Although the 15th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution enshrined the right to vote regardless of race and guaranteed women the right to vote more than 100 years ago, the struggle for Black women’s suffrage and representation is ongoing, and the history of the struggle is still relatively unknown today. We discuss that history on this week’s episode, and highlight the key Black women figures throughout time who served as suffrage advocates, voters, and representatives—from Sojourner Truth to Shirley Chisholm. This panel features Nadia Brown, professor of government and chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University and Idol Family Fellow at the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute at Villanova University; Bettye Collier-Thomas, professor of history at Temple University and co-editor of African American Women and the Vote, 1837–1965; and Martha Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and author of Vanguard. Lana Ulrich, senior director of content at the National Constitution Center, moderates the discussion.
This program was made possible through the generous support of the McNulty Foundation in partnership with the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women's Leadership at Villanova University. It’s part of the National Constitution Center’s Women and the Constitution, initiative.
This conversation was streamed live on November 9, 2021.
FULL PODCAST
This episode was produced by Jackie McDermott and engineered by David Stotz. Research was provided by Michael Esposito, Chase Hanson, and Lana Ulrich.
PARTICIPANTS
Nadia Brown is professor of government, chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and affiliate in the African American Studies program at Georgetown University. She is also an Idol Family Fellow at the McNulty Institute at Villanova University. Brown is the author of the award-winning Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making and Distinct Identities: Minority Women in U.S. Politics and an editor for The Washington Post’s political science blog, The Monkey Cage.
Bettye Collier-Thomas is professor of history at Temple University, where she has taught since 1989 and served as the inaugural director of the Temple University Center for African American History and Culture. She has authored and co-edited several books in the fields of African American and women’s history, including African American Women and the Vote, 1837–1965, and is currently writing a history of African American women and politics.
Martha Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, professor of History, and a professor at the SNF Agora Institute at The Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of the book Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, which was selected as one of Time's 100 must-read books for 2020, among other publications. Jones has served as an expert consultant for film and video productions with PBS American Experience and Netflix.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Lana Ulrich is the senior director of content, constitutional fellow, and senior counsel at the National Constitution Center, where she manages the Center's constitutional content and programming, including podcasts, America's Town Hall programs, exhibits, the online Interactive Constitution, and the Constitution Daily blog. She also assists with any legal matters relating to the Center's operations.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Nadia Brown, Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making
- Nadia Brown and Sarah Gershon, Distinct Identities: Minority Women in U.S. Politics
- Nadia Brown and Sarah Gershon, The Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics, “Glass half full: cautious optimism and the future of Black women political elites in America”
- Nadia Brown and Sarah Gershon, Politics, Groups, and Identities, “Examining intersectionality and symbolic representation"
- Martha Jones, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America
- Martha Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
- Martha Jones, All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture, 1830-1900
- Ed., Bettye Collier Thomas and Ann Gordon, African American Women and the Vote, 1837–1965
- Bettye Collier Thomas, Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African American Women and Religion
- Ed. Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin, Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement
- William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator
- National Women's History Museum, "Shirley Chisholm"
- National Women's History Museum, "Fanny Lou Hamer"
- United States House of Representatives, History, Art, & Archives, "Barbara Jordan"
- The Voting Rights Act of 1965
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