Saturday, June 4, 2011

Because of Them We Can Vote

On this day in 1919 a bill originally written by Susan B. Anthony and introduced in Congress in 1878 was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate.  The federal woman suffrage amendment (the nineteenth to the United States Constitution) gave women the right to vote. 
It took decades of struggle for this to pass.  In addition to Susan B. Anthony we owe the victory to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone,  Henry Blackwell, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Mary Church Terrell, Anna Julia Cooper, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Margaret Sanger, and those whose names history has failed to mark or remember for their efforts their sacrifices.  This right to vote should not be in question in this country now but, of course, we know that the disenfranchised will have difficulty each election getting to the polls and having their votes counted.  And, of course, those who could easily get to a polling place and vote don't so still the struggle continues.
On this day, though, in 1919 women became among the counted.

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