WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 So imagine you're organizing like the absolute 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:04.660 biggest civil rights convention of your century. 00:00:05.299 --> 00:00:07.019 You draft your demands, you get all your allies 00:00:07.019 --> 00:00:10.380 together, and then your own co -organizers pull 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:12.480 you aside and basically tell you that asking 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:15.220 for the right to vote is just too ridiculous. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:17.140 Yeah, that it would make the whole movement look 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:20.460 like a joke. Exactly. And that is exactly what 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:24.149 happened to Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1848. at 00:00:24.149 --> 00:00:26.469 the Seneca Falls Convention. It really is wild 00:00:26.469 --> 00:00:29.649 to think about. It is. The very spark that ignited 00:00:29.649 --> 00:00:32.270 the women's rights movement almost didn't even 00:00:32.270 --> 00:00:34.429 include suffrage because the women themselves 00:00:34.429 --> 00:00:38.810 thought it was too extreme. So welcome to this 00:00:38.810 --> 00:00:41.829 custom -tailored deep dive created specifically 00:00:41.829 --> 00:00:44.340 for you. Glad to be here. Today, we're pulling 00:00:44.340 --> 00:00:47.340 apart a really comprehensive historical text, 00:00:48.619 --> 00:00:51.380 specifically the Wikipedia article on women's 00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:53.460 suffrage in the United States. And it's a massive 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:56.159 topic. Oh, totally. And our mission today is 00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:58.600 to kind of shatter this comforting mythology 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:01.079 that the suffrage movement was just this polite, 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:03.979 unified, inevitable march to victory. Right, 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.019 because it really wasn't. Not at all. We're going 00:01:06.019 --> 00:01:08.859 to uncover the messy, fractured, and honestly 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:11.620 deeply contradictory 70 year battle for the ballot. 00:01:12.219 --> 00:01:15.540 We want to show you how monumental social change 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:17.700 actually happens. Because to truly appreciate 00:01:17.700 --> 00:01:20.180 the magnitude of the 19th Amendment, we have 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:23.379 to we have to strip away that glossy textbook 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:25.239 version of history. Oh, for sure. We need to 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:28.459 examine the specific legal mechanisms, the tactical 00:01:28.459 --> 00:01:31.439 pivots, and frankly, the deeply uncomfortable 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:33.980 moral compromises that built the foundation of 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:37.120 our modern democracy. OK, let's unpack this because 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:39.159 I think we need to start with the underlying 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:42.859 legal reality that made voting seem so impossible 00:01:42.859 --> 00:01:44.969 in the first place. Yeah. That's crucial. Like 00:01:44.969 --> 00:01:46.609 before there was even a movement, there was this 00:01:46.609 --> 00:01:48.849 invisible cage around every married woman in 00:01:48.849 --> 00:01:52.090 America. The text details a concept that really 00:01:52.090 --> 00:01:55.849 sets the stakes here. The legal doctrine of coverture. 00:01:56.109 --> 00:01:58.010 Coverture is absolutely the essential starting 00:01:58.010 --> 00:02:00.370 point. It was an English common law doctrine 00:02:00.370 --> 00:02:02.909 that the American colonies just seamlessly adopted. 00:02:03.030 --> 00:02:05.409 Like they just copy pasted it. Pretty much. Under 00:02:05.409 --> 00:02:08.330 coverture, a married woman became what was called 00:02:08.330 --> 00:02:11.909 a theme covert. A theme covert. Meaning what 00:02:11.909 --> 00:02:14.469 exactly? Basically, she possessed absolutely 00:02:14.469 --> 00:02:17.069 no legal personhood distinct from her husband. 00:02:17.590 --> 00:02:19.770 The mechanism was absolute. I mean, she couldn't 00:02:19.770 --> 00:02:23.110 sign contracts. She couldn't own property in 00:02:23.110 --> 00:02:26.430 her own name. And if she worked, she literally 00:02:26.430 --> 00:02:29.389 could not legally keep her own wages. It's just, 00:02:29.629 --> 00:02:31.710 I mean, it's hard to even wrap your head around 00:02:31.710 --> 00:02:34.330 today. It is. The famous legal commentator William 00:02:34.330 --> 00:02:36.930 Blackstone defined it really bluntly. He said 00:02:36.930 --> 00:02:39.150 that by marriage, the husband and wife are one 00:02:39.150 --> 00:02:41.710 person in law and that person is the husband. 00:02:42.139 --> 00:02:44.979 So her legal existence is just totally suspended. 00:02:45.139 --> 00:02:48.419 Entirely. So when Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafts 00:02:48.419 --> 00:02:50.659 the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls, 00:02:51.099 --> 00:02:53.180 demanding the vote isn't just, you know, asking 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:55.199 for a new political privilege. No, not at all. 00:02:55.259 --> 00:02:57.340 It's basically an assault on the entire legal 00:02:57.340 --> 00:02:59.939 structure of the American family. Exactly. And 00:02:59.939 --> 00:03:02.719 that explains why Lucretia Mott, who was a really 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:05.639 prominent Quaker activist and a co -organizer, 00:03:05.949 --> 00:03:08.729 warned Stanton to drop the suffrage demand. Right, 00:03:09.050 --> 00:03:11.830 because voting was deeply associated with military 00:03:11.830 --> 00:03:14.789 service and masculine independence. Yeah, demanding. 00:03:15.169 --> 00:03:17.289 It felt like asking for the moon. It was just 00:03:17.289 --> 00:03:19.610 too far. So how did it even survive the convention? 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:22.500 Well, the resolution for suffrage only survived 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:25.800 because Frederick Douglass, the brilliant abolitionist 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.599 leader, actually took the floor. Oh really? He 00:03:28.599 --> 00:03:31.060 stepped in. He did. He forcefully argued that 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:33.520 political equality was the only way to secure 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:36.360 all other rights. But even with his backing, 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:38.780 it was the only resolution at that convention 00:03:38.780 --> 00:03:41.400 that did not pass unanimously. Which is so telling. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:43.800 It is. And for the next couple of decades, you 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:45.719 know, the suffrage movement and the abolitionist 00:03:45.719 --> 00:03:48.439 movement basically functioned as a united front, 00:03:48.539 --> 00:03:51.000 fighting for univ - universal human rights. Right. 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:55.379 Until the aftermath of the Civil War when they 00:03:55.379 --> 00:03:57.439 were forced into a pretty devastating choice. 00:03:57.740 --> 00:03:59.900 Yes. The 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment, 00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:03.000 which on paper sounds like a huge victory. And 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.520 it was for many. The proposed amendment prohibited 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:09.400 denying the right to vote based on race, which 00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:12.400 effectively enfranchised black men. But, and 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:14.500 this is the massive turning point, it deliberately 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:18.120 excluded women. That had to hurt. The political 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:20.259 reality of the time was just that the nation 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:24.279 was too exhausted and frankly prejudiced to swallow 00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:27.199 both racial and gender equality at the exact 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:30.620 same time. Politicians literally told the suffragists 00:04:30.620 --> 00:04:32.779 that this was the Negro's hour and the women 00:04:32.779 --> 00:04:35.339 just had to step aside. Like it's like surviving 00:04:35.339 --> 00:04:37.540 a shipwreck and building a lifeboat with your 00:04:37.540 --> 00:04:40.540 allies only to realize the boat will only hold 00:04:40.540 --> 00:04:42.660 half the survivors. That's a great way to put 00:04:42.660 --> 00:04:46.199 it. Do you sink the boat? out of principle, demanding 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:49.720 everyone get saved at once? Or do you sail away, 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:52.100 leaving the others behind? And that impossible 00:04:52.100 --> 00:04:54.259 choice completely breaks the movement in two. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:57.110 Like a total fracture. It reminds me of a startup 00:04:57.110 --> 00:04:59.329 company that begins with this really unified, 00:04:59.670 --> 00:05:02.430 utopian vision, but then it completely implodes 00:05:02.430 --> 00:05:05.449 and splits into rival factions. The exact moment 00:05:05.449 --> 00:05:07.750 the first round of limited funding comes in and 00:05:07.750 --> 00:05:09.689 they actually have to choose a specific direction. 00:05:09.889 --> 00:05:11.910 That is exactly what happened. You have the National 00:05:11.910 --> 00:05:14.370 Woman Suffrage Association, led by Stanton and 00:05:14.370 --> 00:05:17.490 Susan B. Anthony, who furiously oppose the amendment 00:05:17.490 --> 00:05:20.360 unless women are included. Right, the NWSA. And 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:22.540 on the other side, you have the American Woman 00:05:22.540 --> 00:05:25.959 Suffrage Association, the AWSA led by Lucy Stone. 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:28.040 And they took the opposite stance, right? Yes. 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:31.540 Stone supported the amendment, believing that 00:05:31.540 --> 00:05:33.439 securing the vote for black men in the really 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:36.100 violent post -war South was an immediate matter 00:05:36.100 --> 00:05:38.360 of life and death. Which makes total sense. Yeah. 00:05:38.540 --> 00:05:40.879 But when a movement is forced to prioritize its 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:44.329 goals through like the narrow funnel of federal 00:05:44.329 --> 00:05:47.949 legislation, unity just collapses. It does. And 00:05:47.949 --> 00:05:50.050 the split was not just some polite disagreement 00:05:50.050 --> 00:05:53.550 over strategy. It became intensely bitter. In 00:05:53.550 --> 00:05:55.870 their desperation to block the 15th Amendment, 00:05:56.490 --> 00:05:59.029 Stanton and Anthony resorted to some incredibly 00:05:59.029 --> 00:06:02.519 explicit calculated racist rhetoric. Yeah, the 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:04.220 historical record really does not hide this. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:06.860 It's tough to read. Stanton actively argued against 00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:09.139 what she called the lower orders, making laws 00:06:09.139 --> 00:06:11.379 for educated white women. Exactly. She warned 00:06:11.379 --> 00:06:14.100 against Chinese, African, German, and Irish men 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:16.740 wielding political power over, you know, refined, 00:06:16.899 --> 00:06:20.100 native -born white women. It's grim. But it reveals 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:22.959 a really disturbing mechanism in political advocacy. 00:06:24.119 --> 00:06:27.779 When universalist ideals hit a legislative roadblock, 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:30.959 leaders will often leverage their own societal 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:33.680 privilege, in this case, their whiteness in class, 00:06:34.139 --> 00:06:36.579 to try and force their way through. Just stepping 00:06:36.579 --> 00:06:39.600 on whoever they need to. And this rift between 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:42.779 the two factions lasted for two full decades, 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:45.800 basically paralyzing the push for a federal suffrage 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:48.620 amendment. Which is wild. So since the federal 00:06:48.620 --> 00:06:51.120 amendment route is deadlocked, they're forced 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:53.500 to invent a totally new strategy. Right, they 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:55.459 had to pivot. They look at the recently passed 00:06:55.459 --> 00:06:58.379 14th Amendment, the one granting citizenship 00:06:58.379 --> 00:07:01.579 to all persons born or naturalized in the U .S., 00:07:01.579 --> 00:07:03.680 and they find what they think is a loophole. 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:06.139 This is what becomes known as the New Departure 00:07:06.139 --> 00:07:08.339 Strategy. The legal logic of the New Departure 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:10.339 was actually quite brilliant. Walk us through 00:07:10.339 --> 00:07:12.579 it. Well, the suffragists argued that since the 00:07:12.579 --> 00:07:14.899 14th Amendment made them citizens, and since 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:16.800 voting is an inherent privilege of citizenship, 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:19.120 they already had the right to vote. Oh, I see. 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:21.279 Yeah, they argued they didn't need a new law 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:23.720 at all. They just needed to enforce the existing 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:25.680 one. So they didn't wait around. They just started 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:28.600 walking into polling places. Yes. Hundreds of 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:30.920 women across the country trying to cast ballots. 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:33.839 And Susan B. Anthony actually succeeds in voting 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:36.959 in the 1872 presidential election. She does. 00:07:37.100 --> 00:07:39.279 And she is promptly arrested for it. Of course 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:41.959 she is. And at her trial, the judge actually 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:44.600 directs the jury to find her guilty without even 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:47.350 letting them deliberate. Wait. Is that even legal? 00:07:47.490 --> 00:07:50.329 Barely. And when the judge asks if she has anything 00:07:50.329 --> 00:07:53.569 to say, she calls the proceeding a high -handed 00:07:53.569 --> 00:07:56.569 outrage upon my citizens' rights and outright 00:07:56.569 --> 00:08:00.569 refuses to pay her $100 fine. Good for her. But 00:08:00.569 --> 00:08:02.670 the strategy itself didn't work out in the courts, 00:08:02.810 --> 00:08:05.709 did it? No. It was masterful political theater 00:08:05.709 --> 00:08:08.490 and it generated massive national headlines, 00:08:08.750 --> 00:08:11.639 but the legal hack failed. The Supreme Court 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:15.300 decisively crushed the new departure in an 1875 00:08:15.300 --> 00:08:18.019 case called Minor v. Happersitt. What was the 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:20.560 court's logic there? They reason that citizenship 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:23.279 merely denotes membership in a nation and an 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:25.259 entitlement to its protection, like a child, 00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:29.029 basically. Ugh. Voting, the court ruled, is not 00:08:29.029 --> 00:08:31.750 an inherent right of citizenship. It's a privilege 00:08:31.750 --> 00:08:34.529 granted by individual states. So they legally 00:08:34.529 --> 00:08:37.210 decoupled being a citizen from having a political 00:08:37.210 --> 00:08:39.009 voice. But wait, hold on. That doesn't track 00:08:39.009 --> 00:08:40.950 with the geography of what happens next. How 00:08:40.950 --> 00:08:43.710 do you mean? Well, if the federal door slams 00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:46.830 shut and they have to fight state by state, why 00:08:46.830 --> 00:08:49.909 did the rugged, incredibly male -dominated Wild 00:08:49.909 --> 00:08:53.590 West grant women the vote decades before the 00:08:53.590 --> 00:08:56.029 supposedly progressive East Coast? Oh, right. 00:08:56.289 --> 00:08:59.710 Like Wyoming did it in 1869 and Utah in 1870. 00:09:00.029 --> 00:09:02.940 Was there just some outbreak? of genuine moral 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:05.519 equality on the frontier? Or was there an ulterior 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:08.679 motive? Was this just a strategic PR stunt to 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:11.379 attract more women to the frontier? What's fascinating 00:09:11.379 --> 00:09:13.940 here is that the historical data points heavily 00:09:13.940 --> 00:09:16.320 toward exactly that political pragmatism. Really? 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:19.120 Yeah. States and territories with highly competitive 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:21.120 or unstable political environments were much 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:23.440 more likely to extend the vote. In Wyoming, for 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:25.519 example, the male to female ratio was heavily 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.279 skewed. It was mostly men. So giving women the 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:30.559 vote was essentially a massive public relations 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.659 stunt. Exactly. It was to attract female settlers 00:09:33.659 --> 00:09:36.679 and boost population numbers enough to eventually 00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:39.820 qualify for statehood. So it was literally a 00:09:39.820 --> 00:09:42.240 demographic marketing campaign. Pretty much. 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:45.629 OK, what about Utah then? In Utah, the dynamics 00:09:45.629 --> 00:09:48.090 were slightly different. The Mormon majority 00:09:48.090 --> 00:09:50.570 there was facing intense pressure from the federal 00:09:50.570 --> 00:09:53.309 government. Who? Polygamy, right? Yes. The feds 00:09:53.309 --> 00:09:55.309 were trying to outlaw polygamy and threatening 00:09:55.309 --> 00:09:59.110 to disenfranchise polygamist men. So the territorial 00:09:59.110 --> 00:10:01.809 legislature granted women the vote specifically 00:10:01.809 --> 00:10:04.110 to double the size of the Mormon voting block. 00:10:04.230 --> 00:10:07.610 Oh, wow. So they used women's suffrage as a mathematical 00:10:07.610 --> 00:10:11.409 firewall to overwhelm any non -Mormon federal 00:10:11.409 --> 00:10:13.700 sympathizers settling in the territory. Exactly. 00:10:14.059 --> 00:10:16.879 Suffrage was repeatedly granted, not as this 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:20.039 grand moral imperative, but as a deeply pragmatic 00:10:20.039 --> 00:10:22.320 tool to consolidate power. Okay, here's where 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:24.740 it gets really interesting. Because as they're 00:10:24.740 --> 00:10:26.700 slogging through these state -by -state battles, 00:10:26.980 --> 00:10:29.259 the suffragists aren't just fighting abstract 00:10:29.259 --> 00:10:31.919 legal doctrines anymore. They are facing highly 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:34.860 organized, incredibly well -funded opposition. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:37.620 Oh, fierce opposition. And the opposition isn't 00:10:37.620 --> 00:10:39.860 just, you know, a bunch of men sitting in smoke 00:10:39.860 --> 00:10:42.720 -filled rooms. No, not at all. One of the most 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:45.360 formidable anti -suffrage groups was actually 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:49.340 led by women. The antis. Yes. Wealthy, upper 00:10:49.340 --> 00:10:52.279 -class society women formed the national association 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:55.759 opposed to women's suffrage. But why? Why would 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:58.000 women organize to deny themselves the right to 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:00.669 vote? That seems so backwards. It comes down 00:11:00.669 --> 00:11:03.529 to the mechanics of power. These wealthy women 00:11:03.529 --> 00:11:06.309 adhered to the ideology of separate spheres. 00:11:06.710 --> 00:11:08.470 Meaning men have their world, women have theirs. 00:11:08.590 --> 00:11:10.649 Right. They believe their power came precisely 00:11:10.649 --> 00:11:13.850 from being outside the corrupt partisan mudslinging 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:16.750 of electoral politics. They already exercised 00:11:16.750 --> 00:11:19.169 immense informal influence through philanthropy, 00:11:19.590 --> 00:11:22.210 social clubs, and direct access to male politicians. 00:11:22.309 --> 00:11:24.250 Because they were rich and connected. Exactly. 00:11:24.809 --> 00:11:27.909 Josephine Jewel Dodge, a prominent anti -suffragist, 00:11:28.049 --> 00:11:30.070 argued that if women became equal partisans, 00:11:30.190 --> 00:11:32.070 they would lose their unique moral authority. 00:11:32.710 --> 00:11:34.870 They genuinely feared the ballot would dilute 00:11:34.870 --> 00:11:37.529 their actual power and destabilize the family 00:11:37.529 --> 00:11:43.320 unit. specific type of influence. And behind 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:45.720 these society women, you had massive corporate 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:47.919 interests pulling the strings, too. Corporate 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:50.879 money was everywhere. Right, like the brewers 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:53.200 and distillers poured money into the anti -suffrage 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:55.980 campaigns because they were absolutely terrified 00:11:55.980 --> 00:11:58.620 that women who were heavily involved in the temperance 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:01.179 movement would immediately vote for prohibition. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:04.679 Which, spoiler alert, They eventually did. Yeah, 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:06.820 they totally did. And then you had the southern 00:12:06.820 --> 00:12:09.580 cotton mill owners fighting suffrage because 00:12:09.580 --> 00:12:11.740 they knew women would vote to end child labor, 00:12:11.940 --> 00:12:14.899 which was the cheap backbone of their whole industry. 00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:17.240 It was a massive coalition against them. And 00:12:17.240 --> 00:12:19.980 to break through this formidable combine of upper 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:22.720 class conservatives, the liquor lobby and industrial 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:25.100 magnates, the Maine Suffrage Organization made 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:28.559 it the darkest compromise. The NAFSA, the National 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:31.379 American Woman Suffrage Association. Yes. They 00:12:31.379 --> 00:12:33.639 enacted what was known as the Southern Strategy. 00:12:34.100 --> 00:12:37.360 Man, this part is dark. It is. To win the crucial 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:39.559 southern states, the white leadership of NASA 00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:42.320 actively accommodated Jim Crow politics. They 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:45.019 just embraced it. Leaders like Henry Brown Blackwell 00:12:45.019 --> 00:12:48.080 explicitly argued that enfranchising women would 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:51.980 actually secure white supremacy. The twisted 00:12:51.980 --> 00:12:55.120 mathematical logic they used was that since southern 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:58.080 states already used poll taxes and literacy tests 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:00.980 to disenfranchise black men, those same tools 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:03.720 would easily block black women too. Therefore, 00:13:04.139 --> 00:13:06.620 passing women's suffrage would effectively only 00:13:06.620 --> 00:13:08.919 add educated white women to the voter rolls, 00:13:09.139 --> 00:13:11.059 strengthening the existing racial hierarchy. 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:13.500 It's like trying to secure the foundation of 00:13:13.500 --> 00:13:16.240 a house by intentionally introducing termites 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:19.200 to one side of it. You might get the temporary 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:21.700 zoning permit you need, but you fundamentally 00:13:21.700 --> 00:13:24.440 rotted the structural integrity of the democratic 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:26.580 equality you claim to be building. It's like 00:13:26.580 --> 00:13:29.220 a desperate chess match where the players willingly 00:13:29.220 --> 00:13:31.759 sacrifice their own pawns, in this case, women 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:34.019 of color, just to get close to the king. That's 00:13:34.019 --> 00:13:36.240 a perfect analogy. And they threw black women 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:39.340 completely out of the movement. Literally. Like 00:13:39.340 --> 00:13:42.899 during the massive 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, 00:13:43.019 --> 00:13:46.960 DC, the white organizers actually told Ida B. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:50.299 Wells Burnett, who's this legendary black journalist 00:13:50.299 --> 00:13:52.700 and anti -lynching crusader, that she had to 00:13:52.700 --> 00:13:55.240 march in the back of the parade. Yes, in a segregated 00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:57.019 section. Just so they wouldn't offend the southern 00:13:57.019 --> 00:13:59.860 delegates. But to her immense credit, Wells Burnett 00:13:59.860 --> 00:14:02.480 refused to comply. She wasn't having it. Not 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:04.940 at all. She waited in the crowd until the parade 00:14:04.940 --> 00:14:08.019 started. and then defiantly stepped right out 00:14:08.019 --> 00:14:10.919 to join her state's delegation, flanked by her 00:14:10.919 --> 00:14:13.220 white colleagues. Incredible. And her group, 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:15.700 the Al Fustich Club, was instrumental in political 00:14:15.700 --> 00:14:18.740 organizing. But the national leadership constantly 00:14:18.740 --> 00:14:21.700 marginalized them. And the tragic irony of the 00:14:21.700 --> 00:14:25.240 Southern strategy, it failed entirely. No Southern 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:27.799 state enfranchised women as a result of this 00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:30.120 white supremacist accommodation during that era. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:32.559 So they sold out their morals for literally nothing. 00:14:32.899 --> 00:14:36.559 Essentially, yes. Wow. So decades of polite compromising 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:39.080 state -by -state lobbying had begun to stagnate. 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:41.679 By the 1910s, the movement was really losing 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:43.779 momentum. It needed a total shock to the system. 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:46.899 And that shock came in the form of the new woman. 00:14:47.100 --> 00:14:49.320 Right. This younger, more independent generation. 00:14:49.779 --> 00:14:52.320 They're riding bicycles, taking jobs, and they 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:55.639 are closely watching the militant glass smashing 00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:58.039 tactics of the suffragettes over in Britain. 00:14:58.220 --> 00:15:01.460 This is the exact environment that produces Alice 00:15:01.460 --> 00:15:04.220 Paul. Alice Paul, a game changer. Absolutely. 00:15:04.299 --> 00:15:06.899 She had studied in England, participated in their 00:15:06.899 --> 00:15:09.679 militant campaigns over there, and really learned 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:11.899 the power of causing a public spectacle. She 00:15:11.899 --> 00:15:14.179 knew how to get attention. She did. She returns 00:15:14.179 --> 00:15:16.759 to the U .S. and eventually forms the National 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:20.120 Woman's Party, the NWP. While the older NASA 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:23.440 is focused on respectable, polite lobbying, Alice 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:26.919 Paul just fully embraces dramatic, relentless 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:29.799 confrontation. They organize the silent sentinels. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:32.360 Like in 1917, these women start ficketing the 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:34.519 White House. And they are the first group in 00:15:34.519 --> 00:15:36.159 American history to ever do this, right? The 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:38.539 very first. They stand at the gates, day after 00:15:38.539 --> 00:15:41.259 day, in all weather. holding these banners demanding 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:44.299 the vote from President Woodrow Wilson. And then 00:15:44.299 --> 00:15:47.299 the United States enters World War I. Which changes 00:15:47.299 --> 00:15:50.860 everything. In a time of war, the older organization, 00:15:51.340 --> 00:15:53.299 NASA, throws its massive membership behind the 00:15:53.299 --> 00:15:55.620 war effort. They're hoping to prove that women 00:15:55.620 --> 00:15:58.360 are patriotic and deserve the vote as a reward. 00:15:58.700 --> 00:16:03.159 But Alice Paul's NWP refuses to stand down. They 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:06.190 just keep protesting. They even hold up banners 00:16:06.190 --> 00:16:08.710 comparing President Wilson to the German Emperor, 00:16:09.169 --> 00:16:11.710 explicitly calling him Kaiser Wilson. Which the 00:16:11.710 --> 00:16:14.169 crowds viewed as outright treason. I mean, we 00:16:14.169 --> 00:16:17.250 were at war with Germany. Exactly. Mobs started 00:16:17.250 --> 00:16:19.230 attacking the women, tearing down their banners, 00:16:19.330 --> 00:16:21.549 and the police step in not to arrest the violent 00:16:21.549 --> 00:16:24.370 mobs, but to arrest the suffragists for, quote, 00:16:24.789 --> 00:16:26.649 obstructing traffic. And they are thrown into 00:16:26.649 --> 00:16:29.240 the Alcoquan Workhouse. where the conditions 00:16:29.240 --> 00:16:31.879 are just brutal. When Alice Paul and others go 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:34.259 on hunger strikes to protest being denied political 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:36.620 prisoner status, the prison guards violently 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:39.139 force feed them, like shoving tubes down their 00:16:39.139 --> 00:16:40.980 throats. It was horrific. But wait, let me ask 00:16:40.980 --> 00:16:43.600 you about the mechanics of this strategy. Did 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:45.940 the radical tactics of the silent sentinels, 00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:48.000 you know, burning the president's beaches during 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:50.559 wartime, getting tortured in prison, did that 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:54.169 actually force Wilson's hand? Or did it risk 00:16:54.169 --> 00:16:57.370 alienating the exact moderate politicians they 00:16:57.370 --> 00:16:59.870 needed to pass the constitutional amendment? 00:17:00.289 --> 00:17:02.549 This raises an important question about what 00:17:02.549 --> 00:17:05.349 sociologists call the radical flank effect in 00:17:05.349 --> 00:17:07.730 social movements. The radical flank effect? Yes. 00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:10.619 The evidence suggests that the extreme tactics 00:17:10.619 --> 00:17:13.720 of Alice Paul's NWP actually made the moderate 00:17:13.720 --> 00:17:17.119 wing Carrie Chapman Katz -Nasse appear much more 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:19.500 reasonable and palatable to the political establishment. 00:17:19.619 --> 00:17:22.079 Oh, I see. Like a good cop, bad cop situation. 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:25.140 Precisely. President Wilson despised the militants, 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.500 but the optics of torturing women in American 00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:29.779 prisons while sending boys to die for democracy 00:17:29.779 --> 00:17:32.559 abroad were disastrous for him. A total PR nightmare. 00:17:32.779 --> 00:17:36.440 At the same time, Nass's careful, patriotic lobbying 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:39.359 provided Wilson with a politically safe off -ramp. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:41.900 He could support suffrage as a necessary war 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:44.319 measure, acknowledging all the women keeping 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:47.480 the factories running at home. It was the friction 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:50.000 between militant pressure and moderate diplomacy 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:52.599 that finally broke the political deadlock. And 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:56.200 in 1918, Wilson finally flips his stance. The 00:17:56.200 --> 00:17:58.380 amendment scrapes through Congress, and then 00:17:58.380 --> 00:18:00.960 it goes to the states for ratification. It needs 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:05.130 36 states. And in August 1920, it all comes down 00:18:05.130 --> 00:18:08.269 to the Tennessee legislature. Legendary moment. 00:18:08.410 --> 00:18:11.109 The vote is completely tied. And the youngest 00:18:11.109 --> 00:18:13.750 legislator, this guy Harry Byrne, who had been 00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:16.569 wearing a red rose on his lapels signaling his 00:18:16.569 --> 00:18:19.029 opposition to suffrage. Right, the anti -suffrage 00:18:19.029 --> 00:18:21.430 symbol. He receives a note from his mother, and 00:18:21.430 --> 00:18:24.269 she tells him to be a good boy and vote for ratification. 00:18:24.710 --> 00:18:26.549 And he actually changes his vote at the very 00:18:26.549 --> 00:18:29.680 last second. A razor thin margin, literally driven 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:33.339 by a mother's letter, caps off 72 years of relentless 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:36.099 grueling struggle. Which brings us to a massive 00:18:36.099 --> 00:18:38.420 asterisk on the 19th Amendment. Because the text 00:18:38.420 --> 00:18:40.940 of the amendment reads, the right of citizens 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:44.180 of the United States to vote shall not be denied 00:18:44.180 --> 00:18:47.000 or abridged by the United States or by any state 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.920 on account of sex. Right. But that amendment 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:52.640 was not a magic wand that instantly enfranchised 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:55.329 all women. Far from it. The 19th Amendment simply 00:18:55.329 --> 00:18:58.670 removed sex as a legal barrier. It did not dismantle 00:18:58.670 --> 00:19:01.269 all the other mechanisms of exclusion. The ghost 00:19:01.269 --> 00:19:03.809 of coverture still haunted the legal system, 00:19:03.849 --> 00:19:06.890 for example. How so? Well, the Supreme Court 00:19:06.890 --> 00:19:09.410 had previously ruled in Mackenzie v. Hare that 00:19:09.410 --> 00:19:12.109 an American woman who married a foreign national 00:19:12.109 --> 00:19:15.069 legally lost her U .S. citizenship. Wait, really? 00:19:15.170 --> 00:19:18.130 Just by marrying someone? Yes. Her identity was 00:19:18.130 --> 00:19:20.910 entirely subsumed by her alien husband, and without 00:19:20.910 --> 00:19:22.849 citizenship, the 19th Amendment meant nothing 00:19:22.849 --> 00:19:25.980 to her. Wow. And the mechanisms of disenfranchisement 00:19:25.980 --> 00:19:28.039 were totally devastating for women of color, 00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:31.119 too. Like Native American women whose egalitarian 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:33.140 tribal structures actually inspired some of the 00:19:33.140 --> 00:19:35.140 earliest suffragists in New York. They weren't 00:19:35.140 --> 00:19:37.319 even considered U .S. citizens until the Indian 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:41.079 Citizenship Act of 1924. And many faced state 00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:44.619 -level voting barriers well into the 1960s. Right. 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:47.220 Puerto Rican women had to fight an entirely separate 00:19:47.220 --> 00:19:50.519 battle until 1936 to win universal suffrage on 00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:53.039 the island. And black women in the South found 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:56.380 themselves facing the exact same trap white suffragists 00:19:56.380 --> 00:19:59.059 had so callously relied on during the Southern 00:19:59.059 --> 00:20:01.680 Strategy. Because the 19th Amendment did not 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:04.940 outlaw poll taxes or literacy tests or grandfather 00:20:04.940 --> 00:20:06.940 clauses. They just left them right in place. 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:10.059 Yeah. Local registrars simply applied these deeply 00:20:10.059 --> 00:20:12.960 entrenched Jim Crow mechanisms to black women 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:15.619 just as violently and systematically as they 00:20:15.619 --> 00:20:17.940 had applied them to black men since the 15th 00:20:17.940 --> 00:20:20.250 Amendment. So what does this all mean? For you 00:20:20.250 --> 00:20:22.609 listening, it means you have to completely reframe 00:20:22.609 --> 00:20:25.769 how you view constitutional victories. The 1920 00:20:25.769 --> 00:20:28.269 ratification wasn't a finish line. It was like 00:20:28.269 --> 00:20:30.930 a baton pass in a much longer relay race for 00:20:30.930 --> 00:20:33.150 civil rights. I like that analogy. Or like patching 00:20:33.150 --> 00:20:35.410 a massive leak in a dam. You stop the water in 00:20:35.410 --> 00:20:38.289 one specific highly visible spot, but the immense 00:20:38.289 --> 00:20:40.769 structural pressure of political disenfranchisement 00:20:40.769 --> 00:20:43.589 simply finds new, subtler cracks to flow through. 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:46.000 If we connect this to the bigger picture, it 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.460 reveals that rights are not permanent monuments. 00:20:48.839 --> 00:20:51.180 They're living contracts that must be constantly 00:20:51.180 --> 00:20:55.819 maintained, tested, and defended. explicitly 00:20:55.819 --> 00:20:58.380 tracks this debate right up into the modern era. 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:00.960 And just to be clear, we're looking at this strictly 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:03.539 as impartial observers of the historical record. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:07.000 But the text notes that in the 2020s, certain 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:10.539 far right figures and Christian nationalist commentators 00:21:10.539 --> 00:21:13.200 like Doug Wilson and Nick Frentes have actually 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:15.880 openly advocated for repealing the 19th Amendment. 00:21:16.119 --> 00:21:18.680 Yes, that is in the source material. Again. We 00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:20.859 are simply reporting what the text covers here, 00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:23.960 not taking any side, but they argue for a concept 00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:26.180 called household voting. Right, where a family 00:21:26.180 --> 00:21:28.940 unit receives a single vote and the husband, 00:21:29.019 --> 00:21:31.480 as the head of the household, exercises that 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:33.819 political voice. Which is fascinating, historically 00:21:33.819 --> 00:21:37.609 speaking. It is. By detailing these modern viewpoints, 00:21:37.970 --> 00:21:40.309 the source material demonstrates that the foundational 00:21:40.309 --> 00:21:43.170 conversation about universal suffrage, about 00:21:43.170 --> 00:21:45.390 whether the individual or the family unit is 00:21:45.390 --> 00:21:48.130 the primary building block of civic life, is 00:21:48.130 --> 00:21:51.150 not permanently settled. The ideological challenges 00:21:51.150 --> 00:21:53.910 to these rights continue to evolve. It's just 00:21:53.910 --> 00:21:56.250 an incredible sobering journey we've mapped out 00:21:56.250 --> 00:21:59.980 for you today. Over 70 years of relentless struggle 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:02.460 that survived the fractures of the Civil War 00:22:02.460 --> 00:22:05.599 navigated the dark moral compromises of Jim Crow 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:08.839 and required the militant fury of women enduring 00:22:08.839 --> 00:22:12.220 force feedings in prison just to force a president's 00:22:12.220 --> 00:22:14.480 hand. And even then, it left millions of women 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:17.559 fighting for decades more. Exactly. Which leaves 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:20.430 us with a final thought to mull over. If the 00:22:20.430 --> 00:22:22.670 seemingly obvious fundamental right for women 00:22:22.670 --> 00:22:25.650 to vote required over 70 years of shifting strategies, 00:22:26.250 --> 00:22:28.410 shattered alliances, and painful compromises 00:22:28.410 --> 00:22:31.480 just to get codified into law, What currently 00:22:31.480 --> 00:22:33.859 unimaginable human right are we right in the 00:22:33.859 --> 00:22:36.000 middle of a messy century -long battle for right 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.259 now? That's a great question. Is it the right 00:22:38.259 --> 00:22:41.640 to absolute digital data privacy? Is it a new 00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:44.319 undefined frontier of bodily autonomy in the 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:47.140 medical space? Or maybe the right to be protected 00:22:47.140 --> 00:22:49.640 from unregulated artificial intelligence making 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:52.640 decisions about our lives? We might be in year 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:55.299 20 of a 70 -year war, and we don't even realize 00:22:55.299 --> 00:22:58.069 it yet. Because history isn't a neat timeline 00:22:58.069 --> 00:23:00.789 in a glossy textbook. It is happening right now. 00:23:00.990 --> 00:23:03.549 And the mechanisms of change are just as complex 00:23:03.549 --> 00:23:05.690 as ever. Well said. Thank you for joining us 00:23:05.690 --> 00:23:08.210 on this deep dive. Until next time, keep questioning 00:23:08.210 --> 00:23:08.769 the timeline.