On this day in 1920, the Tennessee legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by the narrow vote of 50 to 49. A mirror of the Fifteenth Amendment protecting the right of Black men to vote, the new amendment read: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
My mother was born in November of 1920, just 3 months later. Growing up I could not fathom a United States where I would be barred from voting based on my sex.
I am now worried what the Christo-fascists will do with the franchise should they gain power.
Will the right of women to vote last only a few generations? Are we going backwards?
Thank you for the timely history lesson. I was clueless that the roots for women's suffrage dated back to the Civil War. It's a safe bet that women will vote like never before starting this year and, I hope, well into the future. Not just to regain rights quashed by a Supreme Court of questionable legitimacy but also to help correct recent obstacles to voting. Women are the key to defeating the party of authoritarians that preaches patriotism but is anything but patriotic.
As a long-time member of the League of Women Voters, I want to thank you for this perspective. Today's report on the League by ProPublica is pretty accurate, even the part about how we have not been particularly sensitive to the needs of women of color. Our longstanding principle of nonpartisanship is being rewarded by the Republican Party walking away from us, but then, it is walking away from every democratic norm so we are not surprised. We will not back down from our support for voters rights, reproductive freedom and our efforts to become more inclusive. Sorry, I don't have the skill to embed the URL for the piece but here it is -- copy and paste -- https://www.propublica.org/article/league-of-women-voters-gop-trump
Having lived in Japan for many years, I’ve been quite fascinated by the difference between the American and Japanese constitutions. It has been noted that the Japanese constitution has more rights than there are in the US constitution. Here is the story behind that:
Beate Sirota Gordon, the daughter of Russian Jewish parents, at 22 almost single-handedly wrote women’s rights into the Constitution of modern Japan, and then kept silent about it for decades. She was the first civilian American woman to work in postwar Japan. In February 1946, she worked in Tokyo on a top-secret project to draft a new Japanese constitution. Her assignment: women's rights. Her work — drafting language that gave women a set of legal rights pertaining to marriage, divorce, property and inheritance that they had long been without in Japan’s feudal society — had an effect on their status that endures to this day. The previous constitution declared, “Woman are to be regarded as incompetent,” Article 4 clearly stated.
“It set a basis for a better, a more equal society,” Carol Gluck, a professor of Japanese history at Columbia University, said. “By just writing those things into the Constitution — our Constitution doesn’t have any of those things — Beate Gordon intervened at a critical moment. And what kind of 22-year-old gets to write a constitution?”
Colonel Charles L. Kades and others were put in charge of preparing a draft constitution. The draft was written between February 3 and 12, 1946, and presented to the Japanese on February 13. Kades exclaimed: "My god Beate, you've put in more rights in here than there are in the US constitution!" And Beate replied, "That's very easy to do, the US constitution does not have the word 'women' in it."
This is not a “disappointing” account of our history but a shameful one. The trouble that we have in this country is an overabundance of citizens lacking the ethics or moral values sufficient to generate a sense of shame. And no, I have no answer for that.
I was deeply moved to read Pauli Murray’s autobiography, “Song in a Weary Throat”, back in March. And this past week, I was equally impressed and grateful to see a documentary dedicated to her, entitled “My Name is Pauli Murray”. It can be seen on Amazon Prime, and I highly recommend it.
If you haven’t yet learned what a profound influence she made in pioneering civil rights legislation, and how bravely she fought be exactly who she was, before there was any support for gender fluid people, I do hope you learn about her now.
Yes we're fighting the same fight, and against the same troglodyte forces.
We've been outwitted by Republicans who've divided the working class while uniting the right. We've been out maneuvered by Republicans who play dirty. And we've been stymied by purity tests, pipe dreams, and Pied Pipers on the left. And despite all that, Democratic voters won control of Congress and the Presidency. By uniting and voting in overwhelming numbers.
Now we must do it again - up hill and against all odds. Our Democratic elected officials have given us a lot to work with. Now it is up to each of us to get out and translate those accomplishments into Democratic votes. And that will take convincing many of our fellow Americans to vote and to vote Democratic.
MSNBC - Host Lawrence O’Donnell hosted a 35-40 year old white woman author from Arizona. She told her story with feeling. When she was 10, a 14 year old impregnated her. Her mother acted. She got an abortion - quietly. She said that she needed that abortion and needed her mother. She feels horrible for girls today.
Tonight the stench is spreading. Mar a Lago brings another stench. The former president wishes to prosper in possession of stolen property owned by the people. That property if exposed may cause the death of those that tipped the FBI and may blow up the investigation into Trump’s theft.
Women's Equality Day is celebrated on August 26th each year on the anniversary of the 19th Amendment being certified by the Secretary of State of the United States officially making it part of the Constitution. "At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 and passed in 1973, the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality." Quoted from https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/commemorations/womens-equality-day/ Obviously, women do not yet have true equality. Women make about $.79 to every dollar a man makes. Women are 51% of the population but only 27% of the Congress. Of the six women that have been Supreme Court Justices (out of 116) four are currently on the court. On the sports courts women receive much lower salaries than men. Women have been the first group to have established rights taken away by the current extremist Supreme Court making women second class citizens again having less right to life than a fertilized cell (half of fertilized cells are washed out of the body naturally) and the freedom to make choices about their own bodies. We need to follow Kansas's lead and make this coming election a very clear vote for human rights and freedom. With those rights come the responsibility to assure others have the same rights. We, the People, all of this time, must stand together and vote for freedom from tyranny.
I highly recommend Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis's classic article on the right to privacy which he wrote with a colleague for the Harvard Law Review as a student. He defines privacy as the right to be left alone. It merits all twenty-some pages of reading.
Thank you for this history of voting rights for everyone. The struggle continues thanks to the Rs trying to suppress the vote. They don't offer anything for ordinary citizens, but seek power by making in more difficult for Ds to vote. I see people here often commenting on the need to continue the fight by doing the hard work to register people and get out the vote.
This is such a great reminder that at every step of a democratic state, we must always be ready and willing to work and put out every effort to defend everyones’ rights. I have in the past, been lulled into thinking that our beautiful Republic will keep on being a beacon of hope for freedom…automatically. After all we had Obama for 8 years. The story of struggle for these rights we have now become accustomed to, must not be forgotten. So I will be sharing your Letter again, hoping a few will read and be inspired; like the suffragettes and abolitionists inspire me. Thank you.
In the late 1990s I was seated next to a woman, born in 1896, who had just celebrated her 100th birthday. I asked her when was the first time she had voted. She said 1920, the first time women were allowed to vote! History just collapsed in that moment for me. She was living history.
The League of Women Voters; now there's a voice we need to hear more often. Perhaps the pathway past this MAGA rabble is not simply to confront them head-to-head, but to mobilize different constituencies from whom we hear less often. I guess it's called coalition building. People against the Lie have a task that is conceptually simple; identify those who took advantage of the Big Lie to promote their own political fortunes and take them down, one by one, at the polls. It means shacking up with groups that won't share all of your particular political proclivities, but perhaps all do share an allegiance to the truth and to the constitution as opposed to blind allegiance to a charismatic liar. Personally, I think there's room at the table for persons across the political spectrum, provided that debate and compromise are how progress is made, rather than oppo research, political assassination in the media, strategies to control offices that control/influence the vote, etc.
Professional sports have referrees; maybe it's about time we demand the same for political parties and voting blocs. in Congress.
My mother was born in November of 1920, just 3 months later. Growing up I could not fathom a United States where I would be barred from voting based on my sex.
I am now worried what the Christo-fascists will do with the franchise should they gain power.
Will the right of women to vote last only a few generations? Are we going backwards?
Thank you for the timely history lesson. I was clueless that the roots for women's suffrage dated back to the Civil War. It's a safe bet that women will vote like never before starting this year and, I hope, well into the future. Not just to regain rights quashed by a Supreme Court of questionable legitimacy but also to help correct recent obstacles to voting. Women are the key to defeating the party of authoritarians that preaches patriotism but is anything but patriotic.
As a long-time member of the League of Women Voters, I want to thank you for this perspective. Today's report on the League by ProPublica is pretty accurate, even the part about how we have not been particularly sensitive to the needs of women of color. Our longstanding principle of nonpartisanship is being rewarded by the Republican Party walking away from us, but then, it is walking away from every democratic norm so we are not surprised. We will not back down from our support for voters rights, reproductive freedom and our efforts to become more inclusive. Sorry, I don't have the skill to embed the URL for the piece but here it is -- copy and paste -- https://www.propublica.org/article/league-of-women-voters-gop-trump
Having lived in Japan for many years, I’ve been quite fascinated by the difference between the American and Japanese constitutions. It has been noted that the Japanese constitution has more rights than there are in the US constitution. Here is the story behind that:
Beate Sirota Gordon, the daughter of Russian Jewish parents, at 22 almost single-handedly wrote women’s rights into the Constitution of modern Japan, and then kept silent about it for decades. She was the first civilian American woman to work in postwar Japan. In February 1946, she worked in Tokyo on a top-secret project to draft a new Japanese constitution. Her assignment: women's rights. Her work — drafting language that gave women a set of legal rights pertaining to marriage, divorce, property and inheritance that they had long been without in Japan’s feudal society — had an effect on their status that endures to this day. The previous constitution declared, “Woman are to be regarded as incompetent,” Article 4 clearly stated.
“It set a basis for a better, a more equal society,” Carol Gluck, a professor of Japanese history at Columbia University, said. “By just writing those things into the Constitution — our Constitution doesn’t have any of those things — Beate Gordon intervened at a critical moment. And what kind of 22-year-old gets to write a constitution?”
Colonel Charles L. Kades and others were put in charge of preparing a draft constitution. The draft was written between February 3 and 12, 1946, and presented to the Japanese on February 13. Kades exclaimed: "My god Beate, you've put in more rights in here than there are in the US constitution!" And Beate replied, "That's very easy to do, the US constitution does not have the word 'women' in it."
“A hundred years later, we are still fighting the same fights.“. 😡
This is not a “disappointing” account of our history but a shameful one. The trouble that we have in this country is an overabundance of citizens lacking the ethics or moral values sufficient to generate a sense of shame. And no, I have no answer for that.
I was deeply moved to read Pauli Murray’s autobiography, “Song in a Weary Throat”, back in March. And this past week, I was equally impressed and grateful to see a documentary dedicated to her, entitled “My Name is Pauli Murray”. It can be seen on Amazon Prime, and I highly recommend it.
If you haven’t yet learned what a profound influence she made in pioneering civil rights legislation, and how bravely she fought be exactly who she was, before there was any support for gender fluid people, I do hope you learn about her now.
Yes we're fighting the same fight, and against the same troglodyte forces.
We've been outwitted by Republicans who've divided the working class while uniting the right. We've been out maneuvered by Republicans who play dirty. And we've been stymied by purity tests, pipe dreams, and Pied Pipers on the left. And despite all that, Democratic voters won control of Congress and the Presidency. By uniting and voting in overwhelming numbers.
Now we must do it again - up hill and against all odds. Our Democratic elected officials have given us a lot to work with. Now it is up to each of us to get out and translate those accomplishments into Democratic votes. And that will take convincing many of our fellow Americans to vote and to vote Democratic.
MSNBC - Host Lawrence O’Donnell hosted a 35-40 year old white woman author from Arizona. She told her story with feeling. When she was 10, a 14 year old impregnated her. Her mother acted. She got an abortion - quietly. She said that she needed that abortion and needed her mother. She feels horrible for girls today.
Tonight the stench is spreading. Mar a Lago brings another stench. The former president wishes to prosper in possession of stolen property owned by the people. That property if exposed may cause the death of those that tipped the FBI and may blow up the investigation into Trump’s theft.
First amendment claims thwart national security?
Standing order to declassify? Rubbish.
Women's Equality Day is celebrated on August 26th each year on the anniversary of the 19th Amendment being certified by the Secretary of State of the United States officially making it part of the Constitution. "At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 and passed in 1973, the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality." Quoted from https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/commemorations/womens-equality-day/ Obviously, women do not yet have true equality. Women make about $.79 to every dollar a man makes. Women are 51% of the population but only 27% of the Congress. Of the six women that have been Supreme Court Justices (out of 116) four are currently on the court. On the sports courts women receive much lower salaries than men. Women have been the first group to have established rights taken away by the current extremist Supreme Court making women second class citizens again having less right to life than a fertilized cell (half of fertilized cells are washed out of the body naturally) and the freedom to make choices about their own bodies. We need to follow Kansas's lead and make this coming election a very clear vote for human rights and freedom. With those rights come the responsibility to assure others have the same rights. We, the People, all of this time, must stand together and vote for freedom from tyranny.
I highly recommend Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis's classic article on the right to privacy which he wrote with a colleague for the Harvard Law Review as a student. He defines privacy as the right to be left alone. It merits all twenty-some pages of reading.
https://louisville.edu/law/library/special-collections/the-louis-d.-brandeis-collection/the-right-to-privacy
Thank you for this history of voting rights for everyone. The struggle continues thanks to the Rs trying to suppress the vote. They don't offer anything for ordinary citizens, but seek power by making in more difficult for Ds to vote. I see people here often commenting on the need to continue the fight by doing the hard work to register people and get out the vote.
Taking away a woman’s right to choose is backwards & bad enough. Taking away our right to vote is just Not going to happen!
This is such a great reminder that at every step of a democratic state, we must always be ready and willing to work and put out every effort to defend everyones’ rights. I have in the past, been lulled into thinking that our beautiful Republic will keep on being a beacon of hope for freedom…automatically. After all we had Obama for 8 years. The story of struggle for these rights we have now become accustomed to, must not be forgotten. So I will be sharing your Letter again, hoping a few will read and be inspired; like the suffragettes and abolitionists inspire me. Thank you.
In the late 1990s I was seated next to a woman, born in 1896, who had just celebrated her 100th birthday. I asked her when was the first time she had voted. She said 1920, the first time women were allowed to vote! History just collapsed in that moment for me. She was living history.
The League of Women Voters; now there's a voice we need to hear more often. Perhaps the pathway past this MAGA rabble is not simply to confront them head-to-head, but to mobilize different constituencies from whom we hear less often. I guess it's called coalition building. People against the Lie have a task that is conceptually simple; identify those who took advantage of the Big Lie to promote their own political fortunes and take them down, one by one, at the polls. It means shacking up with groups that won't share all of your particular political proclivities, but perhaps all do share an allegiance to the truth and to the constitution as opposed to blind allegiance to a charismatic liar. Personally, I think there's room at the table for persons across the political spectrum, provided that debate and compromise are how progress is made, rather than oppo research, political assassination in the media, strategies to control offices that control/influence the vote, etc.
Professional sports have referrees; maybe it's about time we demand the same for political parties and voting blocs. in Congress.