Just a reminder, ladies, of WHY we have the right to vote!
A piece of history we need to remember, or perhaps become aware of,
told in a brief and moving way. I never knew this anyway.
This is the story of our Grandmothers, and Great-grandmothers, as
they lived only 90 years ago.
It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the
polls and vote.
The women who made it so were innocent and defenseless. And by the
end of the night, they were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went
on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing
sidewalk traffic.'
They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her
head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for
air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head
against an iron bed and? Knocked her out cold. Hecellmate, Alice
Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart
attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,
beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and Kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden
at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a
lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to
picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the only water she had came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of
the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her
to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her
until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word
was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why,
exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote
doesn't matter? It's raining?
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO 's new
movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle
these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling
booth and have my say. I am?
Ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But
the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.
Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.
Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied w omen's history, saw the
HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she
looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to
me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think
of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it
for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek
to learn.'
The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over
again.'
HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social
studies and government teachers would include the movie in their
curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else
women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but
we are not voting in the numbers that we
should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade
a Psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be
permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the
doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't
make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken
for insanity.'
Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you
know.
We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so
hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic,
republican or independent party - remember to vote. History is being
made.
This article was sent to HBCU Fund as a note on Why Women Should Vote.
Posted By: chioma adaku-griffin
Wednesday, July 30th 2008 at 8:31PM
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