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Hello, my name is Sara Lyons Davis,
I am an education specialist with Museum Programs
at the National Archives.
I am going to share some documents that highlight
actions of individuals and communities
in expanding the right to vote to all women
as part of an exploration of the 19th Amendment.
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This document is the United States Federal Census Listing
for Sarah Tompkins and Family, from 1860
Sarah Tompkins, also known by the name from her second marriage-
Sarah Tompkins Garnet-
was an activist for woman suffrage and racial equality.
She was the first female African American principal in New York City public schools,
listed on line 3 of this 1860 census record,
with the occupation “public school teacher.”
Sarah Tompkins was a working woman who was prominent in the fight for suffrage,
in addition to being an educator who worked outside the home.
Tompkins was a co-founder of the Brooklyn-based Equal Suffrage League,
an organization of African American women
who worked for political and voting rights.
She also served as the superintendent of suffrage
for the National Association of Colored Women.
The struggle for woman suffrage was not always united
in its tactics or inclusivity.
As a result, organizations developed to support suffrage
for minority women and communities.
As with other social movements,
the fight for woman suffrage involves activists
both celebrated and unsung.
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This document is from June 2, 1873
and it’s the recognizance of Rhoda DeGarmo,
to document from a court case
from the Records of District Courts of the United States.
Susan B. Anthony, a leader in the movement, was arrested
for voting illegally in an 1872 election in Rochester, New York.
She was, however, not alone
in her activism or her arrest.
Anthony was joined in her illegal voting
by a group of 14 other women from her community,
including Rhoda DeGarmo.
Rhoda DeGarmo was born in 1799 and came from
a family of prominent abolitionists in upstate New York.
Men and women used the rights protected
by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
to work towards voting equality.
They spoke out, they petitioned, they protested.
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This 1929 letter was from Ana López de Vélez
to President Calvin Coolidge.
It’s from our records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs.
The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920.
It prohibited states from denying the vote on the basis of sex,
but it did not mention U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico.
At the time, Puerto Rico’s territorial legislature
refused to enfranchise the island’s women.
Puerto Rican suffragists continued to protest
their disfranchisement for another 15 years.
In 1929, President of the
Puerto Rico Association of Women Suffragists,
Ana López de Vélez
sent this letter to President Calvin Coolidge,
urging his support for legislation
that would enfranchise Puerto Rican women.
They gained a partial victory when literate women
won the vote in 1929.
All adult women finally gained the vote in 1935.
Puerto Ricans today still lack equal voting rights
with most other U.S. citizens.
They participate in presidential primaries,
but are unable to vote for president,
and they elect only a non-voting delegate
to the House of Representatives.
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Exclusionary policies kept members of some communities
from exercising their right to vote–
poll taxes, literacy tests, and the possibility of racially-motivated violence
were just some roadblocks that activists sought to resolve.
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, the first Chinese woman to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University,
immigrated to New York as a child.
She was involved with missionary work,
as noted on her Application for Reentry Permit from circa 1937
from the records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The Chinese Exclusion Act limited rights of Chinese American laborers
and prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens.
Under this act, Lee was not a citizen,
and therefore was unable to vote.
Yet she and others still fought for universal suffrage
even without the ability to directly benefit from its success.
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These are just four documents in the holdings of the National Archives
that tell the story of the struggle for the right to vote to include all women.
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If you wish to explore more of these stories,
we have educational resources online at
https://www.docsteach.org/topics/women
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You may also learn more about the 19th Amendment on our website:
www.archives.gov/women
where you can get a curator's tour of the Rightfully Hers exhibit
at our museum in Washington DC, and much more.
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