19th Amendment Centennial

On February 21, 1920, New Mexico voted to ratify the 19^th Amendment. By August of 1920, 36 states (including New Mexico) ratified the amendment, ensuring that all across the country the right to vote could not be denied based on sex. In honor of the 100^th year anniversary join us for a three part audio program on the 19^th Amendment.

 

Part One: New Mexico and the Suffrage Movement

Premiers August 15, 2020

 

• New Mexico and the Suffrage Movement

  
  

  New Mexico played a lesser known, but very critical role, in the passing of the 19th Amendment.

  Credit / Author:

  White Sands/NPS

  Date created:

  08/15/2020

  Audio Transcript

  Hi, my name is Robin and I am a park ranger at White Sands National Park. Welcome to part one of our three part audio series on the 19th amendment. Today we are going to focus on New Mexico and the role the state played in the passing of the 19th amendment. To be honest New Mexico was late to the suffrage movement. Since becoming a state in 1912, New Mexico was the only western state to not give women suffrage. The senator appointed when NM became a state, Thomas Catron, did not support women’s suffrage. It would take the election of a new senator for women’s suffrage to become a possibility in the state. That brings us to Andrieus Jones. Andrieus Jones was elected to the US senate in 1917. While in office he was named chair to the committee on women's suffrage. He scheduled two landmark votes on the women's suffrage movement. The first in 1918 and the second a year later. Both votes failed to get the required two-thirds vote for the amendment to pass. When the vote came up again on June 4, 1919, Andrieus was no longer the chair of the committee but he voted in favor of the amendment. Lets take a look at this - the committee on women's suffrage was created in 1882. So why after so many years, and 11 other senators, was it finally Andrieus to put the amendment on the senate floor? Because he saw how important it was to the suffragists who were tasked to speak with him. There were many different women that were tasked with speaking to the senators. These suffragists would investigate every aspect of a senators life. Who they were friends with, when they went on vacation, and if it was even worth talking about suffrage with them. They did all this with NO INTERNET. Once the research was done they would then task a suffragist who would have the best background that would be able to connect to the senator. It was one of these suffragists that broke down in tears in front of Andrieus that showed him how important suffrage was. Tears were seen as a sign of weakness to many suffragists. They had to change how they acted to be deemed acceptable and to gain allies. But it was one woman who was herself. She was passionate about suffrage and her tears showed Andrieus Jones that this was a matter that was important. What can we learn from her?

 

Part Two: Suffrage - Right vs. Ability

Premiers August 21, 2020

 

• Suffrage - Right vs. Ability

  
  

  Suffrage may be a right but that doesn't mean you would have been given the ability to exercise it.

  Credit / Author:

  White Sands/NPS

  Date created:

  08/15/2020

  Audio Transcript

  Hi, my name is Robin and I am a park ranger at White Sands National Park. Welcome to part two of our three part audio series on the 19th amendment. Let’s take a look at two different scenarios and see if we would have been able to vote.

  It’s 1872 and the fourteenth amendment was passed. That gave all those born or naturalized citizenship. That means that women can vote right? Not so much. In the Supreme Court case Minor vs. Happersett (1875) it was ruled unanimously that the constitution did not guarantee a citizen’s right to vote and that states could restrict voting rights to men. Many women would try to vote and face the same verdict years after. The supreme court would continue to rule that the constitution did not give all citizen the right to vote.

  Let’s take a leap forward in time and see if we progressed at all 48 years later.

  Now it’s 1920 and the presidential election is upon us. The 19th amendment has been signed into law and now the right to vote is ours. Not really. Depending on your state you could be required to pay as much as $3 (around $40 today) to cast your vote. Literacy tests, those were also required by certain states, as well as residency and property restrictions would be the next hurdle you would jump though. But we’ve made it through all those qualifications and requirements. We can vote now right? Well maybe but they are going to put us at the back of the line and make us wait hours and hours hoping we’d give up. This is an example of having a right but not being given the ability to fully exercise it.

  For those suffragists who were determined to vote they were willing to be fined and even sometimes jailed to get answers as to why they weren’t allowed to vote. With those answers they would then find the words and process needed for them to gain suffrage. For these women the right was suffrage, what right are you unable to exercise?

 

Part Three: The Message

Premiers August 26, 2020

 

• The Message

  
  

  The suffrage message got out to the people in many different ways. The goal was always the same, to share the suffrage movement with as many people as possible.

  Credit / Author:

  White Sands/NPS

  Date created:

  08/15/2020

  Audio Transcript

  Hi, my name is Robin and I am a park ranger at White Sands National Park. Welcome to part three of our three part audio series on the 19th amendment. We’ve looked at the part New Mexico played, the difference between a right and ability and now we are going to look at how the word about suffrage got to the people.

  Throughout the process of fighting for women’s suffrage many different methods were used to get the message out to the people. Unlike today where you have technology at your fingertips the suffragists had to get creative.

  One way they got creative was posters and fliers. In the west, posters and fliers were produced in English and Spanish so that the message would reach more people. The posters also became a way to take back notions that women were just homemakers.

  Next was by writing. If they saw anti-suffragist articles in papers they would write their own and publish them in their own newspapers. The goal was to share the suffrage movement and take back anything that was used against them.

  The suffragists also organized many marches and demonstrations. This allowed suffragists to gather together and learn from each other. As more and more suffragists learned how to use their voices the bigger and louder the suffrage movement became.

  Who will you be? Will you be the organizer, the leader, the writer? How about the artist, the reporter, the publisher? Maybe the marcher, the line crosser, the disrupter? And what will you fight for?