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Voters Win: Celebrating A Woman’s Right To Vote

With racial justice and equity conversations reaching a tipping point, and COVID-19 reshaping the functionality of our economy and communities, the Dubs have developed Voters Win: a platform dedicated to encouraging fans everywhere to make their voices heard by exercising their right to vote. In partnership with I Am A Voter, the Warriors are committed to sharing with Dub Nation a glimpse into our past, as well as educational resources leading up to the 2020 general election.

Today we go back in time to August 18, 1920; the day the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, was added to the U.S. Constitution. One hundred years later, women are still fighting to have their voices heard. While it was a huge victory for the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman’s Party at the time, the law did no favors for Black, Indigenous and women of color. Take a look even further into our history to learn how we got to where we are today:

1848
The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 became the first women’s rights convention held in the United States, launching the women’s suffrage movement. Here, men and women signed the Declaration of Independence, stating that both men and women were created equal.

1860-1870
In 1869, though two women’s voting rights bills were introduced, neither passed.

Years later in 1890, female abolitionists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which lobbied Congress to pass an amendment giving women the right to vote. By the 1910s, NAWSA’s membership numbered in the millions. With this momentum, Wyoming became the first state to allow women the right to vote.

1913
Suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organized their first parade in support of women’s suffrage in Washington, D.C., the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Eight-thousand women marched from the capitol to the White House, while half a million spectators watched. For months, Alice Paul continued to picket the White House along with over a thousand “Silent Sentinels,” women in favor of the movement.

1917
Though President Wilson announced his support for suffrage, it took two more years for the Senate, House and the required 36 states to approve the amendment. By 1919, 15 states granted women the right to vote, marking partial suffrage. Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an abolitionist and the first African American newspaper editor in the United States succeeded in voting, becoming the first African American woman to cast a vote in a national election.

1920
Through the combined efforts of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman’s Party, the 19th Amendment was passed by just one vote. Then-Tennessee state representative Harry T. Burn, who planned to vote against the amendment, decided at the last minute to vote in favor of the amendment, altering the trajectory of women’s voting rights. Burn later credited his mother’s advice on his decision.

1920-1965
In the years following the passage of the 19th Amendment, many states used a multiplicity of means, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, to discriminate against Black, Indigenous and women of color. In order to strengthen legal protections for BIPOC voters, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed through Congress, placing ballots in the hands of more women of color.

As part of Voters Win, the Warriors will continue their efforts to promote voter education and participation efforts; understanding that while an entire century has passed since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the fight to ensure equal voting rights for all remains.

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EltasZone Sportswriters, Sports Analysts, Opinion columnists, editorials and op-eds. Analysis from The Zone Team
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