Hang tight while we fetch the video data and transcripts. This only takes a moment.
Connecting to YouTube player…
Fetching transcript data…
We’ll display the transcript, summary, and all view options as soon as everything loads.
Next steps
Loading transcript tools…
The 19th Amendment, Black Women, and the Ongoing Fight for Suffrage | MaggieWalkerNPS | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The 19th Amendment, Black Women, and the Ongoing Fight for Suffrage
Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.
Share:
Video Transcript
this year
2020 marks the 100th anniversary
of the 19th amendment to the
constitution the amendment that stated
that the right to vote cannot be denied
while that amendment was passed in 1920
it was the culmination of more than a
century's worth of work
many organizations individuals fought
for that right throughout the 1800s
because as of 1807 all states
in the early to mid 1800s
woman's suffrage and the abolition
movement become
linked especially so
in 1848 at the seneca falls convention
often regarded as the first convention
spearheaded by elizabeth cady stanton
that convention
would host a numerous amount of famous orators
orators
but there's a notable group of people
that were missing from that convention
because there was not a single black
and that's not because they weren't
involved in the movement
instead they were denied access
by the white women that ran that
but women specifically black women were involved
involved
in that movement they were leaders of
that movement
such as sojourner truth who throughout
the 1800s
would give numerous speeches on both
abolition of slavery
even after the passing of the 15th amendment
amendment
which gave black men the right to vote
in the united states
should we continue giving speeches pressing
pressing
for women's suffrage to be extended to them
them
many of the organizations that were
fighting for women's suffrage throughout
the late 1800s and early 1900s
would still exclude black women from
their ranks
such as the national american women's
suffrage association
often seen as the largest suffrage
association in the united states
and here in virginia the equal suffrage
league of virginia
which was the largest organization here
in this state
both of them would continue to deny
black women
the right to join them another black woman
woman
who would be a leader in the suffrage
movement and who would use her
voice in favor of voting rights for women
women
would be none other than maggie walker herself
the earliest speech that we have where
she talks about voter rights and the
importance of voting would come in 1903.
when she would urge black women to make sure
sure
that their husbands and the other men in
their lives are exercising their right
to vote
because just one year earlier
the state of virginia altered its constitution
constitution
to input literacy tests and poll taxes
in order to limit the black vote as much
as possible
and mrs walker knew that it would take
the effort of both black men
and black women to now exercise the
right to vote
but nine years later in 1912
in a speech that she would give about
the economic opportunities
of black women she would say something
very different
in a section talking about equal pay for women
women
and are rebelling and rebellious
even at this present moment
yet capital is death
and will never hear their cries
until the women force capital to hear them
them
at the ballot box
and to do just and honest by them
and there she's calling for women to
have the right to vote
mrs walker would work with organizations
in favor of suffrage such as the
national association of colored women
and eventually in 1920 that
because the united states house of
representatives and the united states
senate would both pass the amendment
and finally on august 18th tennessee
would be the 36th state to pass the amendment
amendment
the right for women to vote in this
on august 26th of 1920 maggie walker was
not in virginia
she was about halfway through a nearly
one-month-long vacation
that had become customary for her to
take following the conclusion of her
fraternal order's annual conventions
but thanks to her 1920 diary we know
that maggie walker will return to
richmond in
early to mid-september and then register
herself to vote very soon after that
her diary also reveals to us that in the
week after walker registered herself to vote
vote
there will be three meetings in which
black leaders in richmond get together
to discuss what the voting registration
process for black women was going to
look like
in fact maggie walker herself hosts one
of those meetings at her office building
a st lou hall we don't know all of what
was discussed and concluded at those
meetings but what's clear is that walker
emerges from them a leader in this new effort
effort
because on september 20th of 1920 when
women were invited to richmond city hall
the image that you see here to my left
when women were invited there to
register to vote in large numbers for
the first time
walker wasn't there just that day she
comes again the next day and again two
days after that
and it wasn't just to register herself
to vote remember she's taken care of
that already
instead she was there to help prepare
the black women who showed up for the
registration process
and also to keep an eye on their
registrars themselves and the reason she
needs to do that
is because for the last 18 years the
state of virginia had made it nearly
impossible for african americans to vote
thanks to all of those restrictions
placed on the voting registration process
process
from the state's 1902 convention
so if you're maggie walker at this
moment in 1920 you may be saying to yourself
yourself
the 19th amendment is a victory for
women in general it's a victory for the
country as well
but for black women this victory was incomplete
incomplete
because the 19th amendment wasn't doing
anything to get rid of these restrictions
restrictions
on voting to make it as fair and equal
as it needed to be
so when walker shows up to city hall for
those three days in 1920 in september
she's skeptical about how fairly this
process is going to play out for the
black women involved
we know thanks to newspaper reporting
that throughout the day on september 20th
20th
walker spends most of it with the black
women preparing them to register
but also keeps an eye on the white women
who showed up as well when she noticed
that white women were registering at a
much faster rate than black women
walker began to ask questions about why
that was only to be told
the problem wasn't with the process
itself but with the lack of registrars
at which point walker herself offered to
become a registrar to speed things up
only to be told that it couldn't be done
at the end of the day when the
registrars were closing their windows
walker again protested noting that over
100 black women were still waiting in
line to register to vote
only to be told once again that nothing
could be done
at that moment walker turns to the black
women at city hall and tells them
we'll come back tomorrow a promise that
both parties will keep
but by the time we get to the
presidential election in november of 1920
1920
despite the best efforts of walker and
other leaders in richmond
white women in richmond had registered
to vote at a ratio of more than four to one
one
over black women so the fight to give
women the right to vote
may have been over but the fight to
provide equal access
the story of black women the 19th amendment
amendment
and the ongoing fight for women's suffrage
suffrage
does not end in 1920
ratification was indeed a great victory
but an incomplete one
far too many exclusionary laws and
segregationist policies
prove to be obstacles for women to fully exercise
exercise
someone who is of a less persistent
personality than maggie walker would
certainly be discouraged
but mrs walker was not not only did she register
register
herself to vote not only did she help organize
organize
groups to register black women
to vote she ran for
public office you see in 1921
the state republican party of virginia
decided that it wanted to shed its image
as the party of the negro they excluded blacks
blacks
from the state nominating conventions
and they ran a lily white ticket
the black republican political leaders
decided to run an all-black ticket which included
included
john mitchell the fighting editor of the
richmond planet
running for governor and maggie lena walker
walker
as superintendent of public instruction
so you see mrs walker ascribed to a philosophy
philosophy
that the greatest power on earth
for the writing of wrongs
is the power of agitation
she would take decisive action
to stand up and fight for rights
that were being denied so that all could eventually
eventually
exercise their full rights of citizenship
citizenship
she was of the philosophy that there is
no reason
for anyone to stand by idly waiting with
folded arms saying
but to get up and actually do
something even
if it meant as it did for her that they
may not reap the benefits
of those actions within their own lifetime
lifetime
maggie walker's good friend and
contemporary mary mcleod bethune
is quoted as saying this
if we had the tenacity of our forebears
who stood like a rock against the lash
we ourselves will find a way
little did they know that it would take
decades for those
obstacles those poll taxes
the literacy tests the grandfather clauses
clauses
to be struck down by later laws
in the 1960s such as the voting rights
act of
1965 to finally break down
more of those barriers that were excluding
excluding
women like maggie walker and other groups
groups
from fully exercising their rights as citizens
citizens
it took them to see and fight and lay
that foundation
so that in the future we would be able
so we and maggie l walker national
historic site
ask you to ask yourself which
rights do you see need to be
defended which injustices
do you see need to be called out
what causes would cause you to unfold your
your
arms and actually
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
Chrome Extension