Story
A Women's Vote Centennial Resource List
So many people have joined in the statewide commemorations of the centennial of the 19th Amendment in the past 20 months. Innumerable individuals and groups across Colorado have added to our collective knowledge of the various stories of the struggle for suffrage and we have been lucky to help collect this knowledge.
One question we are often asked is what resources can someone use to learn more about the fight for the 19th Amendment. We have compiled this list to get you started.
If you were inspired by the Bold Women. Change History. speaker series, here are books by the presenters:
- Maria Hinojosa, Once I Was You
- Samantha Power, The Education of an Idealist
- Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Killing Our Democracy
- Liette Gidlow, The Big Vote: Gender, Consumer Culture, and the Politics of Exclusion, 1890s-1920s
- Sally Roesch Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement
- Sally Roesch Wagner, Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists
- Dawn Teele, Forging the Franchise
- Amber McReynolds and Stephanie Donner, When Women Vote
- Tina Cassidy, Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait
If you want to discover more information about some of the lesser known women involved in the fight for enfranchisement:
If you would like to learn more about Black women and the fight for voting rights:
- Deltas: Black sorority faced racism at suffrage parade in Washington in 1913
- Perspective | How racism almost killed women’s right to vote
- Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (forthcoming Sept. 8, 2020)
In the meantime essays by Jones are available now:
- The Bold Accomplishments of Women of Color Need to Be a Bigger Part of Suffrage History (Smithsonian)
- How the Daughters and Granddaughters of Former Slaves Secured Voting Rights for All (Smithsonian)
- On the black women suffragists who sparked and continue the voting rights movement (The Hub from Johns Hopkins University)
If you are looking for an interactive experience:
- She Resisted is an interactive website from American Experience.
- The Vote, a documentary and website with many resources, including several discussing who was excluded from voting after the 19th amendment.
If you like to learn through art and photography:
- Unladylike 2020 is a multimedia video series on PBS featuring suffragists and many other groundbreaking women.
- How Women Got the Vote Is a Far More Complex Story Than the History Textbooks Reveal shows highlights of the exhibition Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
If podcasts are your favorite way to learn, you are in luck! There are many on the history of voting and women’s suffrage:
- Two new podcasts from the National Park Service debuted in August, And Nothing Less for adults and The Magic Sash for youth.
- She Votes! With Ellen Goodman and Lynn Sherr
- The History of Voting chronicles our ever changing voting right from the colonial era to today. One episode focuses on women’s suffrage and another on Native American’s voting rights.
- Hindsight looks at 100 years of women’s suffrage in a six part series. One episode entitled Regionalism, Race and the Right to Vote also offers a look at Colorado.
- Susan Stephenson, on American Epistles, has a talent for finding obscure primary sources. In this episode, she uncovers the voices of men and women of color who were both for and against suffrage.
- The History Chicks, hosted by Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider, has episodes on Mary Church Terrell, Belva Lockwood, Victoria Woodhull, Ida B. Wells, and more.
If you would like to learn more about Native American’s Voting Rights:
- In 1920, Native Women Sought the Vote. Here's What They Seek Now. (New York Times)
- On This Day: Supreme Court says tax-paying Indians can't vote (The Constitution Center)
- After 100 Years Native Women Still Face Barriers Voting as First Americans (Cache La Poudre River National Heritage Center)
- How the Native American Vote Continues to be Suppressed (American Bar Association)
- Voting Rights for Native Americans - Elections - Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources (Library of Congress)
If you are curious about immigration and voting rights:
- Expanding Citizenship: Immigrants and the Vote (Democracy-A Journal of Ideas)
- How Midwestern Suffragists Won the Vote by Attacking Immigrants (Smithsonian)
- Milestones: 1937–1945 (U. S. Department of State-Office of Historian)
If you would like to learn about the Voting Rights Act:
- The Voting Rights Act at 50: How It Changed the World (Time)
- Congress and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (National Archives)
- History Of Federal Voting Rights Laws (The United States Department of Justice)
If you are still looking for more, here are collections of articles:
- 19th Amendment and Women's Access to the Vote Across America - Women's History (US National Park Service)
- Women's Suffrage (New York Times)
- 13 things you need to know about the fight over voting rights (Vox)
- The Suff Buffs: Blog (The Women’s Vote Centennial)
This is in no way an exhaustive list. If you find a compelling resource, please share it to our Facebook page. Onward!