Winning the vote, with a century of perspective

A new book is out that reveals some interesting angles on one of the greatest political battles in American history

By Christy Nadalin
Posted 6/28/19

One hundred years ago this month, June 4, 1919, the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote, was passed by Congress. It would take effect on ratification, August 18, 1920. While ratification …

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Winning the vote, with a century of perspective

A new book is out that reveals some interesting angles on one of the greatest political battles in American history

Posted

One hundred years ago this month, June 4, 1919, the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote, was passed by Congress. It would take effect on ratification, August 18, 1920. While ratification may sound like a formality, in this case it was anything but.

Seven decades of fighting for the right to vote came down to Tennessee in the summer of 1920, when 35 states had already ratified the 19th amendment and 12 had rejected or abstained. One more state was needed. With battle lines drawn more or less on old Civil War alliances, Tennessee would not have been the suffragists' battleground of choice, but there it was.

Author Elaine Weiss, whose new book "The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote" retraces this period of history with the clarity of time, spoke at Blithewold last Thursday, June 20. The Woman's Hour, provides a fascinating new insight into the players, motivated by everything from "family values" to racism to temperance, who fought to prevent women from gaining the right to vote. It has been getting a great deal of attention, will soon be adapted for television, and was called "a page-turning drama and an inspiration for every reader" by Hillary Clinton.

Ms. Weiss' book is about American's women demand for the vote — a demand that was once seen as radical and crazy, but slowly and methodically changed into something inevitable. It was the world's largest extension of franchise without bloodshed," said Ms. Weiss. "Not just a legal or constitutional change; it was a cultural and social change. That's what made it so difficult and challenging."

"It was a civil rights battle that asked, who gets a voice? Who do we mean by "we the people?" And it required fearless activists working for more than 3 generations.

Ruining the American family was a big theme among the anti-suffrage crowd. They tried to convey that a women's choice was between being a loving mother in the home, or a crazed activist in the street. Suffragists were portrayed as radicals, perverts, traitors, anarchists, and Bolsheviks; they were derided as unsexed she-men.

For all the concern over family vales, that did not prevent angry mobs of men and boys from attacking these activists in the streets. Susan B. Anthony said she could mark the progress of the movement based on what was thrown at her," said Ms. Weiss. "And when it was regular eggs and not rotten eggs, that was progress."

Ms. Weiss deftly laid out the many ways in which the battle for the vote crossed into other political issues of the day, particularly here in Rhode Island.

It was at Seneca Falls Convention in New York, the first regional women' rights convention in the U.S., in 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton stood up and called for a resolution demanding the vote for women. Many of her fellow attendees where aghast, suggesting that was too much, too soon, and suggests Stanton withdraw her resolution. Ms. Weiss tells of one person who traveled 50 miles in a buggy to attend the Convention, and he stood and told the audience that they must demand the vote — "it will not be given to you, and it will not be given to me." That person was 30 year old Frederick Douglass — and from that point on women's suffrage was inextricably tied to civil rights for African Americans. He convinced the very reluctant participants to support Stanton, and he called himself a "women's rights man" for the rest of his life, though he would lot live to see the 19th amendment.

RI has a "pretty complicated relationship with women's suffrage," Ms. Weiss said. This state was not only the home of some of the earliest and most influential suffragists, it was also close to Boston, the geographical epicenter of the "anti" movement.

It was a Providence woman, Paulina Wright Davis, who organized and presided over the first national civil rights convention for women in Worcester in 1850, just 2 years after Seneca Falls. Ms. Davis also served as president of the National Women's Rights Central Committee, which had a broader outlook than just suffrage. Also, in 1853, Wright founded and edited the first newspaper "dedicated to the elevation of women."

Another Rhode Islander, Alva Belmont, emerged as an important leader in the battle for the vote. A Vanderbilt through her first marriage, Ms. Belmont, known as the "Mistress of Marble House" effectively bankrolled the movement. She also changed hearts and minds about the issue among society women, like Marjorie VanWickle Lyon of Blithewold, who was initially opposed to women's suffrage, but who would eventually come around.

One of the strongest groups opposing the 19th amendment were, ironically, women. Particularly women of some wealth and social standing, like Ms. Lyon. "Upper class women didn't feel the need to change the satus quo; it was working just fine for them," said Ms. Weiss.

With Ms. Belmont using Marble House to recruit the cream of Newport society, this would have eventually changed the minds of women like Marjorie Lyon, seeing her friends join the movement. It's not known for certain if that is what brought Ms. Lyon around, but Blithewold's archives do suggest she experienced a change of heart.

Rhode Island would ratify the 20th amendment early in the year, on January 6, 1920. To read about the final battle that came down to 6 sweltering weeks in Tennessee that August, pick up a copy of "The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote." To learn more about Alva Belmont and her role as a prominent suffragist, visit Marble House at Newportmansions.org.

Elaine Weiss, Blithewold, suffrage

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