Our Only Congresswoman
As Congress debated whether the US should enter the Great War, Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt both lobbied their congresswoman. One wanted her to vote for the war, the other implored her to vote against. Thread. <br /><br />Technically, Jeannette Rankin wasn’t their congresswoman: neither lived in Montana. But in 1917 she was the only representative of one-half the people, and both Catt’s NAWSA and Paul’s National Woman’s Party knew that however she voted, she would be heard to speak for all women. <br /><br />Their conflict reflected two different rationales for suffrage. Should women vote because they were the same as men - equally patriotic and deserving? Or because they were inherently different and more peace-loving? NAWSA wanted Rankin to vote yes, to prove women's patriotism. <br /><br />Alice Paul had visited the day before to convince her otherwise. Paul recalled later: “We thought it would be a tragedy for the first woman ever in Congress to vote for war; the one thing that seemed to us so clear was the women were the peace-loving half of the world, and that by giving power to women we would diminish the possibilities of war.” <br /><br />After days of debate, the House roll call took place after midnight on April 6. When Rankin’s name was called, she spoke so softly that at first her vote wasn’t recorded. <br /><br />@TinaCassidy2 describes the scene on the floor as Rep. Cannon, the former Speaker of the House, took Rankin aside. “Little woman, you cannot afford not to vote. You represent the womanhood of the country in the American Congress. I shall not advise you how to vote, but you should vote one way or the other--as your conscience dictates.” <br /><br />On the second roll call, Rankin spoke clearly: “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote no.” <br /><br />Carrie Catt didn’t criticize Rankin by name, saying she had honorably voted her conscience. But she made clear that Congresswoman Rankin didn’t speak for suffragists: NAWSA did. <br /><br />#suffrage100 #19thAmendment
Daily Suffragist
<a href="https://twitter.com/DailySuffragist/status/1305320041840336897" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Original thread</a>
Sept 14, 2020
Jeannette Rankin's Election
Photoshop was invented in 1987 - but this photo of Jeannette Rankin was edited a long time before that. Read on . . . <br /><br />On the morning Rankin was sworn in as the first Congresswoman ever, the dueling white women’s suffrage groups both celebrated. Rankin waved from NAWSA headquarters w/leader Carrie Catt behind her. But when the photo ran in the paper of the National Woman’s Party, Catt was gone. <br /><br />Was NWP literally erasing Catt from the narrative? Or did they just want a cleaner photo? NWP didn’t disparage NAWSA in public, though they weren’t above a subtle dig. 🤷â€â™€ï¸ <br /><br />I heard a few songs tonight from “Jeannette†- the musical! by @ariannaafsar & @LalaTellsAStory. I got chills when they told the story of the trunks of mail Rankin received from women all over the nation who finally felt represented by her. <br /><br />Big props to Ari and Lauren for using sneak peaks of the show to ELECT MORE WOMEN. Follow them for details. 💜💛 #UntilThereAre535Â
Daily Suffragist
<a href="https://twitter.com/DailySuffragist/status/1309335130729832448" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Original thread</a>
Sept 25, 2020
Why men didn't want women to vote
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<div lang="en" class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-1qd0xha r-1blvdjr r-16dba41 r-vrz42v r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" id="tweet-text"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Katie Porter is why men didn't want women to vote.</span></div>
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Daily Suffragist
<a href="https://twitter.com/DailySuffragist/status/1311419963769581568" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Original thread</a>
Sept 30, 2020
It ain't over till it's over
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">When exactly is the 19th Amendment anniversary? Was it ratified on August 18 or August 26? What’s the difference? Which should we observe? </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">Read on for answers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">The 19th Amendment cleared Congress in June 1919, 41 years after it was introduced. This image of Justice embracing “American Womanhood” -- captioned “At Last” -- ran on the cover of The Suffragist magazine that month.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">State ratifications poured in. Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin competed to be First to Ratify. (Wisconsin won.) But a year later, with a Presidential election months away, women were one state shy of 36. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">Seven states had already voted no: Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. North Carolina & Florida were unreachable. (Southern states don’t want everybody to vote.) That left 4 states in play: Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware & Tennessee. But one by one they fell away:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">*Vermont. The legislature voted to ratify--but the Governor </span><span style="font-weight:400;">> </span><span style="font-weight:400;">vetoed it. Then he blocked an override of his veto by refusing to call a special session. “Nothing can give us that state except the death of the governor,” said Carrie Chapman Catt. “And we haven’t come to murder yet.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">*Connecticut. Same story: legislators were in favor, but the Governor refused to call them into session, insisting it wasn’t an “emergency.” (Months later, when Conn.’s approval was superfluous, he realized women were actually going to vote. He called an emergency session to ratify.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">*Delaware. A particularly painful loss because suffragists expected to win. Local activists, especially poet Alice Dunbar-Nelson leading 9,000 Black women, lobbied and demonstrated all spring. Delaware’s Senate voted in favor, but the House refused to bring the bill to the floor.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">So it all came down to Tennessee. Tennessee? Women lost in Delaware, were stonewalled in Vermont and Connecticut, and their political fate hung on Tennessee? If you’d been around then, you wouldn’t have put money on it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">Elaine Weiss’ book The Woman’s Hour recounts suffragists’ relentless effort in the face of bribery, double-crossing, and most of all, racism. I recommend it highly. She also makes a persuasive case for observing the anniversary on Aug 26, not the 18th.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">On Aug 18th, the Tenn. legislature voted for suffrage by a 1-vote margin. Anti-suffragists went to court to block it and nearly succeeded. A 3-day window for reconsideration also imperiled the win. Rallies around the state, backed by the KKK, called for the vote to be rescinded.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">It was dicey, but local leaders and the army of national suffragists who had spent August in Nashville remained vigilant. Not until August 24 did the Governor of Tennessee sign the ratification certificate. >> The document reached Washington two days later. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">Bottom line? It ain’t over till it’s over. The Tennessee win on August 18 was tenuous, and the days that followed were fraught. Not until August 26 was the 19th Amendment added to the Constitution. That’s why it’s #WomensEqualityDay and the amendment’s birthday.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">#Suffrage101</span></p>
Daily Suffragist
<a href="https://twitter.com/DailySuffragist/status/1427838333703663618" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Original thread</a>
August 17, 2021