The story of the fight for woman suffrage is a familiar one. We know the names of the leading suffragists—Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, and Carrie Chapman Catt. We remember that suffrage was finally won via the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But those facts are only part of the story.

 

This lecture reveals the hidden histories of the Native American, Chinese American, African American, and Hispana suffragists who not only challenged women’s inequality but also fought against the racial prejudices of the age. They marched in parades, debated with national suffrage leaders, and met with presidents and other politicians. They insisted that women in their communities also deserved the vote. For some of them, the ratification of the woman suffrage amendment in 1920 was a moment of celebration. But for others it was not the end of their fight for equality. It offers a revealing look at an inspiring new history of woman suffrage.

 

Cathleen D. Cahill is associate professor of History at Penn State University and the author of Federal Fathers and Mothers: A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869–1933, winner of the 2011 Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award and finalist for the 2012 David J. Weber-Clements Prize, Western History Association. Her most recent book is Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).

 

Let’s Talk About It: Women’s Suffrage is a humanities discussion project from the American Library Association (ALA) supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).