Browse Items (402 total)

Have you heard the story of the young legislator who was the hero of Tennessee’s ratification of the 19th Amendment? I’m not talking about Harry Burn. Harry Burn has gotten way more ink than he’s due. He was a young member of the Tenn. Assembly who…

When exactly is the 19th Amendment anniversary? Was it ratified on August 18 or August 26? What’s the difference? Which should we observe?  Read on for answers. The 19th Amendment cleared Congress in June 1919, 41 years after it was introduced. This…

Nation’s birthday party, 1876. Huge party planned. No women speaking. No women mentioned. So women stormed the stage. One of them was Sara Andrews Spencer. #July4 thread. The day before the event, Spencer hand-delivered a letter from…

Hi, my name is Ezra, and I’m reviewing the book Finish the Fight, by Veronica Chambers and the staff of the New York Times.  Not all women could vote before 1920, when the 19th amendment was ratified. In 1848, the Seneca Falls convention happened in…

The first time white women in the US took collective action, it was anonymous. Four women in Hartford, Conn. wrote a petition opposing the Indian Removal Act. They swore the printer to secrecy, and mailed the first batch of petitions from four other…

When I say “Trail of Tears,” can you name where the forced march began & ended? I couldn’t. This is a two-parter. Tomorrow: white women organized against Indian removal in the 1830s. But first, Native women’s objections. They’ve been defending…

Belva Lockwood and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
circa 1912

Have you heard about the time Frederick Douglass, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, and Belva Lockwood all occupied the Washington, D.C. Board of Elections?  #DCStatehood Thread  It’s April 14, 1871. DC’s first city-wide election was less…

Mary Grew, abolitionist leader & newspaper editor. Her work was respected by all the men in the movement—except her own father. Mary >> back row with fellow members of the Penn. AntiSlavery Society. Margaret Burleigh, her partner of 40…

This is the Pennsylvania AntiSlavery Society in 1851. You might recognize Lucretia Mott, front row in the bonnet between her husband James and Robert Purvis. But who are the other women? And why is this building on fire? Long thread. The four other…