EDITORIAL: Spirit of brave women who won right to vote gives hope in fight for equality for all

For over 70 years, women fought for the right to vote, and on Aug. 18, 1920, 24-year-old Harry Burns, fulfilling a promise to his mother, cast the winning vote as Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

 Eight days later, U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation adding the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with these words: “The right of the 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.”

During the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in July 1848, the Declaration of Sentiments summarized women’s overall condition of servitude and social degradation. It was Elizabeth Cady Stanton who proposed that women have the right to vote, the first such organized demand, which was signed by 68 women and 32 men. Only one woman who signed that declaration lived to see the passage of what came to be known as the Susan B. Anthony amendment. Charlotte Woodward Pierce was a teenager at the convention and was 91 when women won the vote.

Carrie Chapman Catt, born in Ripon, Wis., in 1859, served as president of the National American Women Suffrage Association and in 1920 founded the League of Women Voters. She led the charge to pressure Congress to pass the 19th Amendment, and with Alice Paul organized suffragists throughout the country to convince state legislatures to ratify.

It was a very long and hard fought struggle for so many women, and it was a struggle that was nonviolent on the part of the women who fought, sacrificed and endured harsh conditions as they traveled via foot, horse, car and rail throughout the country campaigning for their cause. Many others suffered beatings, brutality and force feedings in prisons.

 Let us join the celebration and ring bells at noon on Wednesday, Aug. 26, in honor of the thousands of American suffragists who represented the triumph of American democracy, and in our current world of conflict and division offer a glimmer of hope for true equality for all citizens.

The Ozaukee County League of Women Voters donated to each of the five county libraries copies of “Winning the Vote, the Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement” by Robert P. J. Cooney Jr. It is a rich history of the heroic efforts of three generations of suffragists beginning in 1800, filled with amazing photographs and illustrations.

Mary Fran Lepeska, who lives in Port Washington, is vice president of the League of Women Voters of Ozaukee County.