The myth of the 19th Amendment
Published Date: 8/26/2020
Source: Vox
The suffrage movement didn’t protect all women’s right to vote. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO On this landmark 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, historians Martha S. Jones and Daina Ramey Berry reflect on what the 19th Amendment means for Black American women. The women’s suffrage movement was a predominantly white cause, one that sacrificed the involvement of Black suffragists in return for support for the 19th Amendment from Southern states. The 1920 legislation enfranchised all American women, but it left Black women, particularly those living in the South, to fight racial discrimination when registering to vote and going to the polls. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that this type of racial discrimination was prohibited by federal law. The voting rights fight is still not over, however. There’s evidence that restrictions to voting disproportionately affect minority populations — measures like voter ID laws, voting purges, gerrymandering, and closing polling locations. For more of Vox’s coverage on the anniversary of the 19th Amendment: https://www.vox.com/2020/8/18/21358913/19th-amendment-ratified-anniversary-women-suffrage-vote https://www.vox.com/21356259/19th-amendment-suffragists-alice-paul-pankhursts https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21364998/19th-amendment-women-equal-pay-economy-poverty-maternity-leave For Martha S. Jones’s forthcoming book on Black women’s voting rights fight: https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/martha-s-jones/vanguard/9781541618619/ For Daina Ramey Berry’s book on African American’s women’s history: http://www.beacon.org/A-Black-Womens-History-of-the-United-States-P1524.aspx For a piece on the importance of photography for Black suffragists: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/arts/19th-amendment-black-womens-suffrage-photos.html Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com. Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H