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A serious call for voting enfranchisement of American women was begun in 1848, at the Seneca Falls Convention - after the Civil War, agitation by women for the ballot becoming increasingly demanding. However, a rift developed among feminists over the proposed 15th Amendment (giving the vote to black men), when prominent women of society, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, refused to endorse the amendment because women were not included; while other suffragists, such as Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe argued that women would more readily achieve their goal once the black man was enfranchised. The conflict resulted in two separate organizations, the National Woman Suffrage Association, working at the federal level (pressing also for property rights for women), and the American Woman Suffrage Association, which aimed to secure the ballot through state legislation. Then, as time passed and new leadership and goals developed, the two groups united in 1890 under the name of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In the same year, Wyoming entered the Union, becoming the first state granting women's voting rights, (having adopted them in 1869, while still a territory).
As the pioneer suffragists began retiring from the movement, younger women assumed leadership, one of the most politically astute being Carrie Chapman Catt, who became president of NAWSA in 1915. Another prominent suffragist was Alice Paul, later forced to resign from NAWSA because of her insistence on the use of more militant tactics, of direct-action, Mrs. Paul then organized the National Woman's Party, which began using such strategies as mass marches and hunger strikes. Perseverance on the part of both organizations eventually achieved the objective of women's voting rights - on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was finally passed by Congress and signed into law, granting the ballot to American women.
Of interest in this historic development of voting rights for women, is the fact that the leaders were ladies of the upper class. As their protests for women's rights covered all women, including their own maids, the protests became a powerful political issue to all women, lower, middle and upper-class. Of interest also, is the consequence to the politically-irresponsible-behavior of the federal government, including President Wilson, to non-violent picketing of the White House by sign-holding women - the formation of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union).
Significant in the saga of women's voting rights was the "Night of Terror", Nov. 15, 1917, when a small group of women dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House carrying signs asking for the vote. Although innocent of wrong-doing and defenseless, they were jailed nonetheless. A recent movie by HBO (released on video and DVD), called "Iron Jawed Angels", provides a graphic depiction of the struggle these women undertook, and the reaction by the U.S. government - the result being the right of American women to pull the curtain at polling booths and to have their say in elections. (Many women viewers made comments of being ashamed of needing the reminder to take the time to vote in elections). The documentary film describes the aftermath of the event of the women's peaceful picketing protest.
The women were convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic", and were jailed at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. The warden ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the imprisoned suffragists - forty prison guards wielding clubs went on a rampage against the 33 women. By the end of the night, many were barely alive. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail; their food was colorless slop, infested with worms. Affidavits in the documentary testify to the events:
- Lucy Burns was beaten, then her hands were chained to the cell bars above her head. She was left hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
- Dora Lewis was put into a dark cell, her head smashed against an iron bed, knocking her out. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought she was dead and suffered a heart attack.
- Affidavits describe the guards actions: grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
- When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, she was tied to a chair, a tube was forced down her throat and liquid poured into her until she vomited. This type of torture went on for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press and it was stopped.
- The documentary describes Woodrow Wilson and his staff attempting to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane - so that she could be permanently institutionalized - the doctor refusing, "Alice Paul is strong and brave," he said, admonishing the men, "That doesn't make her crazy - courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
- In the film, Mrs. Pauline Adams is shown in the prison garb she wore while serving a sixty-day sentence.
Reaction by all viewers, especially women, is extreme shock and anger at this little-known part of U.S. history - with strong personal reactions that no longer will those women take-for-granted the voting rights obtained for them by these brave women ninety years ago.
Aaron Kolom qualifies as a "rocket scientist" with over 50 years aerospace engineering: Stress Analyst to Chief of Structural Sciences on numerous military aircraft, to Corp. Director Structures and Materials, Asst. Chief Engineer Space Shuttle Program through first three flights (awarded NASA Public Service Medal), Rockwell International Corp.; Program Manager Concorde SST, VP Engineering TRE Corp.; Aerospace Consultant.
Aaron L. Kolom - from Brainwashed* and Miracles**
*The Perceived Mind-Set of the Secular Elite re Darwin Evolutionism!
** To Believe in Them - Have Faith - In Science and Logic!
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