The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, but this landmark event was neither the beginning nor the end of the story for women and their struggle for the right to vote. Join us in 2020 as we commemorate this centennial year with 12 stories from our holdings for you to save, print, or share. March’s featured image shows … Continue reading 19th Amendment at 100: Woman Suffrage Comes to Washington
In celebration of Black History Month, we are taking a look at the landmark case Green v. New Kent County. Today’s post comes from Michael J. Hancock, archives technician at the National Archives at College Park, MD. There was a time when “freedom of choice” was no choice at all. After the landmark case Brown … Continue reading The Gridlock of Racial Segregation: When the Light Turns from Brown to Green
Marjorie S. Joyner’s patent is on display as the National Archives Museum’s Featured Document celebrating National Women’s Inventors Month through March 18. Today’s post comes from Jen Johnson, a curator at the National Archives at Kansas City. Born in 1896 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Marjorie Stewart and her family moved to Ohio, then … Continue reading Marjorie S. Joyner: More than an Inventor
The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, but this landmark event was neither the beginning nor the end of the story for women and their struggle for the right to vote. Join us in 2020 as we commemorate this centennial year with 12 stories from our holdings for you to save, print, or share. February’s … Continue reading 19th Amendment at 100: Mary Church Terrell
Today’s post comes from Jennifer Johnson, a curator at the National Archives at Kansas City. Willa Beatrice Brown is featured in the nationwide traveling exhibit One Half of the People: Advancing Equality for Women. Perhaps one of the less recognizable names, but certainly as noteworthy, she was a woman who achieved great success despite limited … Continue reading The Maker of Pilots: Aviator and Civil Rights Activist Willa Beatrice Brown
Today’s post comes from Vincent Bartholomew in the National Archives History Office. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, the National Archives exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote highlights activists’ relentless struggle to secure voting rights for all American women. While most Americans consider voting fundamental to the enjoyment of … Continue reading Rightfully Hers: Woman Suffrage Before the 19th Amendment
Today’s post comes from Rachel Rosenfeld in the National Archives History Office. June is internationally recognized as Pride Month, and this year’s celebrations mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots—the catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. The Stonewall Inn opened its doors as a gay bar in 1967 in Greenwich Village, a … Continue reading Pride in Protesting: 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising
This story is cross-posted on the websites of the Library of Congress, National Archives, and Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Initiative. On June 4, 1919, the U.S. Congress passed a federal woman suffrage amendment and sent it to the states for ratification. It was a thrilling moment for the movement to win the women’s vote and the culmination of … Continue reading The 19th Amendment at 100: Sharing the Story
This year we mark the 100th anniversary of the woman suffrage amendment, and as it turns out, a lot of people don’t really know what “suffrage” means because it’s mostly fallen out of common usage. The term has nothing to do with suffering but instead derives from the Latin word “suffragium,” meaning the right or … Continue reading What is Suffrage?
Today’s blog post comes from Paige Weaver in the History Office of the National Archives. Mark Twain was not a fan of beards. He once said that a beard “performs no useful function; it is a nuisance and a discomfort; all nations hate it; all nations persecute it with the razor.” With such a strong … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: Mark Twain
