky ♪
♪ Got a feeling we're about to fly ♪
♪ Our power is out of sight ♪
♪ And we gon' be the
ones to get it right ♪
♪ It's gon' feel like
it happened overnight ♪
♪ When the rising billion comes online ♪
♪ Our power is out of sight ♪
♪ And we gon' be the
ones to get it right ♪
- I'm Kierra Johnson with the
National LGBTQ Task Force,
and we want you to speak
out and get counted.
That's why the Task Force
has launched two campaigns,
Queer the Vote and Queer the Census.
LGBTQ people are
underrepresented in the census,
which allocates over a trillion dollars
in support to communities
across the nation.
And over 20% of LGBTQ adults
are not yet registered to vote.
But we still have time.
And it is critical that
we raise our voices
for equity and justice.
So don't forget to fill out
your census by September 30th
and exercise your right to
vote on or before November 3rd.
For more information,
visit thetaskforce.org.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Billie Jean King.
On every t-shirt you see now,
girls rule, women are queens,
and the future is female.
But until the 70s, a woman
was treated like a minor.
She couldn't keep her own
last name if she got married.
Couldn't serve on a jury in all 50 states,
Couldn't say no to her
husband if he wanted sex.
Couldn't get a credit card on her own
without her husband's signature.
Couldn't get birth control
unless you could prove she was married.
Couldn't bring legal action
against sexual harassment
because there was no penalty before 1977.
Couldn't get a legal abortion
for any reason at all,
including after incest,
rape or for her own health.
Couldn't be an astronaut
or breastfeed in public,
or be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Then on August 26th, 1970,
on the 50th anniversary
of the 19th Amendment,
tens of thousands of
women across the nation
joined the Women's Strike for Equality
and women took off.
In 1972, Gloria Steinem,
Pat Carbine and others
launched Ms. Magazine.
Congress passed Title IX
to end sex discrimination in schools,
and for the first time
a woman could receive
an athletic scholarship.
In 1973, I played that guy,
Bobby Riggs, the chauvinist.
And the Supreme Court
sided with the majority
of American women and made
access to a safe abortion
legal with Roe v. Wade.
And Shirley Chisholm
became the first black
major party candidate
to run for president of the United States.
Her slogan: Unbought and Unbossed.
We are who we are today
because the second phase
of the women's movement
was a tidal wave.
♪ This is life ♪
♪ This is growing ♪
♪ This is bold ♪
♪ Joyful ♪
♪ Passion ♪
♪ So grateful ♪
♪ Moving ♪
♪ This is inspiring ♪
♪ One voice of community ♪
♪ We are America ♪
♪ We're none other than each other ♪
♪ This song is for the woman ♪
♪ Who sees herself in your eyes ♪
♪ Oceans between mountains ♪
♪ She knows the time ♪
♪ She fights to climb ♪
♪ She shines ♪
♪ See her leading with a purpose ♪
♪ Taking space and giving hope ♪
♪ Knowing all the while
she doesn't rise alone ♪
♪ She lifts the woman next to her up ♪
♪ As she ascends 'cause
she listens and she lives ♪
♪ The message that she sends ♪
♪ All love for this woman ♪
♪ That's my sister, a leader with a song ♪
♪ Oceans between mountains ♪
♪ She knows the time, she
fights to climb, shine on ♪
♪ She knows the time, she
fights to climb, shine on ♪
♪ Look how far she's come ♪
♪ From different cultures ♪
♪ Different lands ♪
♪ Through the journey ♪
♪ Through the struggle ♪
♪ She keeps an open hand ♪
♪ Through the sexist,
classist, racist grind ♪
♪ She keep a steady open heart ♪
♪ Steady open mind ♪
♪ All shades of skin ♪
♪ All shades of skin ♪
♪ She shines ♪
♪ She shines ♪
♪ She shines ♪
♪ She knows the time, she
fights to climb, she shines ♪
- My name is Andrea Jenkins.
I am the Vice President of
the Minneapolis City Council.
As the first black out transgender woman,
elected to public office
in the United States,
it is truly an honor.
However many trans folks
cannot vote because their ID
does not match the person
standing in the ballot box.
That is why we must elect
leaders that understand
the intersections of gender and race
and how those things
conspire to keep transgender
and gender nonconforming people down.
That's why I encourage you
to vote on November 3rd
because your vote matters.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Mia Ives-Rublee.
Say you combined the entire
populations of Texas,
Florida and Ohio.
That's about the same
number of disabled people
in the United States today.
According to the CDC,
that's 61 million people.
Yet this gigantic group of citizens
didn't get full voting rights until 1990.
Exactly 30 years ago this year,
the Americans with
Disabilities Act was passed,
providing legal framework to
ensure disabled people like me
have the right to vote.
Even with the ADA, physical barriers
still exist in 60% of polling locations.
Expanding in-person voting hours,
locations, and mail-in voting
is extremely important
during this pandemic.
The myth of rampant voter fraud
is the big lie at the
core of voter suppression.
According to the conservative
Heritage Foundation,
in the past 20 years,
only 0.00006%
of all mail-in ballots
cast were fraudulent.
We can fight all of this,
but it's going to take effort
and we have to educate ourselves.
And think of this:
61 million people could
be a huge voting bloc.
Tens of millions of
people who are registered,
but are unable to physically vote,
could easily sway the
outcome of any election.
So join me and let's squad up, America.
(upbeat music)
♪ We are in this together ♪
♪ We are in this together ♪
♪ Money's tight ♪
♪ Everywhere ♪
♪ Overworked ♪
♪ I don't care as long as ♪
♪ We are in this together ♪
♪ Do your dreams fade in the night ♪
♪ Keep believing ♪
♪ It's alright ♪
♪ It's alright ♪
♪ It's alright ♪
♪ We are in this together ♪
♪ We are in this together ♪
♪ Danger whirls in the air ♪
♪ Overwhelmed ♪
♪ I don't care as long as ♪
♪ We are in this together ♪
♪ If change is worth the fight ♪
♪ Keep believing ♪
♪ It's alright ♪
♪ It's alright ♪
♪ It's alright ♪
♪ Hold, hold, hold ♪
♪ Hold on ♪
♪ Through the dusk ♪
♪ 'Til dawn ♪
♪ Side by side ♪
♪ By side ♪
♪ By side ♪
♪ By side ♪
♪ By side ♪
♪ Carry on ♪
♪ Hearts can break ♪
♪ Without repair ♪
♪ Overcome ♪
♪ I don't care ♪
♪ As long as we are in this ♪
♪ We are in this ♪
♪ We are ♪
♪ We are in this together ♪
♪ We are in, in this together ♪
♪ We are in, in this together ♪
♪ We are in, in this together ♪
♪ We are in, in this together ♪
♪ We are in, in this together ♪
♪ We are in, in this together ♪
♪ We are in, in this together ♪
♪ We are in, in this together ♪
- Hi, I'm Glynda Carr,
President and CEO of
Higher Heights for America.
The political home for black women.
When you fire up a black woman,
she doesn't go to the polls alone.
She brings her house,
her block, her church,
her sorority, and her union.
We all have a role to play.
We know that we are stronger
in collective together.
We need you to help amplify
the leadership of black women.
So we hope you will join Higher Heights
at higherheightsforamerica.org.
You, and my neighbors,
and all of us together
will help black women lead at the polls
and on the ballot in 2020 and beyond.
So thank you for your support.
- Hello everybody.
I'm Kate Pierson from the
B-52s and I'm thrilled
to be part of Women Take the Stage.
So welcome to New York y'all.
This song is an original song
written with Chris Braide,
and it's never been heard before.
It's called higher place.
And I'm joined by these
wonderful musicians:
Ken Maiuri, Kat Dyson and Ganessa James.
(intro music)
♪ As I was abused ♪
♪ Feeling so wronged ♪
♪ I didn't realize ♪
♪ Oh I could be strong ♪
♪ I knew I had the responsibility ♪
♪ To take it to a higher place ♪
♪ I knew I had the power ♪
♪ I had to dance again ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ I was down down ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ I was down ♪
♪ I was down down ♪
♪ Take it to a higher place ♪
♪ I wanna take you there ♪
♪ Take it to a higher place and dance ♪
♪ Now I'm walking on air ♪
♪ I'm skippin' on stones ♪
♪ But we only got here ♪
♪ Walking on other women's bones ♪
♪ I know I am scared ♪
♪ And I wanna be strong ♪
♪ We have nothing to fear ♪
♪ We're not walking alone ♪
♪ We'll take it to a higher place ♪
♪ I remember the shame ♪
♪ It never felt right ♪
♪ I only know ♪
♪ Oh we have to fight ♪
♪ The battles that incite a riot in us ♪
♪ Taking the truth denied to us ♪
♪ I know we have the power ♪
♪ We have to dance again ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ I was down down ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ I was down ♪
♪ I was down down ♪
♪ Take it to a higher place ♪
♪ I wanna take you there ♪
♪ Take it to a higher place and dance ♪
♪ Now I'm walking on air ♪
♪ I'm skippin' on stones ♪
♪ But we only got here ♪
♪ Walking on other women's bones ♪
♪ I know I am scared ♪
♪ And I wanna be strong ♪
♪ We have nothing to fear ♪
♪ We're not walking alone ♪
♪ We'll take it to a higher place ♪
♪ Now I'm walking on air ♪
♪ I'm skippin' on stones ♪
♪ But we only got here ♪
♪ Walking on other women's bones ♪
♪ I know I am scared ♪
♪ And I wanna be strong ♪
♪ We have nothing to fear ♪
♪ We're not walking alone ♪
♪ Now I'm walking on air ♪
♪ I'm skippin' on stones ♪
♪ But we only got here ♪
♪ Walking on other women's bones ♪
♪ I know I am scared ♪
♪ And I wanna strong ♪
♪ We have nothing to fear ♪
♪ We're not walking alone ♪
♪ We'll take it to a higher place ♪
- Hi, everyone.
I'm so thrilled to be here with all of you
for this virtual celebration
of a very important milestone:
the 100th anniversary of the
passing of the 19th Amendment.
The suffragists of over a century ago
knew that women having political power
would lead to better outcomes
for an entire society.
And now today, 100 years
later, the proof is everywhere.
Across the globe, research shows that
when you empower women with
equal access to education,
economic opportunities,
and decision making
whole families and
communities are lifted up.
Across businesses countless studies
have shown that the more
women you have in leadership,
the greater the creativity, productivity,
and the better the bottom line.
And in government, the
evidence points to the fact
that women legislators sponsor more bills,
pass more laws, send more
money to their districts,
and are more likely to
introduce legislation
that specifically helps
women and children.
It could not be a greater privilege
to stand before all of you
as the First Partner of California
to honor the brave suffragists
on whose shoulders we all stand.
(guitar music)
♪ I'm just a seed in a sidewalk crack ♪
♪ Bustin' concrete,
gonna break your back ♪
♪ Just one match, more
matches all around ♪
♪ With enough heat, gonna
burn the house down ♪
♪ You tried to bury me,
but I'm an oak tree ♪
♪ You tryna come for
me, you betta be ready ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ Under your skin I burrow like a worm ♪
♪ Diggin' in, I'm watching
you writhe and burn ♪
♪ Try to suppress, try to objectify ♪
♪ In your dreams you hear my battle cry ♪
♪ You tried to bury me,
but I'm an oak tree ♪
♪ You tryna come for
me, you betta be ready ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ You tried to bury me,
but I'm an oak tree ♪
♪ You tryna come for
me, you betta be ready ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
♪ Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ♪
- Hi, I'm Megan Smith.
As technology becomes
more and more intertwined
with our lives
- certainly we're seeing
that with the pandemic
and certainly with democracy -
we need more women at the front.
The upcoming election is
critical to our nation's future.
Women are consistently the
largest number of voters,
and we have to bring creative ideas
and solutions and work together.
Our elections cannot be tainted
by unchecked propaganda,
by foreign influence, by misinformation
and echo chambers where good Americans
don't hear each other and hear the truth.
And also voting systems
need to work beautifully.
We're Americans, we know how to do this.
Let's break stereotypes.
A quarter of the tech jobs
today are held by women.
There's only representation
of 3%, African American women,
2% Hispanic American women,
Native American women.
Like, these numbers are ridiculously low.
These are the power tools of our time,
and they pay three times
the average American salary
and there's millions of jobs open.
Technology in its greatest
form is about love.
It's about justice and about
climate change solutions
and poverty solutions and
economic inclusion and democracy.
Let's lift up all the women
who've done incredible data
and tech work for all of
history from the beginning,
like Grace Hopper and Ida B.
Wells, data science journalist,
Katherine Johnson,
calculating us to the moon.
And I bring up Ada Lovelace
who invented algorithms at the same time
that Darwin thought of the origin of us.
Algorithms learn from data
and they learn to be sexist
and racist and ageist.
And so we have to make sure
that doesn't get encoded.
So the good news is people
are working on that.
You can join us.
President Washington said,
"Knowledge in every country
is the surest basis of public happiness."
So come join the knowledge economy.
The wisdom of women
needs to be in the code
and we need you.
So let's vote together.
- My name is Tina Tchen
and I am President and CEO of Time's Up.
At Time's Up we are working every day
to support survivors of sexual harassment
and to change culture, company and laws
to create safe, fair, and
dignified work for everyone.
So that sexual harassment doesn't happen.
And those issues are on
the ballot this fall.
They're on the ballot every fall.
And as we celebrate the centennial
of the women's right to vote,
we need to recommit ourselves
to vote this November.
So here's how you can do that.
Go to whenweallvote.org,
get the information you
need to get registered.
Find out how you can
safely vote in November
and then exercise your right to vote.
- Okay, you know what to do now.
So go do it.
It's time for you to take the stage.
(upbeat music)
♪ It's a new year ♪
♪ Or about to be ♪
♪ I wanna forgive ♪
♪ Everything that has harmed me ♪
♪ Roll off me now ♪
♪ Wave of cell tower ♪
♪ Leave me now ♪
♪ My hands all power ♪
♪ Here I am ♪
♪ Here I am ♪
♪ There's a lottery ♪
♪ All in front of me ♪
♪ Paid for by oil wars ♪
♪ And some cheesy company ♪
♪ We see through ♪
♪ The smoke and screens ♪
♪ We can be the bigger dream ♪
♪ Yes we can ♪
♪ Yes we can ♪
♪ Look what we bought, for nothing ♪
♪ Got caught, for loving ♪
♪ Found out, there's nothing ♪
♪ No ground to grow on ♪
♪ We, we did our part ♪
♪ We cried, we built our heart ♪
♪ Now we are way too smart ♪
♪ To sing your war songs ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ In the underground ♪
♪ The most amazing sound ♪
♪ We sing through everything ♪
♪ That tries to cut us down ♪
♪ But we're not all just on our knees ♪
♪ We can be the bigger dream ♪
♪ Yes we can ♪
♪ Yes ma'am ♪
♪ Look what we bought, for nothing ♪
♪ Got caught, for loving ♪
♪ Found out there's nothing ♪
♪ No ground to grow on ♪
♪ We, we did our part ♪
♪ We cried, we built our heart ♪
♪ Now we are way too smart ♪
♪ To sing your war songs ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ Look what we bought, for nothing ♪
♪ Got caught, for loving ♪
♪ Found out, there's nothing ♪
♪ No ground to grow on ♪
♪ We, we did our part ♪
♪ We cried, we built our heart ♪
♪ Now we are way too smart ♪
♪ To sing your war songs ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ You're the man, you're
the man, you're the man ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
♪ I'm the woman ♪
