Newswise — CHICAGO — The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote was ratified by the states Aug. 18, 1920. During the 100th anniversary year of women’s suffrage, DePaul University’s Amy Tyson is available to discuss the significance of the movement and where the movement fell short.

Amy Tyson, Associate Professor of History and American Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. Tyson is an expert on 19th and 20th century U.S. social and political history.

“The history of women’s suffrage shows the organizing power of women at a time when it was no small task to convince the nation that women should enter the political fray. To draw attention to their cause, suffragists staged massive parades, picketed the White House, lobbied state and federal legislatures, faced arrest on charges like obstructing traffic, and some even staged hunger-strikes from inside their jail cells,” said Tyson.

“After the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments, which outlawed slavery, and enfranchised male citizens regardless of race or previous conditions of servitude, the suffrage movement was increasingly divided by race. The nation’s largest suffrage organization, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, largely dismissed black women’s particular concerns. They instead aimed to pass state by state woman suffrage amendments through adopting what was known as the Southern Strategy. This appealed to Southern states by enfranchising white educated women and thus strengthening white supremacy.”

Tyson bio: https://las.depaul.edu/academics/history/faculty/Pages/amy-tyson.aspx.

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