Author: resolutewoman
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Who can vote?
In 1891, the Illinois constitution declared: “Idiots, lunatics, paupers, felons and women shall not be entitled to vote.”
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Do something
“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up,” said John Lewis. “You have to do something.” Lewis, a civil rights leader, died July 17, 2020.
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Trust in God
During the struggle for women’s suffrage, some men—and even some women—seemed to think that the Bible says that women shouldn’t vote. “Trust in God,” Emmeline Pankhurst said. “She will provide.”
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We, the people
“It was we, the people,” declared Susan B. Anthony. “Not we, the white male citizens. Nor yet, we, the male citizens, but we, the whole people, who formed the Union….Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.”
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Want equality?
“If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it,” said Sojourner Truth.
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You can’t stop us
“Women weren’t given the vote,” concluded the PBS series on women’s suffrage. “We took it.” As Sojourner Truth said, “You may hiss as much as you please, but women will get their rights anyway. You can’t stop us, neither.”
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The vote is power
The suffragettes battled more than seven decades to win the right to vote, writes Elaine Weiss in her book The Woman’s Hour. Finally, in 1920, after the Nineteenth Amendment had passed, Carrie Catt, one of the leading suffragettes, wrote to the women voters of the nation: “Women have suffered agony of soul which you never…