TIRANA – August 18 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment being ratified, granting women the right to vote in the United States.
Marking this event the US Embassy in Tirana issued a short announcement on the event saying that it was a big step toward equality. The full announcement said on Twitter on Tuesday:
“Today marks the 100th anniversary of the #19th Amendment ratification, which granted US women – in effect, white women – the right to vote. While it took several more decades for all women to be legally allowed to vote this was a big step toward equality.”
Though this anniversary is a celebrated milestone in American history, the reality is that not all women were able to immediately exercise their right to vote as racial discrimination kept Black women, and Black Americans in general, from voting, said Courtney Connley, a careers reporter for CNBC Make It, in a commentary on Tuesday.
In fact, it wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 45 years after the 19th amendment was passed, that the federal government made it illegal to disenfranchise a person based on race.
“As America continues to deal with a global pandemic, as well as racial unrest in the country, exercising the right to vote in the 2020 election has never been more important, though ongoing acts of voter suppression still deny many people their right to vote today,” Ms. Connley said.
Many event organizers, mindful that the 19th Amendment originally benefited mostly white women, have been careful to present it as a commemoration, not a celebration.
The amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, but many women of color were prevented from casting ballots for decades afterward because of poll taxes, literacy tests, overt racism, intimidation, and laws that prevented the grandchildren of slaves from voting. Much of that didn’t change until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The 100th anniversary has arrived during a year of nationwide protests against racial inequality that have forced the United States to once again reckon with its uncomfortable history.
“Like many movements, the stories are complicated and I think it’s important, as we have an opportunity to reflect and to celebrate, that we also are honest about how we didn’t meet all of our aspirations,” said Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, a Democrat born and raised in Puerto Rico who has helped to organize her state’s suffrage commemoration efforts. “It’s important to have these conversations so we can do a better job of going forward,” she was quoted by Fox 35 TV as saying.
The complicated nature of the suffrage movement came full circle last week when Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden chose California U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, making her the first Black woman on a major party ticket.
In an appearance with Biden last week, Harris said she was “mindful of all the heroic and ambitious women before me whose sacrifice, determination and resilience makes my presence here today even possible.”
In the meantime the New York Times reported that President Trump said on Tuesday that he would pardon Susan B. Anthony, the women’s suffragist who was arrested after voting illegally in 1872 and fined $100, as he tried to appeal to female voters on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving them the right to vote.
Delivered during a heavily political event at the White House at which Mr. Trump again disparaged mail-in voting ahead of the November election, the president’s announcement also appeared to be an effort to distract from the Democratic National Convention and narrow the historically large gender gap that has him trailing Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the White House race.
“She was never pardoned. Did you know that? She was never pardoned,” Mr. Trump said. “What took so long?”
Mr. Trump teased the pardon as he traveled on Air Force One on Monday, telling reporters he was going to erase the conviction of someone “very, very important.”
Anthony was tried for illegally voting and protested the fine she was charged.
“She was guilty for voting,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday, “and we’re going to be signing a full and complete pardon.” Unlike other people the president has pardoned, Anthony is not someone whose work Mr. Trump has spoken of during his campaign or his presidency. /argumentum.al
