Hard to believe we’re not much more than one lifetime away from the era before women could vote. Seems impossible my own grandmothers once were denied that basic right of citizenship.
In the cause of equal rights for women in America, this is the week that was. A mere 100 years ago, on Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women voting rights.
Proud to say our grandmothers were suffrage movement women.
After a few minor roles in Hollywood silent movies, grandma Lucille not only advocated for the vote, she did the unheard of by prospering as a licensed private investigator in downtown LA. From Seattle to San Diego she out-performed her competition in a “man’s business.”
Grandma Julia was a “damn right” suffragette who lived Voltaire’s dream, tending her own garden outside her North Laguna cottage from 1922 to 1964. In the 1930’s she took the time to type faded, crumbling handwritten letters her great grandmother had exchanged with politically active friends in the 1830’s.
Julia wanted to leave to us letters written in polished prose by women of high purpose. It didn’t go unnoticed by her the letters advocated virtual surrogate voting by securing oaths from men to vote for candidates who stand “for the Constitution, not to dismantle it.”
You see, Julia’s ancestors were pre-slavery pilgrims, renowned church-based Connecticut abolitionists. Both Julia and Lucille also had grandfathers who were Union officers killed in Civil War battles. In keeping with that abolitionist and women’s suffrage heritage, our grandparents and parents supported the civil rights movement in the 1960’s.
The 19th Amendment secured long overdue voting rights for women in federal elections for equal representation in Congress and the Electoral College. Of course, just as ending slavery in 1865 and abolishing racial segregation in 1964 did not end denial of equal opportunity, privilege and power to Black Americans, voting rights did not end economic, social and political discrimination against women.
We’re proud of women in our family, especially women of color facing double discrimination, who don’t take no for an answer unless it is fair and just. That’s the true legacy of the “suffragette” movement victory for all American women, and all people around the world still struggling to secure more perfectly the freedom we who have it too often take for granted.
Howard Hills, Laguna Beach
