“We hold these truths to be self-evident…” Even the least historically well-versed of American citizens might recognize these stirring words from the Declaration of Independence, issued some 244 years ago this summer. The document outlined the American colonists’ gripes against Great Britain and its king, whose “repeated injuries and usurpations” the petition’s penman, Thomas Jefferson,…

There are numerous accounts and retellings of momentous civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s. Perhaps most notable is the march from Selma to Montgomery, AL, which took three attempts and federal protection for activists to reach their destination safely on March 25, 1965, and which pushed President Lyndon B. Johnson to send voting rights legislation…

The ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 was an expansive political step, representing years of work from a diverse range of women’s activists. However, the 19th Amendment technically did not “give” women the right to vote: it prohibited states from using sex as a barrier to the franchise: “The right of citizens of the…

Contrary to popular belief, obtaining the vote was not always the primary goal of the women’s movement prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The New-York Historical Society’s exhibition, Women March, explores the efforts of a wide range of women to expand American democracy in the century before the suffrage victory, as…

Early in the morning on August 26, 1920, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby unceremoniously certified the ratification of the 19 Amendment at his home, depriving suffragists the opportunity to celebrate this moment representing decades of activism. One hundred years later, in the midst of a public health crisis and political unrest, we once again are…