June 4, 1919: Nineteenth Amendment Passes

 “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.”

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment by Congress in joint session.*

[This pen in @amhistorymuseum was used to sign the amendment's joint resolution. #BecauseOfHerStory #19thAt100. Smithsonian Institution] 

However, before it could become the law of the land three-fourths of the states had to ratify it so the battle wasn't over yet.** There was still a lot of opposition, including from President Woodrow Wilson.

[Photograph of six suffragists at the 1920 Republican National Convention in Chicago, gathered in front of a building with suffrage banners. Mrs. James Rector, Mary Dubrow, and Alice Paul (left to right) hold center banner that reads: "No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex. Susan B. Anthony, 1872." National Photo Co., Washington, D.C. Republican National Convention, Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Illinois United States, 1920. [June 8-12] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000260/.]

By March of the following year 35 states had voted in favor and Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia had already rejected the amendment. It fell to Tennessee, the 36th state, who ratified it on August 18, 1920 (by a 49-47 vote).




*The House of Representatives had voted 304-89 and the Senate 56-25 in favor of the amendment.
**And of course, this didn't guarantee the voting rights of African Americans and other people of color who had to wait until the 1965 Civil Rights Act.




© 2019 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Today

Logo on California Secretary of State's election results for tonight.

I voted!  I was so wrapped up in the election results that I forgot it was my turn to post.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Election Day

I've voted, have you?

[Lady Liberty brings VOTES FOR WOMEN in "The Awakening" PJ MODE COLLECTION AT CORNELL’S DIGITAL LIBRARY/CC BY-SA 3.0

found at Atlas Obscura]

As a woman, I wouldn't have been able to vote in the Presidential election a century ago.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Voting Inspiration: Because I Can

By National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co. - Cornell University: Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44963586

Well, I got my mail-in ballot today and just finished filling out a seemingly endless ballot.  After I send it off in the mail tomorrow I will be officially done paying any attention whatsoever to this horrible election cycle.

My only real inspiration to get me through this ballot was the scary fact that it has only been a little less than 100 years for women (and 50 years for some African-American women) to have full suffrage in this country.  You bet I vote every time, because I can, and in memory and honor for all those who couldn't for so long.









© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Election Day!

"Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress . But I repeat myself." –Mark Twain

Another election?  Didn't we just have one?  Count me in on being an election-weary voter, but at least I can vote, thanks to characters like these:

[Suffragists Mrs. Stanley McCormick and Mrs. Charles Parker, April 22, 1913.  From the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog]

I'm not related to the above ladies, but thanks to the the availability of California voting registers, I can see two of my direct female ancestors who were early voters.  Women won the right to vote in California in 1911.

This is my great grandmother Minnie (Nosler) Hartley (1883-1969) who first appeared on the voter's list in 1916.

[Minnie a few years earlier in 1907 with my grandfather]

[Mrs Minnie E. Hartley in the 1916 "Index to Great Register of San Diego County," precinct No. 60. Ancestry.com. California, Voter Registrations, 1900-1968 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Original data: State of California, United States. Great Register of Voters. Sacramento, California: California State Library.]

This is my 2nd great grandmother Mary Jane (Tibbetts) Hartley (1852-1940), who also first appeared in the 1916 index.

[Mary Jane (Tibbetts) Hartley with my grandfather, about 1910]

[Mrs Mary J Hartley in the 1916 "Index to Great Register of San Diego County," precinct 94. Ancestry.com. California, Voter Registrations, 1900-1968 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Original data: State of California, United States. Great Register of Voters. Sacramento, California: California State Library.]

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Votes for Women!

After the final votes were counted, Equal Suffrage legislation passed on October 10, 1911, and California became the sixth state to allow women to vote, thereby doubling the number of women with full suffrage in the U.S.

Grace Thomas Grenfell, the grandmother of the mother who raised me, was living in La Playa on Point Loma at the time, and she and her husband both appear in the Great Register, San Diego County, 1912.

Grace Thomas Grenfell; From my private collection

Note: I still have the pin and bodice she's wearing in the portrait above.

Ancestry.com. California, Voter Registrations, 1900-1968 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Original data: State of California, United States. Great Register of Voters. Sacramento, California: California State Library.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.