0:24 this year
0:27 2020 marks the 100th anniversary
0:29 of the 19th amendment to the
0:32 constitution the amendment that stated
0:35 that the right to vote cannot be denied
0:44 while that amendment was passed in 1920
0:46 it was the culmination of more than a
0:48 century's worth of work
0:55 many organizations individuals fought
0:59 for that right throughout the 1800s
1:03 because as of 1807 all states
1:13 in the early to mid 1800s
1:15 woman's suffrage and the abolition
1:16 movement become
1:19 linked especially so
1:23 in 1848 at the seneca falls convention
1:27 often regarded as the first convention
1:34 spearheaded by elizabeth cady stanton
1:36 that convention
1:39 would host a numerous amount of famous orators
1:40 orators
1:49 but there's a notable group of people
1:52 that were missing from that convention
1:54 because there was not a single black
1:59 and that's not because they weren't
2:02 involved in the movement
2:05 instead they were denied access
2:07 by the white women that ran that
2:14 but women specifically black women were involved
2:14 involved
2:17 in that movement they were leaders of
2:19 that movement
2:22 such as sojourner truth who throughout
2:24 the 1800s
2:27 would give numerous speeches on both
2:28 abolition of slavery
2:34 even after the passing of the 15th amendment
2:36 amendment
2:38 which gave black men the right to vote
2:40 in the united states
2:43 should we continue giving speeches pressing
2:43 pressing
2:46 for women's suffrage to be extended to them
2:47 them
2:49 many of the organizations that were
2:51 fighting for women's suffrage throughout
2:54 the late 1800s and early 1900s
2:57 would still exclude black women from
2:58 their ranks
3:01 such as the national american women's
3:03 suffrage association
3:05 often seen as the largest suffrage
3:08 association in the united states
3:11 and here in virginia the equal suffrage
3:13 league of virginia
3:15 which was the largest organization here
3:17 in this state
3:19 both of them would continue to deny
3:20 black women
3:23 the right to join them another black woman
3:24 woman
3:26 who would be a leader in the suffrage
3:28 movement and who would use her
3:31 voice in favor of voting rights for women
3:32 women
3:34 would be none other than maggie walker herself
3:40 the earliest speech that we have where
3:41 she talks about voter rights and the
3:46 importance of voting would come in 1903.
3:49 when she would urge black women to make sure
3:49 sure
3:51 that their husbands and the other men in
3:53 their lives are exercising their right
3:55 to vote
3:59 because just one year earlier
4:01 the state of virginia altered its constitution
4:02 constitution
4:07 to input literacy tests and poll taxes
4:10 in order to limit the black vote as much
4:12 as possible
4:14 and mrs walker knew that it would take
4:16 the effort of both black men
4:20 and black women to now exercise the
4:21 right to vote
4:28 but nine years later in 1912
4:30 in a speech that she would give about
4:32 the economic opportunities
4:35 of black women she would say something
4:37 very different
4:40 in a section talking about equal pay for women
4:42 women
4:56 and are rebelling and rebellious
5:00 even at this present moment
5:03 yet capital is death
5:07 and will never hear their cries
5:10 until the women force capital to hear them
5:11 them
5:14 at the ballot box
5:18 and to do just and honest by them
5:25 and there she's calling for women to
5:27 have the right to vote
5:34 mrs walker would work with organizations
5:36 in favor of suffrage such as the
5:41 national association of colored women
5:44 and eventually in 1920 that
5:50 because the united states house of
5:52 representatives and the united states
5:56 senate would both pass the amendment
5:59 and finally on august 18th tennessee
6:02 would be the 36th state to pass the amendment
6:04 amendment
6:10 the right for women to vote in this
6:20 on august 26th of 1920 maggie walker was
6:21 not in virginia
6:23 she was about halfway through a nearly
6:24 one-month-long vacation
6:25 that had become customary for her to
6:27 take following the conclusion of her
6:29 fraternal order's annual conventions
6:31 but thanks to her 1920 diary we know
6:33 that maggie walker will return to
6:33 richmond in
6:35 early to mid-september and then register
6:38 herself to vote very soon after that
6:40 her diary also reveals to us that in the
6:42 week after walker registered herself to vote
6:42 vote
6:44 there will be three meetings in which
6:45 black leaders in richmond get together
6:47 to discuss what the voting registration
6:49 process for black women was going to
6:50 look like
6:52 in fact maggie walker herself hosts one
6:53 of those meetings at her office building
6:56 a st lou hall we don't know all of what
6:57 was discussed and concluded at those
6:59 meetings but what's clear is that walker
7:01 emerges from them a leader in this new effort
7:02 effort
7:05 because on september 20th of 1920 when
7:07 women were invited to richmond city hall
7:09 the image that you see here to my left
7:11 when women were invited there to
7:13 register to vote in large numbers for
7:14 the first time
7:15 walker wasn't there just that day she
7:17 comes again the next day and again two
7:19 days after that
7:20 and it wasn't just to register herself
7:22 to vote remember she's taken care of
7:23 that already
7:25 instead she was there to help prepare
7:26 the black women who showed up for the
7:27 registration process
7:28 and also to keep an eye on their
7:31 registrars themselves and the reason she
7:32 needs to do that
7:34 is because for the last 18 years the
7:36 state of virginia had made it nearly
7:38 impossible for african americans to vote
7:39 thanks to all of those restrictions
7:41 placed on the voting registration process
7:41 process
7:45 from the state's 1902 convention
7:46 so if you're maggie walker at this
7:48 moment in 1920 you may be saying to yourself
7:48 yourself
7:50 the 19th amendment is a victory for
7:52 women in general it's a victory for the
7:53 country as well
7:55 but for black women this victory was incomplete
7:56 incomplete
7:58 because the 19th amendment wasn't doing
7:59 anything to get rid of these restrictions
8:00 restrictions
8:02 on voting to make it as fair and equal
8:04 as it needed to be
8:06 so when walker shows up to city hall for
8:09 those three days in 1920 in september
8:11 she's skeptical about how fairly this
8:12 process is going to play out for the
8:14 black women involved
8:15 we know thanks to newspaper reporting
8:17 that throughout the day on september 20th
8:17 20th
8:19 walker spends most of it with the black
8:21 women preparing them to register
8:23 but also keeps an eye on the white women
8:24 who showed up as well when she noticed
8:26 that white women were registering at a
8:28 much faster rate than black women
8:30 walker began to ask questions about why
8:31 that was only to be told
8:33 the problem wasn't with the process
8:35 itself but with the lack of registrars
8:37 at which point walker herself offered to
8:39 become a registrar to speed things up
8:42 only to be told that it couldn't be done
8:43 at the end of the day when the
8:45 registrars were closing their windows
8:47 walker again protested noting that over
8:49 100 black women were still waiting in
8:51 line to register to vote
8:53 only to be told once again that nothing
8:54 could be done
8:56 at that moment walker turns to the black
8:58 women at city hall and tells them
9:01 we'll come back tomorrow a promise that
9:03 both parties will keep
9:04 but by the time we get to the
9:06 presidential election in november of 1920
9:06 1920
9:08 despite the best efforts of walker and
9:10 other leaders in richmond
9:11 white women in richmond had registered
9:14 to vote at a ratio of more than four to one
9:14 one
9:17 over black women so the fight to give
9:18 women the right to vote
9:21 may have been over but the fight to
9:22 provide equal access
9:32 the story of black women the 19th amendment
9:33 amendment
9:35 and the ongoing fight for women's suffrage
9:36 suffrage
9:40 does not end in 1920
9:43 ratification was indeed a great victory
9:45 but an incomplete one
9:48 far too many exclusionary laws and
9:51 segregationist policies
9:55 prove to be obstacles for women to fully exercise
9:57 exercise
10:04 someone who is of a less persistent
10:07 personality than maggie walker would
10:09 certainly be discouraged
10:13 but mrs walker was not not only did she register
10:14 register
10:17 herself to vote not only did she help organize
10:18 organize
10:21 groups to register black women
10:25 to vote she ran for
10:29 public office you see in 1921
10:31 the state republican party of virginia
10:34 decided that it wanted to shed its image
10:37 as the party of the negro they excluded blacks
10:38 blacks
10:41 from the state nominating conventions
10:45 and they ran a lily white ticket
10:48 the black republican political leaders
10:51 decided to run an all-black ticket which included
10:52 included
10:55 john mitchell the fighting editor of the
10:57 richmond planet
11:00 running for governor and maggie lena walker
11:01 walker
11:04 as superintendent of public instruction
11:07 so you see mrs walker ascribed to a philosophy
11:09 philosophy
11:13 that the greatest power on earth
11:16 for the writing of wrongs
11:20 is the power of agitation
11:24 she would take decisive action
11:27 to stand up and fight for rights
11:30 that were being denied so that all could eventually
11:30 eventually
11:33 exercise their full rights of citizenship
11:36 citizenship
11:39 she was of the philosophy that there is
11:40 no reason
11:43 for anyone to stand by idly waiting with
11:45 folded arms saying
11:52 but to get up and actually do
11:56 something even
11:59 if it meant as it did for her that they
12:02 may not reap the benefits
12:04 of those actions within their own lifetime
12:06 lifetime
12:08 maggie walker's good friend and
12:11 contemporary mary mcleod bethune
12:14 is quoted as saying this
12:19 if we had the tenacity of our forebears
12:23 who stood like a rock against the lash
12:27 we ourselves will find a way
12:36 little did they know that it would take
12:37 decades for those
12:41 obstacles those poll taxes
12:45 the literacy tests the grandfather clauses
12:46 clauses
12:49 to be struck down by later laws
12:53 in the 1960s such as the voting rights
12:54 act of
12:57 1965 to finally break down
12:59 more of those barriers that were excluding
13:01 excluding
13:03 women like maggie walker and other groups
13:04 groups
13:06 from fully exercising their rights as citizens
13:08 citizens
13:12 it took them to see and fight and lay
13:13 that foundation
13:18 so that in the future we would be able
13:25 so we and maggie l walker national
13:26 historic site
13:30 ask you to ask yourself which
13:33 rights do you see need to be
13:38 defended which injustices
13:42 do you see need to be called out
13:46 what causes would cause you to unfold your
13:46 your
13:50 arms and actually
Chrome Extension