‘Long Rhode to the Vote’ tackles race and suffrage, Oct. 15
The University of Rhode Island
continues its “Long Rhode to the Vote: Suffrage
Centennial Lecture Series” on Thursday, Oct. 15, with
respected historian and author Martha S. Jones who will discuss race and
suffrage. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and
a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University.
This year marks two monumental events in American history: the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting American women the right to vote, and the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment that at least nominally enfranchised African American men.
As part of the commemoration of both of these milestones, the
University of Rhode Island is holding a series of virtual lectures, panels and
discussions over the course of the 2020-2021 academic year.
Jones’ free virtual discussion, “How
Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All,”
begins at 7 p.m. Registration is required.
Given the historic nature of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris’ candidacy for vice president as the first Black woman and first South Asian-American woman on a major party ticket, and the important role that Black women will play in the 2020 election, the discussion comes at an opportune time.
As Jones noted in a recent Washington Post op-ed,
“Simply put, Black women are no longer a ‘first’ in politics — they are a
force.”
Jones is the author of several books, including Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (2020); Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (2018) and All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture 1830-1900 (2007).
She is the winner of the Organization
of American Historians’ Liberty Legacy Award for the best book in civil rights
history, the American Historical Association’s Littleton-Griswold Prize for the
best book in American legal history, and the American Society for Legal
History’s John Phillip Reid book award for the best book in Anglo-American
legal history.
The series is sponsored by the URI
Center for the Humanities, the program in Gender and Women’s Studies, URI’s
College of Arts and Sciences, the Honors Program, the Women’s Leadership
Council and the Suffrage Centennial Committee.
To register, visit: https://web.uri.edu/suffrage/.
Upcoming lectures as part of URI’s
“Long Rhode to the Vote: Suffrage Centennial Lecture Series” for fall are:
Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m.
“Suffrage and Sashes: American
Pageantry and the Feminist Movement”
Hilary Levey Friedman, sociologist,
author and president of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization
for Women, will delve into the history of the suffrage sash and how it
influenced the Miss America Pageant.
Thursday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m.
“Transnational Suffrage Activism in
Post-revolutionary Mexico”
Kathleen McIntyre, URI assistant
professor of gender and women’s studies and associate director of the URI
Honors Program, will discuss her research on the suffrage movement in
post-revolutionary Mexico.
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m.
“Current Trends in Voting Rights”
Rhode Island Secretary of State
Nellie Gorbea, who helped spearhead the “Shall Not Be Denied” statewide
initiative celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment,
will discuss the election of 2020 as well as recent trends in voting rights.
Additionally, “Rightfully Hers” a
pop-up display created by The National Archives, in partnership with the Women’s
Suffrage Centennial Commission will be on display on the first floor of Robert
L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons through October 2020.
For more information on URI’s “Long
Rhode to the Vote: Suffrage Centennial Lecture Series,” or to register for
upcoming lectures, visit: https://web.uri.edu/suffrage/.